Wednesday 27 October 2010

Off-air recordings for week 30 October - 5 November 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 30th October

BBC2 - Timewatch: The Pharaoh's Lost City
- "It's 1350BC; Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten - ruler of the biggest empire in the ancient world - commands his people to move 400 km and build a huge city from scratch to house his new religion.

The city of Amarna was the place of the most dramatic upheaval in the 3,000 year religious history of Ancient Egypt and the vision of just one man. Here Akhenaten would shrink the old world of 2,000 gods to 1. He would give his queen - the beautiful Nefertiti - equal status and he would radically change art and society. He set out to create the greatest city the world had ever seen and it appeared he had succeeded. But the pharaoh’s great city would last just 20 years.

For over a century archaeologists have been excavating the ruins at Amarna. But recently a team under the directorship of Prof. Barry Kemp (University of Cambridge) has made a remarkable discovery. For the first time they have unearthed, in a desert cemetery, the skeletons of Amarna’s workers; the people who built and lived in the city.

What these 3,500 year old human remains are revealing, is a city very different to what was previously thought. Far from being a place of plenty, biological anthropologist Prof. Jerry Rose (University of Arkansas) has discovered trauma on the vertebrae of youths in Akhenaten’s city, the evidence of backbreaking work. High rates of Anaemia –particularly in the bones of children - is evidence of a chronic diet.

With unique access to a 30-year long project, using dramatic reconstruction and Computer Generated Imaging, Timewatch reveals the hidden truths of life in Amarna, during one of the most turbulent periods of Egyptian history - the time of the rebel pharaoh..."


Channel 4 - Apocalypse: the Second World War - "This six-part series tells the epic story of World War II, providing an insight into the experiences of the millions of soldiers who fought across countries and continents, and the moving stories of the millions of civilians who saw their homes destroyed and lives disrupted by the cataclysm of war.
To tell this story, the best footage of World War II has been painstakingly transformed into colour, using digital techniques. Along with original colour home movies."

Monday 1st November

BBC2 - Tea Party America: This World
- "The fastest-growing political movement in the US today is the so-called Tea Party - a right-wing grassroots revolt with hundreds of thousands of supporters and local branches all over the country. Now as the US prepares to vote in crucial mid-term elections, political journalist Andrew Neil is off on a whistle-stop tour of the country to find out what is behind it and why it is spreading like wildfire. The Tea Party wants to change America - but their first target is the Republican Party.

Urged on by the likes of Fox News' most prominent host, Glenn Beck, and the Tea Party darling Sarah Palin, they are trying to replace established Republican politicians with Tea Party candidates. But as Andrew Neil discovers, their real target is the man in the White House. They believe Obama is an out-and-out socialist and the Federal Government well on the way to what they see as tyranny. This extraordinary eruption of anger is certainly changing the face of America."

Channel 4 - Dispatches: Street Kids - "Street Kids: Dispatches follows four teenagers over six months who are struggling to fend for themselves on the streets across Britain. They're simultaneously at risk and a risk to society."

Channel 4 - Coppers - 6 -part series - "Series Summary As police budgets, and numbers, come under threat, this hard-hitting series reveals what police officers across England really think about being on the frontline of 21st-century Britain.
With access to police forces across the country - from Kent to West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester to Cambridgeshire - and from inner cities to rural beats, Coppers shows what police officers are up against every day of their working lives.
The series captures the reality of the job: from the riot police who face serious public disorder on our streets, to the seasoned custody sergeants who've seen it all, from the staff facing time-wasters calling 999 to emergency response teams racing to the scene only to find themselves acting as social workers or marriage guidance counsellors, and from traffic cops picking up the pieces after accidents to the thin blue line who face abuse and violence from binge-drinkers every weekend."

Tuesday 2nd

BBC4 - Natural World: Cuckoo
- "The sound of the cuckoo is to many the very essence of spring, yet behind the magical call is a bird that is a cheat, a thief and a killer. Just how does the cuckoo trick other birds into accepting its eggs and raising its young? Why don't the duped foster parents react as they watch the baby cuckoo destroy their own eggs and chicks? And why do they work so relentlessly to feed a demanding chick that looks nothing like them and will soon dwarf them?

In this film, new photography is combined with archive footage and the latest scientific findings to solve a puzzle which, as narrator David Attenborough explains, has perplexed nature-watchers for thousands of years."

BBC4 - Twitchers: A Very British Obsession - "Every year, a secret tribe take to the roads of Britain. In the space of a few months they will drive thousands of miles and spend thousands of pounds in pursuit of their prey. Their aim is to see as many birds as possible, wherever that bird may be.

Welcome to the very competitive world of the twitcher - obsessives who'll stop at nothing to get their bird."

BBC2 - Turn Back Time: The High Street - 4-part series - "BBC One brings the story of the British High Street to life in Turn Back Time, an exciting and ambitious new series that transports four empty shops and a group of contemporary shop-keeping families back to the High Street's heyday in the 1870s, before propelling them through a century of dizzying change right up to the Seventies.

In the picturesque market square in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, the families' lives are turned upside down as they get to grips with how shopkeepers lived and worked in six key eras of British history.

Laced with real-life entertainment, family drama and human endeavour, the families have to deal with whatever history throws at them.

Alongside all the usual pressures of running a business, they'll have to learn traditional skills and make their own produce by hand – each episode throwing new challenges their way as the High Street marches on into the modern era.

They are overseen by Turn Back Time's own unique chamber of commerce (Gregg Wallace, Tom Herbert and Juliet Gardiner), which sets the challenges for each era and enforces accurate rules and regulations – revealing who has delivered on best customer service and weekly sales as the decades tick by.

The families will also live the life of each period, dressing, eating and playing as they once would have done – from 18-hour working days and wartime rationing, to evenings of entertainment sitting around the wireless, they'll experience it all.

But these are no museums. The shops will be serving modern-day customers who are used to the pace and convenience of 21st-century shopping.

While the shopkeepers struggle with pounds, shillings and pence, will their customers welcome the old-fashioned delights of personal service and hand-delivered goods or will queuing, weighing and hand-wrapping tax their patience?

BBC Learning is also offering viewers the chance to continue the Turn Back Time experience in their own area. Working with local history societies museums, libraries and archives, Hands On History will offer a range of events and activities around the country, including a number of historical pop-up shops."


BBC2 - Eat, Pray, Light - "What is Diwali? For many it's like Christmas and New Year rolled into one day in October-November. But few non-Hindus might know that Diwali is in fact the third day in a festival that lasts no less than five days.

This documentary features a cast of British Hindus, including a family, priests, theologians, artists, entrepreneurs, and The One Show's Anita Rani, who day by day reveal the meaning of each ritual and custom.

Colourful original illustrations of iconic stories from the Hindu scriptures show how each day is a celebration of a distinct spiritual and moral message designed to help every Hindu cast off their secular baggage and replenish their inner spiritual light."

BBC4 - A Time To Remember - Nations At Play - "Lesley Sharp narrates as original newsreel and 1950s voiceover are used to illustrate how Britons spent their leisure time during the first half of the 20th century. Includes footage of Henley regattas, frolics at the seaside, the Victorian fairground, horse riding in Hyde Park, Royal Ascot in 1919, Deauville in the 20s and the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley."

Wednesday 3rd

BBC2 - Natural World: The Dolphins of Shark Bay
- "A dolphin is about to be born in the treacherous waters of Shark Bay in Western Australia. Puck, the wise mother, must use all her skills to keep her newborn safe from the sharks that sweep into the bay every year. With the help of her close knit family of females she must teach the vulnerable baby dolphin the secrets of survival. From whistling to her unborn calf, to the first few hours of baby Samu's life and the struggles her eldest son faces leaving home, this film provides a rare insight into the lives of bottlenose dolphins."

BBC2 - Horizon: Asteroids - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - "Famed for their ability to inflict Armageddon from outer space, asteroids are now revealing the secrets of how they are responsible for both life and death on our planet.

Armed with an array of powerful telescopes, scientists are finding up to 3000 new asteroids every night. And some are heading our way.

But astronomers have discovered that it's not the giant rocks that are the greatest danger - it's the small asteroids that pose a more immediate threat to Earth.

Researchers have explained the photon propulsion that propels these rocks across space, and have discovered that some asteroids are carrying a mysterious cargo of frost and ice across the solar system that could have helped start life on earth."

BBC4 - A History of the World: The Clock That Changed The World - "Adam Hart-Davis tells the story of the amazing 280-year-old wooden clock, made in Lincolnshire, that changed timekeeping for ever and helped solve the problem of how to navigate round the world.

Adam tells the amazing story of John Harrison and gets to grips with the clock in Leeds, helping to put it together and make it run. He also makes his own wooden clock to show how Harrison did it.

Adam takes to the sea at Hull to show why finding your position was so difficult in the 1700s and why sailors so often got it wrong, with tragic results. He shows how Harrison changed all that, eventually designing an incredibly accurate portable watch that Captain Cook took on his second voyage.

Bringing the story bang up to date, Adam shows how the idea of using time to find your position was key to Captain Cook, but is also at the heart of today's satellite navigation systems. On the way, he finds evidence of John Harrison and his brother James (also a joiner) round north Lincolnshire."

BBC4 - Birds Britannia - 4-part series - "Series looking at the different birds that live in the UK and the stories they can tell us about the British people over time."

Thursday 4th

Channel 4 - What The Green Movement Got Wrong
- (followed immediately after by a live debate chaired by Jon Snow) - "A group of environmentalists across the world believe that, in order to save the planet, humanity must embrace the very science and technology they once so stridently opposed.
In this film, these life-long diehard greens advocate radical solutions to climate change, which include GM crops and nuclear energy.

They argue that by clinging to an ideology formed more than 40 years ago, the traditional green lobby has failed in its aims and is ultimately harming its own environmental cause.
As author and environmentalist Mark Lynas says, 'Being an environmentalist was part of my identity and most of my friends were environmentalists. We were involved in the whole movement together. It took me years to actually begin to question those core, cherished beliefs.
'It was so challenging it was almost like going over to the dark side. It was a like a horrible dark secret you couldn't share with anyone.'."

Friday 5th

BBC2 - David Attenborough's First Life
- 2-parts - "In fifty years of broadcasting, Sir David Attenborough has travelled the globe to document the living world in all its wonder. Now, in the landmark series First Life, he goes back in time in search of the very first animals.
First Life is told with stunning photography, state of the art visual effects and the captivating charm of the world’s favourite naturalist. It will be broadcast as a two-part series in the UK on BBC Two at 9pm on Friday 5th and Friday 12th November 2010, and is shown as a two-hour special by Discovery Channel in the US. It will be shown by broadcasters around the world, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in 2011."

Channel 4 - Unreported World: Pakistan After The Floods - "Reporter Peter Oborne and director Simon Phillips travel to Pakistan to find that the floods may have receded but their catastrophic consequences continue. They discover that incompetence and alleged corruption have caused poor areas to be flooded and rich ones protected. And in a country whose institutions are failing the people they are supposed to protect, they find ordinary Pakistanis striving to rebuild their lives."
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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.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Copyright and You - article from Viewfinder magazine

(The following quotes are not from Viewfinder magazine)

"I think art is the only thing that's spiritual in the world. And I refuse to forced to believe in other people's interpretations of God. I don't think anybody should be. No one person can own the copyright to what God means." Marilyn Manson1


"I'm a bit cynical that it ever will be addressed properly. I think it is healthy to get some sort of copyright protection. But some of it has gone on forever." Peter Gabriel2


"Napster's only alleged liability is for contributory or vicarious infringement. So when Napster's users engage in noncommercial sharing of music, is that activity copyright infringement? No." David Boies3


"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain4

"Earlier generations of technology... have presented challenges to existing copyright law, but none have posed the same threat as the digital age." -John V. Pavlik, New Media Technology, 19965

Judging by the references to God in a couple of these quotes, it would seem that the issue of copyright is certainly capable of arousing strong feelings for some people. It has done so, and will probably continue to do so for years to come. Copyright is a controversial subject at the best of times, and it's a prickly one at that, to say the least. It can also be something of a legal minefield for anyone wanting to use original material created by someone else, be it an article from a book, a photo off a website, music, a video clip, or even someone's own video footage of, say a lecture for example.

In the latest (October) edition of Viewfinder (The Journal of the British Universities Film & Video Council), Jason Miles-Campbell, the Services Manager at JISC Legal, discusses Intellectual Property rights in education and how relevant the 1988 Copyright, Designs and patents Act is to staff and students.

Whatever your own stance is towards copyright law, anti, pro or just plain bewildered, it is good practice to be aware of where you stand with the regards the law relating to copyright if you are a member of staff or a student. Miles-Campbell obviously falls into the pro-copyright camp, and certainly doesn't advocate the flagrant disregard of copyright owners' rights, "even if anarchy seems like a good academic trait to some". Needless to say, he goes on to outline some "good reasons for the respect of creativity", among them the advocacy of "academia... leading by example".

If you'd like to know a bit more about your responsibilities with in relation to academic use of film and video, and copyright matters regarding clearance rights for recording lectures etc. you might want to read the whole article provided by kind permission of Sergio Angelini (Information and Publications Executive - BUFVC). 'Copyright and You' - http://insight.glos.ac.uk/departments/lis/media/Documents/bufvc-viewfinder-80-pp.14-15.pdf6

References

1- 4 Copyright Quotes, Brainy Quote, N/D
< http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/copyright.html>[Accessed 29/10/2009]

5. 'Quotes on Copyright', Ball State: Education Redefined, 2008,
< http://vgncds.bsu.edu:82/library/article/0,,16120--,00.html>[Accessed 29/10/2010]

6. Jason Miles-Campbell, 'Exit Stage Rights', Viewfinder: The Journal of the British Universities Film & Video Council, (London: BUFVC, 2010), October, no.80, 2010, pp.14-15.












Tuesday 19 October 2010

Off-air recordings for week 23-29 October 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 24th

BBC2 - Attenborough's Journey
- "Following David Attenborough as he travels the globe to film his new series, David Attenborough's First Life, in which he explores the very origins of life on Earth.

David journeys to the parts of the world which have had special meaning to him during his 50 years of broadcasting. Beginning near his boyhood Leicestershire home, where he first collected fossils, he then travels to Morocco's arid deserts, the glaciers of Canada and crystal clear waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

As a prelude to the First Life series, Attenborough's Journey provides a unique insight into the mind and character of one of the world's most iconic broadcasters as he shares his passions for the natural world. Combining his global journey for First Life and archive material looking back at his illustrious career both as a programme maker and a controller of the BBC, the film reveals what makes him tick."


Monday 25th

BBC1 - Panorama: The Great Housing Rip Off?
- "With a shortage of social housing, and the private rented market booming, reporter John Sweeney investigates the so-called 'rogue landlords' - the housing barons accused of receiving large amounts of housing benefit while using the small print in their tenancy agreements to exploit the poor and vulnerable.

Councils say they don't have the right laws to combat them, but with the new housing minister ruling out any changes in the law, Panorama examines a problem that is not going to go away."


BBC2 - Horizon: Miracle Cure? A Decade of the Human Genome - "A decade ago, scientists announced that they had produced the first draft of the human genome, the 3.6 billion letters of our genetic code.

It was seen as one of the greatest scientific achievements of our age, a breakthrough that would usher in a new age of medicine. A decade later, Horizon finds out how close we are to developing the life-changing treatments that were hoped for.

Horizon follows three people, each with a genetic disease, as they go behind the scenes at some of Britain's leading research labs to find out what the sequencing of the human genome has done for them - and the hope this remarkable project offers all of us."


ITV1 - Real Crime with Mark Austin: The Cat and Mouse Killer - "In 1999 young mum Lynsey Wilson went missing without trace. Her husband Mitchell Quy claimed she had walked out on him and the children but the police didn’t believe him, making him the main suspect in a murder inquiry with no body.

Real Crime: The Cat and Mouse Killer profiles how Mitchell Quy went to extreme lengths to attempt to prove his innocence. In a protracted and staggering show of bravado, the killer, later described by police as ‘an arrogant and egotistical person who started to believe his own story’ courted the media – appearing on This Morning, on local news programmes and in regional newspapers.

Using footage from an exclusive fly-on-the-wall ITV documentary which Quy appeared in during the investigation, the film provides a unique insight into the mind of a murderer. He is shown at home, decorating and looking after the children while protesting his innocence.

He taunted the police with phone calls and Christmas cards because he believed he would never be caught, but Real Crime: The Cat and Mouse Killer tells the story of the police investigation that nailed Mitchell Quy for the murder of his wife.

It features the voice recordings from his police interviews, police video footage and emotional interviews with Lynsey’s family."


Tuesday 26th

More4 - True Stories: The Body Snatchers of New York
- "Toby Dye's chilling film tells the story of New York surgeon Dr Michael Mastromarino, who `harvested' hundreds of corpses without the relatives' permission before selling the bone and tissues for transplants. In 2008, he was sentenced to between 18 - 54 years.
Speaking for the first time on film, he talks about what really happened, how the operation ran and how, despite the risk of unleashing potentially tainted tissues into the worldwide transplant market, he continued his trade for four years. But Dye also examines the industry which relies of tissue and bone from corpses for medical procedures and asks how it is run, why is so little known about it and why, when it becomes public knowledge such procedures exist, there is such revulsion."

More4 - Ted Bundy: Natural Porn Killer - "This film examines prolific serial killer Ted Bundy's claim that porn made him kill, a theory backed up by both radical feminist theorists and the Christian Right."

Wednesday 27th

BBC4 - A History of the World - 2/7 - The Birth of Steam
- "Adam Hart-Davis tells the remarkable story of Thomas Newcomen, the Devon man who invented the world's first working steam-powered engine. His engine was first used to pump water out of mines and ultimately powered the industrial revolution."

More4 - The Secrets of Westminster Abbey - "Tony and the Team go behind the scenes at Westminster Abbey to explore the story of the Cosmati pavement: the mosaic floor being uncovered for the first time in 100 years.
Also known as 'The House of Kings', Westminster Abbey has stood at the heart of the nation for nearly 1,000 years, surviving the Civil War and Reformation.
While visitors marvel at the royal paraphernalia and the majesty of the architecture, it remains at the core of the Establishment, and still plays host to the Coronation.
For a century, the Cosmati pavement - a huge, mystical mosaic floor in front of the altar at the centre of which the Coronation Chair is placed - has been covered by carpet.
Now Time Team cameras are allowed unprecedented access behind the scenes at the Abbey as this extraordinary piece of living history is revealed.
As well as exploring the story of the Cosmati pavement, the Team also have access to a night-time search under the floors for lost tombs and graves, a shrine that still attracts pilgrims after 800 years and the 1,000-year-old faked documents that gave the Abbey the right to host the Coronation in the first place."

More4 - 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?"

Thursday 28th

Channel 4 - Child Genius: Five Years On
- "This edition meets an eight year old dubbed `the next Picasso', and reveals what happens when a genius child grows into a clever teenager.
Child Genius introduces a new generation of gifted kids, including Kieron Williamson, an eight year old with an amazing ability to paint. The film follows Kieron and his family in the run up to his third commercial exhibition in his home village of Holt in Norfolk, where in just half an hour he sells £150,000 worth of paintings. What will his parents do with Kieron's extraordinary talent, and his unprecedented earnings?
This film also catches up with chess genius Peter Williams, now 14, and piano prodigy Aimee Kwan, now 15. Are they still far ahead of their peers, and do they resent the 'genius' tag?
There's nothing average about these children and their lives are a constant round of competitions and contests. But whose decision is it to put them through all this, and were these children born brilliant or are they the product of pushy parents?
The children speak frankly about the mixed blessing of their talents and the opportunities as well as the heartache they can bring. Does having an extraordinary mind define them? Are they alienated from their peers or have they learnt to relate to children their own age in order to have a normal childhood?
And as for the parents, is having a child labelled as gifted hugely rewarding, or do they feel pressure to support their prodigy's talents and their thirst for knowledge?"

Friday 29th

Channel 4 - Unreported World: Zimbabwe's Blood Diamonds
- "Zimbabwe is supposedly enjoying political stability under the coalition government formed in 2008. However, Unreported World finds a country still gripped by terror and violence.
Reporter Ramita Navai and director Alex Nott film undercover to investigate claims that gems from one of the world's biggest diamond fields are being used by Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party to entrench their hold on power by buying the military's loyalty. This is against a backdrop of human rights abuses, which victims say are being perpetrated by the military and the police.
Filming covertly and secretly, the team discover a climate of fear reminiscent of the pre-coalition Mugabe years. Almost everyone Navai and Nott meet is too terrified to talk about the diamond fields, including several members of the MDC party, which forms part of the coalition government. Some people do speak out, at great personal risk, detailing stories of beatings, killings and rape connected to the diamond area.
A military insider tells Unreported World how different Zimbabwean army units are allowed to rotate through the fields to make profits from the diamonds in exchange for loyalty to President Mugabe's party. The serving officer claims syndicates of civilians are used by soldiers to mine illegally and they then sell the gems to middlemen.
The team follows the diamond trail, showing how smugglers move precious stones from the Marange fields across the border to the boomtown of Manica in Mozambique. Filming secretly, they show how buyers purchase the stones, no questions asked. It's impossible to track the diamonds after this: from here they are absorbed into the international market and sold in high street stores across the world... "

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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 12 October 2010

Off-air recordings for week 16-22 October 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 17th

BBC4 - All Our Working Lives Revisited: Coal - "The story of the British coal mining industry, told with rare archive and interviews with the people who worked in it. The programme features the original 1980s documentary on the industry, followed by a new film which brings the story of our coal mines right up to date."

Monday 18th

BBC1 - Panorama: The Drugs Don't Work
- "An elderly father sedated with a "chemical cosh" of powerful drugs and secretly filmed by his daughter. Families who care for their loved ones at home to help them come off the anti-psychotic drugs that worsen their symptoms and shorten their lives. As the government orders a crack-down on the use of these drugs among the elderly, Vivian White reports on the crisis of care in the treatment of patients with dementia."

BBC2 - Horizon: Is Seeing Believing? - "Horizon explores the strange and wonderful world of illusions - and reveals the tricks they play on our senses and why they fool us.
We show how easy it is to trick your sense of taste by changing the colours of food and drink, explain how what you see can change what you hear, and see just how unreliable our sense of colour can be. But all this trickery has a serious purpose. It's helping scientists to create a new understanding of how our senses work - not as individual senses, but connected together.
It holds the intriguing possibility that one sense could be mapped into another. This is what happened to Daniel Kish, who lost his sight as a child. He is now able to create a vision of the world by clicking his tongue which allows him to echolocate like a bat.
And scientists have now discovered that Daniel's brain has actually rewired itself enabling him to use sound to create a visual image of the world."

ITV1 - Real Crime with Mark Austin: Gunn Law - "In Summer 2004 a middle aged couple were shot dead in their bungalow in a quiet seaside town on the East coast. The murder, which had the hallmarks of a gang land execution, shocked the nation and the hunt for the killers led police to an organised crime gang led by Colin Gunn, overlord of a tough Nottinghamshire council estate. Featuring interviews with key figures involved in the police investigation, this programme reveals the struggle to bring him to court, and how he used spies within the police force to further his criminal activities. But, as Real Crime reports, this brutal double killing gave police the opportunity to bring an end to Gunn Law, as well as weed out corruption in their ranks.

Nottingham’s Bestwood estate was run by Colin and David Gunn. The brothers held the estate in a vice like grip through a mixture of gratitude and fear, often giving out money and presents to hard up families. The Gunns’ gradual move from petty crime to organised crime meant they were the law on the Bestwood estate and many stories circulated about their reputations. Chief Superintendent Ian Waterfield, Head of Serious Crime Unit at Nottinghamshire Police says: “We were aware of an incident of retribution during our investigation where a man who owed Colin and David Gunn money was taken to an address on the Bestwood estate where he had the fingers on both hands broken with a wheel brace…It’s the behaviour of people who want to retain control of their environment..."

Tuesday 19th

BBC1 - Tormented Lives
- "In a revealing and moving documentary, disability rights campaigner and confidante of the late Princess Diana, Rosa Monckton, exposes the reality of life for people with learning disabilities facing hate crime.

With daily headline-grabbing accounts of attacks on disabled people that have even led to murder and suicide, Rosa admits she is deeply concerned about the future that awaits her own teenage daughter, Domenica, who has Down's syndrome. What will life be like for her once Rosa and her husband Dominic Lawson are no longer around to protect her?

In this, Rosa's second documentary, we see people literally driven from their homes, individuals facing abuse and daily torment just because they have a disability. Rosa meets families under siege in their own homes, and shows how the authorities often fail to respond effectively to the abuse they face. And she tries to help one tormented man, Christopher, in his battle to live independently as a respected and useful member of society."

Wednesday 20th

BBC2 - Hostage In The Jungle
- "On 23 February 2002, Ingrid Betancourt, a presidential candidate in Colombia's elections, was kidnapped by the left-wing Farc rebel group along with her assistant and friend, Clara Rojas.

Ingrid is of dual nationality, having married a French diplomat, and swiftly became perhaps the world's most famous hostage, with presidents pleading for her release at the G8 and even the Pope asking for her release.

She was held for more than six years in the jungle, with only occasional news coming out, including a shocking picture which showed her clearly on the verge of collapse, if not death, in 2007.

Hostage In The Jungle – This World is the first documentary account of what happened in the jungle in her own words and of those who were there with her: Clara, her campaign manager, and Marc Gonsalves, one of three Americans who were also held by Farc for many years.

The film tells how Ingrid and Clara's friendship fell apart, with them ending up virtual enemies, and how Clara came to have a child with one of the Farc guards. The film explores the dynamics of captivity, including remarkable interviews with both the man who kidnapped Ingrid and her main camp commander. Interspersed with archive of her family and politicians fighting over how to deal with the problems, the film is a raw, first-hand account of how people cope with surviving 24 hours a day with fellow hostages. In Ingrid's words: "It is often more difficult to forgive your fellow hostages than the guards who keep you."

It is a story of continued escape attempts; the terrible retributions that Farc would take on such attempts; of hell in the jungle; and of extraordinary human suffering and endurance.

The film ends with the most daring rescue since operation Entebbe (a hostage-rescue mission in the Seventies). The Colombian military sent in 12 unarmed men and women pretending to be aid workers and lured the guerrillas into believing that they were transferring them on a humanitarian mission. The film includes extraordinary footage of the whole operation including footage from a Farc mobile phone, as well as accounts by those who are saved."


BBC4 - A History of the World - 7-part series - "Terry Deary tells the story of the Battle of Towton in 1461, in which 28,000 soldiers died in a single day during the wars of the Roses. The writer unearths objects that show the brutality of the clash, including bullets, arrowheads and skeletons."

Thursday 21st

Channel 4 - The Taking of Prince Harry
- "Informed and shaped by the testimony of a panel of top experts from the military, police and Secret Service and former hostages, this documentary explores what the likely responses would be if such a high profile individual as Prince Harry were to be captured on military duty in Afghanistan.
Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan: an Apache helicopter being flown by Prince Harry has crashed. Prince Harry survives but is quickly captured by locals who are only too aware of the enormous value in a western soldier.
The film examines what would happen in this hypothetical situation both politically and militarily: how it would be managed in Britain, who would be in charge, how negotiations would be carried out and what would be implemented on the ground in Afghanistan.
With a look at British royals who have historically fought on the frontline, The Taking of Prince Harry examines these new tactics of warfare, with kidnapping increasingly used for political ends in modern conflicts. Up to 15 people are kidnapped every week in Afghanistan alone.
The Taking of Prince Harry raises questions about the far-reaching ramifications for Britain should Prince Harry be granted his wish to return to Afghanistan, and be captured, and asks if Britain is prepared for this potential ransom note."

Friday 22nd

BBC4 - Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death & Women
- "Lucille Sharp, Lauren Marcus, Anita Vettesse, Tamara Kennedy. Crime author Denise Mina investigates the life and work of one of the world's greatest horror writers, Edgar Allan Poe. The relationships between Poe and the women in his life - mother, wife, paramour and muse - were tenuous at best, disastrous at worst, yet they provided inspiration and stimulus for his terrifying and influential short stories. Travelling between New York, Virginia and Baltimore, and using dramatised inserts, Mina unravels Poe's tortuous and peculiar relationships."

Channel 4 - Unreported World: Mexico's Indian Rebellion - "In the mountains of southeastern Mexico, Unreported World finds 400 members of an indigenous community, who are fighting for independence, holed up in bullet-ridden homes and surrounded by a militia in an unreported war.
Reporter Evan Williams and director Alex Nott visit Yosoyuxi, a neighbouring village to the besieged town of San Juan Copala. Members of the local Triqui Indian community, fed up with years of conflict and government corruption, are attempting to break away and set up their own mini state, but locals tell Williams that those supporting the movement face extreme violence.
Fifteen-year-old 'Timoteo' says his parents were shot and macheted to death. Since then he has struggled to look after his brother and sister on his own. He believes his parents were killed as they were leaders of the rebel movement.
News comes through that the people of San Juan Copala have come under sustained gunfire from the surrounding militiamen. Williams and Nott join armed men from Yosoyuxi on a foot patrol to find out more. The team trek into the dangerous woodland leading to the town. Scouts are sent ahead to check the area is clear and that no ambush has been set up by the militia.
The team make it to a steep ledge overlooking the town. Over the radio residents tell the patrol the gunfire has stopped but it's too dangerous to go any further. Four hundred men, women and children remained holed up after militiamen shot into the streets at anyone who was moving in the recent attack.
San Juan Copala is the spiritual home and economic capital of the Triqui people. The rebel movement's main grievance centres around corruption and their claim that one million dollars of public money designated for public spending is stolen by the state government every year.
The next morning, Williams and Nott witness chaos and panic as news comes in that San Juan Copala is being stormed by the militia: this time with the backing of the state police. There's widespread fear that the government, through the militia, want to end the rebel movement once and for all. Residents ask the crew to leave: it's not even safe in their village now and tensions are running high."

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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.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Off-air recordings for week 9-16 October 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 9th

BBC2 - Timewatch: The First Blitz - "In January 1915, in a Zeppelin raid on the Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth, Sam Smith became the first British civilian to die as a result of aerial bombing.
In the words of those who lived through it, Timewatch tells the forgotten story of the 'First Blitz'. It was a three-year terror campaign which would claim the lives of many hundreds of people and whose psychological effect was every bit as powerful as that of the Blitz of World War II."

Sunday 10th

BBC2 - Louis Theroux: Law and Disorder in Lagos - "On the streets of Lagos, it is not the police who wield power but gangs of fight-hardened young men known as Area Boys. Louis spends time with several outfits, joining them as they patrol their turf, clash with local rivals and keep the peace in a brutal and haphazard fashion. The main income for the Area Boys is an arbitrary and unofficial form of taxation, extracted from local businesses and commercial drivers. Louis gets to know the rich and glamorous Area Boy leader MC, a former street youth himself, who has now become a friend of the most powerful men in the city. Taken under MC's wing, Louis experiences the top levels of the Area Boys' world from the inside, complete with a tour of MC's grand residence and extensive shoe collection, and ending in a chaotic mini-riot with gunshots, blood and mayhem.
On the side of the law, Louis rides with KAI, the government's Kick Against Indiscipline paramilitary task force, as they storm different city districts. With bulldozers and arrest warrants, KAI use their own strong-arm tactics, and are in their way as feared as the Area Boys.
In Law and Disorder in Lagos, Louis wrestles with life in a world in which the forces of law and the forces of disorder are not always readily distinguishable and nothing is quite what it seems."

Monday 11th

BBC2 - Horizon: What Happened Before The Big Bang? - "They are the biggest questions that science can possibly ask: where did everything in our universe come from? How did it all begin? For nearly a hundred years, we thought we had the answer: a big bang some 14 billion years ago.
But now some scientists believe that was not really the beginning. Our universe may have had a life before this violent moment of creation.
Horizon takes the ultimate trip into the unknown, to explore a dizzying world of cosmic bounces, rips and multiple universes, and finds out what happened before the big bang."

Channel 4 - The Real Vikings: A Time Team Special- "Tony Robinson, Mick Aston and Phil Harding follow digs around the UK that uncover a vast array of archaeology and provide fascinating insights into our Viking past.
Three centuries of Viking occupation left an indelible print on the British Isles. Their legacy has shaped the Britain we live in today and the Vikings have had a huge influence on our culture; from the way we live to the words we use.
The Vikings are notoriously known as fearsome, axe-wielding warriors who relished their reputation as bloodthirsty invaders, and the discovery of mutilated skeletons in this Time Team Special does little to alter this reputation. However, they were also successful global traders, technological pioneers and world-wide mariners.
The Team report from excavations across the country, from Orkney to the south coast, but it is in Hungate, York that the biggest discoveries are made. This huge dig uncovers the thousand-year-old Viking remains of streets, houses and a trading centre.
Using all this research, Tony and the Team paint a new and much more complex picture of these skillful and enterprising people.more complex picture of these skillful and enterprising people."

ITV1 - Real Crime with Mark Austin: The Black Cab Rapist - "Real Crime: The Black Cab Rapist tells the shocking story of the search for a sexual predator who hid behind a trusted profession to drug, rape or assault over 100 women. Presented by Mark Austin, the programme includes brand new interviews with victims, the police, lawyers and other professionals involved to provide a compelling insight into this complex and disturbing case. 2002 marked the beginning of a series of attacks on the streets of London, which went undetected for five years. It would result in the conviction of Britain’s most prolific serial sex attacker, John Worboys, the black cab rapist. Sarah Craigie tells the programme what happened to her, after hailing a cab in London, following an argument with her boyfriend. “As we were driving out of London he (the driver) told me he’s won at the horses, and did I want to help him celebrate? He had champagne, vodka and whisky but I asked for a soft drink and he gave me a can of coke. He passed it through the window and it was already open. I started feeling very nauseous, very sick. I knew something wasn’t right. I texted my boyfriend and said, ‘I know we’ve had an argument but I need you to meet me, something’s not right.’” Real Crime recounts how the driver stopped the cab and got into the back with a bottle of champagne, telling Sarah he wanted to celebrate his win, but when she shouted at him he got back in the driver’s seat and drove towards her house where her boyfriend was waiting for her. Sarah had a lucky escape, but like many victims she didn’t report the incident at the time. DI Dave Reid tells the programme: “The vast majority of women he picked up, he picked up late in the evening or in the early hours. He came up with a similar sort of patter saying, ’You’re my last job of the evening, I’m going your way anyway,’ and often offering a reduced fare or sometimes no fare... "

Tuesday 12th

BBC4 - A Time To Remember: A Woman's World - "Newsreel footage and original 1950s Time to Remember voiceover by Joyce Grenfell and Dame Edith Evans offer an insight into the ways women's roles in society changed through the first five decades of the 20th century.
Featuring footage of suffragette protest, including Emily Davison at the 1913 Derby; working women during the First World War; Suzanne Lenglen playing tennis; and something of the fashions of the 20s and 30s."

More4 - True Stories: Murder in Mexico - Presumed Guilty - "Roberto Hernandez and Geoffrey Smith's chilling film examines the reality behind Mexico's judicial system. The country, currently embroiled in what amounts to a war with the drugs cartels, has a conviction rate of 90% for all defendants no matter what they plead since its legal system has no presumption of innocence.
One of them is Antonio Zuniga, sent to prison for 20 years for murder despite pleading innocent. The only witness didn't mention his name until his third statement with which, he admits, he was `helped' by the police; others place him elsewhere at the time of the shooting and there is no forensic evidence between him and the murder weapon.
Hernandez, a law student as well as a filmmaker, joins with fellow law student Layda Negrete to unpick the case and with Antonio granted a rare re-trial, follow the unfolding events which may or may not see Antonio freed."

Friday 15th

Channel 4 - Unreported World 3/10 Philippines: The City With Too Many People - "Manila is one of the world's most overpopulated cities.
Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Richard Cookson find the Philippine capital stretched to breaking point, with mothers four to a bed in maternity wards, primary schools with 1,000 children in each year, and graveyards with no more room to bury the dead.
As the world faces an overpopulation crisis, Manila provides a vision of what might become ordinary in the not too distant future.
The team begin their trip at the biggest maternity hospital in the city. It operates on an industrial scale, with four mothers and their babies sharing each bed. The ward is at double capacity when the team arrive, and it's so overcrowded that the nurses have to patrol it to make sure no one is sleeping on their babies and suffocating them.
Kleeman learns that women often have eight children or more here, and some of the mothers say it's hard to make ends meet with such large families. But the Filipino government doesn't promote contraception as it fears losing the Catholic vote.
Kleeman spends the night with a family of nine in Baseco, a shanty town where 90,000 people share just half a square kilometre. A third of Manila's 20 million residents live in squatter settlements like this. New homes are being built every day; wherever there's space another family will fill it. There is no sanitation and the children grow up surrounded by rubbish.
Like everything else in Manila, the water supply can't meet the demand of the number of people who want to use it, and contagious diseases spread fast. Jennifer, the mother of the family, has tuberculosis. She tells Kleeman her children have persistent rashes but she can't afford to take them to a doctor for treatment."


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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.