21 March
Five - Mega Flood: Perfect Disaster - London - "Speculative documentary, featuring CGI effects, expert interviews and dramatisations. Could the same thing happen to London that happened in New Orleans? The city is among the best defended in the world against flooding but there is a weakness... and London is about to find out what it is."
23 March
ITV1 - Tonight: Kevin Whately on Dementia - "For the past 20 years, Kevin Whately has played television detective Robbie Lewis, who was Inspector Morse's right-hand man. But in his latest on-screen appearance, the actor investigates a subject close to his heart - dementia. Kevin's mother Mary, now 83, was diagnosed with the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, eight years ago. Sadly, Mary's condition is so advanced that her family had to take the difficult decision to admit her to a nursing home... Kevin discusses his concerns about the vast difference in standards of care for patients with dementia in care homes in Britain. The programme also looks at the need for better diagnosis for dementia, as currently doctors and nurses do not receive mandatory training in diagnosing and dealing with dementia. It is believed that only one third of people with dementia have been diagnosed. In a recent survey, 29 per cent of GPs said they have not had enough training in how to diagnose and manage dementia."
BBC1 - Cleopatra, Portrait of a Killer - "Cleopatra - the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared - until now.
In one of the world's most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
From Egypt to Turkey, Neil Oliver investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power. This is the portrait of a killer."
24 March
BBC2 - Horizon: Why Can't We Predict Earthquakes? - "Last century, earthquakes killed over one million, and it is predicted that this century might see ten times as many deaths. Yet when an earthquake strikes, it always takes people by surprise.
So why hasn't science worked out how to predict when and where the next big quake is going to happen? This is the story of the men and women who chase earthquakes and try to understand this mysterious force of nature.
Journeying to China's Sichuan Province, which still lies devastated by the earthquake that struck in May 2008, as well as the notorious San Andreas Fault in California, Horizon asks why science has so far fallen short of answering this fundamental question."
25 March
More4 - Dispatches: Confessions of a Nurse - "As patient numbers and pressures increase, Dispatches investigates the reality of work for nurses around the country and examines whether patient care is being compromised in NHS hospitals.
In candid interviews, nurses - mostly speaking anonymously for fear of jeopardising their careers - describe what life is really like on many wards. They speak of their frustrations with the health service system and make shocking admissions."
Five - Interview With a Cannibal - "In 2002, German cannibal Armin Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to over eight years in prison for killing, dismembering and eating another man - who allegedly agreed to the arrangement over the internet. In 2005, a German court ordered a retrial and Meiwes was eventually convicted of murder. This documentary explores the extraordinary case and features an exclusive interview with Meiwes, home footage and access to police evidence."
26 March
BBC2 - Natural World - Uakari: Secrets of the English Monkey - "In the flooded forests of the Peruvian Amazon lives one of the world's rarest and most mysterious primates, the red-faced uakari monkey. Local people call them English monkeys because of their resemblance to sunburnt visitors. Now there is a new Englishman on the scene, Mark Bowler, a young biologist who battles through the forest in his quest to understand the monkeys' secret lives."
BBC2 - The Rabbits of Skomer - "Documentary about the wild rabbits which live on sea cliffs on the Pembrokeshire coast alongside seabirds like puffins and seagulls. They come in many shades, owing to their intriguing history, and each spring the island of Skomer itself is transformed by wild flowers, creating one of Britain's most beautiful natural spectacles. The green and brown island turns blue and pink for a couple of spectacular weeks under a carpet of bluebells and red campion."
BBC2 - Oil Spill - the Exxon Valdez Disaster - "Just after midnight on Good Friday 1989 the giant supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound to create one of the biggest man-made ecological disasters of the 20th century.
Eleven million gallons of crude oil gushed from the stricken tanker into the pristine waters of the Sound, killing whales, millions of fish and birds, and thousands of sea otters. The spill had a catastrophic effect on local communities, wiping out their herring fishery and severely depleting the Alaskan salmon industry for years to come.
The skipper of the Exxon Valdez had been drinking but that was just the start of the calamity. The aftermath led to bitter disputes over the bungled clear-up and law suits on behalf of 32,000 local victims that lasted nearly twenty years, as Exxon fought the $5 billion damages awarded against them all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Twenty years on, this documentary retraces the catalogue of errors that led to the disaster and investigates the legacy of the spill and the lasting environmental damage to Prince Wiliam Sound, featuring interviews with crew members aboard the supertanker on the fateful night, with the Exxon executives and Alaskan politicians in the eye of the storm and with the local fishermen and activists who had prophetically warned of disaster and now led the fight for justice."
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* This applies to staff members at the University of Gloucestershire only. Any recordings made are to be used only for educational and non-commercial purposes under the terms of the ERA Licence.
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