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The latest news and business developments.

World News Today: 23/11/2009

23/11/2009

BBC News Channel - World News Today, 23/11/2009

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.

World News Today; Weather

Tales from the Green Valley

Tales from the Green Valley: Episode 12: August

Episode 12

Episode 12: August

August

BBC Two - Tales from the Green Valley, August

August marks the team's final month and the biggest task is the wheat harvest.

Archaeologists and historians run a farm for a year as it would have been in the reign of King James I. August marks the final month and the main task is the wheat harvest.

Series in which five experts, archaeologists and historians, take on the challenge of running a farm for a year as it would have been in the reign of King James I. 

August marks the team's final month and the biggest task is the wheat harvest. Everyone joins in, cutting it down with replicas of period sickles. It's then bundled and dried before they can bring it in by horse. 

It's also the season to make rush lights using sheep fat, and they've got to try their hand at geese wrangling.

BBC Two

BBC Two is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964.

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

Experts, archaeologists and historians take on the challenge of running a farm for a year

Twelve-part series in which five experts, archaeologists and historians take on the challenge of running a farm for a year as it would have been in the reign of King James I

Tales from the Green Valley: August

The group cuts the wheat during the final month on the farm. Plus, geese wrangling. Last in series.

The Thirties in Colour

The Thirties in Colour: Episode 3: Adventures in the Americas

Episode 3

Episode 3: Adventures in the Americas

Adventures in the Americas

BBC Four - The Thirties in Colour, Adventures in the Americas

Harry Wright's colour films of the indigenous peoples of Africa and Central America.

Series using film and photography to examine the 1930s looks at Harry Wright's colour films of the indigenous peoples of Africa and Central America.

Four-part series using rare, private and commercial colour film and photographs to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s. 

One of the most prolific collectors of colour film in the period was the American industrialist Harry Wright. A self-made millionaire with a passion for film, he acquired and commissioned hundreds of films, which he screened for guests at the private cinema he had built in his home in Mexico City. 

The programme examines Wright's extraordinary colour films of Africa and Central America, including his so-called Ethnographic Series of Unknown Mexican Indians, a unique visual record of the lives and customs of indigenous peoples living in the remote rural regions of Mexico.

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.

Four-part series using photographic archives to give surprising insights into the 1930s.

Four-part series using rare, private and commercial film and photographic archives to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s.

3/4. Adventures in the Americas Featuring Harry Wright 's extensive archive of films from Mexico, including footage of indigenous tribes that rarely granted access to outsiders.

Gracie!

BBC Four - Gracie!

Drama based around the relationship between singer Gracie Fields and director Monty Banks.

Drama about the relationship between singer, comedienne and national treasure Gracie Fields (Jane Horrocks) and Italian-born Hollywood director Monty Banks (Tom Hollander).

Singer and comedienne Gracie Fields from Rochdale was the nation's darling. Beginning on the cusp of World War II and at the phenomenal peak of her career, this heart-breaking love story tells of Gracie's relationship with Italian-born Hollywood director Monty Banks and its staggering repercussions.

New. Jane Horrocks stars as Gracie Fields in this romantic drama about the singer from Rochdale who, in the 1930s. became the nation's darling, reflecting the spirit of the age. See panel.
Repeated on Thursday at 10pm Showing on the BBC HD channel at 10pm JANE HORROCKS FILMOGRAPHY: [web address removed]
Big Voice: p24; Moment of the Week: p7

Amazing Gracie: The Gracie Fields Story

23/09/2004

BBC Four - Amazing Gracie: The Gracie Fields Story

Documentary about the much-loved British singer and comic actress Gracie Fields.

Documentary about singer and comic actress Gracie Fields, arguably the greatest female entertainer Britain has ever produced.

A look at the legacy of actress, singer and comedienne Gracie Fields who, during her lifetime, was a national institution. Through interviews and some previously unseen archive footage, the programme explores the extraordinary singing voice, comic genius and unique talent that made her arguably the greatest female entertainer Britain has ever produced. 

'Our Gracie' was one of the world's first megastars: not so much a person as an event. The secret of her popularity lay in her relationship with her audience, as she goaded them into enjoyment, fed them the kind of cheek that passes for affection and appealed to a shared contempt for pretension. 

Her films were sentimental and reassuring, but they also tapped into real social anxieties and reflected the spirit of a troubled pre-war decade. When the press began its lengthy campaign of vilification against her, after she moved to America during World War Two to prevent her Italian husband from being interned, the public, by and large, remained loyal. From her triumphant return to the London stage in the late 1940s until her death some 30 years later, she continued to maintain her place in the nation's heart. 

Fields, although still a huge star in many people's living memory, encapsulates the spirit of a bygone age. It is too easy to say we don't make them like that anymore; the truth is, we no longer want to. Our national institutions are built on shakier foundations these days and the sheer uncomplicated pleasure that she delivered for the best part of a century seems a world away. This documentary reminds us of what we have lost.

Amazing Gracie: the Gracie Fields Story

Documentary exploring the legacy, extraordinary singing voice and comic genius of Gracie Fields.

Travels with Vasari

Travels with Vasari: Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC Four - Travels with Vasari, Episode 1

Exploring the achievements of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari.

On a spectacular journey through Renaissance Italy, Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the extraordinary achievement of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari.

The first part of an exploration of the extraordinary achievement of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, author of the monumental Lives of the Artists.

On a spectacular journey through Renaissance Italy, Andrew Graham-Dixon searches for the shadowy figure who wrote one of the most important books on art and looks at some dazzling works, including masterpieces of the early Renaissance by Giotto, Masaccio and Donatello.

Two-part documentary exploring the work of Italian Renaissance chronicler Giorgio Vasari

1/2. Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the Renaissance art of Italy, beginning in the town of Arezzo in Tuscany.   
12.20am 2/2. The historian explores the dazzling works of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.

Travels with Vasari: Episode 2

Episode 2

BBC Four - Travels with Vasari, Episode 2

Andrew Graham-Dixon concludes his look at Renaissance art chronicler Giorgio Vasari.

Andrew Graham-Dixon concludes his look at the work of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, and views some of the great masterpieces of his golden age.

Concluding the exploration of the extraordinary achievement of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, author of the monumental Lives of the Artists.

On a spectacular journey through Renaissance Italy, Andrew Graham-Dixon searches for the shadowy figure who wrote one of the most important books on art and looks at some dazzling works, including masterpieces of the early Renaissance by Giotto, Masaccio and Donatello.

The Medici: Makers of Modern Art

10/12/2008

BBC Four - The Medici: Makers of Modern Art

How the Medici family transformed Florence through sculpture, painting and architecture.

Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how the Medici family transformed Florence through sculpture, painting and architecture, and became the financial engine behind the Italian Renaissance.

Documentary in which Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how the Medici family transformed Florence through sculpture, painting and architecture, and created a world where masterpieces fetch millions today. 

Without the money and patronage of the Medici we might never have heard of artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo or Botticelli. Graham-Dixon examines how a family of shadowy, corrupt businessmen, driven by greed and ambition, became the financial engine behind the Italian Renaissance.

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