BBC4

BBC Four

BBC Four began broadcasting on 2nd March 2002 as an alternative to the mainstream TV channels.

BBC Four offers a large variety of TV programming and is required by licence to show at least 100 hours of new arts and music programmes, 110 hours of new factual programmes and to broadcast at least 20 international films each year. BBC Four replaced the channel BBC Knowledge and was launched before BBC Three due to government licensing issues.

Programming variety of BBC Four

BBC Four mainly consists of UK and international arts, music and culture broadcasts. The selection of TV programmes available on BBC Four is to enrich the viewers intelligence on a wide range of high quality cultural subjects.

TV programmes past and present aired on BBC Four include:

  • The Art of Cornwall
  • The Ballad of Mott the Hoople
  • BBC Four Sessions
  • Birds Britania
  • Britain by Bike
  • Britain’s Best Drives
  • Can Eating Insects Save the World
  • Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe
  • Children’s TV Trials
  • Churches: How To Read Them
  • The Curse of Steptoe
  • Detectorists
  • Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters
  • Dirk Gently
  • Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency
  • The First World War
  • Frankenstein: Birth of a Monster
  • Free Will and Testament: The Robert Wyatt Story
  • Goodbye BBC Television Centre
  • The Great War
  • Hattie
  • HG Wells: War with the World
  • Hive Minds
  • How to Build a Dinosaur
  • If Walls Could Talk
  • Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
  • Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie
  • Only Connect
  • Racing at the BBC
  • Sandhurst
  • The Secret Life of Ice
  • Shock and Awe: The Life of Electricity
  • Singer-Songwriters at the BBC
  • Sings the…
  • The Life of Rock with Brian Pern
  • The Story of Musicals
  • The Story of the National Grid
  • Survivors: Nature’s Indestructible Creatures
  • Talking Children
  • Twenty Twelve
  • To Kill a Mockingbird at 50
  • Walter’s War

Movies broadcast on BBC Four include:

  • Amadeus
  • The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
  • The Brides of Dracula
  • Carry on Loving
  • Cloud 9
  • The Curse of Frankenstein
  • Dracula
  • King Kong
  • The Lady Vanishes
  • The Man Who Knew Too Much
  • Monty Python’s Life of Brian
  • South Pacific
  • The Swarm
  • The Thirty-Nine Steps
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth

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BBC4
BBC Four