Edinburgh Festivals’ 70th anniversary year is to be celebrated by the BBC with a dynamic showcase highlighting the cultural standing of this international event.

Among the top talent to be featured will be Sir Ian McKellen, Daniel Radcliffe, Karen Cargill, Stephen Fry, Aditi Mittal, Sir James MacMillan, Val McDermid, Joshua Bell, Andreas Haefliger, Jack Whitehall, Nicholas Parsons, Athena Kugblenu, and Paul Merton.

As well as a raft of favourite and new dedicated programming from Edinburgh, across tv, radio, and online, there will be special highlights to mark the festivals’ 70th anniversary, including:

• Festival Tales: Edinburgh At 70 on BBC Two - presented by actor and comedian Jack Whitehall - will explore seven decades of the world’s largest arts festival and its impact on contemporary culture since its inception in 1947 - with Sir Ian McKellen, Daniel Radcliffe and Stephen Fry.
• Kirsty Wark will present two programmes Welcome To Edinburgh on BBC Two, and Kirsty Wark’s Edinburgh, an hour long chat show on BBC Two Scotland, and there will be a further BBC Two compilation of some of the best music and performance from this year’s Edinburgh Festival.
• Charlie Stayt will anchor a special BBC Breakfast broadcast in Edinburgh on the opening day.
• Steve Wright In The Afternoon will be returning this year after the show’s debut at the festival in 2016. He will be joined by Radio 2’s The Michael Ball Show and The Radio 2 Arts Show, presented by Jonathan Ross, will feature festival specials across August.
• BBC Radio 3, the official broadcaster of the Edinburgh International Festival, will broadcast special editions of key favourites across the opening weekend and throughout the festival, as well as a full schedule of music programming, live and pre-recorded coverage of 16 concerts from the Queen’s Hall as well as six concerts from the Usher Hall, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the 70th anniversary celebration concert at the close of the festival.
• James Naughtie will present a new documentary Nothing Short of a Miracle for Radio 3, which will look at the EIF’s history and founding, with archive material and new interviews to trace an oral history of the early years of the festival.
• Also to mark Radio 3’s longtime association with the EIF, 12 lunchtime concerts taken from the BBC archive will feature performances from some of the finest artists ever to appear at the EIF from Fritz Wunderlich to Jessye Norman. It’s a major opportunity to relive some of the EIF’s most amazing musical moments since 1947. Called Edinburgh 70, the series has been produced by BBC Scotland and will be presented by Kate Molleson.
• Radio 4’s longest running quiz show Round Britain Quiz marks its 70th birthday this year, and celebrates with a visit to another 70 year old institution, the Edinburgh Fringe.
• In association with the University of Edinburgh, Allan Little presents Enlightenment After Dark for Radio 4. This series of conversations with leading thinkers will be recorded in front of live salon audiences in Edinburgh locations associated with the Enlightenment.
• BBC Arts Digital is showcasing a season of performance and talks called Spirit Of '47 in conjunction with the EIF and the British Council from the Festival Theatre.
• BBC Arts Digital is also marking the 70th anniversary with a special virtual reality project, Edinburgh 70: The BBC at The Festival, Virtually. Commissioned by BBC Arts and supported by Creative Scotland, VR artists Dennis & Debbie Club have created a vibrant collage mixing abstracted digital models of the city and short BBC archive highlights from 70 years of the festivals, all at the control of the viewer’s gaze. The experience will be available for audiences to view throughout August at the BBC site in Edinburgh and to download both nationally and internationally.
• On Monday August 14 and Tuesday 15, BBC Radio Scotland's The Janice Forsyth Show will be co-anchored with Sonya Feldhoff from ABC Adelaide, with these programmes broadcast in Australia and Scotland. The link up follows on from The Janice Forsyth Show broadcasting from The Adelaide Fringe in February. The Adelaide Fringe signed a memorandum of understanding with Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2016.
• BBC World Service will reflect the international impact of the Edinburgh Festival in this anniversary year with a greatly expanded schedule of programming including The Arts Hour on Tour, Global Beats, the 15th anniversary of the World Book Club and A Night Of International Comedy, which will feature some of the big emerging names from across the globe.

There will also be coverage of the Festivals across news and magazine programmes and the hugely popular Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will be broadcast on BBC One.

Radio 4 favourites Just A Minute - presented by Nicholas Parsons and featuring Paul Merton, Susan Calman and Fred MacAulay - and Front Row will also be Edinburgh based while the Funny From the Fringe daily podcast is back after its debut success in 2016.

Edinburgh in August is well-known as a place for new performers to make their mark. On Sunday August 13, Mark Watson hosts the final of the BBC New Comedy Award 2017, which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 at 6.15pm and filmed for BBC iPlayer. Six finalists will perform in a bid to win the coveted award. A panel of comedy experts will decide the winner and the show will also feature a performance from special guest, Tez Ilyas. The Asian Network will showcase new talent at the BBC base with their Comedy Night on August 11, which will also be available to view on the Red Button. BBC Comedy’s Lee Dalloway will have daily Facebook Live sessions with up and coming comedians at the BBC base.

As well as serving as the main broadcasting hub, the BBC at the Edinburgh Festivals base at George Heriot’s School will be home to many hours of unique sessions by BBC Presents, BBC Comedy, BBC Writersroom, and CBBC. It’s also where visitors can discover and enjoy special music performances, the seventh annual Edinburgh Poetry Slam and an exciting programme of children and family fun activities commissioned by BBC Learning and BBC at the Edinburgh Festivals, working in partnership with many organisations including Edinburgh Arts Festival, Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh Libraries, National Museum of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh.

Donalda MacKinnon, Director of BBC Scotland, says: “This is a special year for the Edinburgh Festivals and for the BBC at the Edinburgh Festivals.

“Edinburgh has been the world’s stage, every summer since 1947 and we have a programme of coverage across all platforms on television, on radio, online and on social media which will reflect its long-held standing as a crucial cornerstone of the arts which has evolved and developed and fuelled many elements of entertainment across the board. Its enduring vivacity as an international event in Scotland enjoys a cultural reputation of extraordinary magnitude and I’m delighted that the BBC is at its heart. The BBC at Edinburgh Festivals 2017 is a dynamic mix which celebrates the past 70 years and the present.”

TV

In an hour long special on BBC Two, Festival Tales: Edinburgh at 70, comedian and actor Jack Whitehall explores seven decades of the Edinburgh Festival. From those coming to perform from behind the Iron Curtain, to the glamorous new stars of 1950’s film, theatre, opera and ballet; from the birth of satire with Beyond The Fringe to the comedy explosion of the 1980's when stand-up comedians began to fill stadiums and have their own TV shows, Edinburgh has seen the beginnings of new cultural movements and the start of careers for many famous household names. Jack talks to Sir Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Daniel Radcliffe about the highs and lows of performing at Edinburgh. The programme is on BBC Two, Saturday August 26, at 9pm.

Welcome to Edinburgh presented by Kirsty Wark, on BBC Two Saturday August 19 at 7pm marks the 70th anniversary of the festivals with the best of the festival in this special year.

And on BBC Two Scotland, on Sunday August 13 at 10pm, she will present Kirsty Wark’s Edinburgh featuring performances and chat with some of the festivals’ top names and happening performers in a new 60 minute show. And there will be a further BBC Two compilation of some of the best music and performance from this year’s Edinburgh Festival.

Charlie Stayt will anchor a special BBC Breakfast broadcast in Edinburgh on Friday, August 4, with further festival coverage across news and magazine programmes.

BBC Scotland arts correspondent Pauline McLean will have news reports from the start and throughout the festivals.
And on the Bank Holiday, August 28, BBC One will have the stirring highlights of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Radio 2

For the second year in a row, Steve Wright (pictured above) and the team will broadcast The Big Show live from the Blue Tent in Edinburgh on Friday 4 August (2-5pm) with music and chat from special guests.

The Radio 2 Arts Show with Jonathan Ross will be linking up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on its 70th Anniversary on Thursday 10, 17 and 24 August from 10pm-midnight to capture some of the more quirky acts.

Michael Ball will be coming live from the Big Blue Tent in the heart of the Edinburgh Festival on Sunday 13 August (11am-1pm) with live music from the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo pipes and drums and Scotland’s very own 100-member strong Rock Choir. Plus two audience members will be taking part face-to-face in the On The Ball Quiz. All to be featured in-vision live on BBC Red Button.

Radio 3

As the official broadcaster of the Edinburgh International Festival, through live and recorded concerts available on radio and online, BBC Radio 3 brings the best of the Edinburgh International Festival to audiences at home and across the world.

Radio 3’s predecessor the Third Programme broadcast from Edinburgh at the very first International Festival in 1947, and with both cultural institutions in their 70th year, Radio 3 will once again make the International Festival’s music offering available to everyone through a major series of broadcasts in 2017.

Radio 3 will mark the occasion with additional programming, which will include all Radio 3 programming between 7am and 1.30pm on August 5 broadcast from Edinburgh.

Across the festival’s opening weekend there will be live editions of regular programmes such as Breakfast, Record Review and In Tune from the BBC’s Edinburgh Festivals hub in the grounds of George Heriot’s School. For the In Tune broadcast (7 August), presenter Sean Rafferty (pictured above) will welcome a starry roster of guests including baritone Christopher Maltman, conductor Iván Fischer and pianist Sergei Babayan.

Several other Radio 3 programmes will air special EIF editions later in the month, including World on 3, Late Junction (August 8 and 9), Jazz Now (August 14) and Jazz Line-Up (August 19). Jazz Line-Up guests will include The Dime Notes, musician and composer Andy Sheppard and jazz guitarist John Parricelli. Guests for the Jazz Now broadcast include Colin Steele Quintet and the Paul Towndrow/Steve Hamilton duo. Late Junction guests will include composer and musician Lauren Sarah Hayes, folk musicians Aiden O’Rourke and Alasdair Roberts, actress Josette Bushell-Mingo and author James Robertson.

A new Radio 3 documentary presented by James Naughtie, Nothing Short of a Miracle (August 5), will look at the EIF’s history and founding, using a combination of archive recordings and new interviews to trace an oral history of the early years of the festival.

Twelve Radio 3 lunchtime concerts from the BBC archives (August 8-11, 15-18, 22-25) feature performances from some of the finest artists to appear at EIF, such as Clara Haskill, Fritz Wunderlich, Jessye Norman and Geza Anda. Called Edinburgh 70, these have been produced by BBC Scotland and will be presented by Kate Molleson.

Over the course of the series, other highlights will include the August 8 programme with contralto Kathleen Ferrier and pianist Bruno Walter with performances from 1947 and 1949 and on Aug 11, Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich - appearing at the EIF in 1974 - after being exiled from his homeland for his outspoken political views.

Throughout August Radio 3 will also broadcast a series of live concerts (11am-1pm) from the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, launched by the Dunedin Consort on August 5 and featuring subsequent performances from top international artists including mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, operatic bass René Pape, Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger, oboist Francois Leleux, baritone Benjamin Appl, violinists Alina Ibragimova and Joshua Bell, the Academy of Ancient Music, countertenor Iestyn Davies and soprano Venera Gimadieva.

There will also be six concerts recorded at Usher Hall to be broadcast on Radio 3 in August and September. All the concerts are being produced by BBC Scotland. In the line-up of concerts are three from BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Thomas Dausgaard conducts his first Edinburgh Festival concert under the title of BBC SSO Chief Conductor with a programme of music featuring Schubert, Schumann and Strauss at the Usher Hall; Sir James MacMillan conducts three works all of which received their premieres at the International Festival; and the orchestra closes the Usher Hall series with a concert to celebrate the festival’s 70th anniversary, that brings together live music, archive film, interviews and unique memories, conducted by Martyn Brabbins.

BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra

On Sunday August 13, Mark Watson hosts the final of the BBC New Comedy Award 2017, which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 at 6.15pm and filmed for BBC iPlayer. Held at the BBC tent at George Heriot’s School, six finalists will perform on the night in a bid to win this year’s coveted award. A panel of comedy experts will decide upon the winner and the show will also feature a performance from special guest Tez Ilyas. The final follows two semi-finals held on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 August (broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 August at 10.30pm), also at George Heriot’s School, and following previous heats in London, Manchester and Cardiff.

Radio 4’s longest running quiz show Round Britain Quiz marks its 70th birthday this year, and celebrates with a visit to another institution marking its 70th year, the Edinburgh Fringe. The home team of Val McDermid and Alan McCredie play for Scotland, against Marcus Berkmann and Paul Sinha representing the South of England; with the unflappable Tom Sutcliffe in the chair. The quiz will make its debut at the festival on Monday August 21, recording at 2pm and 3.30pm, and the programmes will form part of the Round Britain Quiz series starting on air later this year.

Opening Night is Radio 4's new programme which gives the audience a backstage pass to some of the most innovative, challenging and provocative new theatrical productions around the country. Every month will be in a new town or city, reporting from the latest production, checking out the best in theatre, play-writing and live performance talent and asking how the theatre is helping to capture and curate modern Britain. Starting at the UK’s biggest festival of theatre in Edinburgh, the first episode will be hosted by BBC Radio Scotland’s Janice Forsyth and will broadcast on Saturday 5 August at 3.30pm.

In association with the University of Edinburgh, Allan Little presents Enlightenment After Dark for Radio 4. This series of conversations with leading thinkers will be recorded in front of live salon audience. Guests include Professor Sarah Harper, President of the Royal Institution; the Right Rev Richard Holloway; one of Europe’s most prominent young thinkers, Rutger Bregman; and acclaimed writer Pankaj Mishra.

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by guests for The Now Show at the Fringe featuring comedy sketches and satirical comments (recording on Wednesday 23 August at 7pm).

The daily Funny From The Fringe podcast is back after a successful first outing in 2016 which saw the fledgling podcast rocket to the top of the iTunes Comedy podcast charts (and reach second place in the overall iTunes podcast charts). Hosted once again by award-winning comedian Phil Ellis, the podcast will bring news, interviews and what-have-yous from the festival, including a behind-the-scenes look at the BBC New Comedy Award and a sneak peek at some of the hot new shows, the up-and-coming comedians making waves, and the big names making mischief.

Two special recordings of the classic panel show Just A Minute will see Nicholas Parsons challenge some of the biggest names in comedy to speak without hesitation, repetition or deviation on subjects of his choosing. Recording on Tuesday 8 August at 5.30pm and 7pm, his guests at the festival are Paul Merton, Susan Calman, Josie Lawrence, Fred MacAulay, Paul Sinha and Mark Watson.

Clive Anderson, along with co-hosts Arthur Smith and Tom Allen, tie up Loose Ends with two special episodes featuring music, lots of comedy and, of course, scintillating conversation (recording on Friday 18 August and Tuesday 22 August at 3pm).

Also returning to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe are: Front Row, which will bring together the stars and surprise hits of the festival in a number of live and pre-recorded programmes from Monday - Thursday, August 14-17; Fresh From The Fringe, offering the highlights from the best comedy performers, including stand-up, sketch and musical talent (recording Monday August 14, 5pm and 7pm); and 4 Extra Stands Up At The Fringe, featuring some of the brightest and best comedians at the Fringe performing extended sets exclusively for BBC Radio 4 Extra (recording Saturday 19 and Wednesday 23 August, 9.30pm).

Radio 5 live

BBC 5 live’s Afternoon Edition with Sarah Brett and Nihal Arthanayake (pictured above) will be broadcasting live from the BBC Festival site at George Heriot’s school on Wednesday 23 and August 24. They’ll be talking to musicians, comedians, TV/film/theatre actors, authors and celebrities.

Heat Map - Will Gompertz takes a fresh look at this week in the arts, with conversation on the big stories in music, film, fashion, and books, and a look at how culture connects with our everyday lives. On Sunday August 6 the programme comes from the Edinburgh Festival, with guests including author Irvine Welsh, comedian Reginald D Hunter and cabaret singer Meow Meow.

Asian Network

BBC Asian Network Comedy returns to Edinburgh Fringe for a fifth year on Friday 11 August.

Hosted by Weekday Breakfast presenter Tommy Sandhu (pictured above), the show celebrates some of the best comedians from across the festival whilst showcasing rising stars. This year includes the award winning Patrick Monahan, India’s first female stand-up Aditi Mittal and British-Kurdish comedian Kae Kurd. Highlights of the show will be available to watch on iPlayer from 24 August and on BBC Red Button from September 1.

Radio Scotland

BBC Radio Scotland's The Janice Forsyth Show will be co-anchored with Sonya Feldhoff from ABC Adelaide on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 August in a reciprocal visit following The Janice Forsyth Show broadcasting from The Adelaide Fringe in February. These programmes will broadcast in Scotland and Australia. The Adelaide Fringe signed a memorandum of understanding with Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2016.

Radio Scotland’s arts show will have 12 shows across the festival, with Janice Forsyth (pictured above) up until 24 August.

Stephen Jardine will present two shows from the BBC Festival site on August 11 and 25 and Breaking The News with Des Clarke will have Matt Forde, Catriona Shearer, Fred MacAulay and Zoe Lyons on August 10; Andrew Maxwell, Lucy Porter, Val McDermid and Rory Bremner on August 17; and Angela Barnes, Raymond Mearns, Martell Maxwell and Richard Herring on August 24.

Stop The Press kicks off its new second series on BBC Radio Scotland with two shows in Edinburgh. It returns to pit the stars of entertainment, sport and beyond against the journalists who report on them. Grant Stott hosts the quiz, with comedian Jo Caulfield leading the team of professionals and BBC Radio Scotland's Gary Robertson for the press. The Edinburgh programmes, with guests from the Fringe,will be recorded on Friday August 25.