Programme Information

Clash Ep 3/6

Tuesday 21 July

4.30-5.00pm BBC ONE

• www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc

Nihal and his team embark on a musical Doctor Who challenge

Team Nihal and Team Bobby hit the halfway mark in this week's edition of Clash and scale new heights in the head-to-head contest to revamp two well-known classical pieces into pop tracks. BBC Radio 1 DJs Bobby Friction and Nihal and their talented teams face a Doctor Who musical challenge; are paid a visit by beatboxer Beardyman; and meet the stars at the Classical Brits.

Mastering musical film and television scores is this week's challenge and Ben Foster, composer for Torchwood and orchestrator and conductor for Doctor Who, is on hand to give the two teams a master class. The teams are shown a Doctor Who clip and have to record a score to accompany it using their instruments. Elizabeth Sladen from The Sarah Jane Adventures also drops by to help judge the teams.

Beatboxing champion Beardyman, meanwhile, visits the teams – much to the delight of Lloyd, one of Bobby's team members and an up-and-coming beatboxer. Lloyd gets to perform alongside Beardyman.

Next up is a surprise visit to the Classical Brits, where the Clash crew get to meet Katherine Jenkins, Myleene Klass and Faryl Smith.

Clash is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC's High Definition channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.

VT

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Whitney is shocked to discover who the mystery man is, in today's visit to Albert Square, while Abi and Lauren grow suspicious over whether Max and Tanya are back together.

Elsewhere, Jean confesses her fears to a doctor that Stacey might have bi-polar disorder.

Whitney is played by Shona McGarty, Abi by Lorna Fitzgerald, Lauren by Madeline Duggan, Max by Jake Wood, Tanya by Jo Joyner, Jean by Gillian Wright and Stacey by Lacey Turner.

KS3

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Ric tells Donna that Derek's cancer has spread and that the outlook is bleak, as the medical drama continues. But Donna refuses to accept this and gets a second opinion from Michael. The scan, however, is no different to the previous one and Donna has to tell her father that he has terminal cancer.

Penny, meanwhile, wants to observe an operation with Jac and Connie, but misses the start due to Jac not telling her about it – she's no longer allowed to be informed. Elliot and Tara, however, let Penny join in on one of the procedures for their forthcoming operation.

Elsewhere, Mark notices Chrissie and Oliver flirting and quizzes Chrissie about her feelings for him.

Ric is played by Hugh Quarshie, Donna by Jaye Jacobs, Derek by Clarke Peters, Penny by Emma Catherwood, Jac by Rosie Marcel, Connie by Amanda Mealing, Elliot by Paul Bradley, Mark by Robert Powell, Chrissie by Tina Hobley and Oliver by James Anderson.

IJ

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Alan Yentob asks what happens to art in times of recession, in two timely episodes of the flagship BBC One arts and culture strand, Imagine. Imagine... Art In Troubled Times explores the role the arts play in people's lives and how they survive during economic instability.

The Great Depression and the Second World War both radically altered the way people looked at the arts, and what they expected from them. Could this current recession see the next transformation? It's certainly a moment at which to take stock. When money for everything is tight, why are we paying for art, and what is art for? Art In Troubled Times looks at the state of the arts following the collapse of several high-profile banks and the ramifications for arts institutions, as their private and public funding is threatened.

Part one looks in depth at America – at the boldest experiment ever in public arts funding in a democracy: President Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal of the Thirties, which set artists to work for the common good. In contrast, Alan looks at how most art in America is funded by the wealthy and suffering accordingly, while President Obama offers inspiration but no hard cash. There is hope, however, as Alan visits a school in the Bronx where the arts are staying firmly on the agenda, thanks to an unlikely saviour – Giorgio Armani.

Art In Troubled Times features comments and interviews from contributors including Peter Gelb, manager of the Metropolitan Opera, in New York; artist Chuck Close, an ex-student of Philip Guston, who painted giant public murals during the depression; and actor Simon Callow, amongst others, as they piece together the American story of art funding in troubled times.

AH

For the first time, Coast is in France on a journey following the shoreline of Normandy to discover the surprisingly close connections to our neighbours across the English Channel, as the Bafta Award-winning series continues.

On Cap Gris Nez (The Grey Nose), the closest point between Britain and France, Neil Oliver explores the hidden remains of a fortress built by Henry VIII in a desperate attempt to keep an English toe-hold on French soil, and Dick Strawbridge unearths the story behind the ultra-secret map that stopped the D-Day landings sinking into the sands of Normandy.

Dick meets 89-year-old veteran Royal Engineer Major-General Logan Scott-Bowden who, on New Year's Eve 1943, a full six months before the invasion, swam onto the D-Day beaches in the dead of night to take sand samples from under the noses of the Nazis.

Miranda Krestovnikoff, meanwhile, has a close encounter with the bats that have set up home in bunkers abandoned by the German army and Mark Horton discovers how William the Conqueror taught the English the art of constructing castles and why William looked to Normandy for the stone to build the Tower Of London.

Amateur artist Alice Roberts also packs her paints for a lesson in how to become an instant impressionist and tries to capture the spectacular chalk cliffs at Etretat on canvas – using the impressionist style pioneered by Claude Monet on this stretch of the French coast. Nick Crane explores the white cliffs of France and finds evidence for the catastrophic "mega flood" that separated Britain from the continent half a million years ago and, finally, Dick learns how a revolutionary lens, invented by Normandy-born Augustin Fresnel, is now used the world over because it made lighthouses brighter and lighter.

Coast is co-produced by The Open University and a free booklet is available to accompany the series. Viewers can visit open2.net or phone 0845 300 8847 to receive one.

KH

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The Wire – Boys Of Summer Ep 1/13

Tuesday 21 July

11.20pm-12.20am BBC TWO

• www.bbc.co.uk/programmes

Series four of the American crime drama kicks off tonight as four boys from West Baltimore – Michael, Namond, Randy and Dukie – play out their summer vacation in the streets as the autumn school semester approaches.

Having failed to capture a potentially valuable homing pigeon, the boys are stirred to action when Dukie is beaten up and Randy concocts a retaliation plan against the rival gang. The action is slower at Bodie's corner, giving young Namond an excuse to take off early from his "summer job" as a runner.

Elsewhere, Marlo has solved the problem that baffled Stringer Bell and, at the detail office, Freamon and Sydnor press Pearlman to issue City Hall subpoenas, while Daniels's replacement, James Asher, surveys the blueprints to his dream house.

With the mayoral race heading into its final weeks, Mayor Royce and his primary challenger, Tommy Carcetti, hit decidedly different campaign trails. Carcetti's deputy campaign manager, Norman Wilson, and his campaign guru, Theresa D'Agostino, try to keep their candidate focused, despite the odds. Prez preps for a new career in higher education, while McNulty turns down a promotion.

Michael is played by Tristan Wilds, Namond by Julito McCullum, Randy by Maestro Harrell, Dukie by Jermaine Crawford, Stringer Bell by Idris Elba, Freamon by Clarke Peters, Sydnor by Corey Parker Robinson, Pearlman by Deirdre Lovejoy, Carcetti by Aidan Gillen, Norman by Reg E Cathey, Prez by Jim True-Frost and McNulty by Dominic West.

RN

The Chaser use public transport as a cheap alternative to removalists, in the penultimate episode of the Australian satirical show.

Ken Loach makes a gritty film based on the musical Cats, and the team discover whether women really do swoon into a man's arms when he dresses as a dripping-wet Mr Darcy.

Produced by the group (Chris Taylor, Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel, Andrew Hansen and Chas Licciardello), the sketch-and-stunt series was nominated for the Rose d'Or, probably due to a bureaucratic error. In its native Australia, the War On Everything won a swag of awards which the Chaser team assures the BBC are very prestigious.

CP

BOOKtalk enters the summer season with a guide to the best books for the politically minded to take to the beach, or possibly just as far as the garden, given the current economic climate.

Mark D'Arcy is joined by television presenter Nicholas Parsons, Guardian columnist Madeleine Bunting and the Bishop of Southwark, the Right Reverend Dr Tom Butler, for a look at the best political books of the year.

PR

Yojojo is spinning and showing off to the other Piplings, in the penultimate episode of the pre-school series.

They are impressed – Yojojo can spin more times than any of them. Next, they play lifty leaf and Yojojo is best at that game, too. But when the Cheebies arrive, Yojojo gets the hiccups. Suddenly, he cannot spin or play lifty leaf any more, so the other Piplings and Cheebies help him find a cure. Once his hiccups have gone, Yojojo shows them a game that everyone can play. Now they can all be the best.

FW