Off-air recordings for week 19-25 March 2011

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 19th

BBC2 - Christopher And His Kind - "The 'divinely decadent' Berlin cabaret scene is in full swing when a young and wide-eyed Christopher Isherwood arrives in the city to stay with his close friend and occasional lover, the poet WH Auden. To Isherwood's reserved English sensibility, the city's thriving gay subculture is thrilling and intoxicating. But Christopher soon finds himself heartbroken after the failure of a hopeless love affair, and so sets out on a process of self-discovery as he forges an identity and place for himself amidst the chaos of 1930s Berlin."

BBC4 - Omnibus: Christopher Isherwood - A Born Foreigner - "1969 documentary about author Christopher Isherwood. Born near Manchester, Isherwood mostly lived abroad. In 1969, he was living in California, was a devotee of Hinduism and a pacifist - yet of his own choice he remained an outsider, a foreigner. Derek Hart interviews him about his life and work, featuring extracts from films of his novels and stories including I Am A Camera and The Sailor from Gibraltar, and about the background to the writing of his novel A Single Man."

Tuesday 22nd

More4 - True Stories: Love, Lust and Lies - "Award-winning director Gillian Anderson has been following the lives of Josie, Diana and Kerry since 1976, when they were teenagers in suburban Australia.
Love, Lust and Lies documents how their lives have changed in the last 35 years, from new relationships starting, and breaking up with partners, to becoming mothers and grandmothers.
The women reveal their stories and secrets with remarkable honesty as the film demonstrates how fascinating and complex 'ordinary' life can be.
True Stories commissions and showcases the best international feature documentaries."

Thursday 24rd

ITV1 - Tonight: Too Old To Be A Mum? - "Madonna, Emma Thompson and Cherie Blair have done it, and it seems to be catching on. The number of women having babies in their forties doubled in the last decade. But fertility experts warn that choosing career first and starting a family second is a huge gamble - putting the health of both mother and baby at risk."

BBC4 - Everything And Nothing - 2 part series - "Two-part documentary which deals with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing?

In two epic, surreal and mind-expanding films, Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness.

The first part, Everything, sees Professor Al-Khalili set out to discover what the universe might actually look like. The journey takes him from the distant past to the boundaries of the known universe. Along the way he charts the remarkable stories of the men and women who discovered the truth about the cosmos and investigates how our understanding of space has been shaped by both mathematics and astronomy."


Friday 25th

Channel 4 - Unreported World - India's Leprosy Heroes - "Unreported World meets remarkable people fighting back against leprosy in India, where millions affected by the disease are pushed to the margins of society, ostracised by their friends and families.
Based on targets set by the World Health Organization, the Indian government claims it has eliminated leprosy. However Unreported World reveals the numbers of new cases in some areas could be much higher than previously estimated.
Reporter Seyi Rhodes and producer Richard Cookson begin their journey at a leprosy colony on the outskirts of Hyderabad in the south east of the country.
They meet local leader Narsappa, who caught the disease 30 years ago. Like some of the other residents in the colony he has been cured and is no longer contagious. Despite this they are all forced to live together because they're not welcome anywhere else.
Narsappa tells Rhodes that when he was diagnosed, his neighbours shunned him and his mother grieved for him as if he was dead. He was abandoned at the local hospital when he was just ten years old. Narsappa says he's now driven to stop others going through the same experience.
At a funeral that night for another sufferer, the discrimination many face is brought home. Narsappa's friend has died and has to be buried in a patch of waste ground next to the public cemetery. Even after death some believe the disease is still contagious so those affected are buried in graves away from everyone else.
In 2005, the Indian government declared that leprosy had been eliminated. However, the Unreported World team obtains leaked documents which suggest the official figures don't show the true scale of the disease. In one Indian state, health workers found the number of people infected was five times the official estimate.
Rhodes and Cookson accompany Narsappa and a group of colony residents to the local health directorate to demand supplies for their clinic, which has run out of stock. But, like on previous visits, they leave with only promises.
The team moves on to Naini Hospital in Allahabad. It's India's largest leprosy hospital and is run by UK based charity The Leprosy Mission. Senior surgeon Dr Premal Das tells Rhodes that his hospital saw 3,000 new leprosy cases last year - more than any previous year - but the budget has been cut by 20 per cent because it is practically impossible to raise money for leprosy when the government claims it has been eliminated.
The team films one of his patients - 16-year-old Pooja - as she undergoes surgery to correct deformities in her hand. The next day the crew follow Pooja home after weeks in hospital, but how will she be received and will she overcome the stigma so many of her fellow patients have to endure?"

BBC2 - This Is Britain - "Andrew Marr explores the state of the country on the eve of the 2011 Census, which uncovers details of people's lives once every decade, revealing vital population statistics. He takes a look at past records to discover how Britain has changed, examining fierce debates surrounding immigration and identity, and shifts in attitudes toward relationships and marriage. He also asks why the upper class seems to have largely disappeared, and compares life expectancy between residents in Glasgow and Hull."

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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.