Off-air recordings 2-8 May 2009

Please email Rich Deakin <rdeakin@glos.ac.uk> if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

Sunday 3 May

ITV1 - Martin Clunes: Islands of Britain - new 3-part series - "Martin Clunes embarks on an epic journey to search for island paradise in a new ITV1 series, Martin Clunes: Islands of Britain Martin travels from the most northern tip of Britain to the southerly seas to visit some of the 1000 or so islands off our shores. In the three-part series the actor explores hidden Britain – the stunning, wild, curious and culturally diverse islands around our coast, and listens to the fascinating stories of what life is like away from the mainland from the people who live there."

Monday 4 May

BBC4 - A Poet's Guide To Britain - new 6-part series Part 1 - William Wordsworth - "Poet and author Owen Sheers presents a series in which he explores six great works of poetry set in the British landscape. Each poem explores a sense of place and identity across Britain and opens the doors to captivating stories about the places and the lives of the poets themselves. This episode features Composed upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth.
In 1802, Wordsworth, the great Romantic poet of nature and the man famous for writing about the Lake District, daffodils and clouds, penned a short but electrifying poem about the stinking, filthy, heaving city of London. In fact, the poem was a captivating, sublime portrait of the city at dawn which still has the power to catch one's breath.
Sheers investigates what Wordsworth was doing when he wrote the poem on a summer morning in 1802, and uncovers a story that involves three different women. Wordsworth lived in Grasmere in the Lake District, sharing a small cottage in an unusual domestic arrangement with his sister Dorothy. In the spring of that year he decided to marry an old schoolfriend, Mary Hutchinson. However, in order to do so he first needed to clear the air with his French ex-girlfriend and mother of his daughter Caroline, a nine-year-old girl he had yet to meet.
In July 1802, William and Dorothy set out from Grasmere to Calais via London on the intriguing journey that would lead them across the bridge. Sheers follows their journey, discovers how the poem came into existence and examines exactly what Wordsworth wrote. He talks to Wordsworth fans including that epitome of Northern cool, poet Simon Armitage, the writer-in-residence at the Wordsworth Trust, Adam O'Riordan, and some of the commuters who cross Westminster Bridge every morning on their way to work."

Tuesday 5 May

Yesterday - The Age Of Terror - 4 part series - "Epic series which explores the impact and legacy of four major acts of terror from the last 30 years."

Wednesday 6 May

BBC4 - All Our Working Lives: Working The Land - "Documentary which looks at farming in England in the 20th Century, featuring an interview with a Suffolk farmworker who talks about the harsh times in the 1930s."

Friday 8 May

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Papua New Guinea: Bush Knives and Black Magic - "The global issues documentary series investigates the growth of witch murders in Papua New Guinea. More than fifty women accused of being witches were murdered last year in two provinces alone, and the programme reveals that the problem is now spreading from remote highland areas into the towns."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* 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.

Off-air recordings 18 April -01 May 2009

Please email Rich Deakin <> if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

BBC 4 - Who Killed the Honey Bee? - "Bees are dying in their millions. It's an ecological crisis that threatens to bring global agriculture to a standstill. Introduced by Martha Kearney, this documentary explores the reasons behind the decline of bee colonies across the globe, investigating what might be at the root of this devastation."

BBC2 - English Heritage (new 6-part series) - programme 1 - "When English Heritage bought Apethorpe Hall - a huge, crumbling Jacobean mansion hidden away in the Northants countryside - it was supposed to symbolise everything that was good about the energy that their new chief executive, Simon Thurley, was bringing to English Heritage. They would buy the place, do it up, and then recoup the enormous investment of public money by selling it off. Theory and practice have proven rather different, and could yet leave the taxpayer with a bill running to millions."

Channel 4 - Unreported World - India: Children of the Inferno - "A dispatch from north-east India, where the coal mines that are fuelling India's growth have resulted in vast, subterranean coal fires burning out of control beneath towns and villages."

BBC4 - Jimmy and the Wild Honey Hunters - "Jimmy Doherty, pig farmer and star of Jimmy's Farming Heroes, travels to Nepal to meet an ancient group of people who risk their lives to farm their local honey.
A keen bee keeper with a passion for honey, Jimmy has always been blown away by the sheer variety of flavours, appreciating a good honey like others enjoy a fine wine. So when he heard about an ancient group of people in Nepal who are willing to risk their lives to taste their local honey, he knew he wanted to share the experience.
As a 'honey hunter' Jimmy must scale a massive cliff to reach the home of more than two million bees and dangle 200 feet up to get their honey. If successful, the reward is not only to learn more about these amazing bees, but also to taste one of nature's finest bounties, beautiful wild honey."

BBC4 - Horizon - The Company of Ants and Bees - "Documentary in which Professor James Gould argues that ants and bees have important things to tell us about human society and its future chances."

BBC2 - Cruickshank on Kew: The Garden That Changed the World - "As the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, prepare to celebrate their 250th anniversary, Dan Cruickshank unearths some of the surprising stories that shaped the famous gardens. His travels take him from the royal gardens to the corridors of power and the outposts of Empire as he pieces together Kew's story, uncovering tales of bravery, high adventure, passion and drama."

BBC2 - The Weather (3 part series) Programme 1 - Rain -"Documentary series about the weather looks at rain. It's an essential part of being British, giving us the English lawn, the sliding tackle and endless grounds for complaint, but what do we really know about rain?
The programme uncovers the true shape of a raindrop, shows how and why rain falls and tells remarkable stories of how we have adapted or succumbed to this elemental force of nature, such as James Glaisher's seven-mile hot air balloon ascent in 1862 and how Charles Macintosh invented the waterproof coat.
The Victorians believed that they could master the rain and push it aside, but today climate change threatens us with rain that is wilder and more unpredictable than ever."

BBC4 - Farm to Pharma - the Rise and Rise of Food Science - (no programme details avaialable online yet) - "Time Shift documentary looking at the history of British food science, examining how produce came to be enhanced in laboratories, and looking at the innovations that have changed the nation's diet."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* 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.

Off-air recordings, 11-17 April 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

BBC2 - Planet Earth - Mountains - "Humans like to think that once they've climbed a peak, they've somehow conquered it. But they can only ever be visitors to this hostile world. Planet Earth introduces the 'real' mountaineers and discovers the secrets of their survival on the mightiest peaks of our planet. Welcome to an extreme landscape of rock, ice and snow; a vertical world as alien to humans as the surface of another planet. Planet Earth takes you on a tour of its mightiest mountain ranges, starting with the birth of a mountain at one of the lowest places on Earth and ending at the summit of Everest. Mountains are home to some of the shyest and most secretive animals on the planet, and this programme will show how they rise to the challenge of mountain life."

BBC2 - Private Life of an Easter Masterpiece - "When Caravaggio completed his painting of the betrayal and arrest of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, it became one of the most celebrated masterpieces of its time. But two centuries later, the painting vanished without a trace. The programme tells the enthralling story of the painting and its rediscovery in 1990."

BBC4 - West End Jungle - "Banned when made in 1961, this documentary offers a comprehensive insight into the history and seedy reality of the sex industry in London's Soho.
Examining the consequences of the introduction of the Street Offences Act in 1959, which until then had seen as many as 10,000 prostitutes line the streets and alleys of Soho with nothing more than a deterrent of a small fine, the film explains what happened after those streets were cleaned up and looks at the many different guises as one of Britain's oldest professions continued to operate and thrive."

Channel 4 - Henry VIII's Lost Palaces: A Time Team Special - "Tony Robinson and his experts set out to uncover relics of Henry VIII. Press notes promise the team will reveal surprises about "Henry the architect, designer, sportsman, devout Churchman and European statesman - far from his bad-tempered, murderous and overweight image." (Notice how that suggests rumours of Henry's murderousness and size are no more than tittle-tattle.) If it sounds less nuanced than the Starkey portrait that follows, it will have the advantage of Robinson's engaging style and some interesting digs, including one at Beaulieu in Essex, the first palace Henry built for himself."

FIVE - Was Dr Crippen Innocent? : Revealed - "Was Dr Crippen Innocent?. Historical documentary examining one of the 20th century's most notorious killers. In 1910, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged for poisoning and dismembering his wife. He originally fled the country on a steam ship, but was recognised by the captain, who arranged his capture by sending telegrams to Scotland Yard. However, doubts surrounding the case have prompted modern-day forensic scientists to question Dr Crippen's guilt."

BBC4 - All Our Working Lives: Working The Land - "Documentary which looks at farming in England in the 20th Century, featuring an interview with a Suffolk farmworker who talks about the harsh times in the 1930s."

BBC4 - Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture - "Documentary series looking at the history of 20th century farming in Britain opens by focusing on milk.
In the early years of the century, 150,000 dairy farmers milked by hand and sold milk door to door. By the end of the century the 15,000 that were left were breeding cows that increased yields by 400 per cent and milk was sold through supermarkets.
This episode features the home movies and stories of two dairy farmers who survived tell the story of how and why the revolution happened."

Yesterday - Timeshift: Fantasy Sixties - "The launch of the first Soviet Sputnik satellite in the 1950s captured the public's imagination and prompted TV writers in the Sixties to experiment with fantastical storylines. The radical thinking and cultural change of the Sixties spawned a new type of adventure television. Storylines moved further from reality and led to a golden age of fantasy television.
A new and groundbreaking science fiction series hit British TV screens in 1961: A for Andromeda. Destined to become a classic, only a few clips of the series survive. Similarly adventurous programmes followed, including Adam Adamant Lives! Doctor Who, The Avengers and The Prisoner - the latter taking fantasy television to a place which surprised, and at times enraged, the audience.
The Avengers ended with Steed and Tara King blasting off into space in a rocket. Not far behind them was the real Apollo 11 mission. On 20 July 1969 both BBC and ITV were broadcasting the same drama; the world watched men walking on the moon and sat through a real life cliff-hanger about getting the crew back to earth alive. Setting a story somewhere in space was never going to be pure fantasy ever again.

Yesterday - I Hate The Sixties - The Decade That Was Too Good To Be True - "For some people, the Sixties were when it all went wrong for British society. In their view, it was the decade's moral permissiveness, collapse of respect for institutions and failed experiments in 'progressive' education that led directly to the state we are in today. Ranging across culture, politics, fashion and morality, this provocative but entertaining film will be shamelessly revisionist, challenging head-on what Norman Tebbit once memorably described as "the insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naïve, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy... of that third-rate decade, the Sixties".

Channel 4 - Missing: Race Against Time - "Every year in Britain the police receive nearly a quarter of a million calls about missing people. A handful of missings persons cases hit the headlines - including Madeleine McCann, Shannon Matthews and "Canoe Man" John Darwin - but most people who go missing never make the newspapers.
Some choose to disappear, some are found too late and others just seem to walk out of their lives, leaving their families desperate for answers and the police in a race against time to find them.
As part of Cutting Edge, this new documentary follows three families' desperate searches to find loved ones and features exclusive access to Greater Manchester Police's investigations. When someone goes missing the first 72 hours are vital to the police. If they aren't found within that time it becomes less likely they ever will be, as the trail goes cold.
Three days after 81-year-old Josephine O'Hara disappeared, her daughter Pauline contacts the police. Elderly and vulnerable, she may also have taken her life savings of £10,000 with her, and the police don't even have her photograph.
Meanwhile it's been 36 hours since 25-year-old Adam Warren left home for an appointment at the Job Centre. He was expected back within the hour by his girlfriend Katie and their 11-week-old-baby daughter Ellie, but he's vanished.
Five years ago another young father, Vinny Derrick, disappeared after a night out with friends. His wife Vicki (both pictured) still has no idea what happened to her husband, and seven-year-old Lewis has grown up not knowing his dad."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* 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.

Off-air recordings 4-10 April 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

BBC2 - Yes We Can! The Lost Art Of Oratory - "The remarkable election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States has been propelled as much by his exceptional skill as an orator as by any other factor.
From the silver-tongued to the tongue-tied, the sublime to the ridiculous, this programme takes a fond look at the art and history of the political speech.
Alan Yentob joins the crowds at the inauguration in Washington, and traces the awesome power of orators from Cicero onwards, via Cromwell, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, Martin Luther King and many others.
Among the contributors are Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Bob Geldof, Neil Kinnock, Ted Sorensen, Tony Benn, William Hague, Geoffrey Howe, Diane Abbott, Charlotte Higgins, Alastair Campbell and Germaine Greer.
What makes a good speech great? How much is content, how much is presentation? And has Obama brought eloquence back to 21st-century politics for good?"

BBC2 - Escaping North Korea: This World - "The dramatic stories of North Koreans who are risking everything to escape the repression and hunger of their homeland and reach safety in the South. The border between the two Koreas is so heavily guarded that refugees are forced to flee into China, dodging border guards and risking freezing to death crossing the river that divides the two countries. This film follows two women who have decided to embark on the next stage of the journey, a desperate attempt to reach South Korea."

BBC1 - The Kindertransport Story - "Lord Richard Attenborough makes a moving and very personal contribution to The Kindertransport Story, to mark the 70th anniversary of the unique British rescue mission to save nearly 10,000 children, mostly Jewish, from the Nazis. As the dark clouds of the Second World War descended upon Europe, Lord Attenborough's parents were among those who responded to the urgent appeal for foster families. The two young refugee girls they took in were cherished ever after as sisters by the Attenborough boys... "

ITV1 - Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant - New 4-part series "To mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne, Dr David Starkey travels across Europe to understand the inner life of this feared English king."

BBC4 - The Rebel Physician: Nicholas Culpeper's Fight for Medical Freedom - "Benjamin Woolley presents the gripping story of Nicholas Culpeper, the 17th century radical pharmacist who took on the establishment in order to bring medicine to the masses.
Culpeper lived during one of the most tumultuous periods in British history. When the country was ravaged by famine and civil war, he took part in the revolution that culminated in the execution of King Charles I.
But it is Culpeper's achievements in health care that made him famous. By practicing (often illegally) as a herbalist and publishing the first English-language texts explaining how to treat common ailments, he helped to break the monopoly of a medical establishment that had abandoned the poor and needy. His book The English Physician became the most successful non-religious English book of all time, remaining in print continuously for more than 350 years."

BBC1 - Panorama Special: Britain's Homecare Scandal - "Panorama goes undercover to expose a world of chaos and alleged neglect in the care of the elderly. Carers on minimum wages - often with very little training - are frequently frustrated by poor management as they try to provide decent care. Paul Kenyon looks at how big business is in some cases driving the price of care down to as little as 10 an hour. It's a situation branded as scandalous by the Government's Voice of Older People, Dame Joan Bakewell, and one she's determined to see changed."

BBC4 - The North-South Divide - "Journalist John Harris travels around England to find out why the north-south divide is still an economic reality and if anything can be done to close it. Oasis v Blur, Manchester United v Chelsea, Old Labour v New Labour and pies v polenta - Harris wonders whether it is a light-hearted rivalry about accents, music, sport, food and politics or something deeper, as the decline of industry and manufacturing still blights the north while southerners live longer and healthier lives."

Yesterday - Northanger Abbey - "Northanger Abbey (BBC, tx. 1987) was one of a series of feature-length literary adaptations made for the BBC's Screen Two and Screen One series. The series (the brainchild of producer Kenith Trodd) was devised in 1985 as the BBC's response to Channel Four's pioneering move into film production.
Northanger Abbey is a mixture of morality tale and coming-of-age story, which warns viewers not to confuse fantasy with reality, fact with fiction. Jane Austen's 1799 novel satirises the style and content of Gothic stories, and pokes gentle fun at the overactive imaginations of those who read them. Much of this satirical tone is retained in this adaptation, despite the absence of the narrator - the main source of irony in the novel. Maggie Wadey's script successfully imitates Austen's style and voice, and she seamlessly expands and supplements the novel's original dialogue."

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Haiti: The Island that Ate Itself - "Journalist Aidan Hartley reports from the Carribean country of Haiti, which finds itself locked in a cycle of environmental disaster, poverty and reliance on international aid. After being hit by yet another hurricane in 2008, the republic's citizens have relied on food supplies from the United Nations to keep them alive. Hartley discovers that the island is now almost totally dependent on UN aid and peasant farmers have little incentive to produce food with the USA now dominating the market."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* 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.