Tuesday 29 June 2010

Off-air recordings for week 3 - 9 July 2010

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

Sunday 4th

BBC4 - Baroque! From St Peter's To St Paul's - 3-part series - "Three-part series exploring the Baroque tradition in many of its key locations. Starting in Italy and following the spread of the wildfire across Europe and beyond, art critic Waldemar Januszczak takes a tour of the best examples of Baroque to be found, and tells the best stories behind those works.
This first episode begins at St Peter's in Rome, and details the birth of the Baroque tradition as it burst forth in Italy. This programme features outstanding high definition footage of St Peter's Basilica, as well as other gems of the Italian Baroque."

Monday 5th

BBC4 - Storyville: Leaving The Cult - "Documentary which tells the story of three teenage boys who manage to escape a polygamist Mormon cult in Utah. As they struggle to come to terms with life in the real world, we learn about the extraordinary lives they used to live - in houses with many mothers, where their sisters may be married off at 14 and, surprisingly, where no-one can wear red in case it offends the Second Coming. Powerfully emotional and compelling, a fascinating insight to a community it's hard to believe exists."

BBC4 - Men About The House - "Father may be the head of the family, a potent symbol of authority, but he has always been the butt of some of our biggest laughs in British sitcom. Over the last five decades some of our most iconic comedy dads have been bewildered by a changing world and struggled with the work/life balance. These dads have coped with every curveball their writers threw at them and in the process changed the course of British comedy. They remain our most enduring Men About The House."

Tuesday 6th

BBC4 - To Kill A Mockingbird At 50 - "Marking the 50th anniversary of the influential novel To Kill a Mockingbird, writer Andrew Smith visits Monroeville in Alabama, the setting of the book, to see how life there has changed in half a century."

BBC4 - To Kill A Mockingbird - "
Award-winning adaptation of Harper Lee's novel set in 1930s Alabama. Lawyer Atticus Finch defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. His children Jem and Scout become involved as racial hate splits the community."

Wednesday 7th

BBC2 - In Loving Memory - "Road users pass them every day - sudden flashes of flowers tied to lampposts or lying by the side of the road. Across the UK roadside memorials have become the expected response when someone dies suddenly in a traffic collision. For friends and family the spot where these tributes are left becomes sacred; for others these shrines are an eyesore and a display that should be kept private. Yet behind each roadside memorial there is a story of personal grief."

Friday 9th

Channel 4 - The Playboy Murderer - "Going behind newspaper headlines, this documentary paints a chilling portrait of murderer and fantasist Thanos Papalexis.
In the space of a year this Gatsby-like Brit went from hosting fundraising parties for US President Bill Clinton to being convicted of the brutal murder of 56-year-old Charalambos Christodoulides - a harmless, gentle loner known as Bambi - because he unwittingly stood in the way of a property deal.
The story of ambition, vanity, adultery and murder is revealed from the public schools of London to Florida's millionaire's row in Palm Beach, using central first person testimonies, exclusive access to police-recorded audio interviews with Thanos himself and dramatised reconstructions shot on location in the US and UK."

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* This applies to staff members and students 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 22 June 2010

Off-air recordings for week 26 June - 2 July 2010

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 26th

BBC1 - Inside the Perfect Predator - "Soaring above the people of London is the fastest animal on the planet, the peregrine falcon, on a mission to kill for her chicks.
Off the coast of South Africa the world's largest predatory fish, the great white shark, has just completed a 7000 mile journey and is hungry for seal blubber. On the plains of Africa, the fastest land animal, the cheetah, struggles to provide for her cubs as her enemies move in. And having survived a drought by entering into a state of suspended animation, the prehistoric Nile crocodile is poised to ambush his dinner.
With ground-breaking computer graphics and incredible close-up photography this documentary reveals the inner alchemy that gives these four extraordinary hunters the edge - from the moment they detect their prey through to the vital kill. But who is the Perfect Predator?"

Monday 28th

BBC1 - Panorama: What's Up With The Weather? (postponed from Monday 21st) "Yet another barbeque summer has been predicted, but do you really trust the forecasters any more? Despite governments, scientists and campaigners telling us the world's climate is changing, increasing numbers of us simply don't believe in global warming.
After one of the coldest winters on record and a vicious row about the science behind climate change, Panorama goes back to basics and asks what we really know about our climate and how it will affect us.
Panorama reporter Tom Heap speaks to some of the world's leading scientists on both sides of the argument, to find out what they can agree on and uncovers some surprising results."

Five - Crimes That Shook The World - "Drama-documentary series looking at some of the most notorious murders from around the globe. This instalment focuses on the sickening crimes of the 'Monster of Florence', who preyed on young lovers in and around the Italian city in the early 1980s."

Tuesday 29th

BBC4 - What Did You Do In The Great War Daddy? - "Documentary telling the tragic story of the greatest loss of fathers in British history. When the nation was called to arms in the patriotic fervour of 1914 it was difficult to imagine that, four years later, half a million children would have lost their fathers in battle. The impact of their deaths was devastating and never forgotten by their sons and daughters. Now in their 90s, they go on an emotional journey to remember their lost fathers, culminating in a visit to their graves in France."

Wednesday 30th

Channel 4 - The Untold Great Fire Of London - "Everyone knows that the Great Fire of London started at a baker's in Pudding Lane; that it was a terrible accident; and that hardly anyone died. However, many Londoners, reeling from plague and war, and torn apart by sectarian tensions, believed that the fire had been started deliberately by a foreign enemy living within their midst. And they wanted to make sure a foreigner would pay for this crime of the century.
For several apocalyptic days and nights, as the city burned, Londoners hunted the foreign fire-starters. The first target was the Dutch, whose cities, navy and empire Britain coveted; the second was the French, our fundamentalist religious enemies. After an orgy of rage and violence, cosmopolitan London had found its incendiary alien - a Frenchman who claimed to have committed this act of terror - and from whom the mob would, quite literally, demand their pound of flesh.
But many were left wondering whether the real horrors had been committed by Londoners themselves. As the real stories of hardship and heroism emerged, the authorities had to ask whether London's foreign communities had been more loyal than they could ever have imagined.
With expert interviews, fresh visualisations of 17th-century London and contemporary sources, The Untold Great Fire of London reveals the dirty truth behind one of our most famous historical moments."

Thursday 1st July

Channel 4 - The Untold Invasion of Britain - "In a mountainous land, at the limit of its influence, the world's only superpower gets bogged down in an asymmetric war against a deadly insurgency. It sounds like a familiar story, but this is history from almost 2,000 years ago.
Brought to life with animated sequences based on contemporary Roman sources, this is the extraordinary story of a very bloody foreigner: the little-known Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, an African who seized Rome's Imperial throne in a vicious civil war and then fought a brutal campaign in Britain, transforming the country in his wake.
In 207AD, Britain was just a far outpost of the mighty Roman Empire with the north holding out. With a vast army, Severus marched over Hadrian's Wall. Using guerrilla tactics, the Britons attacked isolated Roman patrols, and then melted into the mountains. Severus wasted four years and thousands of Roman lives in a futile attempt to defeat his invisible enemy until his demise in York in 211AD. His campaign only served to create a new enemy north of The Wall and helped forge the English/ Scottish divide that is familiar to us today.
This programme follows Severus's trail from the magnificent remains at Lepcis Magna in the Libyan Desert, to the military hardware left by his campaign in Britain."

Five - Oil Disaster: The Rig That Blew Up - "Documentary exploring what really happened in the first 36 hours of the biggest environmental disaster in US history - the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Featuring exclusive access and footage, the film follows the salvage team called in to save the burning oil rig Deepwater Horizon, and unravels the desperate story of the men tasked with preventing a catastrophe."

Friday 2nd July

BBC4 - Shanghai Tales - 3-part series - "Part 1 - Children of the Chinese Circus -
Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world. Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be Number One in the circus - the Chinese way."

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Colombia's Dying Tribes - "Unreported World investigates how Colombia's indigenous people have been targeted in a string of massacres perpetrated by guerrillas, paramilitary groups and the security forces.
Colombia's government claims success in its war against left-wing FARC guerrillas and in restoring law and order. But the country is still beset with a conflict that is killing thousands.
And as Reporter Aidan Hartley and director Katherine Churcher discover at a jungle massacre site where the pools of blood are still drying, behind the continuing violence there is a state of complete impunity. Nobody can explain why the massacre happened. Soldiers claim civilian attackers with pistols have murdered eight people. But local witnesses say they heard sustained bursts of automatic gunfire, hinting at the involvement of security forces.
In the region of Narino, the Awa people - one of about 100 indigenous groups in Colombia - are trying to escape the violence. The Awa are living in squalid conditions without proper shelter, hygiene or food. One tells Hartley they fled a massacre in the jungle that killed 11 people. A young farmer, who narrowly escaped being killed, claims their FARC attackers told him they were taking revenge against the Awa, who they accuse of collaborating with the army.
The team is told about another massacre in the nearby village of Rosario, where they find the local Awa people too scared to reveal what happened. A human rights worker shows Hartley photos of the grisly scene at Rosario. He says that the attackers wore camouflage uniforms and masks and executed 12 people, including small children. He claims the murders took place after a local Awa woman complained that the Colombian army had shot dead her husband, who they accused of being a FARC rebel. He says the authorities have failed to investigate what happened."

BBC2 - Gardeners' World Special: Gardening On The Edge - "Toby Buckland visits some of his favourite coastal gardens and discovers how, despite the tricky and tempestuous locations, the gardens around the coast of Britain are at the forefront of horticulture and are amongst the most beautiful in the country."

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* This applies to staff members and students 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 21 June 2010

Off-air recordings for week 18-25 June 2010

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

Monday 21st

BBC1 - Panorama: What's Up With The Weather? - "Yet another barbeque summer has been predicted, but do you really trust the forecasters any more? Despite governments, scientists and campaigners telling us the world's climate is changing, increasing numbers of us simply don't believe in global warming.
After one of the coldest winters on record and a vicious row about the science behind climate change, Panorama goes back to basics and asks what we really know about our climate and how it will affect us.
Panorama reporter Tom Heap speaks to some of the world's leading scientists on both sides of the argument, to find out what they can agree on and uncovers some surprising results."

Channel 4 - Chasing the Cumbrian Killer - "On Wednesday 2 June 2010, just after 11am, news began to emerge of the largest gun massacre in Britain for 14 years.
Whitehaven, a small fishing port on the Cumbrian coast, joined Hungerford and Dunblane as places synonymous with sudden and inexplicable mass murder.
Fifty-two-year-old Derrick Bird, a local taxi driver, divorced with two grown-up sons, had recently become a grandfather. Early in the morning, armed with a rifle and shotgun, Bird embarked on a killing spree that would last until the afternoon and result in 12 dead, 11 injured and his own suicide.
This documentary covers the days leading up to what police describe as 'a 45-mile rampage across West Cumbria', the details of what happened on June 2, and the aftermath.
As well as tracing Derrick Bird's steps from the moment he woke up to the moment he turned his weapon on himself, the film includes key interviews with eye-witnesses, survivors and police.
The people who defended themselves and helped the injured, and the officers and ordinary people who set about pursuing the killer, paint a real picture of what it was like to be thrown into an unprecedented situation, and how each of their chases played out in this man hunt. Bird's friends also speak about their experiences and describe the man they had no idea would ever become a cold-blooded killer.
Barrie Moss came face-to-face with Derrick Bird before he sped off, having just shot Susan Hughes, a mother-of-two, who was carrying home the weekly groceries. 'The name of Whitehaven is now forever ruined,' Mr Moss tells the programme. 'If you talk about Whitehaven, it's now going to be with Columbine, Dunblane, Hungerford; it's never going to be: 'It's a lovely place to come and see'. And this guy has done that to all these people. He has changed everyone's lives here.'
The programme investigates what could have driven this seemingly quiet, unassuming man to suddenly inflict carnage and violence on his peaceful community in the days, and possibly years, leading up to the murders."

Tuesday 22nd

BBC4 - A Century of Fatherhood - 1/3 - "Three-part series which tells the story of the revolution in modern fatherhood in Britain during the last hundred years, using intimate testimony, rare archive and the latest historical research A Century of Fatherhood reveals that the view we now have of fathers in the past is not always accurate."

Wednesday 23rd

BBC4 - Lennon Naked - "Christopher Eccleston is John Lennon in a drama which charts his transition from Beatle John to enduring and enigmatic icon.
Writer Robert Jones articulates the burden of genius, as well as issues of fatherhood and fame, covering a period of wildly fluctuating fortunes for Lennon from 1967-71. When the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein died unexpectedly in 1967 it was a turning point in Lennon's life and the film focuses on the turbulent and intense period of change that followed, and how John was haunted by his troubled childhood.
It also reveals the impact of re-establishing contact with his long-lost father and the events that led Lennon to shed everything both personally and creatively, including calling time on the Beatles. Meeting Yoko Ono was the catalyst for this new era and the film explores the development of their extraordinary relationship, their growing disillusionment with Britain and what caused Lennon to abandon the UK to start a new life in America - a process which ultimately led Lennon to record arguably the most powerful solo work of his career."

BBC4 - Biology of Dads - "'Every child needs a father' is a phrase heard often enough, but is there any evidence to support it? In this enlightening documentary, child psychologist Laverne Antrobus goes on a quest to discover why a dad's relationship with his offspring is so important. She uncovers fascinating new research which is shedding light onto the science of fatherhood.
Laverne meets a new dad who is experiencing Couvade Syndrome, a condition sometimes known as 'sympathetic pregnancy'. She is keen to explore if the symptoms - which are similar to those felt by pregnant women, such as nausea and sickness - might be physiological as well as psychological. The dad takes a blood test shortly after the birth of his third child and Antrobus discovers that hormones could be the cause of his symptoms: possibly nature's way of 'priming' him to become a more nurturing father.
Laverne then meets one of the UK's leading experts in the father's role within the family. While observing father and toddler play in his lab, she finds out how the rough-and-tumble play they witness is classic 'dad behaviour'. It is believed that this type of fatherly play is essential in teaching toddlers the boundaries of aggression and discipline.
In the final investigation, Antrobus looks into recent research which claims that men who have a good relationship with their daughters can influence the kind of husband the daughters choose. The study also found that girls whose fathers were absent during their formative years tend to reach puberty sooner and age quicker. Laverne recruits a team of married women to take part in one final, fascinating experiment."

Thursday 24th

BBC2 - Are You Having A Laugh? TV And Disability - "A humorous and irreverent look at the way disability has been portrayed on TV over the last 50 years, narrated by David Walliams. From Sandy in Crossroads to Brenda in The Office, we'll see how the subject has been done well, how it's been done badly and how box ticking and the odd token wheelchair has helped this process. We look at the astonishing journey from Ironside to Cast Offs, Monty Python to The Office and Little Britain.
With contributions from comics, actors and pundits including Stephen Merchant, Ben Miller, Mat Fraser, Kiruna Stamell, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Ash Attala, Dom Joly, Jimmy Tarbuck, Julie Fernandez and Frencesca Martinez, the programme looks back at the way we used to see disability on our screens and how that compares with what is on there today."

Channel 4 - Unreported World - USA: Down and Out - "Unreported World meets the USA's new middle-class homeless: families struggling to hold down jobs that pay so little they're forced to live in tent cities or their cars and receive little help from the government.
Reporter Ramita Navai and producer Clancy Chassay begin their journey in Chicago, one of the country's manufacturing centres, which has been hit hard by the effects of the worst financial crisis in decades. St Columbanus church is one of 600 charities across the city that gives out emergency food rations.
Across America, many working people from all sectors have taken as much as 40% in pay cuts in desperation to hold on to their jobs. Their motivation is clear: if you are a temporary, part-time or self-employed worker you don't qualify for government help. The result is that many can't make ends meet and afford to feed themselves and their families.
Father Matt Eyerman tells Navai that the number of families receiving help from his church has leapt from 240 to 498 over the last two years, even though many of them still have jobs.
Today, more than 37 million Americans receive either state or private food assistance. More than three million were made homeless in 2009 despite holding down jobs. More than half of those living in shelters have had their homes repossessed by banks.
The team travels south to the state of Tennessee. They've been told that thousands of homeless people are taking refuge in temporary encampments. The City of Nashville, which has only only one emergency shelter for families, has more than 40 of these 'tent cities'.
Navai meets Michael and Stacey Farley, who have been living in the tent city for six months. Stacey tells Navai that she has been forced to leave her son and daughter with relatives while they both look for work.
Navai and Chassay move on to California, where more and more people are ending up on the streets. California has the highest debt in the USA and many essential services have been cut, including emergency housing assistance. 'Skid Row', which is one square mile of Los Angeles, has as many as 2,000 people sleeping rough every night. It has a reputation for drugs and crime and Navai talks to homeless people who are forced to walk all day to avoid being picked up by the police for loitering.
The US economy is in recovery but many experts believe the most damaging effects have yet to be felt. It's predicted that another 1.5 million people will be forced into homelessness within two years, and in a country with few safety nets, many more people could fall through the cracks."


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* This applies to staff members and students 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 8 June 2010

Off-air recordings for week 12-18 June 2010

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

Monday 14th

BBC4 - Rude Britannia - new 3-part series - "BBC Four has graciously set aside a night to examine whether Britain has become an impossibly rude and selfish country.
But to say that Britain once enjoyed a reputation as a polite nation ignores the often bawdy atmosphere that preceded the Victorian era's starched manners. And for many Britons, the post-war openness and expressiveness (and the resulting take-it-to-the-edge comedy) is a boon that outweighs the problems of anti-social behaviour. However, has the pendulum now swung too far?"

Wednesday 16th

Five - Secrets of the Jesus Tomb - "Religious documentary which explores the discovery of a tomb in Jerusalem believed to be that of Jesus and his family. In 1980, archaeologists uncovered a burial place containing a number of boxes inscribed with names from the New Testament - including Jesus and a 'son of Jesus'. Having languished in storage for over 20 years, these relics are now being studied by a group of scientists and Bible experts in a bid to establish their authenticity."

Thursday 17th

ITV1 - Women On The Frontline: Tonight - "Julie Etchingham reports from Afghanistan, where she meets some of the hundreds of women putting their lives at risk by working in one of the most dangerous environments in the world."

BBC4 - Frost On Satire - "Sir David Frost charts the story of satire in the UK and America and its impact on 20th-century politics.
Featuring archive gems including material from That Was The Week That Was and Saturday Night Live, Sir David talks to satirical veterans from both sides of the Atlantic."

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* This applies to staff members and students 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 1 June 2010

Off-air recordings for week 5-11 June 2010

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

Monday 7th

Channel 4 - Dispatches: Undercover Social Worker - "In the wake of the tragic death of Baby P and other high-profile cases of child abuse and murder, Dispatches investigates allegations that child protection procedures and practices continue to be inadequate.
A Dispatches reporter worked undercover in a UK social services department for three months, discovering what child protection services are actually like on the ground.
His disturbing investigation uncovers a lack of resources, inadequate staff support and training, high workloads, poor morale and overwhelming amounts of red tape and 'box-ticking', reducing the time that social workers can spend helping children.
The programme also raises questions about what is actually being done to protect some of Britain's most vulnerable children."

Tuesday 8th

Channel 4 - Inside Nature's Giants - second series - "The experts travel to South Africa to dissect a 900kg, 15-foot-long great white shark.
Comparative anatomist Joy Reidenberg uncovers the shark's incredible array of senses, including the ability to detect the electro-magnetic field given off by other creatures.
Veterinary scientist Mark Evans investigates the origins of the shark's infamous killing bite and, out at sea, a bite force test on a live great white shows just how powerful those jaws really are.
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explains how sharks' teeth and jaws evolved from their outer skin and gill arches.
And the programme asks whether the animal's reputation as a man killer is really deserved."

Five - Volcanic Ash: The Ticking Timebomb - "Documentary exploring the likelihood and potential global effects of the eruption of Katla, a huge volcano lurking under the Icelandic ice. Katla is five times the size of its neighbour Eyjafjallajokull, which recently caused so much travel disruption when it blew clouds of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. Historically, every Eyjafjallajokull eruption has been followed by a flare-up at Katla. If such an eruption were to happen now, it is predicted that European airspace would be closed down for 18 months."

BBC4 - Nixon in the Den - "Leading historian David Reynolds takes a fresh look at the controversial career and embattled presidency of Richard Nixon.
Reynolds argues that Nixon was genuinely successful as an international statesman. His historic visits to communist China and the Soviet Union helped thaw the Cold War. Yet, behind the scenes, Nixon's diplomacy was a story of intrigue and rivalry. The very methods that won him acclaim on the international stage also doomed his presidency in the infamous Watergate scandal.
An intimate psychological profile, the film reveals how Nixon was driven by a deep inferiority complex and ruthless ambition to escape a loveless, impoverished background. Nixon clawed his way to the most powerful job in the world, yet could never shake off this past.
With the help of Nixon's scribbled memos, audio recordings and rarely-seen home movie footage and photos, the film throws new light on Nixon's obsessive secrecy, relentless deception and paranoid mistrust of key aides, especially his foreign policy adviser, Henry Kissinger.
Shy and tortured, Nixon ran his presidency largely from a hideaway office across the road from the White House. The film recreates this, his 'den', the place where Nixon dreamed of greatness but was haunted by his demons."

Wednesday 9th

BBC2 - The Beauty of Maps - 1/4 - "Documentary series looking at maps in incredible detail to highlight their artistic attributions and reveal the stories that they tell."

Friday 11th

Channel 4 - Unreported World - El Salvador: The Child Assassins - "Reporter Ramita Navai and director Alex Nott visit El Salvador as it experiences its worst gang violence in a decade. Many of the gangs' hitmen are children who kill and die with appalling frequency but accept it as part of normal life. Navai and Nott expose another disturbing trend: the torture and murder of young teenage girls: victims of a gang culture that regards them as sexual objects.
Navai and Nott accompany a police emergency response unit in the country's capital, San Salvador, to the scene of a shooting in the centre of the city, an area which is a gang stronghold. At the scene a man lies by the side of the road covered in blood.
The police officers tell Navai that the emergency services are so overwhelmed with causalities that police cars often have to double up as ambulances. And hospitals are receiving dozens of gunshot victims every week.
The two main gangs were set up by El Salvadoran immigrants in the USA, but have spread throughout their homeland to the extent that there are now more than 10,000 warring gang members. Dealing with them has become the police's main job and the government has deployed 4,000 soldiers onto the streets.
There are 12 murders a day in El Salvador: one of the highest rates in the world. Most of those killed are young men, but more and more women and children are becoming victims. At the scene of another shooting, where the victim was a boy who ran errands for a gang, a police officer tells Navai that gangs are recruiting children as young as 10 and 11 years old."




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* This applies to staff members and students 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.