Wednesday 14 October 2009

Off-air recordings for week 17-23 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 17th October
BBC4 - 100 Years of the Girl Guides - "In September 2009 the Girl Guides celebrate their centenary. With a membership of over 600,000, nearly half the female population of Britain has been involved with the Brownies and Girl Guides at some time during their lives.
Throughout their history, the movement has given girls the opportunity to have fun and form life-long friendships. Narrated by Dominic West (The Wire), 100 Years of the Girl Guides delves into the movement's extraordinary archive and interviews a host of former Girl Guides from veterans to household names Kelly Holmes, Clare Short, Kate Silverton and Rhona Cameron.
In 1909 Robert Baden-Powell agreed to let girls have their equivalent of the Boy Scouts. It was a time when women couldn't vote, couldn't work once married, couldn't borrow money or seek contraception.
The guides have always risen to the challenge in times of national crisis. During the First World War, they worked in munitions factories and in the Second World War, young women in the Guides International Service worked alongside British soldiers to help Jewish inmates liberated from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
The Guide's progressive vision has pioneered the change in attitudes over disability. Their inclusive approach has produced many successful sportswomen including Kelly Holmes and paralympians Barbara Howie and Tanni Grey-Thompson.
The Girl Guides would not be the Girl Guides without their camping adventures. Baden Powell believed the great outdoors was the best way for the youth of the day to stay healthy and sane.
At the heart of the Girl Guide's ethos lies their commitment to helping others and being a good citizen."
BBC4 - Voices from the Doll's House - "Sybil Canadine, in the early years of the 20th century, wanted to be a girl scout but was repeatedly told scouting was for boys only. It was as a result of her determination that Baden Powell eventually agreed to the establishment of the movement which became the Girl Guides. Mrs Canadine talks about her experiences."
BBC4 - Ian Hislop's Scouting for Boys - "In this entertaining and affectionate film, Ian Hislop uncovers the story behind the book which kick-started the Scout movement. Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys, published 1908, may be largely forgotten today but was one of the best-selling books of the 20th century. A seemingly idiosyncratic read, it was also radical for its time, addressing modern issues such as citizenship, disaffected youth and social responsibility. As well as an interview with Baden-Powell's grandson, the documentary features contributions from the Minister for Culture David Lammy, Baden-Powell biographer Tim Jeal, and the editor of the recent re-issue of the original Scouting for Boys, Elleke Boehmer."
Sunday 18th
BBC4 - Sunday Schools: Reading, Writing and Redemption - "Documentary investigating the radical impact Sunday schools have had on British society. Their early pioneers upset local bigwigs and the state by teaching the lower orders to read. By Victorian times, huge numbers attended the schools and they even gave birth to major football clubs. In the twentieth century they still had a rich influence on the personal lives of people like Patricia Routledge, Roy Hattersley and Anne Widdecombe. Huw Edwards discovers their forgotten history."
Monday 19th
BBC1 - Panorama: Undercover - Hate on the Doorstep - "Bullied, attacked and racially-abused more than fifty times in eight weeks. That's the experience of two British Asian reporters posing as a couple and living undercover on a housing estate in Britain during summer 2009.
In a shocking insight into race hate and anti-social behaviour in our neighbourhoods, Tamanna Rahman was pelted with glass and stones and threatened with a brick during an attempted mugging by an 11-year-old boy. Her "husband," Amil Khan, was punched in the head. Yet the head of the government's equality watchdog has said that having a neighbour of a different ethnic background isn't an issue any more.
Panorama investigates the truth about racism and anti-social behaviour in Britain today."
Channel 4 - Age 8 and Wanting a Sex Change - "As experts consider a review of UK guidelines for treating transgender children, this film follows a number of children in the US who told their parents they were born in the wrong body.
In America, children under 16 can be prescribed hormone 'blockers' to prevent the onset of puberty, with a view to then follow with hormone treatment to become their new gender. This film follows the American experience.
Eight-year-old Josie was born a boy but has been living as a girl for two years since revealing the full extent of his feelings about his identity to his mother.
Kyla is also eight. He was born a boy but loves anything pink and sparkly, has grown his hair, and is preparing to return for school after summer dressed as a girl for the first time. He says: 'If I had to wear boys' clothes and be a boy for the rest of my life, I'd probably die.'
They have both been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Sixteen-year-old Chris, who was born a girl, started testosterone treatment at 14. She now has a deep voice and plentiful body hair, and shaves regularly.
These children and their parents reveal what it is like to face life-changing questions, giving a frank insight into a subject most people never have to consider."
BBC4 - Glamour's Golden Age - new 3 part series, part 1 - "Hermione Norris narrates a three-part series on the 1920s and 30s, which creates a portrait of a golden age so daring, so influential, so exciting that it still shapes who we are today.
The decades between the world wars saw a cultural revolution in music, fashion, design and the arts. Mass media, mass production and the resulting mass exposure to an alluring, seductive glamour saw the world changing at a dizzying pace, amid which many of our modern obsessions were born.
The first part looks at how architecture and design both created and reflected the spirit of the time. The fun and frivolity of Art Deco sat alongside the pure, functionality of modernism and helped democratise style. Streamlining followed, making sleek, sophisticated, elegant design part of ordinary people's everyday lives. At home, the radio became a beautiful object. In the urban environment a new aesthetic changed the way buildings looked, while planes, trains and automobiles started to shrink the world.
Featuring photographs of the Hoover Factory, Saltdean Lido, the Midland Hotel, the Savoy Theatre, the De La Warr Pavilion, the New Victoria Palace cinema, plus archive newsreel of the Mallard, the Queen Mary, the Schneider Trophy and Bluebird."
Tuesday 20th
BBC2 - Horizon: The Secret You - "With the help of a hammer-wielding scientist, Jennifer Aniston and a general anaesthetic, Professor Marcus du Sautoy goes in search of answers to one of science's greatest mysteries: how do we know who we are? While the thoughts that make us feel as though we know ourselves are easy to experience, they are notoriously difficult to explain. So, in order to find out where they come from, Marcus subjects himself to a series of probing experiments.
He learns at what age our self-awareness emerges and whether other species share this trait. Next, he has his mind scrambled by a cutting-edge experiment in anaesthesia. Having survived that ordeal, Marcus is given an out-of-body experience in a bid to locate his true self. And in Hollywood, he learns how celebrities are helping scientists understand the microscopic activities of our brain. Finally, he takes part in a mind-reading experiment that both helps explain and radically alters his understanding of who he is."
More 4 - True Stories: The End of the Line - "The True Stories strand presents Rupert Murray's acclaimed film looking at the consequences of unchecked, unregulated sea fishing across the globe.
It is not a film about what might happen, it is a film about what has happened.
The collapse of the cod population saw the end of 40,000 jobs; the bluefin tuna is being hunted to extinction; it takes five kilos of anchovies to produce one fish farmed salmon.
And while there are some positive signs, with Walmart and McDonalds both selling fish from sustainable sources, some outlets still sell endangered species.
But the final chilling conclusion is that unless more radical steps are taken globally, including the reduction of overfishing, it will take just 50 years for the world's ocean's to be all fished out."
Wednesday 21st
Five - The Lost Symbol: Truth or Fiction - "Investigative documentary exploring the story behind Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol. Featuring unique access to Freemason lodges throughout the world, the film examines the history of the organisation and explores the biggest conspiracy theories surrounding it. After centuries of rumour, suspicion and scandal, do the Freemasons deserve their mysterious reputation?"
BBC4 - Legends: Josephine Baker - The First Black Superstar - "A look at the life of the black entertainer Josephine Baker, who was a pioneer in every sense of the word and whose impact on the cultural history of the 20th century was profound."
BBC4 - Art Deco Icons - "The Art Deco movement swept through Britain in the 1930s, bringing a little glamour to everyone's life. In this series, architectural historian David Heathcote explores and enjoys four of the best examples of Art Deco in Britain.
Heathcote checks into Claridge's Hotel in London's Mayfair and explores the Art Deco makeover of the 1930s, which transformed the old Victorian hotel into a fashionable destination for the rich and famous.
He enjoys the glamour of the Deco fumoir which made smoking sexy and glamorous, even for women, and samples the cocktail bar with Guy Oliver, the man whose job it is to renovate and restore the hotel's glamorous 1930s image.
Heathcote then settles into a perfect Art Deco bath complete with glass panels, bubble bath and two bell pulls - one for the maid and the other for the butler."
BBC4 - A Tale of Two Britains - "The conventional view of 1930s Britain is of slag heaps, unemployed men hanging round street corners with nothing to do, hunger marches and economic depression.
This is only part of the truth, as the 1930s was a period of transformation. While most of the world suffered from the depression, the UK was able to shrug off the worst effects thanks to prudent management of the economy by the National Government and a degree of protectionism. Areas of high unemployment remained, but they were isolated from the general trend.
For many, it was a time of rising prosperity. Consumption increased as new gadgets - vacuum cleaners, cookers, fridges - came on the market. Car ownership increased massively and, as leisure time grew, so did travel as people took holidays, often for the first time. Millions went to the cinema and eating out became commonplace. To back up the increase in consumption new forms of credit emerged, with HP the most popular.
Using interviews with people who remember the decade, this documentary offers an alternative vision of Britain in the 30s and shows that, after the recovery from the slump that followed the crash of 1929, life was good for a large proportion of the country.
It celebrates the growing market for entertainment and consumer goods; shows how a boom in housing transformed the lives of millions of slum dwellers and how new towns grew up near centres of economic growth; and it challenges the view that the period was one of national gloom and austerity.
A considerable amount of research has shed new light on the period, and historians like Peter Scott, Richard Overy, Juliet Gardiner and Martin Pugh underpin the film's thesis, which will both surprise and cheer many viewers who have lived under the shadow of the bleak 1930s."
Thursday 22nd
BBC4 - The Golden Age of Liners - "Paul Atterbury recalls the heyday of ocean liners in this Time Shift documentary, revealing a story of design, politics and tragedy as he finds out how great ships captured the public's imagination.
Friday 23rd
Channel 4 - Unreported World: Guatemala - Riding with the Devil - "In Guatemala City, bus drivers are being murdered at a rate of one every other day as part of an extortion campaign by criminal gangs that is threatening to bring the city to its kness. Extortion is so lucrative for the gangs that they don't stop at the buscompbaies - practically any business in the city is a target , as this diquieting documentary reveals."

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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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