' They'll never do the four-minute mile.'
Harry Carpenter assesses the achievements and developments in British sport over the last 25 years together with the trends and pressures of the present and future. Among those taking part: Ann Jones , Brian Close
Sir Leonard Hutton , James Hunt
Brendan Foster , Terry Biddlecombe Mike Brearley , Stirling Moss
Alan Pascoe , J. P. R. Williams Nick Faldo , Brian Taylor with The Rt Hon Denis Howell , MP (Minister of Sport) and Norris McWhirter
Has sport become dependent on sponsorship? Can the true amateur survive in world sport? How close are we to the bionic athlete? These and other questions are discussed by some of our leading sports personalities drawn from a generation of sport.
Reporter VINCENT HANNA
Film editor DAVID SHORE Designer PETER MAVIUS
Producers NICK HUNTER , KEITH PHILLIPS BBC Manchester

The Royal Institution Annual Christmas Lectures to Young People.
1: The Earth as a Planet
Professor Carl Sagan invites his young audience to examine Planet Earth as though they were visitors from a distant civilisation. First as though through a telescope, then from a spacecraft fly-by, an orbiter and finally a lander, SAGAN shows how fascinating and extraordinarily beautiful our planet looks from space.

A full-length cartoon featuring the voices of Morey Amsterdam, Julie Bennet Mel Blanc , Joan Gardner
Tired of boring provincial life in Provence, Mewsette, a country cat, runs away to Paris. Here she falls into the clutches of the suave Meowrice ...
Written by DOROTHY JONES
AND CHUCK JONES
Music HAROLD ARLEN. Lyrics E. Y. HARBURG Directed by ABE LEVITOW , Films: pp 17-18

The County Championship Final
North Midlands v Gloucestershire
North Midlands have only been in the final of the County Championship once -and that was in 1922. Gloucestershire have been champions 13 times.
BARRY CORLESS is the Midlanders' one international whereas the West Countrymen can field at least four - PETER BUTLER , MIKE BURTON , MIKE RAFTER and DAVE ROLLITT.
The odds look weighted against the home side despite the fact the majority of the players represent England's leading club, Moseley. Commentator at Moseley NIGEL STARMER-SMITH
Director huw JONES
Series producer BILL TAYLOR

News of the week plus a visual commentary for those who cannot hear, with Peter Woods
Editor BILL NORTHWOOB

Balinese Surfer
The Balinese are fearful of the sea and of the evil spirits that live in it; they are neither voyagers nor fishermen. Many of their exotic rituals and ceremonies are designed to placate the spirits of the ocean. But some of the best surfing waves of the world break on their coast and the young Balinese, guided by western surfers, have suddenly overcome their traditional dread and are on their way to becoming some of the most skilful surfers in the world.
This film looks at the tensions between their traditional spirit-bound life and the new world they are beginning to see.
Film editor TREVOR WILLIAMSON Producer BILL LEIMBACH
Series editors MICHAEL ANDREWS and ANTHONY ISAACS

Weather

The Classic Serial in six parts based on the novels Benoni and Rosa by KNUT HAMSUN
Part 4: Where Mack's daughter, the widowed Baroness Edvarda, returns from Finland. Rosa, who has become Benoni's housekeeper, is jealous of the impression Edvarda makes on Benoni. A young romantic student, Parelius, is lodging in Benoni's house and falls desperately in love with Rosa, who hears that her marriage to Nikolai has been annulled and that Nikolai has died shortly after.
Music by MAJ SÖENSTEVOLD and GUNNAR SÖENSTEVOLD Written and directed by PER BRONKEN
English version directed by MICHAEL BAKEWELL for World Wide Sound, London. An NRK/NDR co-production

Introduced by Richard Baker
In the first of three programmes featuring great European Orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Willi Boskovsky present their traditional annual celebration of music by the Strauss family, with the VIENNA STATE OPERA BALLET

Introduced by James Cameron

From the moment that home-movie making really arrived in the early 20s, amateur cameramen turned their lenses on an amazing variety of subjects.
Tonight's programme features a short amateur documentary made in 1934 - "Turn of the Tide", but we begin by exploring the sort of thing that happened when the first home-movie makers pressed the button and called out "Don't just stand there: do something!"

starring Bud Cort , Samantha Eggar The British Première of the most successful Canadian film of 1977. It is the story of a young man's first teaching job in an impoverished Saskatchewan town, filmed with humour and compassion by Silvio Narizzano who has created a memorable picture of a bleak world where the only warmth is in the people's hearts.
Director SILVIO NARIZZANO. Films: pp 17-18