Tuesday 30 November 2010

Off-air recordings for week 4-10 December 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 6th

BBC1 - Panorama: Addicted to Games
- "As pester power kicks in and the computer games' industry launches its latest products on to the Christmas market, Panorama hears from youngsters who've dropped out of school and university to play games for anything up to 21 hours a day. They describe their obsessive gaming as an addiction. Reporter Raphael Rowe, meets leading experts calling for more independent research into this controversial subject, and reveals the hidden psychological devices in games that are designed to keep us coming back for more."

BBC4 - Storyville: The Trouble With Pirates - "Documentary telling the story of the piracy explosion, with unique access to the coastal towns of war-torn Somalia, the boardrooms of the City of London, the operation hubs on board warships in the Gulf of Aden and the heartbreak of a hostage situation gone wrong."

Tuesday 7th

BBC2 - Natural World Special: Panda Makers
- "Giant Pandas were on the brink of extinction but now they are coming back, thanks to an extraordinary conservation project. The Chengdu Research Base in central China is at the heart of a project to breed 300 pandas, and then start introducing them back into the wild. It is the most ambitious and controversial conservation effort ever mounted.

Shot over two years, this film follows the pandas and keepers as, through visionary science and round-the-clock care, they edge closer to the magic number of 300."

BBC4 - The Joy Of Stats - "The Joy of Stats takes viewers on a roller coaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power stats have to change our understanding of the world we live in. Our guide is superstar boffin Hans Rosling whose eye-opening, mind-expanding, and very funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend.

Rosling is Professor of Global Health at Stockholm’s prestigious Karolinska Institute and founder of the Gapminder Foundation. He’s a man who revels in the glorious nerdery of stats – and in The Joy of Stats he entertainingly explores the history of statistics, how statistics works mathematically, and how with statistics we can take the massive deluge of data of today’s computer age and use it to see the world as it really is – not just as we imagine it to be.

Rosling’s famous lectures use enormous quantities of public data to reveal the story of the world’s past, present and future development. Now in one spectacular section of The Joy of Stats he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers – in just four minutes... "

Wednesday 8th

BBC4 - Time To Remember: In Times Of Need
- "Clips and narration from different episodes of the 1950s Time to Remember series offer insights into the hardships and privations of the 1920s and 30s on both sides of the Atlantic.

Includes footage of the bombing in Wall Street in 1920, preparations for the 1926 UK General Strike and images of the American dustbowl in the 1930s."

More 4 - Secrets Of The Stately Garden: A Time Team Special - "Behind the elegance of the stately gardens that now define the British landscape lies a story that combines exotic exploration, scientific innovation and revolutionary thought, not to mention an unexpected helping of sexual innuendo.
Tony Robinson follows an ambitious two-year restoration of Prior Park garden near Bath, and also embarks on a journey through time to decode the secrets of England's stately gardens. In the process he visits extraordinary grottos and fanciful follies, and uncovers sexy secrets concealed in apparently classical designs.
And on his own grand tour Tony travels to the breathtaking Hadrian's Garden, near Rome, the inspiration for so much we see in the traditional English garden.
The Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century were overturned the starchy formalities of their ancestors. Scientific discovery gave them power over nature for the first time, and the growth of trade brought exotic plants, animals and ideas to these shores - the likes of which had never been seen before."

Friday 10th

BBC4 - My Father, The Bomb And Me
- "Broadcaster Lisa Jardine explores the implications of her father Jacob Bronowski's secret wartime bombing research and experience of the atom bomb. She also examines how his work played a part in the story of science in the 20th century. Part of the Tools of Science season."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* 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 24 November 2010

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."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* 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 18 November 2010

New Media Equipment at FCH LC

FCH LC now has some new items of media equipment available for loan.




For more details follow the links to the University of Gloucestershire Library catalogue (OPAC).


Camcorder :Creative Vado Pocket Video Cam X 2

Camcorder :Sony DCR DVD202E X 1

Camera :Fuji FinePix AX280 X 2

Camera :Fuji FinePix Z10fd x 1

Tripod :Sony Remote Control Tripod VCT-D680RM X 1

Voice Recorder :Olympus WS-450S X 3

See also the full list of FCH LC Media Equipment


If you would like to use any of the items of equipment available here please contact FCH LC Enquiry Desk on 01242 (71)4666, email lcinfofch@glos.ac.uk or call Rich Deakin on 01242 (71)4665, or email rdeakin@glos.ac.uk

Transferring your Mini-DV cassette footage

If you need to edit or transfer video footage for any of your assignments we can help you.

The FCH LC Edit Suite can be booked by contacting the FCH LC Issue or Enquiry Desks 01242 714666 or 714600, or by contacting Rich Deakin on 01242 714665, email rdeakin@glos.ac.uk


If you just need to transfer your video footage from mini-DV cassette onto a digital format such as DVD or USB flash drive without editing it first you can leave it with us and we'll do it for you.


More information about the Edit Suites

Wednesday 17 November 2010

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."


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* 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 9 November 2010

Off-air recordings for week 13-19 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 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."


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


* 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 2 November 2010

Off-air recordings for week 6-12 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 6th

BBC2 - Timewatch: The Last Day of World War I
- "Broadcaster Michael Palin tells the story of how the First World War ended on 11th November 1918 and reveals the shocking truth that soldiers continued to be killed in battle for many hours after the Armistice had been signed. Recounting the events of the days and hours leading up to that last morning, Palin tells the personal stories of the last soldiers to die as the minutes and seconds ticked away to the 11 o'clock ceasefire."

Sunday 7th

BBC2 - Stephen Fry and the Great American Oil Spill
- "Stephen Fry loves Louisiana. Four months after the BP oil spill, dubbed the worst ecological disaster in the history of America, Fry returns to the Deep South together with zoologist Mark Carwardine, to see what the impact has been on the people, the vast wetlands and the species that live there. What they find both surprises and divides the travelling duo."

BBC1 - The First World War from Above - "The story of the Great War told from a unique new aerial perspective. Featuring two remarkable historical finds, including a piece of archive footage filmed from an airship in summer 1919, capturing the trenches and battlefields in a way that's rarely been seen before. And aerial photographs taken by First World War pilots - developed for the first time in over ninety years - show not only the devastation inflicted during the fighting, but also quirks and human stories visible only from above. Presented by Fergal Keane"

Monday 8th

Channel 4 - Dispatches
- "An investigation into the working conditions in clothing manufacturing units in the UK reveals poor treatment of workers making clothes which end up being sold by large fashion retailers."

BBC4 - Gods and Monsters: Homer's Odyssey - "Virginia Woolf said Homer's epic poem the Odyssey was 'alive to every tremor and gleam of existence'. Following the magical and strange adventures of warrior king Odysseus, inventor of the idea of the Trojan Horse, the poem can claim to be the greatest story ever told. Now British poet Simon Armitage goes on his own Greek adventure, following in the footsteps of one of his own personal heroes. Yet Simon ponders the question of whether he even likes the guy."

Tuesday 9th

BBC2 - Alan Titchmarsh's Garden Secrets
- 4-part series - "Alan Titchmarsh reveals the amazing secrets behind Britain's great gardens, examining how they continue to influence gardeners, including himself, today."

BBC4 - A Time To Remember: The Pursuit of Peace - "Material from the 1950s newsreel documentary series Time to Remember tells the story of the struggle to maintain peace in the decades after the Great War. The politicians' high hopes for improved international relations through the League of Nations were gradually eroded by expansionism and aggression across the globe.

Includes footage of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles; the first Armistice Day parade in 1919; Ramsay MacDonald addressing the League of Nations in 1924; Neville Chamberlain's visits to Germany to negotiate with Hitler; the liberations of Rome and Paris in the summer of 1944; the signing of the German surrender in 1945; and the signing of the United Nations charter."


Wednesday 10th

BBC2 - Edwardian Farm
- 12-part series - "Following the huge success of the Victorian Farm series, BBC Two is presenting the same intrepid team with a brand new set of challenges as they are forced to get to grips with the trials and tribulations of life on an Edwardian Farm.

Archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn and domestic historian Ruth Goodman will return to front Edwardian Farm, spending a full year delving into Britain's rural heritage.

They will make their home in a stunning new location, exploring the challenges posed by the British countryside at a time of great change and tumult; a time when farming was becoming increasingly mechanised at home, and abroad the world was moving gradually towards war.

As in the first series, the action will be based primarily on the farm, but the new setting will also allow the team to explore wider aspects of the working countryside, including rivers and coasts, boat-building, mining, fishing and market gardening."

BBC2 - Ancient Worlds - 6-part series - "BBC Two's Ancient Worlds, is a six-part odyssey from the first cities of Mesopotamia to the Christianisation of the Roman Empire with archaeologist and historian Richard Miles at the helm. The series tells the story of what Richard argues is mankind's greatest achievement – civilisation.

The series offers an epic sweep of history against a panorama of stunning locations and bold propositions about the origins of human society.

In the 21st century we might fondly imagine that it is humankind's natural state to live together in communities that extend beyond blood ties. As Ancient Worlds sets out to show, however, no such assumptions were made by the first clan chiefs who decided to form communities in southern Iraq in 4500 BC. There is nothing natural about the city, and its founders understood that its very survival relied on compromise, ruthlessness, sacrifice and toil.

In the West we have consigned the term 'civilisation' to the museum display case. Embarrassed by its chauvinistic and elitist connotations, we have increasingly taken refuge in more politically correct and soft-focused terms such as 'culture' to explain our origins. This series seeks to rescue civilisation from its enforced retirement and celebrate such a hard-fought invention."

More 4 - Not Forgotten - "Ian Hislop examines how the experience of the war transformed Britain's rigid class system."

Thursday 11th

BBC4 - Battlefield Poet: Keith Douglas
- "Documentary exploring the life and work of Keith Douglas, one of Britain's finest poets of the Second World War. Whilst the poets of 1914-18 are generally widely published, those writing during the Second World War are largely forgotten. Poet Owen Sheers documents Douglas's extraordinary talents and combat experiences as a tank commander, from the epic battles of the Western Desert to his death in Normandy three days after D-Day."

Friday 12th

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Central African Republic: Witches On Trial
- "The Central African Republic is a country obsessed with black magic, where nearly half the prison population are convicted witches.
In villages and the capital witchcraft is used to explain every misfortune and it is such a powerful weapon that it is a feature of almost every family quarrel or village dispute. And, as Unreported World reveals, it's often the most vulnerable who are singled out.
Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Julie Noon's journey begins at a ceremony performed by a traditional healer. She claims to have the power to expose black magic by looking into a fire and seeing the names and images of witches. During the ceremony she pulls a small boy from the crowd and announcing that he turns into a horse at night and eats people.
Healers like Marceline wield huge influence across the country and their authority is rarely questioned. She tells Rhodes her most recent case involved exposing a local man as a witch and that he was subsequently arrested and imprisoned.
Since independence from France in 1960 it's been illegal to use charlatanism and sorcery to harm others. Those found guilty can be jailed for up to ten years or even sentenced to death. Rhodes and Noon travel to Mbaiki prison. The Governor says he chains up all new suspected witches for the first seven days, but despite this one prisoner managed to escape; the governor claims he turned into a rat or snake and tunneled out.
Rhodes finds one prisoner, Francois, awaiting trial. He claims that although he was labeled a witch by his neighbours he is innocent. Francois says he was tied up, beaten by fellow villagers and dragged to the police station where he confessed.
Even though it is against the law there is no explanation in the penal code to what actually constitutes witchcraft. Rhodes speaks to the police to find out how they go about tackling a phenomenon that isn't even defined. A senior police captain says eyewitness testimony is enough for him to prosecute.
The team attends Francois's trial. His case, like others, seems to be based on rumour, hearsay and forced confessions. In court there's a big turnout. The judge begins by reading the charges and Francois's lawyer submits his plea of not guilty. A traditional healer is brought in and testifies he saw Francois turn into a dog and bite a man. Much to everyone's astonishment Francois pleads guilty. After the trial he tells Rhodes he was too scared to deny it.
Travelling north to Sibut, the team visits the local prison where more than half the prisoners are accused or convicted of witchcraft. The inmates protest their innocence and most of them seem to be a victim of quarrels with relatives or neighbours, which had all resulted in accusations of witchcraft being made. They all appear to be vulnerable, from the elderly to people who were living on their own.
Back in the capital, one of the country's most senior prosecuting judges - Arnaud Djoubaye - admits there is a problem with the law. He says there is no legal definition of the concept of witchcraft, which can be confusing and vague. However he's convinced witchcraft is a real and present threat to the population and believes the laws should remain to allow the judiciary to take action."


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* 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.