The Best TV Shows on BBC Four

Your monthly journey through the fascinating world of space and astronomy with the latest thinking on what's out there in space and what you can see in the night sky.

The lives of two eccentric metal detectorists, who spend their days plodding along ploughed tracks and open fields, hoping to disturb the tedium by unearthing the fortune of a lifetime.

Set in the corridors of power and spin, the Minister for Social Affairs is continually harassed by Number 10's policy enforcer and dependent on his not-so-reliable team of civil servants.

The World's Greatest Classical Music Festival. The BBC Proms is a classical music festival held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and in recent years has explored an innovative series of Proms around the UK with concerts in all four nations. Its aim: to bring the best in classical music to the widest possible audience, which remains true to founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original vision in 1895. Whether you are a classical connoisseur or think classical music isn’t for you, there is something for everyone in the eight-week stretch of concerts.

A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.

Showcasing the best in international documentaries, Storyville has developed an enviable reputation since its inception more than a decade ago. Screening over 340 films, from some 70 different countries, the strand has garnered a staggering array of awards: five Oscars, 15 Griersons, three Peabodys and two International Emmys. In true, unique, Storyville style, the new series promises to deliver the strand's usual eclectic mix of compelling stories from across the globe.

The murder of Sonia Baker, a young political researcher, leads journalist Cal McCaffrey to uncover complex links between government and big business.

Created from the novels by award winning crime writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland follows DI Jimmy Perez and his team as they investigate crime within the close knit island community. In this isolated and sometimes inhospitable environment, the team have to rely on a uniquely resourceful style of policing.

A mock-documentary following the challenges - both personal and professional - faced by the team responsible for delivering the biggest show on Earth: the 2012 Olympics. From getting a busload of non-English speaking Brazilians from A to B, who to appoint to run the Cultural Olympiad and what to do when the much-vaunted wind turbines won't turn because there's no wind, it's all in a day's work for the men and women whose job it is to stage the greatest sporting event in the world.

Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

The fiendishly difficult quiz show in which two teams of three contestants have to find the connection between seemingly unrelated clues, where patience and lateral thinking are as vital as knowledge.

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.

Wide Sargasso Sea is a British television adaptation of Jean Rhys's 1966 novel of the same name. Produced by Kudos Film & Television for BBC Wales, the one-off 90-minute drama was first broadcast on digital television channel BBC Four on 9 October 2006. It was repeated on BBC One on Sunday, 22 October 2006, the week following the conclusion of BBC One's adaptation of Jane Eyre, to which Wide Sargasso Sea is a prequel. The adaptation was scripted by playwright Stephen Greenhorn, produced by Elwen Rowlands and directed by Brendan Maher. It starred Rebecca Hall as Antoinette Cosway and Rafe Spall as Rochester.

What Darwin Didn't Know is a documentary show on BBC Four presented by Armand Marie Leroi which charts the progress in the field of Evolutionary Theory since the original publication of 'On the Origin of Species' in 1859.

Living with the Future is a television documentary series first broadcast on 15 January 2007 on BBC Four. It is a follow-up series to Living with Modernism, also on BBC Four. In each episode, presenter Simon Davis visits the owners of a private house, then stays overnight so he can comment on what the building is like to actually live in. The preceding series visited older "classic" buildings where modernity was the key feature. In this series, buildings have been constructed in the last few years and often rely on cutting-edge materials and have "green" elements of re-use and efficiency.

A look at some true legends from the world of music.

Heist is a one-off 2008 television comedy-drama, written by Peter Harness and directed by Justin Hardy. It was completed at the end of 2006 and first broadcast on 23 April 2008 on BBC Four as part of its Medieval season. Loosely based on real events surrounding Richard of Pudlicott, it is a parody of and/or homage to heist films, set in medieval England, using several of that genre's conventions, and trailed under the same tagline as the 2003 remake of The Italian Job. As per the medieval setting, the film dialogue contains several Middle English and pseudo-Middle English expressions and insults. Marshall as lead character narrates several parts of the backstory to the audience during the film.

Living with Modernism is a television documentary series first broadcast on BBC Four in 2006. It is a companion series to Marvels of the Modern Age on BBC Two, and was followed by a sister series Living with the Future in 2007. In each of six episodes, presenter Simon Davis visits a private family house designed by an architect associated with the modern movement.

Doctors to Be: 20 Years On is a biographical documentary series first broadcast on BBC Four by the BBC in 2007. It is a sequel to the series about ten medical students Doctors to Be, and gives an update on the careers and lives of the same people after they had qualified.