Sunday 14th
BBC2 - Making Scotland's Landscapes - 5-part series - "Professor Iain Stewart presents a landmark five-part series in which he reveals how Scotland's unique and beautiful landscape has been shaped over the centuries.
In this first programme, he uncovers how, over thousands of years, the actions of mankind and the climate nearly led to the downfall of Scotland's trees and forests. It was only in the 18th century that man realised the extent of the damage to timber stocks, and measures were taken to re-populate the landscape. The impact was profound, but not everyone agreed with the results."
Monday 15th
BBC4 - Greek Myths: Tales of Travelling Heroes - "Eminent classical historian Robin Lane Fox embarks on a journey in search of the origins of the Greek myths. He firmly believes that these fantastical stories lie at the root of western culture, and yet little is known about where the myths of the Greek gods came from, and how they grew. Now, after 35 years of travelling, excavation and interpretation, he is confident he has uncovered answers.
From the ancient lost city of Hattusas in modern Turkey to the smouldering summit of the Sicilian volcano Mount Etna, the documentary takes the viewer on a dazzling voyage through the Mediterranean world of the 8th century BC, as we follow in the slipstream of an intrepid and mysterious group of merchants and adventurers from the Greek island of Euboea. Its in the experiences of these now forgotten people that Lane Fox is able to pinpoint the stories and encounters, the journeys and the landscapes that provided the source material for key Greek myths.
And along the way, he brings to life these exuberant tales - of castration and baby eating, the birth of human sexual love, and the titanic battles with giants and monsters from which the gods of Greek myth were to emerge victorious."
BBC4 - Aristotle's Lagoon - "In the 4th century BC the Greek philosopher Aristotle travelled to Lesvos, an island in the Aegean teeming, then as now, with wildlife. His fascination with what he found there, and his painstaking study of it, led to the birth of a new science - biology. Professor Armand Leroi follows in Aristotle's footsteps to discover the creatures, places and ideas that inspired the philosopher in his pioneering work."
Tuesday 16th
BBC1 - Horizon: Deepwater Disaster: The Untold Story - "Horizon reveals the untold story of the 87-day battle to kill the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout a mile beneath the waves - a crisis that became America's worst environmental disaster.
Engineers and oil men at the heart of the operation talk for the first time about the colossal engineering challenges they faced and how they had to improvise under extreme pressure.
They tell of how they used household junk, discarded steel boxes and giant underwater cutting shears to stop the oil.
It's an operation that one insider likens to the rescue of Apollo 13."
Wednesday 17th
BBC4 - Time To Remember: Crime and Prohibition - "Newsreel footage and voiceover from the original 1950s Time to Remember documentary TV series tells the story of the media circus that surrounded notorious gangsters and other Depression-era criminals in the United States of America. This is encapsulated in the kidnapping of Charles and Anne Lindbergh's baby - the 'crime of the century'.
Includes footage of rumrunners trying to outrun the US Coastguard and beat prohibition; mobster Jack 'Legs' Diamond; John Dillinger behind bars; Al Capone at the racecourse; and coverage from inside the courtroom during the Lindbergh baby murder trial of German illegal immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptmann."
Thursday 18th
BBC4 - The Beauty of Diagrams - 6-part series - "Documentary examining diagrams, beginning with Leonard Da Vinci's masterwork Vitruvian Man. The piece, drawn in the 1480s, combines the artist's passions for anatomy and geometry, and also illustrates an ancient architectural riddle set out 1,500 years earlier by the classical writer Vitruvius - a puzzle that still fascinates experts to this day."
Friday 19th
Channel 4 - Unreported World: India - Love on the Run - "As more young couples reject arranged marriages in modern India, Unreported World investigates a wave of violence that's left hundreds dead across the country's northwest states.
Reporter Annie Kelly and director Katherine Churcher reveal that, despite Indian law giving everyone the right to marry who they want, increasing numbers of young couples are facing death at the hands of their own families for defying centuries of tradition.
Kelly and Churcher begin their journey in Delhi with the Love Commandos, an activist group trying to protect young couples from violence. The team travels with them to the central train station to meet Santosh and Guarav, a young couple on the run. They say they were forced to flee to the capital after Santosh was attacked by her family. They explain that they are from different Hindu castes, which makes their relationship forbidden in the eyes of her village.
An estimated 900 people have been killed in honour-related attacks in India in just a year, with the numbers continuing to rise. Kelly and Churcher follow the murder trail to Haryana, the northwest province where many attacks have taken place.
They visit the village of Nimiliwali, the scene of a brutal double murder just six weeks earlier. A local man says that two teenagers were beaten then hanged by the girl's family after they discovered their secret relationship. The chief of the village takes the team to the house where they were killed and says their deaths were inevitable because they broke tradition and acted without the consent of the family.
The team discovers that families are not always acting alone. They hear allegations that powerful extra-judiciary traditional councils of village elders called Khap Panchayats are also implicated in the murders and may have even ordered killings."
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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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