Culture
Goldie's Band: By Royal Appointment
Saturday 02 April
9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC2 Northern Ireland
2/3
The 12 chosen youngsters develop their performance and composing skills in preparation for a concert at Buckingham Palace. The group takes part in intensive masterclasses and workshops with experts including composer Guy Chambers, singer and rapper Ms Dynamite, jazz artist Soweto Kinch and singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews.
The Minoans
Saturday 02 April
10:05pm - 12:15am
More4
Historian Bettany Hughes visits Crete to tell the story of one of history's greatest discoveries, when English archaeologist Arthur Evans found traces of a lost Bronze Age people, forgotten for thousands of years. He announced that his finds provided evidence of the first civilisation of the Western world, but modern scientists now believe his claim may have been unduly romantic.
Civilization: Is the West History?
Sunday 03 April
8:00pm - 9:00pm
Channel 4
Consumerism
5/6
Niall Ferguson examines the impact of consumerism on modern society, and analyses why some companies have come to dominate marketplaces around the world. He looks back at the Industrial Revolution, explaining how it sowed the seeds for the Western model of mass production and consumption that has spread across the globe - and asks whether the power of multinational corporations and big-name brands is beginning to wane.
Imagine: The Trouble with Tolstoy
Sunday 03 April
10:25pm - 11:25pm
BBC1 Northern Ireland
In Search of Happiness
2/2
Alan Yentob concludes his profile of the author by examining his troubled later years. He continues his train journey across Russia, visiting locations depicted in the novel Anna Karenina, and tells the story of how Tolstoy sought out spiritual enlightenment at a grand monastery. Using rare film of the novelist, Yentob charts how this quest eventually drove Tolstoy to turn his back on his career, home and wife. Featuring contributions by biographers AN Wilson and Rosamund Bartlett.
The View
Tuesday 05 April
11:15pm - 11:55pm
RTE1
Journalist Edel Coffey, columnist Fiona Looney and performer Oscar McLennon join John Kelly to review Carmel Winters' psychological drama Snap, starring Aisling O'Sullivan. Also examined are Ten Stories About Smoking by Stuart Evers, Steve McCurry's photography exhibition Worlds of Colour, and Dermot Bolger's production The Parting Glass, a follow-up to his 1990 play In High Germany.
Civilisation
Wednesday 06 April
10:00pm - 10:50pm
BBC HD
The Pursuit of Happiness
9/13
Historian Kenneth Clark examines the art and music of the 18th century, showing how the complex forms and intricate symmetry of rococo architecture echo the works of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart.
Psychology / Society
Eyewitness
Sunday 03 April
11:00pm - 12:00am
BBC Four
1/3
The fallibility of human memory in witness testimony is explored when 10 volunteers are asked to recall the details of an argument between three men in a pub that escalates into a fight and ends in a fatal stabbing. To make things more difficult, one of the witnesses is an actor whose job is to contaminate other people's accounts. Narrated by Philip Glenister. Part of the Justice season.
Timeshift: Crime & Punishment - The Story of Corporal Punishment
Monday 04 April
9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC Four
Documentary examining the use of physically imposed discipline, and how attitudes toward its application have changed over the years. The film investigates the ways schools, religion and the justice system have been involved with corporal punishment, and how its imposition has also provoked debate from a sexual aspect. Part of the Justice season.
Families in the Wild
Monday 04 April
9:35pm - 10:35pm
RTE1
4/4
The three families return to their homes after activities and therapy in the wilderness of Kerry, and try putting what they have learned into practice. Clinical psychologist David Coleman visits the participants to see how they are getting on. Last in the series.
Between Ourselves
Tuesday 05 April
9:00am - 9:30am
BBC Radio 4
1/4
Frederick Veal, a middle-aged man who was diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome five years ago, describes how the revelation helped make sense of the difficulties and strange habits he has had throughout his life. His experience is compared with that of Ben Delo, who discovered he had the disorder at the age of 11, and has since been able to learn some of the social interactions most people take for granted. Presented by Olivia O'Leary.
Super Recognisers
Wednesday 06 April
4:30pm - 5:00pm
BBC Radio 4
Claudia Hammond explores a skill that is fundamental to social interaction and yet science is only just beginning to understand - face recognition. She meets people who cannot remember appearances, and those at the other end of the spectrum who never forget a face, as well as considering the implications this has for certain jobs including those in border control and policing.
Media and Communcations
Something Understood
Sunday 03 April
6:05am - 6:35am
BBC Radio 4
Yours Truly
Broadcaster Julie Shapiro considers the importance of letter writing, reflecting on her own postal correspondence with her great aunt and examining the rituals, intimacies and spiritually enhancing qualities of the process. With contributions by Rick Moody and Simon Roche, and music by Canadian pianist Gonzales.
Sunday Feature
Sunday 03 April
9:30pm - 10:15pm
BBC Radio 3
The Pleasure Telephone
The story of the use of the early telephone to relay live entertainment and news direct to subscribers' homes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The gasps of admiration at Alexander Graham Bell's 1876 invention of the new medium had barely died away before it was being seen not just as a means of conversation, but as an instrument for relaying live music. As early as 1881, performances from two Paris opera houses were being transmitted to listeners. In the USA, subscribers were `taught' operas by the interweaving of spoken libretto and recordings of arias. In London, meanwhile, the Electrophone company offered a range of West End productions to subscribers - including via coin-in-the-slot machines. There was also live worship on offer from prominent churches; but the most astonishing developments took place in Budapest, where the Telefon Hirmondo company offered what would today be recognised as a radio station - including a full daily schedule of up-to-the-minute news. This documentary visits key locations in the story, including the Opéra Comique in Paris, the Amberley Working Museum in Sussex, the Palace Theatre in London and the Museum of London, which owns an original Electrophone table at which subscribers sat to listen via special headsets.
The Essay
Monday 04 April
11:00pm - 11:15pm
BBC Radio 3
Rewiring the Mind - The Ethereal Mind
1/5
David Hendy reflects on how the electronic media have changed people's way of thinking over the past century, beginning by focusing on the invention of the wireless and how it gave rise to new ideas about the transmission of thought.
The Narrowcasters
Tuesday 05 April
9:30am - 9:45am
BBC Radio 4
5/5
Nigel Cassidy reports on the work of people behind the scenes of the Vatican Television Centre, which operates from a state-of-the-art broadcast unit parked near St Peter's Square, and is at the heart of the Holy See's TV campaign. He also examines TV 2000, a channel owned by Italian clergy, and seen by some as an antedote to commercial stations owned by PM Silvio Berlusconi. Last in the series.
The Essay
Tuesday 05 April
11:00pm - 11:15pm
BBC Radio 3
Rewiring the Mind - The Cultivated Mind
2/5
David Hendy reflects on how the electronic media have changed people's way of thinking over the past century, continuing with the BBC's mission to improve the public's minds with regular doses of culture in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Essay
Wednesday 06 April
11:00pm - 11:15pm
BBC Radio 3
Rewiring the Mind - The Anxious Mind
3/5
David Hendy discusses the electronic media and their role in shaping popular consciousness, continuing by reflecting on how television has made viewers witnesses to horror and heightened anxieties about the world at large.
The Essay
Thursday 07 April
11:00pm - 11:15pm
BBC Radio 3
Rewiring the Mind - The Fallible Mind
4/5
David Hendy reflects on how television in the 1950s and 1960s breached accepted boundaries between private and public behaviour and forged new attitudes to intimacy.
The Essay
Friday 08 April
11:00pm - 11:15pm
BBC Radio 3
Rewiring the Mind - The Superficial Mind
5/5
David Hendy concludes the week by reflecting on how the internet might be fragmenting users' attention, and suggesting they need to disconnect more often to help them think clearly.
Science / Nature
The Communist Cosmos
Monday 04 April
8:00pm - 8:30pm
BBC Radio 4
Angus Roxburgh tells the story of how the Soviet Union saw space as the key to its global superiority in the 1960s, and uncovers the dreams and ideologies behind the USSR's operations. He reveals the space programme's chief designer, Sergei Korolev, was considering manned missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus long before anyone dreamed they were possible, and how the ambitious plans came to an abrupt end.
Great Lives
Tuesday 05 April
4:30pm - 5:00pm
BBC Radio 4
1/8
New series. Clive Sinclair, the entrepreneur who created the first electronic calculator, nominates Thomas Edison for recognition. He discusses the American inventor's list of achievements, including the development of sound recording, the electric light bulb and moving pictures. With contributions by Edison biographer Neil Baldwin. Presented by Matthew Parris.
