A documentary recording travel writer and explorer Tim Severin 's experiences during a four-month expedition through Mongolia on horseback

Musical biography. Aspiring musician Edvard Grieg needs funds to continue his studies in Italy.
A fellow student tries to convince her wealthy fatherto put up the money.
Director Andrew LStone (1970. U) * See Films: pages 50-72 * *

Second World War satire starring Carole Lombard
Jack Benny
Two actors running a theatre company in Warsaw find their lives thrown into turmoil by the arrival of the invading Nazis.
Director Ernst Lubitsch (1942. U)
Black and white
* See Films: pages 50-72 ****

Fossils and evolution are themes covered by this series of science lectures, showing over the next five days. which are intended to be of particular interest to children.

Professor Simon Conway Morris guides his audience through billions of years of fossil history.
See today's choices.
Video Pack: for a video and booklet, £29, or booklet. £4.50, send a cheque payable to BBC Education to: [address removed]

Highlights from a special gala, held last September, that brought together actors and guest stars from Star Trek, Star Trek: the Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to celebrate the popular television series. StarTrek: Voyager istomorrowat5.25pm

The Saturday Matinee season continues with this Oscar-winning epic drama, starring Charlton Heston
Wealthy prince Judah Ben-Hur sets himself up against the tyranny of his Roman masters at the time of Christ. He is separated from his family and condemned to almost certain death as a galley slave by his childhood friend Messala, but the two are fated to meet again. Showing in widescreen format.

(1959, PG) (Subtitled)
See Films: pages 50-72

Hits from the Top of the Pops archive, plus today's chart sounds,

Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson, from Birds of a Feather, join chefs Antony Worrall Thompson and Ainsley Harriott for a festive edition of the cookery challenge. With Fern Britton.
(Stereo)

To mark next year's 40th anniversary of the BBC's Natural History Unit, David Attenborough and four of the cameramen he has worked with over the years recall some of their experiences. Their discussions lead into some of the best BBC nature films and sequences ever made. Throughout the evening, viewers have the chance to vote for their favourite wildlife programme of all and the most popular choice will then be shown at the end of the evening.

For details of how to vote see page 26.
See today's choices
Website [web address removed]
David Attenborough's Winter Wonder Night: page 24

6.15 Namib... Strange Creature of the Skeleton Coast
By day lizards dance, spiders turn cartwheels and beetles stand on their heads to drink. At night, to a chorus of barking geckos, the legless lizards and golden moles go hunting. Few men venture into the harsh yet hauntingly beautiful landscape of the Namib Desert in Africa. It is one of the bleakest spots on earth, where drifting dunes and gravel plains stretch along the notorious Skeleton Coast. But the shifting sands are home to one of the world's strangest communities of animals.
(First shown in The World about Us series in 1976)
(Repeat)

7.15 Malice in Wonderland
A Red Sea coral reef resembles a garden of paradise but few plants exist there. In this film, the latest underwater photographic technology reveals a coral reef at its most spectacular and follows the fierce battles played out between the predatory animals that inhabit it. First shown in 1994 in the Wildlife on One series.
(Repeat)

7.50 Kingdom of the Ice Bear
Mightiest and most feared of all hunters, the polar bear stalks seals among the Arctic icebergs. But, in contrast to the great white bears wrestling in the autumn snows, the females of the species are shown lovingly tending their cubs as they emerge into the spring sunshine.
(Repeat)

8.55 The Restless Year
Using the same revolutionary time-lapse photography developed for the series The Private Life of Plants, this film provides an astonishing natural history journey through winter, spring, summer and autumn in just 50 minutes. Set in the Cotswolds, it's a celebration of the British countryside, and the unique photography reveals the secrets of this wildlife year in a dramatically different way. Narrated by Norman Painting.

9.50 On the Tracks of the Wild Otter
In the far north of Britain, on the storm-washed Shetland Islands, lives a rare and beautiful animal which most people never see - the otter. But this special version of a film first shown in 1982 in The Natural World series, provides an opportunity to watch the day-to-day activities of a family of wild otters. The camera shows a courting pair at play, young cubs bobbing at the water's edge, and maturing otters learning to hunt and fend for themselves.
(Repeat)

10.20 Attenborough in Paradise
David Attenborough realised his lifelong ambition when he set out to film the most exquisitely feathered and romantic of all birds. The birds of paradise have been a passion of his since he was nine years old. Their courting rituals are among the greatest wonders of the natural world. The cameramen - Richard Kirby and Mike Potts - spent nine months in the remote forests of New Guinea to capture the displays of over ten species. Many had never been filmed before, some had not even been described. David Attenborough travelled with Kirby and Potts to present this film which reveals the remarkable behaviour of these birds.
(Repeat) (Stereo)

11.30 The Most Popular BBC Wildlife Programme
A chance to see the programme chosen by viewers as the best BBC wildlife programme of all time.

Videoplus code (not PDC) for 6.10-12.00

A Red Sea coral reef looks like a garden paradise, but there are few plants there. Animals rule - and most of them are out to attack or avoid each other.

A portrait of the changing year in the Cotswolds, using revolutionary timelapse photography to show the rhythms and cycles of nature.

The second in a season of films by producer Val Lewton is a horror starring Simone Simon
Oliver, a young New Yorker, falls in love with Irena, a Serbian-born fashion designer, whom he meets at the Central Park Zoo. But Irena is haunted by a bizarre past, which threatens those who approach her with death and destruction.
Director Jacques Tourneur (1942) (Black and white)
The next film in the season, The Curse of the Cat People, is on Monday 30 December at 12.55 am
See Films: pages 50-72
Followed by Weatherview