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Wallace And Gromit's World Of Invention –
Nature Knows Best Ep 1/6

Wednesday 3 November

7.30-8.00pm Â鶹Éç ONE and Â鶹Éç ONE HD

• Press pack

Wallace and Gromit present a new factual series looking at some of the world's greatest inventions (© Aardman)

Wallace And Gromit's World Of Invention sees world-renowned inventor Wallace and his faithful side-kick (turned cameradog) Gromit turn their hand to presenting for the very first time, hosting a six-part series from the basement of 62 West Wallaby Street. They take an enthusiastic look at some real-life cracking contraptions, from gadgets that help around the home to the mind-boggling world of space travel and much more in between.

From their self-built television studio, Wallace introduces films of inventors from around the world, and unveils some of his very own creations. In the first episode, Wallace and Gromit discover the inventors who have taken their cues from Mother Nature to create their own ingenious devices. The lovable pair range from Loughborough to Israel to discover the cracking contraptions that power the world around us.

Wallace introduces a film featuring a new generation flying machine – a radio-controlled airship inspired by the movement of animals, birds and fish. Taking their inspiration from manta ray fins and penguin wings, the agile airships can travel through air and water as gracefully as Mother Nature herself.

Enigmatic sculptor Theo Jansen premières his latest fusion of art and engineering, the Animaris Siamesis – a huge, insect-like structure that moves independently and gracefully with the wind. In Israel, Wallace's science reporter, Jem Stansfield, meets a man who has invented a fish-like "gill" which could allow humans to breathe underwater, and looks at some weird and wonderful autonomous carnivorous robotic furniture based on the Venus Fly Trap plant.

Each episode includes Wallace's Inventor Of The Week, which looks at one specific captivating inventor at a time, and Curiosity Corner, where he delves into a particularly strange story from the world of invention. Meanwhile, Jem (inventor of the vacuum-powered glove and coffee-powered car) presents a weekly segment analysing why certain innovative ideas Never Got Off The Drawing Board. Contraption Countdown celebrates Wallace's favourite quirky finds, including a list of top inventions that would set any health and safety officer's heart racing. Finally, Wallace shares some of his own brilliant inventions with the audience, although they often lead to disaster for poor Gromit who, as always, can be relied on to save the day.

The six-part factual series is accompanied by regional roadshows and an online world of invention to inspire the inventor in everyone. To go crackers about inventing, viewers can visit bbc.co.uk/wallaceandgromit.

Wallace And Gromit's World Of Invention is simulcast on Â鶹Éç One HD on Freesat channel 108, Freeview channel 50, Sky channel 143 and Virgin Media channel 108.

The new Â鶹Éç One HD channel will simulcast a network version of the Â鶹Éç One schedule, with the majority of peaktime programmes in HD, including The Apprentice, Strictly Come Dancing, Children In Need, Antiques Roadshow, Countryfile, The Graham Norton Show and The Royal Variety Show.

VAA

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Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers

Wednesday 3 November

8.30-9.00pm Â鶹Éç ONE and Â鶹Éç One HD

• Feature

Nigel Slater prepares some Simple Suppers

Food writer Nigel Slater returns with a second series of Simple Suppers, cooking a week's worth of uncomplicated, tasty meals that can easily be re-created at home.

The series takes inspiration from a different theme each week, with this first programme giving a new twist to favourite classic recipes. Whether it's a makeover for the traditional cottage pie, or an exciting new version of the time-honoured apple tart, Nigel proves that by taking the basic principles and just altering them slightly, it's easy to jazz up the nation's most-loved dishes.

Nigel also visits fellow passionate gardeners on allotments and gardens across the country, and creates the ultimate fresh feast from the fruits of their labour. This week Nigel gives a new spin to beans on toast, with newbie gardeners Karina and Craig.

The series is part of the Â鶹Éç's Dig In campaign. More information can be found online at bbc.co.uk/gardening/digin.

Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers is simulcast on Â鶹Éç One HD on Freesat channel 108, Freeview channel 50, Sky channel 143 and Virgin Media channel 108.

The new Â鶹Éç One HD channel will simulcast a network version of the Â鶹Éç One schedule, with the majority of peaktime programmes in HD, including The Apprentice, Strictly Come Dancing, Children In Need, Antiques Roadshow, Countryfile, The Graham Norton Show and The Royal Variety Show.

SB

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Turn Back Time – The High Street:
The Victorian Era Ep 1/4

Tuesday 2 November

9.00-10.00pm Â鶹Éç ONE

• Press pack

Â鶹Éç One brings the story of the British high street to life in an exciting and ambitious new series that transports four empty shops and a group of modern shopkeepers and their families back to the high street's heyday in the 1870s, before propelling them through a century of dizzying change, right up to the Seventies.

In the picturesque market square in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, the families' lives are turned upside down as they experience how shopkeepers lived and worked in six key eras of British history. But these are no museums. The shops will be serving modern-day customers who are used to the pace and convenience of 21st-century shopping.

In tonight's opening episode, the shopkeepers are going back to the 1870s and the birth of the British high street, where they set up shop for the very first time. The butcher, the baker, the grocer and the ironmonger must all get to grips with every aspect of Victorian life.

And they have their very own Chamber of Commerce, headed by greengrocer and Masterchef judge Gregg Wallace, which is on hand to keep a watchful eye on the shopkeepers, making sure that they stick to the rules, regulations and technology of the day.

Shopkeeping 1870s-style means going back to basics and each shop faces its own challenges as they establish a customer base in the lead-up to selling goods on market day.

While the bakers struggle with back-breaking work, mixing dough by hand and baking by candlelight through the night, the butcher is under pressure to sell every bit of a giant pig to ensure any kind of a profit. The grocers have to blend tea, pat butter and package marmalade before it can even leave the shop. The ironmonger also has his work cut out – selling mole traps and mangles to modern customers isn't easy.

In a challenge laced with real-life entertainment, family drama and human endeavour, the families have to deal with whatever history throws at them.

CD4

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What is Diwali? For many it's as big a celebration as Christmas and New Year rolled into one day – a feast of light during the dark days of autumn. But few non-Hindus realise that Diwali is in fact the third day in a festival that lasts five.

This thought-provoking documentary features British Hindus – including a family, priests, theologians, artists, entrepreneurs and The One Show's Anita Rani – who, day by day, reveal the meaning of each ritual and custom. Colourful original illustrations of iconic stories from the Hindu scriptures show how each day is a celebration of a distinct spiritual and moral message designed to help every Hindu cast off their secular baggage and replenish their inner spiritual light.

JP2

David Attenborough's First Life – Arrival Ep 1/2

Friday 5 November

9.00-10.00pm Â鶹Éç TWO

"In 50 years of programme-making, I have been lucky enough to explore the living world in all its wonder and variety. Now I'm off to explore the origins of all of this – to look for the very first living creatures that appeared on this planet," explains David Attenborough.

Travelling to Newfoundland, Morocco and Queensland, he finds evidence in fossils and living animals of an extraordinary period in Earth's history, half a billion years ago, when animals first appeared in the oceans.

This story can only be told now because, in the last few years, extraordinary fossil finds at sites across the world have transformed understanding of the first life forms. And the latest technology allows the programme makers to bring the animals back to life and understand in detail how they moved, using computer graphic imaging.

The journey begins in Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, close to where David grew up, where the discovery of a 560-million-year-old fossil – a complex organism called Charnia – helped transform understanding of how life began to evolve from the earliest single-celled organisms.

In Canada and Australia, David looks at how cells first began to stick together in the aftermath of a near devastating Ice Age, forming the first complex organisms.

Exploring Mistaken Point in Newfoundland, he says: "This is recognised as one of the most important fossil-bearing sites in all the world. For here you can see fossils of the very first animals that evolved on this planet," he says.

When animals began to move, it represented a fundamental turning point. In the Ediacara Hills in Australia, he examines the fossils and trails left by Dickensonia and Kimberella and, through CGI reconstruction of the ancient sea floor, the programme illustrates how active it had become.

Just 50 million years after the first multi-celled organisms, animals had heads with sensory abilities, tails and segmented bodies.

David concludes: "It took 3,000 million years for multi-celled organisms to appear, but just 50 million years later – an evolutionary blink of an eye – animals as we know them were taking shape."

BR/LS2

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Â鶹Éç Two celebrates Sir Elton John with an evening of programmes dedicated to the iconic singer-songwriter. Featuring a new and exclusive documentary, Madman Across The Water – The Making Of Elton John, the night also includes Elton John – Â鶹Éç Radio 2 Electric Prom recorded earlier in the month and finishes with Elton John At The Â鶹Éç, a compilation of archives documenting the star's career.

SG

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Sir Elton John's collaboration with cult American piano-man Leon Russell on their new album, The Union, is a timely reminder of the unique combination of influences that came together to create such a distinctive rock star.

This documentary, featuring new and rare interviews with, among others, Bernie Taupin, T-Bone Burnett, Leon Russell and an extensive and exclusive interview with Elton, traces the early years and road to stardom of the most successful living male solo artist. It tells of Elton's youth in leafy Pinner, Middlesex, his lengthy apprenticeship in the British music business of the mid-Sixties and his sudden stardom in the USA in 1970, followed by a golden period of albums, tours and hits that made Elton perhaps the international superstar of the Seventies. It is also an account of the damage, drugs and depression on the underside of all that glittering stardom. This is the story of the making of Elton, and the music that made him a household name before his extra-musical activities made him perhaps more famous for "being Elton" than for his music.

This story runs from young Reg Dwight's childhood spent learning classical piano and listening to American rock 'n' roll on the radio, through paying his dues as the keyboard player in a touring blues band, to finding his own voice, and the words of Bernie Taupin in the dying days of Tin Pan Alley.

Contributions from ex-band members, friends and record label managers provide a great insight into the musical, social and serendipitous factors that resulted in Elton's rapid rise to fame 40 years ago.

The film relives the heady days of Elton's most creative and prolific period and is packed with stunning performance footage of his countless hits and flamboyant live shows.

The film shows how Elton, looking back on his career at the age of 63, is finally taking stock of the highs and lows of his extraordinary life and, with his new recordings, seeks to re-connect with the passion and inspiration which formed the foundation of his career in music.

SG

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Elton John – Â鶹Éç Radio 2 Electric Prom

Saturday 30 October

10.45-11.45pm Â鶹Éç TWO

Â鶹Éç Two brings audiences Sir Elton John's Electric Prom concert. Featuring some of the superstar's greatest classics, the programme also includes Elton performing with Leon Russell, Plan B and Rumer, playing tracks from their new collaboration, The Union.

Â鶹Éç Red Button also showcases this year's Electric Proms. Going behind the scenes at each of the concerts, Jo Whiley watches the artist in rehearsal, talks to them about the show, the songs and the musicians involved and mixes some exclusive/unbroadcast songs from the concerts with some big hits. The Elton John programme is available from the evening of 30 October through to Saturday 6 November.

SG

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A Night With Elton John comes to a close with Elton John At the Â鶹Éç. Drawing upon a range of archive materials, the programme tracks Elton's rock 'n' roll years through a choice selection of performances, interviews and clips.

SG

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Four tales of terror unfold in this Psychoville special, starring Steve Pemberton as David

Psychoville returns with a spooktacular hour-long Halloween special.

Four tales of terror unfold as location manager Phil Walker investigates the abandoned ruins of Ravenhill Psychiactric hospital.

Does the ghost of evil Governess Edwina Kenchington still walk the empty corridors? What other horrors lie within the crumbling walls and will health and safety allow any filming there in the first place?

Psychoville is written by and stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

RB