REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR

MONDAY, APRIL 28 @ 8:00PM

In 2006, as many as 5,000 modern electric cars were destroyed by the major car companies that built them. That automotive massacre was documented in Chris Paine’s documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?

Today, the electric car is back with a vengeance. In Revenge of the Electric Car, Paine is back, taking his crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, General Motors, the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors, and an independent car converter named Greg “Gadget” Abbott to find the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. With the goal of weaning the country off of foreign oil, this new generation of automobiles promises to be America’s future: fast, furious, and cleaner than ever.

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MR. SELFRIDGE

SEASON 2 EPISODE 5

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 @ 10:00PM

Business carries on at Selfridges, where German-made goods are being replaced with English products. Harry organizes a patriotic concert to benefit the troops, featuring a popular music hall tenor (portrayed by Alfie Boe) who gets Lady Mae (his former stage partner) to join him. Miss Mardle’s new lodger, a Belgian violinist, also participates in the concert, raising some eyebrows. Amid the festivities, a complex drama unfolds that sets the future course of events for Henri and Harry—all while the unsuspecting audience sings “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” It’s a very long way indeed.

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SEASON 3 EPISODE 5

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 @ 6:00PM & 10:00PM

The midwives discover that a young Down Syndrome woman is six months pregnant, leading to difficult confessions and decisions. Dr. Turner suggests that Shelagh take over the running of Nonnatus House to allow an exhausted Sister Julienne to recuperate. This includes overseeing the arrangements for Sister Evangelina’s surprise jubilee celebrations. But the atmosphere turns sour when a lemon meringue pie goes missing. Patsy, a new nurse, arrives at Nonnatus House. Her no nonsense, hard-working attitude and sense of humor mean she’s an immediate hit with the nuns and midwives.

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MATTHEW BOURNE’S SLEEPING BEAUTY

SATURDAY, MARCH 12 @ 6:00PM

Sleeping Beauty is the latest re-imagining of a ballet classic by choreographer Matthew Bourne.

With Sleeping Beauty the British choreographer has returned to the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky to complete the trio of the Russian composer’s ballet masterworks. Bourne began in 1992 with Nutcracker! and, most famously, in 1995, with the international hit Swan Lake.

The timeless fairy tale about a young girl cursed to sleep for 100 years was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa used the story in 1890 to create what has became a legendary ballet.

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WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 @ 9:00PM

THIS WEEK: OBAMA IN ASIA, MIDEAST PEACE TALKS, SCOTUS ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND CLEMENCY CRITERIA

The main focus of President Obama’s four-nation tour of Asia this week was to reassure allies that America remains committed to bolstering security and economic ties to the region. With the backdrop of recent tensions in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines over China’s growing assertiveness and the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times will examine the president’s efforts to reinvigorate U.S. foreign policy in the region.

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UNEXPECTED GOODS – PART 2

THURSDAY, MAY 8 @ 7:00PM

The Bletchley Circle returns for a second season in 2014. The first episode, Blood on Their Hands opens with former Bletchley Park girl Alice Merren in prison awaiting trial for murder. Jean stands behind her innocence and tries to reunite the circle in an attempt to help one of their own. Lucy is now getting on well in a clerical job at Scotland Yard and keeping her head down, and Millie is working as a German translator. Susan is reluctant to get involved after her experience with the twisted serial killer Malcolm Crowley and the danger it posed to her family.

Next, in Uncustomed Goods, Millie branches out into what she believes to be a harmless sideline of dealing in uncustomed goods. This endeavor leads to her being kidnapped and held in a seedy hotel by some gangsters. On discovering this, Alice goes to Jean and Lucy to help. The girls start to investigate in order to save their friend and, as they do so, uncover a much darker, hidden world of crime.

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SNOW MONKEYS

SATURDAY, APRIL 26 @ 10:00PM

In the frigid valleys of Japan’s Shiga Highlands, a troop of snow monkeys make their way and raise their families in a complex society of rank and privilege where each knows their place. Their leader is still new to the job and something of a solitary grouch. But one little monkey, innocently unaware of his own lowly social rank, reaches out to this lonely leader, forming a bond with him that manages over time to warm his less than sunny disposition.

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YOUR INNER MONKEY

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 @ 8:00PM

EPISODE THREE

In the final episode of the series, “Your Inner Monkey,” Shubin delves into our primate past. He travels from the badlands of Ethiopia, where the famous hominid skeletons “Lucy” and “Ardi” were found, to a forest canopy in Florida, home to modern primates. En route, he explains how many aspects of our form and function evolved. We learn that a genetic mutation in our primate ancestors conferred humans’ ability to see in color — but it was an advantage that led to a decline in our sense of smell. The shape of our hands came from tree-dwelling ancestors for whom long fingers made it easier to reach fruit at the tips of fine branches. Shubin concludes by tracing the evolution of the human brain — from a tiny swelling on the nerve cord of a wormlike creature, to the three-part architecture of a shark’s brain and the complex brain of primates. As Shubin observes, “Inside every organ, gene and cell in our body lie deep connections with the rest of life on our planet.”

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DOCTORS AND NURSES

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 @ 9:00PM

 From George Clooney on ER to Richard Chamberlain on Dr. Kildare, television’s long love affair with doctors and nurses shows no signs of letting up. Noah Wyle, Anthony Edwards, Gloria Reuben, Howie Mandel, Ed Begley Jr., Chad Everett and others tell their stories.

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SOLITARY NATION

TUESDAY, JUNE 16 @ 11:00PM

The United States is alone among Western nations in its widespread use of solitary confinement in prison — what mental-health experts define as keeping an inmate locked down for 22 hours a day or more in a cell, with limited contact with others.

Most corrections officials don’t call it solitary. They refer instead to punitive segregation, which typically has a time limit, usually 30 days or less, for violating prison rules — and administrative segregation, also known as restricted housing or special housing units.

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