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Programme highlights

Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky

SA/JDR

Bryan Dick, Zoë Tapper, Sally Hawkins and Phil Davis star in Kevin Elyot's adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's classic trilogy of unrequited love set against the backdrop of Thirties London.

Revolving around The Midnight Bell, a public house off London's Euston Road, the three-part drama follows the painful pursuit of love from three different perspectives: barman Bob, who yearns for penniless prostitute Jenny; his colleague Ella, torn between the attentions of an older, wealthier man and her secret desire for Bob; and the beautiful but elusive Jenny, forced on to the streets by circumstances and now struggling to keep her head above water.

An Islamic History Of Europe

CR

At a time when many see East and West as set on an inevitable collision course, award-winning presenter Rageh Omaar uncovers the hidden story of Europe's Islamic past and looks back to a golden age when European civilisation was enriched by Islamic learning.

Rageh travels across medieval Muslim Europe to reveal the vibrant civilisation that Muslims brought to the West.

This evocative film brings to life a time when emirs and caliphs dominated Spain and Sicily and Islamic scholarship swept into the major cities of Europe.

His journey reveals the debt owed to Islam for its vital contribution to the European Renaissance.

A ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ production.

Indian Rail

NT

For the last 150 years the railway has driven Indian social and economic development.

Indian Rail traces the amazing stories of a few of the 13 million people whose lives depend on the world's greatest railway, from workers and government ministers to beggars and street boys.

Celebrating the drama and beauty of the Indian landscape, this film also captures a rare snapshot of the lives of those who work on the network as they struggle to hold the service together during the unforgiving rains of the summer monsoon.

A Mentorn TV production.

The Thick Of It

GJ

Award-winning comedian, writer, director and producer Armando Iannucci directs this satirical comedy set in and around the world of British politics, following the relationships between a minister, his political advisors and the media.

The Secretary of State for Social Affairs is having a meeting with Number Ten's Chief Political Advisor. There have been press rumours that the Minister is to be sacked. The Minister is told that none of these stories have come from Number Ten.

However, now they're out there, Number Ten would look weak not to sack him. So he's sacked.

The ensemble cast includes Chris Langham (The Legend Of The Tamworth Two) as the Minister for Social Affairs, Peter Capaldi (Passer By) as his Policy Coordinator and Chris Addison (The State We're In) as his Junior Policy Advisor, all improvising around scripts from the sharpest British comedy writers.

A ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ production.

Storyville: French Beauty

NR

The world's fascination with the 'riddle of femininity' is nowhere more captivating than in French cinema.

The allure of French actresses has fascinated generations of movie-goers.

French beauty is not ordinary. It is not fabricated by stylists, status or money. It is somehow intelligent.

Yet at the same time, no film on this subject can be complete without a cold dose of materialism.

The luxury goods industry, so monopolised by the French, knows exactly how to exploit and manipulate this notion of 'delicate fetishism'.

In French Beauty, director Pascale Lamche thoughtfully explores these ideas.

Poulson

NT

John Poulson was once revered for his revolutionary architectural vision, and was instrumental in rebuilding post-war Britain.

Now his name is synonymous with the worst excesses of Sixties architecture and he is remembered as the central figure in a huge corruption scandal that rocked Britain.

After the Second World War, Britain lay in ruins. Poulson's architectural practice quickly became the biggest in Europe as he built schools, hospitals and blocks of flats throughout the country, particularly in the north of England.

Yet Poulson wasn't actually an architect. His business was built on corruption and bribery and, by 1973, he was in jail.

This documentary tells of Poulson's meteoric rise to the top of his profession and his subsequent fall from grace, one that still has a legacy in buildings throughout Britain.

A Seek production.

World Cinema

JA2

World Cinema on Saturday nights goes from strength to strength this spring, with UK television premieres of some of the best, award-winning films from across the globe.

Some of the highlights include: Uzak, the tale of an Istanbul photographer who, while suffering a mid-life crisis, has to put up his country cousin who's searching for work;

Osama, a story of life under Taleban rule in Afghanistan, in which a mother is driven to disguise her daughter as a boy so that they can find a way to survive;

and Memories Of Murder, set against the backdrop of South Korea in 1986, under the military dictatorship, where two rural policeman and a detective from the capital are sent to investigate a series of brutal rapes and murders.

Rehab

KA

Should serially-offending drug addicts be locked up or given the chance to change?

By significantly increasing funding over the next three years, the Government has given a clear signal that it believes rehabilitation is the answer.

Phoenix House treatment centres offer addicts the chance to change their lives through a six-month residential programme.

Some arrive voluntarily, destitute and at the end of their tether; others have been sent by the courts and face lengthy prison sentences should they fail the programme.

With unique and intimate access to the therapeutic process, this moving, observational film follows a number of residents on an intensely personal journey that could literally save their lives.

Rehab has been made by the team behind the acclaimed Care House documentary shown on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ FOUR last year.

A Century Films production.

The Devil's Architect (Speer und er)

KH

Coming to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ FOUR from the award-winning German director-writer duo of Heinrich Breloer and Horst Koenigstein is a three-part drama documentary, The Devil's Architect (Speer und er).

It looks at the life story of one of Hitler's best friends and the Third Reich's chief architect, Albert Speer.

Using a mixture of staged sequences and real documentary footage, the series follows Speer's powerful rise to become Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production.

The story continues through to Speer's downfall after he betrays his friend the Führer and is incarcerated for 20 years in Spandau prison, following his plea of guilty at the Nuremberg trials where he admits to the use of slave labour.

The Devil's Architect stars Sebastian Koch as Speer, Tobias Moretti as Adolf Hitler, Dagmar Manzel as Gretel Speer, Axel Milberg as Rudolf Wolters, André Hennicke as Rudolf Hess, and Michael Gwisdek and Peter Ruehring as Generals Raeder and Doenitz.

Storyville: Goebbels

NR

"He was smart, charming, educated; he was sensitive, flexible, unscrupulous and crafty.

"On the other hand he was also smug, arrogant and simultaneously an immature man of weak, unstable character.

"Yet above all, he was capable, competent, exceptionally competent…

"For victory, which never came, he did far more than most of his fellow culprits.

"All these facets comprise the perspective from which Joseph Goebbels must be regarded." Helmut Heiber

Director Lutz Hachmeister takes a fresh look at the history and tells the story through Goebbels' own words.

Animation Nation

BR/LS2

Animation Nation tells the story of the first 100 years of British animation, from its origins as a Victorian theatrical diversion to the multimillion-dollar Hollywood financed feature films of today.

The films reveal how successive generations have developed the medium, mining their childhood experiences, imaginations and technical expertise to produce magical and surreal worlds with a distinctly British style.

From economic development to fizzy drinks, animation is the perfect propaganda tool for ideas as well as products.

Animal Farm in 1955 was the first full-length animation film and was financed by the CIA who wanted to convey anti-Stalinist views.

Animation is also used as a satirical weapon, to spike the pomposity of the establishment.

Now, as animation has come of age, it is a universal medium, capable of captivating an international and diverse audience.

Nick Park discusses his part in the rise of Aardman Animations and the popularity of their feature films.

Others interviewed include Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, animator Gordon Murray of The Trumptons and Oliver Postgate, creator of Noggin the Nog.

A ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ production.