BBC Four

World News Today

The latest news and business developments.

World News Today: 08/10/2008

08/10/2008

BBC News Channel - World News Today, 08/10/2008

The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

BBC News Channel

An impartial and independent news service offering breaking news, analysis and insight.

A 24-hour impartial and independent news service offering breaking news, analysis and insight. It provides fast and comprehensive coverage of local, UK and international events.

Britain from Above

Britain from Above: Episode 2: The City

Episode 2

Episode 2: The City

The City

BBC Two - Britain from Above, The City

Comparing exhaustive footage of London in the 1940s with the city of today.

Revealing the transformation of London. Comparing exhaustive footage of London in the 40s with the city of today, we see how great plans for urban renewal were stillborn.

Revealing the transformation of Britain's most important city: her capital, London. Starting with amazing Luftwaffe aerial photographs of the very first bombs of the Blitz falling on a vulnerable city, we track the changes that came out of five years of bombing. 

Comparing exhaustive footage of London in the 40s with the city of today, we see how great plans for urban renewal were stillborn and, instead, London rebuilt itself in an ad hoc way along old street patterns. 

The only exception to this was the dramatic city that rose from the derelict docklands. Where Canary Wharf had a blank canvas and used it to create an American style grid of streets and huge buildings, the city itself was faced with squeezing ever more bizarrely-shaped buildings into its confused medieval street plan. 

The story of a capital that has been transformed from a low-rise, smog-ridden industrial city into an upwardly mobile, rapidly changing hub of leisure, retail and finance.

BBC Two

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

Revealing the transformation of Britain through the ages

The City. Britain is seen from a whole new perspective in this companion show to the BBC1 series, which begins with the transformation of London. 
First shown on BBC2   
8.00 24-Hour Britain. An epic journey through one day in the life of Britain as seen from the skies. 
First shown on BBC1

Britain from Above: Episode 1: 24 Hour Britain

Episode 1

Episode 1: 24 Hour Britain

24 Hour Britain

BBC Two - Britain from Above, 24 Hour Britain

Andrew Marr goes on a journey through a day in the life of Britain as seen from the skies.

Andrew Marr views Britain from the skies. From helicopters, planes, hang gliders and satellites, he looks at the picture of a nation constantly on the move.

Andrew Marr goes on an epic journey through a day in the life of Britain, as seen from the skies. 

From helicopters, planes, hang gliders and satellites, we see the picture of a nation constantly on the move with beautiful, varied and often mysterious landscapes. Swooping over towns and cities allows Andrew Marr to see them from a new angle as he meets the people whose work takes them high above us to monitor and manage the networks that keep the country working.

BBC One

Wilderness Explored

Wilderness Explored: Episode 1: Arctic

Episode 1: Arctic

Arctic

BBC Four - Wilderness Explored, Arctic

Early European explorations of the Canadian Arctic, a place of great beauty and danger.

Series about early European explorations of Earth's wildernesses looks at the Canadian Arctic, a place of sublime beauty where expeditions often disappeared without trace.

Two hundred years ago, the Arctic was largely a great blank on the map for would-be explorers. It captured their imagination as a place of sublime beauty and yet also as a desolate frozen landscape, home to the deadly polar bear. It was a place where heroes attempted to find the North-West passage and where whole expeditions disappeared without trace. 

In the last century, the polar sea has become a region of vital strategic significance where the great powers built secret bases, transforming the lifestyle of the Inuit. Now, as the Arctic ice melts, the polar bear has become an emblem for the fragility of our planet.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Documentary series about early European explorers' expeditions into Earth's wildernesses

The Arctic

New series 1/3. The Arctic. How blank spots on the map of the world came to be filled. The Arctic, once a treacherous wasteland, has now become vitally significant to military strategies. See page 88.

Kingdom of the Ice Bear

Kingdom of the Ice Bear: Episode 1: The Frozen Ocean

Episode 1: The Frozen Ocean

The Frozen Ocean

BBC One - Kingdom of the Ice Bear, The Frozen Ocean

Film revealing a gentle side to polar bears as they lovingly tend cubs in the Arctic.

Documentary about the Arctic narrated by Hywel Bennett. Polar bears lovingly tend their cubs and one-horned narwhals share food with belugas and harp seals.

First part of an award-winning trilogy of programmes about the Arctic, narrated by Hywel Bennett. This film reveals the gentle side of polar bears as they lovingly tend their cubs, and captures the underwater chorus of eerie cries beneath the ice as the one-horned narwhals share rich feedings with belugas and harp seals.

BBC One is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964. It replaced BBC Television.

Trilogy of programmes about the Arctic, narrated by Hywel Bennett.

The Frozen Ocean. Examining the wildlife of the Arctic, as polar bears lovingly tend their cubs and narwhals feed beneath the ice alongside harp seals and belugas.  
10.55 The Land of Beyond. The wildlife of the Arctic during the summer season. Male musk oxen fight for control of the herds and lemmings attempt to avoid the snowy owl.

Kingdom of the Ice Bear: Episode 2: The Land of Beyond

Episode 2: The Land of Beyond

The Land of Beyond

BBC One - Kingdom of the Ice Bear, The Land of Beyond

Film looking at the ecology of the Arctic from early spring to autumn.

Arctic documentary. The winter is harsh, but for eight weeks each year the midnight sun warms the icy earth producing lush vegetation and fertile breeding grounds.

Hywel Bennett narrates the second of an award-winning trilogy of films about the Arctic. The winter is long and harsh, but for eight weeks of the year the midnight sun warms the frozen earth, nurturing lush vegetation and a rich variety of flowers, and transforming the barren wastelands into fecund breeding grounds so the life of the Arctic can renew itself.

WiMemess Explored

Frank Hurley: The Man who Made History

23/08/2004

BBC Four - Frank Hurley: The Man who Made History

A look at the life and work of photographer Frank Hurley.

A look at the life and work of photographer Frank Hurley, who captured some of the earliest images of the world's most remote places and accompanied Shackleton in Antartica.

A look at the life and work of photographer Frank Hurley, who captured some of the earliest images of the world's most remote places. The cinematographer on Ernest Shackleton's doomed Endurance expedition to the Antarctic, Hurley also photographed both World Wars and explored New Guinea. But today's experts believe some of his pictures to be elaborate fakes – was he a giant of photography or just a conjurer with a camera?

Frank Hurley

The Worst Journey in the World

29/04/2007

BBC Four - The Worst Journey in the World

How three of Scott's Antarctic team faced a journey to bring back Emperor penguin eggs.

Drama about an expedition to capture a rare penguin's egg during Captain Scott's scientific mission in Antarctica, prior to his ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole.

Drama telling an often overlooked story of epic endurance. The story of Captain Scott's second polar expedition (1910-1913) remains a testament to an age of tragic heroism, but it is rarely remembered that prior to that fateful journey Scott and his men spent over two years conducting scientific experiments in that harsh environment.  

One such task saw three of his men set forth in the snow, facing the harshest of conditions and risking their lives and their sanity - all for a penguin egg - in the winter journey of July 1911. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Dr Bill Wilson and Lieutenant 'Birdie' Bowers faced the worst journey in the world to bring back Emperor penguin eggs which they hoped would prove an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds. 

The expedition nearly cost the three men their lives, and it proved at once the pinnacle of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's life and his downfall. 

This charming and moving film guides us through this quintessentially British tale of an ill-equipped, under-prepared and resolutely amateur team of adventurers almost overwhelmed by the elements.

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Britain from Above

Episode 1: 24 Hour Britain

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Kingdom of the Ice Bear

Episode 2: The Land of Beyond

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Wilderness Explored

Episode 1: Arctic

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