BBC Four

video

File:Placeholder

"BBC4" redirects here. For the BBC radio stations, see BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Not to be confused with Channel 4.

BBC Four

File:BBC Four logo 2021.svg Logo used since 2021
Country	United Kingdom
Broadcast area	United Kingdom Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey
Network	BBC Television
Headquarters	London, England
Programming
Language(s)	English
Picture format	1080i/1080p HDTV (downscaled to 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	BBC
Sister channels	BBC One BBC Two BBC Three BBC News BBC Parliament CBBC CBeebies BBC Scotland BBC Alba
History
Launched	2 March 2002 (2002-03-02)
Replaced	BBC Knowledge
Links
Website	BBC Four
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview (UK)	Channel 9 (SD; 24 in Scot) Channel 106 (HD)
Streaming media
BBC iPlayer	Watch live (UK only)
Virgin TV Anywhere	Watch live (Ireland only)

BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 and shows a wide variety of programmes including arts, documentaries, music, international film and drama, and current affairs. It is required by its licence to air at least 100 hours of new arts and music programmes, 110 hours of new factual programmes, and to premiere twenty foreign films each year. The channel broadcasts daily from 7:00 pm to 4:00 am, timesharing with CBeebies (which starts at 6:00 am).

History

BBC Four launched on 2 March 2002 at 19.00 GMT, having been delayed from the original planned 2001 launch. The channel replaced BBC Knowledge, an educational and cultural channel which had undergone many changes throughout its lifetime; in its final format it carried a schedule of documentaries and art programming, essentially a test of the new BBC Four schedule. BBC Four would rebrand this channel, and bring it into line with the well recognised BBC One and Two brands at the same time. Planning for the new channel, along with the new BBC Three, had been in progress since October 2000; however, the incumbent government delayed approving the new BBC digital plans. The BBC Four plans were approved earlier, and as a result launched before BBC Three.

BBC Four was different from the old BBC Knowledge: the channel would be more heavily promoted with more new and original programming and the channel would not be broadcast 24 hours a day. This was due to the fact that on the Freeview digital terrestrial platform, BBC Four is broadcast in a statistically multiplexed stream in Multiplex B that timeshares with the CBeebieschannel (which is on air from 6.00 until 19.00). As a result, BBC Four broadcasts from 19.00 to around 4.00 each night, with an hour's down-time and promotions for CBeebies before the start of that channel's schedule.

On 12 May 2011, BBC Four was added to the Sky EPG in Ireland on channel 230.

Programmes

Original programming

• Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
• Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters
• BBC Four Sessions
• Singer-Songwriters at the BBC
• If Walls Could Talk
• Britain's Best Drives
• Only Connect
• Birds Britania
• Britain by Bike
• Churches: How To Read Them
• Shock and Awe: The Life of Electricity
• Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency
• The Story of the National Grid
• Walter's War
• To Kill a Mockingbird at 50
• HG Wells: War with the World
• Twenty Twelve
• World News Today With Zeinab Badawi (simulcast on BBC Four and BBC World News at 1900 Mon-Fri)
• The Secret Life of Ice
• Hattie
• The Curse of Steptoe
• How to Build a Dinosaur
• Frankenstein: Birth of a Monster
• The Great War
• Sandhurst
• Jerusalam: The Making of a Holy City
• The Story of Musicals
• The Art of Cornwall
• Children's TV Trials
• Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
• Goodbye BBC Television Centre
• Can Eating Insects Save the World
• The Ballad of Mott the Hoople
• Sings the...
• Racing at the BBC

Imports

• Wallander
• Spiral
• Mad Men (seasons1-4 only premiered on BBC Four, moved to Sky Atlantic from season 5)
• The Slap
• Borgen
• The Killing
• Il Divo
• Inspector Montalbano
• The Bridge
• Minuscule
• Parks and Recreation
• Arne Dahl

Domestic repeats

• Life
• Planet Earth
• The Blue Planet
• Yes Minister
• Yes Prime Minister
• All Creatures Great and Small
• Juliet Bravo
• Last Of The Summer Wine
• Sykes
• Butterflies
• Top of the Pops
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
• The Likely Lads
• The Young Ones
• Batman
• Fawlty Towers
• The Bear Family and Me
• The Life of Mammals
• The Onedin Line
• Tales of Beatrix Potter
• Walking with Dinosaurs
• Walking with Beasts
• Casualty 1906
• Casualty 1907
• Cranford
• Outnumbered
• Great British Railway Journeys
• Climbing Great Buildings
• The Sky at Night
• Pride and Prejudice
• Blue Peter (Classics only)
• The Good Life (1975 TV series)
• Porridge (TV series)
• Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
• I, Claudius (TV series)

Films

• South Pacific
• When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Monty Python's Life of Brian
• The Thirty-Nine Steps
• The Lady Vanishes
• Carry on Loving
• King Kong
• Cloud 9
• The Brides of Dracula
• Amadeus (film)
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (film)

Music Concerts

• Queen 1975 Live
• Madness Live (Part of Goodbye Television Centre)
• Coldplay Live

Children Classics (shown in 2007)

• The Avengers (TV series)
• The Clangers
• The Magic Roundabout

See also

• List of documentary channels
• BBC Four World Cinema Award
• List of television stations in the United Kingdom