Timeshift profiles a new wave of Italian crime fiction that has emerged to challenge the conventions of the detective novel. There are no happy endings in these noir tales, only revelations about Italy's dark heart - a world of corruption, unsolved murders and the mafia. \n\nThe programme features exclusive interviews with the leading writers from this new wave of noir, including Andrea Camilleri (creator of the Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) and Giancarlo De Cataldo (Romanzo Criminale), who explains how his work as a real-life investigating judge inspired his work. From the other side of the law, Massimo Carlotto talks about how his novels were shaped by his wrongful conviction for murder and years spent on the run from the police. \n\nThe film also looks at the roots of this new wave. Carlo Emilio Gadda (That Awful Mess) used the detective novel to expose the corruption that existed during Mussolini's fascist regime and then, after the Second World War, Leonardo Sciascia's crime novels (The Day of The Owl) tackled the rise of the Sicilian mafia. These writers established the rules of a new kind of noir that drew on real events and offered no neat endings. \n\nAlso featuring Italian writers Carlo Lucarelli and Barbara Baraldi, the film uses rarely seen archive from Italian television.
Source: BBC 4
Series 9: 5. How To Win At Chess
Many people know the basic rules of chess, but few can play really well. This programme offers some essential tips on how to raise our game. \n\nBritish grandmasters Dan King an ...
20-03-2025
BBC 4
Series 14 - Killer Storms And Cruel Winters - The History Of Extreme Weather
Lucie Green looks back through Britain's most dramatic weather history and sees how our reactions helped forge a weather science that today allows us to predict the worst extremes.
06-03-2025
BBC 4
Series 16: 1. Bridging The Gap: How The Severn Bridge Was Built
2016 sees the fiftieth anniversary of the Severn Bridge, which completed the motorway link between England and Wales. Timeshift tells the inside story of the design and construc ...
01-03-2025
BBC 4
Series 13: 3. Bouffants, Beehives And Bobs: The Hairstyles That Shaped Britain
29-01-2025
BBC 4
Series 13 - Hurricanes And Heatwaves: The Highs And Lows Of British Weather
A national obsession is explored in this archive-rich look at the evolution of the weather forecast from print via radio to TV and beyond - and at the changing weather itself.
14-11-2024
BBC 4
Series 8: How To Be A Good President
In a whistlestop tour through the history of the US presidency, journalist and author Jonathan Freedland asks what qualities make a great president and what we can learn from th ...
27-08-2024
BBC 4
Series 10: 8. Crime And Punishment - The Story Of Corporal Punishment
Timeshift lifts the veil on the taboo that is corporal punishment. What it reveals is a fascinating history spanning religion, the justice system, sex and education. Today it is ...
26-08-2024
BBC 4
Series 9: 5. How To Win At Chess
Many people know the basic rules of chess, but few can play really well. This programme offers some essential tips on how to raise our game. \n\nBritish grandmasters Dan King an ...
20-03-2025
BBC 4
Series 11 - Hotel Deluxe
Documentary which charts how luxury hotels have met the needs of new forms of wealth - from aristocrats to rock stars and beyond - with comfort, innovation and service.
13-12-2021
BBC 4
Series 11 - Of Ice And Men
Documentary which looks at why the most inhospitable place on the planet has exerted such a powerful hold on the imagination of explorers, scientists, writers and photographers.
03-06-2019
BBC 4
Series 16: 3. Penny Blacks And Twopenny Blues: How Britain Got Stuck On Stamps
24-06-2021
BBC 4