Saturday 24th
BBC4 - Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution - "The watchwords of the French Revolution were liberty, equality and fraternity. Maximilien Robespierre believed in them passionately. He was an idealist and a lover of humanity. But during the 365 days that Robespierre sat on the Committee of Public Safety, the French Republic descended into a bloodbath.
'The Terror' only came to end when Robespierre was devoured by the repressive machinery he'd created. This drama-documentary tells the story of the Terror and looks at how Robespierre's revolutionary idealism so quickly became an excuse for tyranny, and why a lover of liberty was so keen to use the guillotine."
Sunday 25th
Channel 4 - Not Forgotten: The Men who Wouldn't Fight - "In this special edition of Not Forgotten, journalist and broadcaster Ian Hislop explores the compelling and emotive stories of conscientious objectors during the First World War.
Ian visits war memorials and the battlefields of the Western Front, and looks for evidence in local archives and personal war diaries to inspire his search for stories. He meets the descendants of some of the ‘Conchies’ and hears how they have dealt with the social stigma of their relatives’ refusal to fight.
Ian discovers that conscientious objectors fell into two loose categories; the ‘alternativists', those prepared to undertake non-combative roles, such as ambulance drivers and stretcher-bearers; and the ‘absolutists', the most determined and extreme COs who refused to carry out any work that aided the army – they wouldn't even peel a potato if it helped the war effort. Ian also explores the experiences of volunteers, who on witnessing the horrors of the battlefield, became committed COs. Ian uncovers stories of imprisonment, physical abuse, tragedy and extreme bravery.
At the heart of the film he asks, if we memorialise the courage of those who fought and died, should we not also remember and honour those who had the courage not to fight?"
More 4 - Secret History: Brighton Bomb - "The story of the IRA's audacious terrorist attack in October 1984, when they planted a devastating bomb in Brighton's Grand Hotel, aiming to kill the PM Margaret Thatcher."
Monday 26th
BBC 1 - Panorama: Freed To Offend Again - "Are we safe from dangerous prisoners released back onto our streets? A Panorama investigation reveals that known sex offenders and violent offenders are committing many more serious crimes, including rape and murder, on their release from prison than the government tells us about."
Channel 4 - Race and Intelligence: Science's Last Taboo - "In 2007, Nobel Prize winning US scientist James Watson was quoted referring to research suggesting that black people were less intelligent than other races. His comments caused a storm of controversy, Watson was condemned.
Although he apologised for the offence he caused, his public engagements were cancelled and he left his British speaking tour in disgrace.
Meanwhile, right wing websites hailed him as the new Galileo - a martyr to political correctness that was concealing the fact that there is indeed evidence that shows different races score differently in IQ tests. But are the tests biased? Is race really a scientific category at all?
In this documentary, part of the season Race: Science's Last Taboo, Rageh Omaar sets out to find out the truth, meeting scientists who believe the research supports the view that races can be differentiated as well as those who vehemently oppose this view. By daring to ask the difficult questions, Omaar is able to explode the myths about race and IQ and reveal what he thinks are important lessons for society."
Tuesday 27th
BBC2 - Horizon: Fix Me - "Horizon follows the emotional journey of three young people with currently untreatable conditions to see if within their lifetime, they can be cured.
Sophie is desperate to discover if there's a medical breakthrough which will get her walking again - a car crash after celebrating her A level results left her paralysed from the waist down. Anthony's leg was amputated after a rugby accident on the eve of his eighteenth birthday. Will he ever be able to regrow his leg? Father of four Dean is desperate for a cure for his damaged heart to avoid an early death. They've all read the headlines about the astonishing potential of stem cells to heal the body. Now they've been given access to the pioneering scientists who could transform their lives.
With so much at stake, each meeting is highly emotional as our three young people find out if science can fix them."
Channel 4 - Bleach, Nip, Tuck: The White Beauty Myth - 1/2 - "The Body (pt 1) follows the emotional journeys of ethnic minorities desperate to change their bodies, as well as showing incredible surgery including pioneering limb lengthening procedures."
Wednesday 28th
More 4 - True Stories: Four Wives , One Man - "Film-maker, Nahid Persson - born and raised in Iran - goes back to her roots to explore the functional and psychological problems faced by a family which comprises one man, his four wives, 20 children and his irascible, foul-mouthed mother. There's another problem underway: 50-year-old Heda wants to take a fifth wife, this time a virgin who won't talk back.
Although the Quran permits a man to take more than one wife, polygamy is not common in Iran. It is found mainly in rural areas and only 14 per cent of Iranians practise it. Persson makes this clear from the outset - this is not a comment about Iran, rather a look at four women in an extreme situation. In an early scene, Heda's mother condemns it. 'All my son thinks about is pussy,' she states..."
BBC2 - Natural World: Bearwalker of the North Woods - "Wildlife documentary. In the forests of northern Minnesota, biologist Lynn Rogers uses food to gain the trust of wild black bears, a controversial technique developed over his own forty-year journey from fear to fascination.
Following the fortunes of mother bear June and her three cubs over a year, the film reveals an intimate portrait of the lives of black bears."
BBC2 - Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain - New 6-part series - "In the first of a six-part series, Andrew Marr revisits Britain at the dawn of the 20th century. He finds the country mourning the death of Queen Victoria; fighting an intractable war against the Boers in South Africa; enjoying the bawdy pleasures of music hall; and worrying about the physical and moral strength of the working class.
There are stories of political intrigue between David Lloyd George and his arch enemy Joseph Chamberlain; the beginning of the struggle for women's suffrage; and an account of the day Mr Rolls met Mr Royce and kicked off a revolution in motoring.
With powerful archive and vivid anecdotes, Andrew Marr gets to the heart of Edwardian Britain. He brings to life Britain's struggle to maintain its imperial power in the world in the years before the First World War."
Thursday 29th
BBC4 - Timeshift: The Men Who Built The Liners - "Many of the most famous passenger liners in history were built in the British Isles, several in the shipyards along the banks of the Clyde. This series combines personal accounts and archive footage to evoke a vivid picture of the unique culture that grew up in the Clyde shipyards. Despite some of the harshest working conditions in industrial history and dire industrial relations, it was here that the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth and the QE2 were built. Such was the Clyde shipbuilders' pride in their work, and the strength of public support, that in 1971 they were able to defy a government attempt to close them down and win the right to carry on shipbuilding."
Channel 4 - The Event: How Racist Are You? - "Are we all more racist than we realise or would like to admit?
For this Channel 4 documentary Jane Elliott, a controversial former schoolteacher from Ohio, is recreating the shocking exercise she used forty years ago to teach her nine-year-old pupils about prejudice.
Elliott is asking thirty adult British volunteers - men and women of different ages and backgrounds - to experience inequality based on their eye colour to show how susceptible we can all be to bigotry, and what it feels like to be on the other side of arbitrary discrimination.
Does Elliott's exercise still have something to teach us four decades on and in a different country? Presented by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the exercise is observed throughout by two expert psychologists, Prof Dominic Abrams and Dr Funké Baffour, who will be unpicking the behaviour on display."
Friday 30th
Channel 4 - Unreported World - Greece: The Unwanted - "Unreported World travels to the European Union's eastern border, to the illicit crossing points for hundreds of thousands of Afghans making their way to our shores. Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Jacob White follow migrants on the dangerous eight-mile crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos, before gaining rare access to Pagani detention centre on the island. The team follows the migrants to Athens, where they witness the squalor in which they live and hear allegations of police violence against these desperate and determined people, who, it's clear, will stop at nothing for a chance to start a new life in Europe."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment