Wednesday 25 March 2009

Off-air recordings 28 March - 3 April 2009

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

BBC2 Timewatch - Pyramid : The Last Secret -"For centuries archaeologists have been trying to work out how the ancient Egyptians raised huge stone blocks to the top of the Great Pyramid. This documentary presents a radical new theory by French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin. He believes that an internal ramp was used, which is still inside the Pyramid waiting to be discovered. If he is right, it is the greatest discovery since Tutankhamun."

BBC4 How Britain Got The Gardening Bug - "Documentary looking at the extraordinary changes and crazes that have happened to British gardening since the Second World War, from garden gnomes and crazy paving to Leylandii and decking.
As recently as the 1960s garden centres didn't exist and gardening was strictly for old boys in sheds, yet today it has become the height of cool."

BBC4 In The Shadow of Fujisan - 'Long Live The Turtle' - "This edition investigates Japan's exploitation of marine resources, exemplified by the plight of the sea turtle, and gives an insight into a culture very different from that of the west."

BBC1 Panorama - The Gunmen Who Never Went Away - "With soldiers and police once again being killed in Northern Ireland, Panorama offers the most detailed analysis yet of the resurgent terrorist threat in Northern Ireland based on ten years' work investigating the breakaway Republican movement, its aims, its roots and its tactics."

BBC1 Gone - Newsround Special - "Newsround special exploring the issue of bereavement and the effect it has on children's lives, telling the story of four children, all of whom have lost someone they love."

Channel 4 The Sex Education Show v Pornography - 6-part series - "Supersize vs Superskinny’s ANNA RICHARDSON hosts this ambitious new six-part, cross-platform series examining the nation’s sexual mores. THE SEX EDUCATION SHOW will examine a wide range of different personal experiences of sexual issues and problems, as well as offering frank advice and solutions.
The UK is in a state of sexual meltdown. STIs are on the rise, school-age abortion rates are at an all-time high, pornography is ubiquitous and it seems that all ages are finding it easier to have sex rather than talk about it.
In each episode Anna Richardson embarks on a very personal investigative journey and explores a number of sex-related themes. Sometimes self deprecating, but always candid Anna examines her own fertility, the dangers of STIs and what it is really like to give birth."

BBC2 Horizon: Alan and Marcus Go Forth And Multiply - "Ever since he was at school, actor and comedian Alan Davies has hated maths. And like many people, he is not much good at it either. But Alan has always had a sneaking suspicion that he was missing out.
So, with the help of top mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy, Alan is going to embark on a maths odyssey. Together they visit the fourth dimension, cross the universe and explore the concept of infinity. Along the way, Alan does battle with some of the toughest maths questions of our age.
But did his abilities peak 25 years ago when he got his grade C O-Level? Or will Alan be able to master the most complex maths concept there is?"

BBC4 A Woman In Love: Vera Brittain - "Dramatisation of the life of Vera Brittain, a young woman who lived through the First World War, presented by Jo Brand.
In 1914 Vera Brittain was young, in love and preparing to study at Oxford. She was at the heart of an intense friendship that bound five youngsters (four young men and Vera) together, full of ambition and excitement. Four years later, her life and the life of her whole generation had changed unimaginably. The war saw her companions killed. As a volunteer nurse in London and on the Front she witnessed horrors that turned her idealistic passion for a 'just war' to dust. This is the story of the First World War as seen through a woman's eyes."

Channel 4 Cutting Edge - Would You Save A Stranger? - "A 12-year-old girl is beaten and stamped on by a crowd of teenagers on a crowded bus. A man is punched to the ground and kicked repeatedly in the head in an almost deserted London street. Gun-wielding robbers threaten a cashier in a petrol station.Witnesses in five separate incidents are forced to decide - intervene and risk their own safety or disengage and turn away. Whether they choose the path of a have-a-go-hero or passive bystander, their decisions will stay with them for the rest of their lives.The first-hand testimonies of those involved are intercut with CCTV footage and dramatic reconstruction, as the stories unfold to reveal the split-second choices that were made.Whilst some witnesses are seemingly paralysed by fear, others step in. Some escape unscathed while others pay a heavy price for their courage... "

Channel 4 Unreported World: Sierra Leone - "Unreported World comes from Sierra Leone where, ten years after one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history, thousands have been left severely traumatised. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director George Waldrum find a population that has witnessed rape, torture and public executions.
The country's only psychiatrist tells Rhodes that 80 per cent of people needing help believe that mental illness is caused by evil spirits, so they turn to the church and traditional healers. With an estimated 400,000 mentally ill people in the country, offering a cure has become good business. Most visit one of the country's 4,000 traditional healers.
The team visits one of them on the outskirts of town, where an extremely disoriented patient is chained to the ground. Rhodes watches as the healer administers his daily treatment: perfume poured in his eyes and nose. It may seem like harsh treatment but Pa Barrie is incredibly popular and gets through 15 patients a day. Even though a decade has passed, it's clear the nation hasn't yet begun to cope with the psychological consequences of its civil war."

BBC4 Arena: Cool - "Documentary exploring the meaning and history of cool through the American music of the 1940s and 50s that became known as cool jazz. Those who wrote and played it cultivated an attitude, a style and a language that came to epitomise the meaning of a word that is now so liberally used. The film tells the story of a movement that started in the bars and clubs of New York and Los Angeles and swept across the world, introducing the key players and setting them in the context of the post-war world."

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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.

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Off-air recordings 21-27 March 2009

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

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.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Off-air recordings 14-20 March 2009

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

Timewatch: Captain Cook - The Man Behind the Legend - "In the late 18th century, Captain James Cook led three great voyages of discovery which pushed the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the earth. In just over a decade, his ability as a navigator and chart maker would add one-third to the map of the known world. For many he was the greatest explorer in history, but for others, he was a ruthless conqueror.
While the exploits of Captain Cook are well documented, much less is known about James Cook the man. Presenter Vanessa Collingridge sets out on her own voyage of discovery - travelling in his footsteps to uncover the forces that drove him to success, and ultimately to his own death."

The Lost World of Communism - New 3 part series - “A Socialist Paradise. 1989 marked the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe and an end to an entire way of life for millions of people. Having lived through those extraordinary times, they now tell their stories of life behind the Iron Curtain, looking beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political repression to reveal an astonishingly rich tapestry of experience. We open with a look at the ’socialist paradise’ of communist East Germany.”

Yellowstone - New 3 part series "A natural history portrait of a year in Yellowstone, following the fortunes of America's wildlife icons as they face the challenges of one of the most extraordinary wildernesses on Earth."

Malaria: Return to Fever Road - "Documentary highlighting man's interminable fight against malaria, a disease which kills millions every year and which is continuing to worsen.
Filmed on three continents over eighteen months, it delivers an up-to-date account of the global malaria situation from the perspectives of a few heroic individuals, each fighting their own very different battles against the disease.
The film reveals the harsh realities of malaria within a rural Kenyan village community, telling the story of Peter Kombo, chief of Kiagware village in the Kisii highlands, as he battles through the malaria season... "

Panorama: Crime Pays - "Panorama reveals how organised crime is defeating attempts to claw back its profits.
Reporter Samantha Poling goes undercover and shows how major drug dealers and money launderers are making a mockery of high-profile laws designed to take the proceeds of their crime.
And the programme discovers the Crown is now reduced to making deals with criminals that can result in a drug dealer paying less "tax" than the rest of the population."

Horizon: Who Do You Want Your Child To Be? - "David Baddiel, father of two, sets out to answer one of the greatest questions a parent can ask: how best to educate your child.
Taking in the latest scientific research, David uncovers some unconventional approaches: from the parent hot-hosing his child to record-breaking feats of maths, to a school that pays hard cash for good grades.
David witnesses a ground-breaking experiment that suggests a child's destiny can be predicted at four, and hears the three little words that can ruin a child's chance of success for good. He also uncovers the neurological basis for why teenagers can be stroppy and explosive and has his own brain tinkered with to experience what it is like to struggle at school.
Through it all, David's quest remains true: to maximise his child's potential for success and happiness."

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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.

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Off-air recordings 7-13 March 2009

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



Timewatch: The Real Bonnie and Clyde - "Hollywood portrayed them as the most glamorous outlaws in American history, but the reality of life on the run for Bonnie and Clyde was one of violence, hardship and danger.
With unprecedented access to gang members' memoirs, family archives and recently released police records, Timewatch takes an epic road trip through the heart of depression-era America, in search of the true story of Bonnie and Clyde."



The Satanic Verses Affair - "Twenty years ago, novelist Salman Rushdie was a wanted man with a million pound bounty on his head. His novel, The Satanic Verses, had sparked riots across the Muslim world. The ailing religious leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini, had invoked a little-known religious opinion - a fatwa - and effectively sentenced Rushdie to death. Never before had a novel created an international diplomatic crisis on such a scale, and never before had a foreign Government publicly called for the killing of a private citizen of another country.
This film looks back on the extraordinary events which followed the publication of the book and the ten year campaign to get the fatwa lifted. Interviews with Rushdie's friends and family and testimony from leaders of Britain's Muslim community and the Government reveal the inside story of the affair. Rushdie himself was forced into hiding for nearly ten years. Arguably this was the moment when religious identities, in Britain and abroad, became more important than ethnic and cultural belonging."



The Lost Pictures of Eugene Smith - "In 1950 the American photo-journalist W Eugene Smith came to Britain to cover the general election for Life Magazine, but his photographs were never published. Welsh writer and broadcast Professor Dai Smith goes in search of these lost pictures and discovers how the magazine's opposition to Attlee's radical Labour government caused them to suppress Smith's work."



Panorama: Immigration - Time for an Amnesty? - "Panorama looks at a proposed amnesty for hundreds of thousands of long-standing illegal immigrants, offering them the right to work and full citizenship. London mayor Boris Johnson is in favour of the idea, and ninety-three MPs from across the country support it. But it is a big ask with the UK in the grip of a credit crunch, and amid protests calling for British jobs for British workers. Should the amnesty be granted?"



The Miners' Strike - "Documentary which captures the extraordinary passions unleashed by the 1984 miners' strike and examines how it changed Britain forever. Mining villages were consumed by violence and hatred as pickets fought running battles with police and striking and working miners were locked in confrontation.
With powerful interviews, evocative archive and dramatic reconstructions, the film follows the lives of five young miners from one village through a torrid but exciting year."



All Our Working Lives: Cutting Coal - "In their peak period, Britain's coal mines powered the nation's industrial rise and provided jobs for over a million men. With the help of old miners and pit managers, this documentary highlights the dangerous conditions, insecurity and disputes that led to the nationalisation of the mines after the Second World War and charts the rapid decline of the industry in the 1970s and 80s."



My Strike - "My Strike explores the experience of going on strike and the impact it has on individuals on both sides of a dispute. Drawing on a time when millions of days were lost to industrial action each year in Britain, it covers a spectrum of industries and includes personal accounts from people not normally thought of as strikers – including Lord Tebbit, who took part in a pilots' strike before he went on to become Trade And Industry Secretary, and former BBC Director-General Greg Dyke.
Every striker confronts personal pressure. Women machinists at the Ford Motor Company plant in Dagenham incurred the wrath of husbands and families when they forced the temporary closure of their factory in the fight for pay parity in 1968. Ian Lowes, who led the gravediggers' strike in 1979, tells how they faced physical attack from furious members of the public who were unable to bury their dead, and Norman Tebbit's agent had some stern questions for his striking Tory candidate.
The programme examines how each strike had a different tone. For some, striking was a very gentlemanly affair – London Weekend Television allowed strikers inside the building, in case of rain, and Greg Dyke split his time between the picket line and wind-surfing in Wales.
For others, strike action was out-and-out war. Former newspaper boss and one-time reluctant striker Eddie Shah recounts some of the dirty tricks he claims print unions used when he confronted them over the closed shop.
The programme also examines how striking changes lives. South Shields miner Norman Strike split from his wife and family in the strike but found a new life as an academic; Anne Scargill lost her faith in the police after her arrest during the miners' strike, but found her independence; Peter Snow faced his own crisis of confidence on crossing the picket line in the run-up to an election; and Norman Tebbit used his experience of striking to shape legislation to curb the unions. "



Call Yourself A Feminist - BBC Radio 4 3 part series - "Historian Bettany Hughes presents the first in a series of three discussions tracing the development of feminist ideas from the 1960s onwards."


Baroque! From St Peter's to St Paul's - new 3 part series - "Writer and presenter Waldemar Januszczak continues his exploration into the Baroque age in this BBC Four series, filmed in high definition in locations across Europe. The series explores the impact of the world's first truly global art movement as it travelled from Catholic Rome to Protestant London between 1600 and 1720.
Programme two follows the Baroque on its travels to the dark heart of Spain, where it thrived – and sometimes shocked – and then onwards to Flanders and Holland, where Rubens and Rembrandt took it on.
One of the chief reasons why the Baroque became the first global art movement was because it was so adaptable – adopting the local tastes and customs wherever it arrived and making itself at home. But when it got to Spain it didn't have much adapting to do. Spain was already very Catholic with an appetite for drama, emotion and passion – so a ready-made home for the Baroque.
Waldemar joins the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela – the Via de la Plata – starting in Seville, the birthplace of Velazquez, and the setting of Rossini's Barber Of Seville and Mozart's Marriage Of Figaro. He also charts the journey of Spanish Baroque exported from as far afield as Peru and Latin America.
In Spanish Flanders, Waldemar hunts down Rubens's greatest Baroque paintings. And in Holland, he watches the Baroque turning protestant for the first time with Rembrandt, Frans Hals and the incomparable Vermeer."



That's all folks! Any more just let me know.

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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.

Monday 2 March 2009

Off-air recordings 28 Feb - 6 March 2009

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



After The War: Conquering Germany - Parts 1&2 "Documentary looking at what happened in Germany at the end of WW2, and how the Allies tried to create a working democracy from the ruins of a defeated people and a defeated nation. "



Gladstone and Disraeli: Clash of the Titans - "Huw Edwards presents a documentary examining the relationship between Victorian prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone, whose bitter personal rivalry dominated British politics for 40 years.
Disraeli was a peacock with an elegant wit and an outsider who made it to the top, while Gladstone was an insider and a stern moralist who chopped down trees and saved fallen women, and the two of them drove each other onwards and changed the face of British politics."



Natural World: Iron Curtain, Ribbon of Life - "When communism crumbled in 1989, it created an opportunity for wildlife. The Iron Curtain that divided communist Eastern Europe from the capitalist West had created a no-man's-land protected by barbed wire and minefields - a last haven for many rare animals and plants. This film tells the story of the movement, led by biologist Dr Kai Frobel, that set out to save the wildlife of this precious strip.
Now as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain, we can also celebrate the birth of the biggest conservation movement in the world, a ribbon of life stretching 13,000 kilometres across Europe, protecting everything from bears and wolverines in Finland to rare eagles in Bulgaria."



Rocket Science - "Documentary series that tracks a typical class in a typical school over a rollercoaster nine months, as inspirational physics teacher Andy Smith tries to convert his pupils to physics and chemistry."


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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.