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.
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