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World News Today: 30/11/2009

30/11/2009

BBC News Channel - World News Today, 30/11/2009

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.

Versailles Stories

Versailles Stories: Episode 2: Follow the Guide

Episode 2

Episode 2: Follow the Guide

Follow the Guide

BBC Four - Versailles Stories, Follow the Guide

Fabrice Callet dreams of becoming one of Versailles' elite band of guides.

Series exploring the history and modern evolution of one of France's great palaces. Fabrice Callet dreams of becoming one of Versailles' elite band of guides.

Series exploring the history and modern evolution of one of France's great palaces through the stories of the people who work there today. 

In peak season at Versailles 20,000 tourists can roll up at the gates in just one day. For confused visitors, the keys to unlocking the past are held by the fifty-strong team of palace guides, each primed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the past glories of France. For many of the guides it's not so much a job as a way of life - a way of life that is now under threat.

This episode follows the dreams of would-be Versailles guide, Fabrice Callet, who has been passionate about French history since childhood.  Becoming one of this elite band is a huge challenge at the best of times, involving three years of study and a tough national exam.  Even if he succeeds, Fabrice will need to find his own way of infiltrating the close knit and not always welcoming world of the Versailles permanent team. 

Fabrice's ambitions come at a time of great change for the historic chateau: although Versailles is one of the most popular tourist sites in Europe, competition for visitors is fierce, and new management is intent on modernising the palace and the way that tourists experience it.  With the introduction of modern technology in the form of audio guides, the old guard's way of doing things, and indeed their jobs, hang in the balance. Would-be guide Fabrice Callet dreams of becoming one of this elite band.

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.

Series exploring the history and modern evolution of the Palace of Versailles in France

An insight into the work of the palace tour guides. The next episode is on Wednesday at 7.30pm.

The Thirties in Colour

The Thirties in Colour: Episode 4: End of an Era

Episode 4

Episode 4: End of an Era

End of an Era

BBC Four - The Thirties in Colour, End of an Era

Features amateur film shot by travellers in Europe, including Berlin in red swastikas.

Series using film and photography to examine the 1930s. Features amateur film shot by travellers in Europe, including the streets of Berlin decked in red swastikas.

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

It was Golden Age for international travel, a decade when advanced transport systems allowed people to journey all over the world. Travellers with the means recorded their experiences by using the new colour film technologies. Often unintentionally, their home movies captured defining moments at a time when the nations of Europe were about to be plunged into the disaster that was the Second World War.

The final episode features colour films shot by travelling film-makers in Europe, including footage shot on the streets of Berlin decked in red swastikas at the time of the Olympic Games, rare pictures of the Jewish quarter in Warsaw just weeks before the Nazi invasion and, in London, tourists wearing gas masks amid fears of imminent bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe.

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.

4/4. End of an Era. A look at Jack 
Cardiff's travelogues shot all over Europe and the Middle East.

Margot

BBC Four - Margot

Drama based around the relationship between dancers Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.

Drama based on events in the life of Margot Fonteyn. Fonteyn (Anne-Marie Duff) faces a crisis in her marriage and retirement as a prima ballerina, but then Rudolf Nureyev arrives.

Drama based on events in the life of ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn. At the beginning of the 1960s, Fonteyn faces retirement from her career as a prima ballerina and a crisis in her marriage to Panamanian 'politician' Tito de Arias. When the much younger Rudolf Nureyev arrives on the scene, he transforms Margot's professional and personal life in a partnership celebrated around the world. But when Tito is shot and paralysed, the dancer faces an agonising choice about her future.

Anne-Marie Duff stars as Margot Fonteyn in this drama exploring the ballerina's marriage, and her partnership with Rudolf Nureyev.
See panel.
Repeated on Thursday at 10pm
Showing on the BBC HD channel at 10pm Lovers' leap: page 22

Marguerite and Armand

BBC Four - Marguerite and Armand

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev star in a performance of Marguerite and Armand.

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev star in a performance of Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet Marguerite and Armand, which was inspired by Dumas's love story La Dame aux Camelias.

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev star in a television performance of Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet Marguerite and Armand, which was inspired by Dumas's tragic love story La Dame aux Camelias. 

Designed by Sir Cecil Beaton, the ballet's music comes from Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor. Marguerite and Armand is performed by the partnership for which it was created and is introduced by Dame Margot Fonteyn.

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev star in a television performance of Frederick Ashton 's ballet, which was inspired by Dumas's La Dame aux Camelias. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev star in the film Romeo and Juliet on Friday at 8pm

Art of Spain: Episode 1: The Moorish South

Episode 1

Episode 1: The Moorish South

Art of Spain

The Moorish South

BBC Four - Art of Spain, The Moorish South

Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from Cordoba to Granada looking at Moorish art.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores Spain's art history. He travels from Cordoba to Granada via Seville, examining the influence of Moorish culture.

Critic and art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from southern to northern Spain to tell the story of some of Europe's most exciting and vital art. For 700 years, most of Spain was an Islamic state, and the south was its beating heart. Under the Moors, Spain became the most advanced, wealthy and populous country in Europe. Andrew travels to Cordoba, Seville and Granada, visiting beautiful Moorish palaces and mosques, telling the story of one of the most colourful and sophisticated cultures to ever appear in Europe.

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of some of Europe's most exciting and vital art

Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from southern to northern Spain to tell the story of some of Europe's most exciting and vital art. Here, he presents an exploration of Moorish Spain

The Art of Spain

1/3. Documentary exploring the influences on Spanish art, beginning with the Moorish history of the country.   
12.00  2/3. The artists responsible for Spain's golden age.   
1.00 3/3. How Spanish modern art flourished in the 20th century.

Art of Spain: Episode 2: The Dark Heart

Episode 2: The Dark Heart

The Dark Heart

BBC Four - Art of Spain, The Dark Heart

Andrew Graham-Dixon investigates Spain's Golden Age of art of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores Spain's art history. He discovers how a brutal empire brought a Golden Age of art of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Critic and art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from southern to northern Spain to tell the story of some of Europe's most exciting and vital art. He journeys to the country’s scorched centre to explore Spanish art of the 16th and 17th centuries. From the mystical world of El Greco to the tender genius of Velazquez, this was a moment so extraordinary it became known as the Golden Age. But beneath the glittering surface was a dark and savage heart. Travelling from the architectural jewel of Toledo to majestic Madrid, Andrew Graham-Dixon traces the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire, the brutal conquest of the New World, and the religious madness of the Inquisition, to discover how a history so violent could produce some of the most beautiful art ever seen.

Art of Spain: Episode 3: The Mystical North

Episode 3

Episode 3: The Mystical North

The Mystical North

BBC Four - Art of Spain, The Mystical North

How the north of Spain has produced some of the most dazzling art of the modern age.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores Spain's art history. He reveals how the north of the country has produced some of the most dazzling art of the modern age.

Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how northern Spain has produced some of the most dazzling and iconic art of the modern age. He shows how Spain's turbulent history has shaped its artists, from Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso to Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. As well as the giants of painting, Graham-Dixon argues that Spanish architecture is the art form taking the nation forward into the new millennium.

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