Off-air recordings for week 20-26 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.*

Sunday 21st

BBC2 - JFK: The Making of Modern Politics - "On both sides of the Atlantic, John F Kennedy continues to be invoked by today's politicians in the hope that some of his magic might rub off on them. But, 50 years since Kennedy's election, Andrew Marr asks whether JFK's legacy has tarnished politics ever since.

Andrew examines in detail exactly what Kennedy stood for, and how the candidate got that message across. He goes in search of the substance that has long been obscured by the fascination with the Kennedy style.

He also examines how Kennedy embodied the hopes of a nation, and asks whether modern politics demands inspirational leaders rather than politicians bogged down in the details. Kennedy's soaring rhetoric set a high standard that people today yearn for politicians to reach."

Monday 22nd

BBC1 - Panorama: British Schools, Islamic Rules - "Investigation which uncovers disturbing evidence that some children are being exposed to extremist preachers, fundamentalist Islamic groups and lessons with hate on the curriculum in Britain's Muslim schools. The programme asks why school inspectors have missed the warning signs and examines the impact this could have on young Muslims' ability to integrate into mainstream British life."

Tuesday 23rd

BBC2 - American Dream - 3-part series - ""The American dream" - a phrase coined in 1931 that has become a national motto. It represents a unique brand of optimism that goes to the heart of what it is to be American. It is a simple phrase but a complex notion whose meaning is sustained and challenged by each generation.

After World War Two ended, Americans faced a future that seemed not only full of promise but also replete with danger. The United States emerged as the richest and most powerful nation in the world yet its safety and even its existence were widely perceived to be threatened as never before.

This series features those who helped foster and sell the dream, those who feel they have lived it, as well as those who challenge or reject the very notion. Through rare archive and eyewitness testimony, this series explores the realities behind America's most powerful myth - from the eve of the Second World War to the end of the Vietnam War."

BBC4 - Delphi: The Belly Button of the Ancient World - "What really went on at the ancient Greek oracle at Delphi, how did it get its awesome reputation and why is it still influential today?

Michael Scott of Cambridge University uncovers the secrets of the most famous oracle in the ancient world. A vital force in ancient history for a thousand years it is now one of Greece's most beautiful tourist sites, but in its time it has been a gateway into the supernatural, a cockpit of political conflict, and a beacon for internationalism. And at its heart was the famous inscription which still inspires visitors today - 'Know Thyself'."

Wednesday 24th

BBC4 - Time To Remember: Civilians At War - "The impact of two world wars on the UK's civilian population is told through newsreel footage and voiceover from the original 1950s series Time to Remember. Here are the war stories from the home front.

Includes footage of circus elephants being used as farm animals during the Great War; a pram protected against gas attack; footage of Londoners bedding down in the Underground during World War Two; and the celebrations at the end of both global conflicts."

BBC4 - Storyville - Mandelson: The Real PM? - "Documentary following Peter Mandelson in the run-up to the 2010 general election. Hannah Rothschild's film shows Mandelson at his ministry, masterminding the election campaign and dealing with colleagues such as Gordon Brown and Alastair Campbell. With unprecedented access to key events and conversations, this is a fascinating behind-the-scenes exploration of British politics."

More 4 - Not Forgotten: Survival - "Although promised a 'land fit for heroes', many returned to poverty and unemployment. Ian Hislop remembers the five million men who fought in the First Word War but survived."

Friday 26th

Channel 4 - Dispatches: City of Fear - "For one year, Dispatches follows the police and people of Islamabad as Pakistan's capital battles to overcome an unprecedented wave of terrorist attacks, providing a powerful insight into a normally closed world in which everyone battles to survive the daily threat of death with courage and resilience.
Pakistan is in chaos; more than 3,500 people have been killed in suicide blasts in the past three years. Only a few years ago, attacks in the capital were rare, but disparate terrorist groups are increasingly working together and Islamabad has become their ultimate target.
Featuring intimate, direct-to-camera interviews of startling candour - from a teenage girl whose best friend was blown up, to the Inspector General of Police - Dispatches follows those affected as they attempt to continue their lives on the frontline of a war on terror - and refuse to be beaten by it.
With unprecedented access, including interviews filmed in the immediate aftermath of explosions and behind-the-scenes footage of police investigations, the film documents the real war on terrorism fought on the streets of the metropolis... with bloody and tragic consequences."

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Senegal: School For Beggars - "Unreported World investigates Senegal's Islamic schools.
Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Simon Philips reveal how many young boys living in the religious schools are subjected to abuse, and forced by their guardians to beg on the streets for their survival. And they meet those trying to save the children from exploitation and abuse.
Senegal is a modern, relatively wealthy African country yet the team meet huge numbers of boys in the capital, Dakar, who tell them they have to beg for their education.
Yaro, like around 50,000 other children, is one of the 'Talibes': religious students whose parents have sent them to boarding school to learn the Koran. He tells Rhodes how he's only been home once in four years and has spent that time begging with his classmates from a religious school, known as a daara.
Rhodes and Philips meet other boys who are in a similar position; many have quotas to fill for the day. They claim that if they do not return with the desired amount of money or food they will be beaten by the religious guardians, known as Marabouts.
The team also meets Kahn, a community worker in a poor suburb of Dakar. He leads them through the back streets to a rundown house that turns out to be a school. The teacher tells Rhodes he is going to sell everything his boys have collected and hopes to make the equivalent of five pounds from doing so.
Rhodes discovers how brutal some punishments can be for boys who don't make their targets. He meets two young boys who were so severely beaten they are scarred for life. They break down and tell him they would be tied up if they hadn't managed to bring back the correct amount required by their guardians. Their teacher was one of the few who was prosecuted and the boys are now cared for in a government-run children's home.
Rhodes also talks to Professor Ndiaye, an Islamic scholar who blames the unquestioning trust Senegalese people have in their Marabouts. He explains that when children lived in the countryside villagers would support the daara by feeding its students, but as people moved into cities following successive droughts this rural system broke down.
The team visits another Koranic school, which is formal but well run and clean. The teacher explains to Rhodes the main problem with bad schools is poverty. Families are keen for their children to receive a Koranic education but few can pay and few marabouts can afford to offer decent facilities.
Rhodes and Philips also meet Babakar, a 16-year-old from Gambia. He was sent to Senegal to learn the Koran four years ago, but ran away when the begging and beating became too much. He's now sleeping rough, too afraid to return to his school and too poor to make his way home to his parents.
Rhodes concludes that not all the boys from Senegal's daaras will end up living on the streets like this, but while the system remains harsh and largely unreformed, many of them probably will."

BBC2 - Gardener's World Special: The Science of Gardening - "Carol Klein transforms her garden into a laboratory as she learns about the science behind gardening. In an effort to better understand how plants grow in different conditions, she enlists the help of experts to analyse soil, compost, seeds and weather so she can become a more efficient horticulturist."


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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.