Part of the celebration will see Michael Palin take viewers on an adventurous journey in CBeebies Bedtime stories with By The Light Of The Moon by Tom Percival. While in a first, the Sci-Fi Prom features scores from cult space and sci-fi films, including Steve Price’s Gravity and Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar.
BBC Two will host special programmes which take viewers directly into the heart of the mission itself:
- 8 Days: To the Moon & Back, a feature-length drama documentary which brings the real story of the mission as it really happened. With access to declassified cockpit audio, cutting-edge digital effects will be used to create a visual journey bringing the original audio to life.
- Stargazing: Moonlanding Special: Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain travel to where the historic Apollo 11 mission began. They meet astronaut General Charlie Duke who shares what it was like to guide Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon, and how he followed in their footsteps three years later.
BBC Four will celebrate the moon landing with a mixture of new and archive programmes:
- Chasing The Moon is the definitive history of the international space race. It will provide more of the facts confronting myths surrounding the Apollo Mission, detailing the breathtaking failures and successes of the race between the US and the Soviet Union to reach the moon.
- The Sky At Night Special: The Moon, The Mission And The BBC will search through the archives to recount how the BBC reported the moonshot. Presented by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock with very special guests including Britain’s first astronaut Helen Sharman, NASA’s love for the BBC will be explained through accurate predictions and coverage at the time.
- At the Royal Albert Hall this summer, the BBC Proms ponders how composers across the centuries have imagined and created the sound of space. On the exact anniversary of the moon landing, Holst’s world-renowned The Planets is complemented by John Adams’s ever-popular Short Ride In A Fast Machine (21 July).
- Public Service Broadcasting recreate their ground-breaking 2015 concept album The Race For Space (25 July)
- In a Proms first, the Sci-Fi Prom features scores from cult space and sci-fi films, including Steve Price’s Gravity (25 July).
CBBC will provide its viewers with fun and interactive ways to remember the moon landing:
- Blue Peter’s Lindsey Russell and Richie Driss will host a special episode from the National Space Centre in Leicester, while Horrible Histories will see Moon Mayhem Comedian Dara O’Briain join Rattus in an episode that will include the Space Race, the first use of rocket power, and even poo floating in the Apollo 11 cockpit!
- Newsround is launching a new interactive game on the CBBC website, where players must travel across the moon unlocking facts about the Apollo 11 mission as they go along.
CBeebies takes children and parents on an extraordinary journey to the moon:
- CBeebies Bedtime Stories will host two extremely special guests including: award-winning actor, writer, presenter and comedian Michael Palin, as well as astronaut Tim Peake’s with his historic CBeebies Bedtime Story from the International Space Station.
- CBeebies Stargazing: Mission Moon, a one-off special with Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Jarvis, see’s Robert The Robot accompanying a group of young stargazers as they embark on their own special space mission.
- Tiny, Small and Baby Soup Dragon In Clangers: The Visitor are playing outside when they hear the sound of something approaching from space. As it nears and eventually lands, a door opens and out steps a strange creature in a space suit–they don’t know what it is but we can see it’s a human astronaut!
- A very special CBeebies Prom takes CBeebies and BBC Radio 3 audiences on a musical journey to the moon with live orchestral music. Presented from the Royal Albert Hall by some of CBeebies favourite presenters including YolanDa Brown, Maddie Moate and Justin Fletcher, as well as juniors and the first CBeebies Prom Choir made up of 400 voices.
Radio 4 has a series of dedicated programmes to celebrate the landing of Apollo 11, 50 years on:
- Portrait Of The Moon - writer Oliver Morton explores science, art and mythology the history and future of our relationship with the Moon.
- The First Man On The Moon And How They Done It has the award-winning comedy duo The National Theatre of Brent return to Radio 4 with their hilarious take on the moon landings.
- Two further programme’s look at the landing in detail and what the future might hold: Moon is the story of the five-day journey to the moon’s surface, told in the astronauts’ own words taken entirely from the NASA transcripts. While Moonbase 2029 finds Dallas Campbell examining the various plans for a Moonbase: could the return of astronauts to the lunar surface be for all mankind or private gain?
- Brian Cox and Robin Ince host an Apollo 11 Monkey Cage special from Florida, the home of the Kennedy Space Center, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first human moon walk in The Infinite Moonkey Cage.
- James Burke, the key voice for the BBC’s coverage of the moon landings in 1969, revisits the momentous event in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre in James Burke Apollo Memories.
BBC Two
8 Days: To The Moon & Back
Eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds. That’s the total duration of the most important and celebrated space mission ever flown - Apollo 11 - when we first stepped foot on the moon. Eight days that created some of the most iconic images in human history and changed the way we think about our place in the universe forever. But what was it really like for those three men in that high-tech tin can through each of those extraordinary eight days?
8 Days, a feature-length drama documentary to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, will bring the real story of the mission as it happened. With access to hours of declassified cockpit audio recorded by the astronauts themselves, 8 Days will use cutting-edge digital effects and dramatised performances to create a stunning 21st century visual journey to bring the original audio to life.
Until now we’ve only glimpsed inside Apollo 11 with a handful of iconic stills and a few precious minutes of movie footage. But what if we could step inside that Saturn V rocket and for the very first time be on the inside to hear every word they said, from moments of high drama to the constant banter on that long and dangerous journey.
- 8 Days (1x90’) is made by The Science Unit, BBC Studios, co-produced with PBS and NOVA and The Open University. The Executive Producer is Jonathan Renouf. It was commissioned by Patrick Holland, Controller, BBC Two and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual.
Stargazing: Moonlanding Special
To celebrate the Apollo Moon Landing 50th anniversary, Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain travel to where the historic Apollo 11 mission began - Cape Canaveral in Florida. They hear first-hand from astronaut General Charlie Duke what it was like to guide Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the Moon in the Lunar Lander and how he followed in their footsteps three years later.
But they also look at the most exciting new developments and, with privileged access, they transmit from the top of launch tower that’s being prepared for manned missions and from the assembly line of a spacecraft factory.
They are joined by astrophysicist and medic Dr Kevin Fong, and mathematician Dr Hannah Fry, who explore the latest developments in human space flight - from cutting-edge spacewalk technology to a future Mars Buggy.
- Stargazing: Moon Landing Special, is 1x90’ for BBC Two, is made by BBC Studios Science Unit. The Executive Producer is Helen Thomas. It was commissioned by Patrick Holland, Controller, BBC Two, and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual. The Commissioning Editor is Craig Hunter.
CBBC
Horrible Histories
Moon Mayhem Comedian and space-nerd Dara O’Briain joins Rattus for a show marking the 1969 Moon Landings, including the first use of rocket power, the Space Race, and poo floating in the Apollo 10 cockpit!
The Space Race really gets underway in the 1950s, as America and Soviet Russia fight it out to be the first to get into space and the episode ends with a swinging tune from JFK and Khrushchev about Flying To The Moon!
- Horrible Histories is made by Lion Television.
CBeebies Bedtime Stories
Award-winning actor, writer, presenter and comedian Michael Palin takes viewers on a magical adventure when he reads a CBeebies Bedtime Story. He reads By The Light Of The Moon by Tom Percival.
Michael, who is also the narrator of Clangers on CBeebies, says: "There’s a special magic to a bedtime story. It's the last story of the day, the one that really sinks in. Having three children of my own and four grandchildren, I know that to be read to before bed is one of the great shared moments of childhood. And watching Neil Armstrong step onto the moon’s surface, with all the millions of people around the world holding their breath, was one of the great shared moments of my life."
Radio 4
The First Man On The Moon And How They Done It
The award-winning comedy duo, The National Theatre of Brent return to Radio 4 with their hilarious take on The Moon Landings.
- The First Man On The Moon And How They Done It is made by CPL Productions Ltd for BBC Radio 4 and Produced by Liz Anstee.
The Infinite Moonkey Cage
Brian Cox and Robin Ince host an Apollo 11 Monkey Cage special from Florida, the home of the Kennedy Space Center, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the first human moon walk
- The Infinite Moonkey Cage is produced by Alexandra Feachem for BBC Radio 4.
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