Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Outcasts Ep 1/8

Monday 7 February

9.00-10.00pm Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE (Schedule addition 21 January)

• Press pack

Jack (Ashley Walters) and Stella (Hermione Norris) are Outcasts

A group of courageous pioneers face a unique opportunity: the chance to build a new and better future on another planet, as Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One's brand-new, epic blockbuster series, Outcasts, created by Ben Richards (Spooks, The Fixer, Party Animals), begins.

A diverse group of individuals – led by President Tate (Liam Cunningham) with his core team of Stella (Hermione Norris), Cass (Daniel Mays) and Fleur (Amy Manson) – left their old lives behind in extraordinary circumstances. Promised a second chance at life, they created a society far away from their home, friends and family ... and their pasts. They took charge and settled here first alongside Expeditionaries Mitchell (Jamie Bamber) and Jack (Ashley Walters).

Settled in the town of Forthaven on Carpathia, they are passionate about their jobs, confident of their ideals and optimistic about the future. They work hard to preserve what they've built on this planet they now call home, having embraced all the challenges that come with forging a new beginning. The planet offers the possibility for both corruption and redemption; while they try to avoid the mistakes made on Earth, inevitably the heroes cannot escape the human pitfalls of love, greed, lust, loss and a longing for those they've left behind.

As they continue to work and live together they come to realise this is no ordinary planet. Is there a bigger purpose at work? Mystery lurks around them and threatens to risk the fragile peace of Forthaven.

Viewers meet the characters at a moment of incredible anticipation. They've lost all contact with Earth but the arrival of the last known transporter signals fresh hopes and dreams. Will Stella's husband and daughter, who she heartbreakingly left behind, be on board? Why does Tate seem anxious about one particular passenger, Julius Berger (Eric Mabius)? And, most nerve-wracking of all, will it land safely and bring a fresh perspective on the new world with it?

Outcasts stars Liam Cunningham (Clash Of The Titans) as President Richard Tate, who runs Carpathia and is dedicated to keeping the human species alive; Hermione Norris (Spooks) as Stella Isen, Head of Protection and Security (PAS), who sacrificed everything for the chance to save the world; Amy Manson (Desperate Romantics) as Fleur Morgan, PAS Officer, and young, bright and idealistic; Daniel Mays (Ashes To Ashes) as Cass Cromwell, PAS Officer – unpredictable and fiercely loyal to Tate; Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Gallactica) as Mitchell Hoban, Head of the Expeditionaries and a progressive and ambitious man; Ashley Walters (Small Island) as Jack, Mitchell's second in command, and he is tough, armed and dangerous; Eric Mabius (Ugly Betty) as Julius Berger, vice president of the Evacuation Programme on Earth. Berger is en route to Carpathia on board transporter CT9, expecting the power and status he enjoyed on Earth.

Michael Legge (Shameless) is Irish charmer Tipper Malone, a rebel who speaks out against the authorities representing the voice of the displaced youth; Langley Kirkwood (Generation Kill) is leader of the ACs, a group of cloned human beings and one of Carpathia's darkest secrets; Patrick Lyster (Invictus) is the dignified and brave commander of transporter CT9; and Jeanne Kietzmann is Lily – lost, troubled and seeking answers.

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Reports of a survival shuttle landing far outside the settlement, possibly with Stella's daughter, Lily, on board, reaches Forthaven, as Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One's new, blockbuster sci-fi series continues.

Cass, Fleur and Jack set out to find Lily but the rescue party is ambushed by a group of ACs, a mysterious group of humans led by a man called Rudi. He has taken Lily hostage and will only release her if his sick baby is taken back and treated in Forthaven. Cass and Jack stay behind with Lily while Fleur returns with Rudi and the baby.

Back in Forthaven, Fleur discovers that in the settlement's early days Tate traced the deadly C23 virus, responsible for the deaths of his children, to Rudi and the other ACs. Tate tells Fleur who the ACs are: a group of genetically modified humans that had been built to increase survivability. Tate ordered Mitchell to execute them but he refused to go through with it and instead let the ACs survive in the wilds of Carpathia.

Back in Forthaven, Julius Berger is accused of murder by Aisling, a young woman from the transporter. Stella takes on Aisling's cause but when Aisling tries to kill Berger, Stella realises that her relationship with Berger is even more fraught than she first thought.

The AC baby is healed but the hostage hand-over goes wrong: Jack thinks Rudi is ordering his men to kill the human hostages. In the subsequent fight, the humans keep the baby and Cass kills one of the ACs. Tate's AC secret is exposed to Fleur and Cass and the ACs are left outside the settlement, armed and resentful.

Hermione Norris is Stella Isen, Jeanne Kietzmann is Lily Isen, Daniel May is Cass Cromwell, Amy Manson is Fleur Morgan, Ashley Walters is Jack, Langley Kirkwood is Rudi, Liam Cunningham is Richard Tate, Jamie Bamber is Mitchell Hobart, Eric Mabius is Julius Berger and Laura Greenwood is Aisling.

AF/CI2

HANDS ON HISTORY
A History Of Ancient Britain – Age Of Ice Ep 1/4

Wednesday 9 February

9.00-10.00pm Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ TWO and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD

Neil Oliver embarks on a journey to discover A History Of Ancient Britain

Neil Oliver embarks on the story of how today's Britain and its people came to be, forged over thousands of years of ancient history. The opening episode in this landmark series focuses on the very first people to occupy Britain and their battle for survival in a hostile and icy world that was being shaped by nature's most powerful forces into the land we know today.

Beneath tidal mud banks in South Wales, Neil works with archaeologists to reveal the footprints of people who walked here 8,000 years ago. He abseils into a cave in West Wales to see where the remains of the first modern British human were found. At first it was thought to be a Roman prostitute – the so-called Red Lady of Paviland – but now carbon dating has revealed the bones to be those of an Ice Age mammoth hunter from 33,000 years ago who roamed the land when Britain was not an island, but a peninsula of Europe descending into a savage period of the last Ice Age.

When the Ice Age finally lifted around 11,000 years ago, a new and warmer age dawned. But as ice began to melt far to the north, sea levels rose and began to turn Britain into an island. Geological research has revealed that Britain's fate was finally sealed with a cataclysm – around 6100BC one of the greatest tsunamis ever recorded on Earth struck the north-east of Britain, devastating the fragile population of hunters and flooding the low-lying plains of what is now the North Sea.

The people who walked 8,000 years ago on the mud banks in South Wales would never have seen the great wave – they were the survivors, and some of the earliest people ever to know Britain as an island.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Learning's Hands On History campaign takes families back in time to Ancient Britain, offering activities to try at home, as well as directing viewers to great ancient days out. By getting hands on with ancient history, the audience will better understand Britain as it was and how it compares to today. Hands On History also provides innovative workshop materials for libraries, museums and historical sites. Visit bbc.co.uk/history for more details.

A History Of Ancient Britain is simulcast on the award-winning Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD channel – the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's High Definition channel available through Freesat channel 109, Freeview channel 54, Sky channel 169 and Virgin Media channel 187.

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Faulks On Fiction – The Hero Ep 1/4

Saturday 5 February

9.00-10.00 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ TWO and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD

Sebastian Faulks gets to the heart of British fiction

Author Sebastian Faulks gets to the heart of the British novel through its characters in a new four-part series for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ TWO.

Faulks On Fiction explores the "heroes, lovers, snobs and villains" appearing in classics including Robinson Crusoe, 1984, Brick Lane, Emma and The End Of The Affair.

"In recent years, people talking about novels have focused on their authors," says Sebastian. "I'd like to rectify this. To me, the only people who matter are the characters – the heroes, lovers, snobs and villains – people whose inner lives we get to know so well that they're more familiar to us than our own families and friends. So much so that it's in the power of their experiences that we see our own lives in a new light."

The series, written and presented by Sebastian, tells the story of how the British novel contributed to the national character and features fictional icons including Fagin from Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, Mr Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice, Chanu from Monica Ali's Brick Lane and Jim Dixon from Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim.

In the first programme in the series, The Hero, Sebastian explores the characters which readers root for in a novel – from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe to more unconventional heroes like the immoral Becky Sharp in William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair and John Self in Martin Amis's Money.

The characters featured include: Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719); Tom Jones in Henry Fielding's The History Of Tom Jones: A Foundling (1749); Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (1847) by William Makepeace Thackeray; Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927); George Orwell's Winston Smith in 1984 (1949); Jim Dixon in Lucky Jim (1954) by Kingsley Amis; and John Self in Money (1984) by Martin Amis.

Authors and writers interviewed by Sebastian include Simon Armitage, Martin Amis, Ruth Rendell and Tim Lott.

LH4