Off-air recordings for week 3-10 October 2009

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

Saturday 3rd

BBC2 - The Three Lives of Gandhi - 1/3 - "In the first of three programmes examining the life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, journalist and newsreader Mishal Husain journeys through Gandhi's early years in India to the end of his controversial career in South Africa. Along the way, she confronts accusations of racism and hypocrisy levelled against Gandhi in this period, and discovers how London played a vital role in the development of the Indian Messiah."

Sunday 4th

BBC1 - Emma - 1/4 - "Jane Austen's masterpiece Emma is to be adapted by award-winning writer Sandy Welch (Our Mutual Friend, Jane Eyre, North And South) into a fresh, humorous and perceptive 4 x 60-minute serial for BBC Drama Production, for transmission on BBC One in autumn 2009.
Austen's classic comic novel follows the story of the "handsome, clever and rich" Emma Woodhouse.
Dominating the small provincial world of Highbury, Emma believes she is a skilled matchmaker and repeatedly attempts to pair up her friends and acquaintances... "

ITV1 - South Bank Show - Alison Jackson on Warhol - "Award-winning artist Alison Jackson has made a film for The South Bank Show, looking in to our obsession with celebrity through the works of Andy Warhol. Alison explores how Andy Warhol understood the power of celebrity imagery better than anyone else before or since. He founded the original gossip magazine, Interview and introduced the concept of “15 minutes of fame”. But was Warhol celebrating celebrity or was there an underlying irony to his output? What would he make of today’s celebrity-driven society and the increasingly commercialised art world that has shifted from aesthetics to money? Alison considers Warhol’s major iconic pieces: Marilyn, Mao, Elvis, Mick, and talks about the importance of these beautiful works and how Warhol influences her own work. "

Monday 5th

BBC1 - Panorama: Migrants Go Home - "Reporter Paul Kenyon continues his journey out of Africa following the route taken by 40,000 migrants a year seeking a better life in Europe. He discovers the way to the UK blocked by a new hardline policy in France to round up economic migrants and send them home, and an unlikely partnership with Libya's Colonel Gaddafi, who has reached an agreement with Italy to capture Europe-bound migrants at sea and lock them up in desert prisons.
But what about those fleeing war and persecution, and relying on Europe to protect them? Can it really justify handing them over to a military dictatorship outside the rule of international law?"

BBC4 - The Life and Death of A Mobile Phone - "Through the life cycle of one mobile phone, this documentary investigates the million and one ways in which the mobile has made itself indispensable to modern life.
One in every two human beings has a mobile, and this inanimate lump of plastic and minerals is made privy to people's innermost secrets - conversations with friends, lovers and family. It holds family photos, plays favourite music and yet, as an instrument of communication, it has its paradoxes. People are dumped by text, some pretend to be deep in a telephone conversation to avoid speaking to real people and others are affronted when their bellowed conversations on public transport are overheard.
Then, at the end of a strangely intimate relationship, it becomes one of the one billion phones discarded every year - reconditioned for re-use or smelted down for the precious metals it contains."

Tuesday 6th

BBC2 - Blitz: The Bombing of Coventry - "On 14th November 1940, the Luftwaffe launched the most devastating bombing raid so far on Britain. The target was Coventry, deep in the heart of England.
In a 12 hour blitz the Luftwaffe dropped thousands of tons of bombs. Three-quarters of the city centre was devastated, including the ancient cathedral. The Nazis coined a phrase - 'to Coventrate' - to describe the intense destruction.
It was a baptism of fire for Coventry and Britain. For years the government feared that aerial bombardment could destroy civilian morale. In Coventry, those fears were tested, and in the immediate aftermath of the blitz the evidence was not encouraging. Panic and hysteria gripped the city, and half of Coventry's population fled. However, within weeks - and contrary to all expectations - the city revived. Factories were soon turning out aircraft parts which would be used to avenge the attack on Coventry.
The RAF studied the Nazi bombing techniques and perfected the art of 'Coventration'. In Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin the Nazis reaped the whirlwind they had sown in their devastating attack."

ITV1 - Black Market Britain - "A look at how the counterfeit racket has become an international, highly organised and extremely profitable operation. The programme-makers go undercover to discover that in Britain, gangs often employ everything from baseball bats to firearms to further their careers in this illegal business. "

More 4 - True Stories: The Glasshouse - " Hamid Rahmanian's film is a unique insight into Iran through the prism of a day centre for troubled women run by Marjaneh Halatin, a psychologist now based in London. Among those featured are Nazila, trying to find an escape through rap music (which is illegal for women in the country), and Sussan, who has fled her abusive drug-addicted brother.Most affecting is Samira, aged 14, who became a drug addict after being force-fed heroin by her equally addicted mother. As Rahmanian follows their stories, their shared spirit and mutual support shine through in this surprising and illuminating documentary."

Wednesday 7th

BBC4 - Iran and Britain - "Documentary in which writer and journalist Christopher de Bellaigue explores the fraught but often surprisingly intimate history of Britain's relations with Iran, and asks why Iranians think that if something goes wrong in Iran then Britain must have something to do with it.
De Bellaigue has lived in Tehran, speaks fluent Persian and knows well the phenomenon of 'Uncle Napoleonism', the notion that the cunning British are 'out to get you' that has been a common attitude in Iranian society for 100 years.
He looks at some key events in the relationship, notably Britain's role in the overthrow of several Iranian governments, its control of Iran's oil and the on-off support for Iran's democrats."

Thursday 8th

BBC2 - My Life in Verse: Robert Webb - "Robert Webb was 16 when he first heard The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot. His English class were grappling with The Wasteland when a cheeky classmate described it as 'meaningless'. Robert's teacher responded by reaching for Prufrock, reading the class the entire poem and asking if that had enough meaning for them. Robert was blown away by Prufrock and that classroom encounter sparked a lifelong passion for the poem.... "

Friday 9th

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Peru: Blood and Oil - "
Unreported World travels deep into the Peruvian jungle to investigate how the government's auctioning off vast tracts of the Amazon rainforest to global corporations has led to violent clashes with thousands of indigenous tribal people.
Reporter Ramita Navai and director Alex Nott begin their journey travelling for three days up the river Corrientes into the homeland of the Achuar people, who've lived in one of the Amazon's remotest areas for thousands of years. They find the community of Jose Olaya almost deserted. Despite its remoteness, oil companies have been drilling in the area for years. The drilling has frightened away the animals and the men of the village have been forced to take work with the oil companies to feed their families. One villager claims that families have become sick after drinking water from the polluted river. A government study has shown that two thirds of all children tested had above safe levels of lead in their blood. The company involved denies the allegations, and says it's unaware of any credible data to support them.... "



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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.