Off-air recordings for week 27 Nov - 3 Dec 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 29th

ITV1 - The Victim's Tale: Tonight - "Fiona Foster investigates whether victims are the poor relation in the criminal justice system. She meets families who say that the system can let down even those who suffer the worst imaginable crimes."

Channel 4 - Dispatches: The Kids Britain Doesn't Want - "Every year, thousands of children come from all over the world to Britain seeking refuge from persecution, terrorism and war. But many arrive to find this country is not the place of safety that they hoped. Instead they are met by a culture of disbelief and an asylum system that in some cases causes them profound psychological and physical harm.
Through the stories of a 10-year-old Iranian boy, a 16-year-old Afghan and a 22-year-old Ugandan woman, Dispatches explores the experiences of young people who have been brutalized by the British asylum system. This is the story of the kids Britain doesn't want."

BBC2 - Ian Hislop's Age of Do Gooders - 3-parts - "Ian Hislop rescues the reputation of the maverick 'Do-Gooders' who he believes fixed the 19th century's version of 'broken Britain' in this new history series. Irresistibly easy to mock, these busy bodies are highly unfashionable today. But they are heroes to Ian - extraordinary men and women who precipitated the most remarkable period of social change in British history and, Ian argues, left us with a nation worth living in. And yet unlike notable Victorian royals, inventors, politicians and generals, many of them have been all but forgotten.

Ian calls William Wilberforce 'the godfather of the Do-Gooders'. Hedonistic man-about-town turned crusader, Wilberforce kick-started a multi-faceted moral revolution which reverberated throughout the 19th century, of which his successful campaign to abolish slavery was just one element.

In this first programme, Ian also tells the story of Robert Owen and his model mill town at New Lanark in Scotland; Thomas Wakley, founder of The Lancet, who exposed the fatal consequences of cronyism in the surgical profession; and George Dawson, inventor of the civic gospel which inspired a generation of Brummies to take responsibility for their city.

Ian also looks back on the impact of Charles Trevelyan, who battled to make the civil service a meritocracy and Octavia Hill, a pioneer of social housing, despite her opposition to cash hand-outs or anything that might create a dependency culture.

Contributors to the film include Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, author AN Wilson, head of the civil service Sir Gus O'Donnell, and Lancet editor Dr Richard Horton."

ITV1 - Real Crime With Mark Austin - PC Sharon Beshinevsky: Death On Duty - "Real Crime: Death on Duty the gripping story of the national and international search for the gang members who shot dead PC Sharon Beshenivsky during a bungled robbery in Bradford, West Yorkshire in November 2005.

PC Beshenivsky’s husband, the officer who was with her when she was shot and the detective who led the investigation speak to Real Crime about the tragic murder and the quest to find her killers, one of whom was hiding in Somalia, and bring them to justice.

Featuring CCTV and police interview footage, Real Crime, presented by Mark Austin, reveals how officers from West Yorkshire’s elite Homicide and Major Enquiry Team tracked down the gang responsible using cutting edge investigative techniques."

Tuesday 30th

More4 - True Stories: The Battle for Barking - "Laura Fairrie's film records an historic moment in British politics through the microcosm of one east London constituency. Made over the course of a year, the film follows two very different political opponents as they battle towards the 2010 General Election.
Long-standing Labour MP Margaret Hodge is a stalwart of the New Labour establishment. Running against her is Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader. Griffin is a controversial figure, with a conviction for inciting racial hatred, who nonetheless commands considerable support.
As it chronicles the rise and fall of the far-right BNP, it gives a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the 'BNP family' and the working class disillusionment with the Labour party that fuelled the BNP campaign, offering an honest, moving and humorous portrait of a white working class community forced to face the changes brought by new immigrant populations."

Thursday 2nd

More4 - Britain's Worst Weather - "The series follows Dr Nick Middleton as he visits some of the UK's most notorious weather blackspots. The programmes feature some of the most spectacular weather footage ever caught on camera."

BBC2 - At Home With The Georgians - "In At Home With The Georgians, Amanda Vickery, prize-winning author and professor of modern British history at Royal Holloway, sets her sights on the Georgian era – the golden age of homemaking – as she traces the story of the unique relationship Britons enjoy with their homes, arguing that the Georgians' preoccupation with décor helped to redefine the part played by men and women in British society.

We are all familiar with the splendours of Georgian architecture, but we know less of what went on At Home With The Georgians in the 18th century. In a new three-part series, Amanda Vickery will bring the Georgian home back to life and open a fascinating window on the soul of an age.

Using artefacts, letters, criminal trial records and diaries, Amanda will make viewers look afresh at a world we thought we were familiar with through costume dramas but which only now offers up its secrets.

She will shed light on the full spectrum of Georgian society from the richest to the poorest to the intriguing world of the "middling" classes.

Using dramatic reconstruction to breathe life into the personal stories of these characters, viewers will gain access to the dreams, hopes and fears of the Georgians. Amanda will provide a compelling account of their attitudes to love and sex as well as the burning issues of the day, such as privacy, consumption and security."

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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.