Off-air recordings for week 26th March - 1st April 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 26th March

More 4 - Japan's Tsunami: How It Happened - "Japan's Tsunami: How It Happened, investigates the science behind the earthquake and tsunami that has devastated Japan. It takes viewers on a journey with Professor of Geological Sciences Roger Bilham - in Japan only days after the earthquake struck. The programme follows Roger as he sets off on a mission to view the devastation from the air."

Sunday 27th March

BBC2 - Japan's Earthquake: A Horizon Special with Ian Stewart - "Professor Iain Stewart examines the powerful geological forces that unleashed the devastating Japanese earthquake, and explores how the release of this power of the planet brought Japan to the brink of a nuclear meltdown.

He follows moment by moment how the earthquake was generated under the Pacific Ocean, travelled to the Japanese mainland, and the rare conditions that unleashed a tsunami.

He also reveals the latest science behind earthquakes - from why we can't predict them, to what causes some of them to reach such power.

Iain shows why our civilisation has developed such a dangerous relationship with earthquakes, and why millions of us continue to live in earthquake zones across the world."

BBC1 - Imagine... The Trouble With Tolstoy - 2 parts - "Alan Yentob takes an epic train ride through Tolstoy's Russia, examining how Russia's great novelist became her great troublemaker.

In this programme, he reveals a difficult and troubled youth, obsessed with sex and gambling, who turned writer while serving as a soldier in Chechnya and the Crimea. His experiences on the frontline eventually fed into War and Peace, a book now recognised as, 'the gold standard by which all other novels are judged'. They also triggered his conversion to outspoken pacifist.

Alan's expedition takes him to the Tatar city of Kazan, where Tolstoy was a teenager, the siege of Sevastopol on the Black Sea and Imperial St Petersburg, as well as the idyllic Tolstoy country estate, the writer's cradle and grave, and home throughout his passionate but brutal 48-year marriage to Sofya - a marriage that began with rape, produced 13 children and ended with desertion and denial.

Contributors include Tolstoy's great great grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, AN Wilson and author of a new Tolstoy biography, Rosamund Bartlett."

Monday 28th

BBC2 - This World - Chilean Miners: What Happened Next? - "After confronting death 800 meters under the Chilean desert, the 33 trapped miners were then thrust into the glare of the international media's spotlight. Invitations have flooded in from around the world for guest appearances on TV shows, at charity events, even from Sir Bobby Charlton.

This film is a vivid and moving account of how three of the miners have coped with the whirlwind of fame, including charismatic Edison Pena who became known around the world as the underground runner and Elvis impersonator.

They may now be the toast of the world, but many of the miners are suffering from the anxieties that come with recurring nightmares, and some from psychological issues and addiction - all of which have an inevitable impact on their wives and families.

This is the story of how these ordinary working men and their families are struggling with the pressure of sudden fame and wealth, while still coming to terms with the trauma of those 70 days."

BBC2 - Neil Morrissey: Care Home Kid - 2 parts - "Neil Morrissey was just 10-years-old when he was sent into care. He looks back at his childhood in the hope of learning how this experience has truly affected him as an adult."

Tuesday 29th March

BBC1 - See You In Court - 6 parts - "Just as quickly as papers rush to press with the latest celebrity sex scandal or expose, lawyers are scrambling to court to either try and stop the stories appearing, or to set the record straight when the damage is out there.

But just what goes on in the normally notoriously private world of a libel or privacy battle, and how easy is it to clear your name, restore your reputation or defend yourself against things that have been said?

Recent actions have seen everyone from the Beckhams to Max Mosley sue over things they did or didn't do, and legal costs and damages reach hundreds of thousands. But is the fight always worth it, and is it just the rich and famous with the money and means that get to do battle?

Through extraordinary and unprecedented access inside Britain's biggest law firms, we follow 12 very different cases as they unfold over the course of 2 years.

Charting the emotional and financial toll a libel action can bring to both sides, claimants and defendants, we follow high-profile figures and serial suers like Uri Geller, Danielle Lloyd and George Galloway as they take on papers and companies alike. We also see journalists and scientists fighting over important public health matters and championing libel reform, as well as very ordinary people risking everything when they feel someone's got their story very wrong.

In this episode, we follow Lembit Opik as he tries to take on the press after considering that his cheeky boy reputation may have cost him his seat in the last election; and Sheryl Gascoigne finally decides, after years of being told it was best to say nothing, that it is time to hit back."

BBC4 - The Yorkshire Dales On Film - "Using moving images from across the decades, this documentary goes on a short trip to one of the most beautiful parts of the UK, the Yorkshire Dales. Encompassing newsreels, documentaries and home movies, these rarely-seen archive gems come together to reveal all aspects of life in the Dales, from sheep farming to cheese making, railway lines to dry stone walls and hill runners to potholing."

Friday 1st April

Channel 4 - Dispatches: BP - In Deep Water - "BP is one of the largest companies in the world and plays an important role in the British economy through UK pension funds, the billions of pounds of tax it pays and as a major employer in the UK. A year on from the start of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Dispatches examines the role of BP in this spill as well as similar incidents in the past and examines its contracts with oil-producing nations and relationship with the British government."

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Congo: The Children Who Back From The Dead - "Aidan Hartley and Ed Braman travel to Eastern Congo to witness the work of a man who liberates child soldiers who have been forced to participate in one of the world's longest-running conflicts. While there, they discover that hundreds more youngsters are being abducted, as rebels and the army prepare for a fresh round of fighting."

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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.