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 27th August
Natural World; Documentaries
Great Migrations
Channel 4, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/4 - The Need To Breed
Every day, migrating creatures around the world wage incredible journeys; risking it all in pursuit of the one thing more precious than themselves: the creation and care of their precious young.
From the rocky beaches of the Falkland Islands to the dense forests of Costa Rica and from Australia to the desolate savannah of southern Sudan, this episode follows the countless animals that venture forth on timeless journeys, bent on their own survival, and the survival of their species.
_________________________________________________________
Monday 29th August
Factual; Crime and Justice; Documentaries
Conspiracy Files: 9/11 - Ten Years On
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
A decade after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the Conspiracy Files looks at why some people still question what really happened on 9/11. Conspiracy theories continue to evolve and now question every aspect of the official account. Why, they ask, was the hole in the Pentagon so small? Why did the World Trade Centre buildings collapse as if being demolished by explosives? Why did one skyscraper fall when it was never hit by a plane? And why was the world's greatest military power so unprepared and so slow to react when warnings had been received?
The death of Osama Bin Laden might have been expected to put an end to the conspiracy theories, but the failure to release any pictures of Bin Laden's death and the hasty disposal of his body in the Arabian Sea, has instead given these theories a new burst of life.
Featuring key witnesses, CIA and FBI interviewees and leading sceptics, the programme analyses the evidence and looks at what makes conspiracy theories so persistent and so powerful.
___________________________________________________________
Tuesday 30th August
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
Hidden Paintings of the North West
BBC4, 7:30-8:00pm
Liverpool actor Paul McGann goes in search of the North West's hidden war paintings. With 80 per cent of the national art collection in storage, there are thousands of hidden treasures in the basements and storerooms of our museums and galleries. McGann visits the Walker Art Gallery in his hometown and Manchester Art Gallery in search of the lost art of World War II. In Liverpool he is captivated by the work of Britain's youngest war artist and in Manchester he finds some long-lost depictions of the city's prodigious war effort.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History
The Art of Russia
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3, Liberty
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how Russia changed from a feudal nation of aristocratic excess to a hotbed of revolution at the beginning of the 20th century, and how art moved from being a servant of the state to an agent of its destruction.
From monuments that celebrate the absolutism of the tsars to the epic Russian landscape as inspiration; from the design and construction of gold and glittering palaces to the minutiae of diamond-encrusted Faberge eggs; and eventually to the stark and radical paintings of the avant-garde, the journey through Russian art history is one of extraordinary beauty and surprise.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
The Romantics
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am, 1/3 - Liberty
SynopsisPeter Ackroyd reveals how the radical ideas of liberty that inspired the French Revolution opened up a world of possibility for great British writers such as William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, inspiring some of the greatest works of literature in the English language. Their ideas are the foundations of our modern notions of freedom and their words are performed by David Tennant, Dudley Sutton and David Threlfall.
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Wednesday 31st August
Factual; Science and Nature Format; Documentaries
Horizon: The Core
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 4/6
For centuries we have dreamt of reaching the centre of the Earth. Now scientists are uncovering a bizarre and alien world that lies 4,000 miles beneath our feet, unlike anything we know on the surface. It is a planet buried within the planet we know, where storms rage within a sea of white-hot metal and a giant forest of crystals make up a metal core the size of the Moon.
Horizon follows scientists who are conducting experiments to recreate this core within their own laboratories, with surprising results.
Factual; Documentaries
The Secret War on Terror
BBC2, 11:20pm-12:20am, 1/2
The Secret War on Terror reveals the astonishing inside story of the intelligence war which has been fought against Al Qaeda over the last decade since 9/11.
With unparalleled access to Western intelligence and law enforcement agencies and with a host of exclusive interviews with those who have been at the sharp end of fighting the terrorists - from the CIA and the FBI to MI5 - Peter Taylor asks whether, with the death of Osama Bin Laden, there is any end in sight and whether we are any safer from attack. The series includes the first ever television interview with the former director general of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, and an extensive interview with the recent director of the CIA, General Michael Hayden.
This episode looks at how the West became involved in abductions, secret prisons and even torture and how the intelligence services successfully disrupt major terrorist plots.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 1st September
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries
The Secret Lives of Waves
BBC4, 1:30-2:30am
Documentary-maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.
Factual; History; Documentaries
Elegance and Decadence - The Age of the Regency
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/3, Warts and All - Portrait of a Prince
Colourful series marking the 200th anniversary of one of the most explosive and creative decades in British history. It presents a vivid portrait of an age of elegance presided over by a prince of decadence - the infamous Prince Regent himself, a man with legendary appetites for women, food and self-indulgence. Yet this was the same man who would rebuild London, carving out the great thoroughfare of Regent Street and help establish the Regency look as the epitome of British style through his extravagant patronage of art and design.
In this first episode, historian Dr Lucy Worsley chronicles the Regency's early years, which culminated in victory over Napoleon in 1815, and explores the complicated character of the Prince Regent, a man with legendary appetites for women, food, art and self-indulgence.
For Lucy, the Regency was an age of contradictions and extremes that were embodied in the person of the Prince Regent himself. She uncovers Prince George's modest childhood; bright and talented, the young George was beaten with a whip by his tutors and it was small wonder that he would later rebel, eventually embracing a scandal-ridden lifestyle that included illegal marriages and discarded mistresses.
So how did this overweight popinjay preside over an age in which art and culture mattered? A tour of his treasures in the Royal Collection shows Lucy that George was a genuine connoisseur, buying up Rembrandts and French furnishings while his excesses were at the same time inspiring satirical caricatures that mocked him as the 'Prince of Whales'. And she investigates George's collaboration with portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence, who left the definitive images of Regency society and became George's flatterer-in-chief; Regency wags laughed at how his paintings magically transformed an overweight bald fifty-something into a 'well-fleshed Adonis'.
Meanwhile, the long war with France was having a huge impact on the British psyche; travel and trade with Europe were impossibly restricted. Lucy follows in the footsteps of painter JMW Turner who, unable to travel to the continent, toured the south coast in 1811 and captured startling images of a country at war.
George liked to think of himself as a man of fashion, and Lucy takes us through surviving accounts from his tailors that reveal his shopaholic ways. These were the years in which the Prince's sometime friend Beau Brummell, the famous dandy, ruled fashionable London like a dictator, and Lucy samples a bit of butch Regency style by trying on some of the fashions he popularised, as well as joining Brummell biographer Ian Kelly on a tour of London's fashionable Regency haunts. She also discovers Brummell's spectacular fall from favour, after loudly referring to the Regent as someone's 'fat friend'.
Lucy visits the battlefield of Waterloo and discovers that the site became a prototype of battlefield tourism - Turner, Byron and many others all visited in the years after the battle and Lucy handles some grisly memorabilia purchased by Lord Byron.
The episode concludes with the most spectacular royal art commission of them all - Lawrence's series of paintings in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, paid for by George to memorialise his victory over Napoleon. Never mind that George wasn't at any of the battles - this was an age in which appearance and reality fused together to create monumental art.
Factual
9/11: The Day That Changed The World
ITV1, 9:00-10:45pm
On September 11th, 2001 millions shared with the people of New York the unimaginable horror of the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Now, through the memories of America’s key decision makers this film goes behind the scenes to show, minute by minute, how the men and women at the heart of American power struggled to manage the assault on their nation.
Together with the record of events filmed on that day The Day That Changed The World is the inside story of what happened on one extraordinary day ten years ago.
Told entirely through archive and interview, it goes behind the scenes and shows how the events unfurled in the aircraft, the offices, the bunkers and the military headquarters as the President, advisors, security services and the military tried to piece together what was happening, who was attacking the country and what was going to happen next.
Now America’s top decision makers on 9/11 including Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as well as America’s top generals, CIA and FBI anti-terror chiefs as well as those in the White House Situation Room, on board Air Force One and on the ground in New York reveal the inside story of 9/11.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
Arena: Chelsea Hotel
BBC4, 11:00-11:55pm
Arena explores New York's legendary haven for performers and artists from Mark Twain to Sid Vicious.
___________________________________________________________
Friday 2nd September
Factual; Documentaries
Fraud Squad
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/2
Concluding the two-part documentary following detectives as they investigate one of the biggest share frauds in Britain, perpetrated by 30-year-old fraudster George Abrue and his criminal associates. The police have nine suspects in custody, but Abrue remains out of reach somewhere in Europe, and other key gang members involved in laundering their victims' money still need to be tracked down. In Spain, detectives try to recover the stolen money for the victims, but it looks as though the gang were only interested in maintaining their own luxury lifestyle, not in building up assets. When Abrue is finally caught and extradited back from Sweden, detectives have the tough job of telling the victims where all their money has gone.
___________________________________________________________
*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 August 2011
Wednesday 17 August 2011
Off-air recordings for week 20-26 August 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 20th August
Factual; History; Documentaries
The Normans
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - The Men from the North
In the first episode of an exciting three-part series, Professor Robert Bartlett explores how the Normans developed from a band of marauding Vikings into the formidable warriors who conquered England in 1066. He tells how the Normans established their new province of Normandy -'land of the northmen' - in northern France. They went on to build some of the finest churches in Europe and turned into an unstoppable force of Christian knights and warriors, whose legacy is all around us to this day. Under the leadership of Duke William, the Normans expanded into the neighbouring provinces of northern France. But William's greatest achievement was the conquest of England in 1066. The Battle of Hastings marked the end of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and monarchy. The culture and politics of England would now be transformed by the Normans.
Factual; Natural History; Documentaries
Great Migrations
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/4 - Born To Move
The first episode of the series spans the globe, revealing four of the most remarkable animals' movements: sperm whales travelling over a million miles in a lifetime; red crabs overcoming horrific obstacles on a daily basis; monarch butterflies taking four generations to cross a continent; and wildebeest that, against all odds, avoid the gaping jaws of ravenous crocodiles.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 21st
Ocean Giants
BBC1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3 - Deep Thinkers
Humans have long wondered if the universe may harbour other intelligent life forms. But perhaps we need look no further than our oceans?
Whales and dolphins, like humans, have large brains, are quick to learn new behaviours and use a wide range of sounds to communicate with others in their society. But how close are their minds to ours? In the Bahamas, Professor Denise Herzing believes she is very close to an answer, theorising that she will be able to hold a conversation with wild dolphins in their own language within five years.
In Western Australia, dolphins rely on their versatile and inventive brains to survive in a marine desert. In Alaska, humpback whales gather into alliances in which individuals pool their specialised talents to increase their hunting success. We discover how young spotted dolphins learn their individual names and the social etiquette of their pod, and how being curious about new objects leads Caribbean bottlenose dolphins to self-awareness and even to self-obsession. Finally, the film shows a remarkable group of Mexican grey whales, who seem able to empathize with humans and may even have a concept of forgiveness.
___________________________________________________________
Monday 22nd August
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology
Horizon: The Nine Months That Made You
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/6
Horizon explores the secrets of what makes a long, healthy and happy life. It turns out that a time you can't remember - the nine months you spend in the womb - could have more lasting effects on you today than your lifestyle or genes. It is one of the most powerful and provocative new ideas in human science, and it was pioneered by a British scientist, Professor David Barker. His theory has inspired a field of study that is revealing how our time in the womb could affect your health, personality, and even the lives of your children.
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 24th August
Factual; History; Religion and Ethics; Documentaries
Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World
BBC2, 9:00-10:15pm
In this fascinating documentary, historian Bettany Hughes travels to the seven wonders of the Buddhist world and offers a unique insight into one of the most ancient belief systems still practised today.
Buddhism began 2,500 years ago when one man had an amazing internal revelation underneath a peepul tree in India. Today it is practised by over 350 million people worldwide, with numbers continuing to grow year on year.
In an attempt to gain a better understanding of the different beliefs and practices that form the core of the Buddhist philosophy and investigate how Buddhism started and where it travelled to, Hughes visits some of the most spectacular monuments built by Buddhists across the globe.
Her journey begins at the Mahabodhi Temple in India, where Buddhism was born; here Hughes examines the foundations of the belief system - the three jewels.
At Nepal's Boudhanath Stupa, she looks deeper into the concept of dharma - the teaching of Buddha, and at the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, Bettany explores karma, the idea that our intentional acts will be mirrored in the future.
At Wat Pho Temple in Thailand, Hughes explores samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death that Buddhists seek to end by achieving enlightenment, before travelling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia to learn more about the practice of meditation.
In Hong Kong, Hughes visits the Giant Buddha and looks more closely at Zen, before arriving at the final wonder, the Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, to discover more about the ultimate goal for all Buddhists - nirvana.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 25th August
Factual; History; Documentaries
The Story of British Pathe
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/4
Series delving into film and newsreel company British Pathé's treasure trove of images, which documented almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain and around the world in the 20th century.
Factual; Families and relationships; History; Documentaries
Too Much, Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages
BBC4, 10:55-11:55pm
Medievalist Dr Stephen Baxter takes a fresh look at the Middle Ages through the eyes of children. At a time when half the population was under eighteen he argues that, although they had to grow up quickly and take on adult responsibility early, the experience of childhood could also be richly rewarding. Focusing on the three pillars of medieval society - religion, war and work - Baxter reveals how children played a vital role in creating the medieval world.
___________________________________________________________
Friday 26th August
Factual
Fraud Squad
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/2
Fraud Squad - a new documentary series on ITV1- shadows Detectives as they investigate one of the biggest share frauds in Britain. The hunt for the Nigerian ringleader and his gang takes detectives across the playgrounds of Europe.
Will they recover the £20 million stolen from British victims before the gang spend it on their lavish lifestyles?
With unique access over two years, Fraud Squad shows the challenges British police face in dismantling a global criminal network and sheds light on the devastating impact fraud has on the British victims.
Fraud is the new goldmine for organised crime. 3.2 million people in Britain have become victims to an ever growing number of mass marketing scams. The gangs’ most lucrative enterprise is Boiler Room fraud. People are conned into buying worthless shares in fictitious companies. Some victims lose their homes, others have committed suicide...
___________________________________________________________
*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.
___________________________________________________________
Saturday 20th August
Factual; History; Documentaries
The Normans
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - The Men from the North
In the first episode of an exciting three-part series, Professor Robert Bartlett explores how the Normans developed from a band of marauding Vikings into the formidable warriors who conquered England in 1066. He tells how the Normans established their new province of Normandy -'land of the northmen' - in northern France. They went on to build some of the finest churches in Europe and turned into an unstoppable force of Christian knights and warriors, whose legacy is all around us to this day. Under the leadership of Duke William, the Normans expanded into the neighbouring provinces of northern France. But William's greatest achievement was the conquest of England in 1066. The Battle of Hastings marked the end of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and monarchy. The culture and politics of England would now be transformed by the Normans.
Factual; Natural History; Documentaries
Great Migrations
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/4 - Born To Move
The first episode of the series spans the globe, revealing four of the most remarkable animals' movements: sperm whales travelling over a million miles in a lifetime; red crabs overcoming horrific obstacles on a daily basis; monarch butterflies taking four generations to cross a continent; and wildebeest that, against all odds, avoid the gaping jaws of ravenous crocodiles.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 21st
Ocean Giants
BBC1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3 - Deep Thinkers
Humans have long wondered if the universe may harbour other intelligent life forms. But perhaps we need look no further than our oceans?
Whales and dolphins, like humans, have large brains, are quick to learn new behaviours and use a wide range of sounds to communicate with others in their society. But how close are their minds to ours? In the Bahamas, Professor Denise Herzing believes she is very close to an answer, theorising that she will be able to hold a conversation with wild dolphins in their own language within five years.
In Western Australia, dolphins rely on their versatile and inventive brains to survive in a marine desert. In Alaska, humpback whales gather into alliances in which individuals pool their specialised talents to increase their hunting success. We discover how young spotted dolphins learn their individual names and the social etiquette of their pod, and how being curious about new objects leads Caribbean bottlenose dolphins to self-awareness and even to self-obsession. Finally, the film shows a remarkable group of Mexican grey whales, who seem able to empathize with humans and may even have a concept of forgiveness.
___________________________________________________________
Monday 22nd August
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology
Horizon: The Nine Months That Made You
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/6
Horizon explores the secrets of what makes a long, healthy and happy life. It turns out that a time you can't remember - the nine months you spend in the womb - could have more lasting effects on you today than your lifestyle or genes. It is one of the most powerful and provocative new ideas in human science, and it was pioneered by a British scientist, Professor David Barker. His theory has inspired a field of study that is revealing how our time in the womb could affect your health, personality, and even the lives of your children.
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 24th August
Factual; History; Religion and Ethics; Documentaries
Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World
BBC2, 9:00-10:15pm
In this fascinating documentary, historian Bettany Hughes travels to the seven wonders of the Buddhist world and offers a unique insight into one of the most ancient belief systems still practised today.
Buddhism began 2,500 years ago when one man had an amazing internal revelation underneath a peepul tree in India. Today it is practised by over 350 million people worldwide, with numbers continuing to grow year on year.
In an attempt to gain a better understanding of the different beliefs and practices that form the core of the Buddhist philosophy and investigate how Buddhism started and where it travelled to, Hughes visits some of the most spectacular monuments built by Buddhists across the globe.
Her journey begins at the Mahabodhi Temple in India, where Buddhism was born; here Hughes examines the foundations of the belief system - the three jewels.
At Nepal's Boudhanath Stupa, she looks deeper into the concept of dharma - the teaching of Buddha, and at the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, Bettany explores karma, the idea that our intentional acts will be mirrored in the future.
At Wat Pho Temple in Thailand, Hughes explores samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death that Buddhists seek to end by achieving enlightenment, before travelling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia to learn more about the practice of meditation.
In Hong Kong, Hughes visits the Giant Buddha and looks more closely at Zen, before arriving at the final wonder, the Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, to discover more about the ultimate goal for all Buddhists - nirvana.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 25th August
Factual; History; Documentaries
The Story of British Pathe
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/4
Series delving into film and newsreel company British Pathé's treasure trove of images, which documented almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain and around the world in the 20th century.
Factual; Families and relationships; History; Documentaries
Too Much, Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages
BBC4, 10:55-11:55pm
Medievalist Dr Stephen Baxter takes a fresh look at the Middle Ages through the eyes of children. At a time when half the population was under eighteen he argues that, although they had to grow up quickly and take on adult responsibility early, the experience of childhood could also be richly rewarding. Focusing on the three pillars of medieval society - religion, war and work - Baxter reveals how children played a vital role in creating the medieval world.
___________________________________________________________
Friday 26th August
Factual
Fraud Squad
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/2
Fraud Squad - a new documentary series on ITV1- shadows Detectives as they investigate one of the biggest share frauds in Britain. The hunt for the Nigerian ringleader and his gang takes detectives across the playgrounds of Europe.
Will they recover the £20 million stolen from British victims before the gang spend it on their lavish lifestyles?
With unique access over two years, Fraud Squad shows the challenges British police face in dismantling a global criminal network and sheds light on the devastating impact fraud has on the British victims.
Fraud is the new goldmine for organised crime. 3.2 million people in Britain have become victims to an ever growing number of mass marketing scams. The gangs’ most lucrative enterprise is Boiler Room fraud. People are conned into buying worthless shares in fictitious companies. Some victims lose their homes, others have committed suicide...
___________________________________________________________
*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 3 August 2011
Off-air recordings for week 6-12 August 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 6th August
Factual; Arts, Culture & the Media; Documentaries
The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm, 4/4, Final Flourish
This episode takes a closer look at the late years of Impressionism, using the last show these artists did together as a starting point.
Waldemar looks in considerable depth at the work of Georges Seurat, taking into consideration his academic training at the Beaux-Arts School in Paris and the artists that influenced him, such as Piero della Francesca and Puvis de Chavannes.
There is also an insight into the complex but fascinating world of optics and art, and the ways in which the Impressionists were using the new discoveries in light and eyesight to influence their work. A fascinating 'after-image' experiment brings to life the ways in which our own eyes see colour, both in its presence and its absence.
Van Gogh's time in Paris, a period very little is known about, is also covered, charting the incredible journey the artist made from his brown and dull canvases to the splendid colour and light that pervaded his work on the cusp of his departure for the South of France.
The film finishes with a revisiting of Monet and his later waterlily paintings in the Orangerie in Paris. Waldemar investigates how a bad case of cataracts was responsible for a seismic shift in his colour palette and his brushstrokes. Spending time with an ophthalmologist, he finds out how old age and a fairly common ailment of the eyes caused Impressionism to shift and become radical again at the turn of the century and into the 20th century.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 7th August
Factual; News
This World: Thailand - Justice Under Fire
BBC2, 10:30-11:30
In Thailand a charismatic woman leader has just won a general election promising justice for the victims of army violence. Last year more than ninety people were killed in bloody clashes between demonstrators and the army in central Bangkok.
Award-winning correspondent Fergal Keane investigates the struggle of victims' families as they seek the truth about what happened to their loved ones. He explores claims of cover-up and impunity for the powerful.
Documentaries
Sperm Whale: Inside Nature's Giants Special
Channel 4, 9:00-10:30pm
The BAFTA-winning team battle through the night against a rising tide to explore the mysteries of the largest predator on Earth: the sperm whale.
Veterinary scientist Mark Evans and comparative anatomist Joy Reidenberg dissect the whale's enormous organs to reveal the secrets of this 45-foot deep-sea giant, which stranded and died on Pegwell Bay in Kent.
Despite their enormous size, we know very little about sperm whales because their lives are normally hidden deep beneath the waves.
The programme reveals how they can survive diving down thousands of metres for over an hour on one gulp of air in conditions that would freeze our blood and crush our bones.
As the team go inside the whale, biologist Simon Watt tracks whales in the Azores with modern-day Jonah, Malcolm Clarke, who gives him a sniff of his prized whale rectum samples and shows him the huge number of squid beaks in a whale's stomach.
Meanwhile, joined by diggers, trucks and a reluctant local tree surgeon, the team on the beach discover how sperm whales use the largest nose in creation to hunt giant squid in the dark.
In a memorable hands-on demonstration, whale expert Joy Reidenberg demonstrates how the whale can manoeuvre a prehensile penis of huge proportions with devastating precision.
And evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins marvels at the gigantic teeth that have evolved in the lower jaw of a sperm whale and digs out his copy of the King James Bible for a reading from the Book of Job about Leviathan.
__________________________________________________________
Monday 8th August
Drama
Women In Love
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm, 1/2
Adaptation of DH Lawrence's classic novels The Rainbow and Women in Love, focusing on the lives of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, as they struggle with love, passion and commitment in the build up to the First World War.
Factual; Arts, Culture & the Media; Documentaries
Birth of the British Novel
BBC4, 11:30pm-12:30am
Author Henry Hitchings explores the lives and works of Britain's radical and pioneering 18th century novelists who, in just 80 years, established all the literary genres we recognise today. It was a golden age of creativity led by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney and William Godwin, amongst others. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy are novels that still sparkle with audacity and innovation.
On his journey through 18th century fiction, Hitchings reveals how the novel was more than mere entertainment, it was also a subversive hand grenade that would change British society for the better. He travels from the homes of Britain's great and good to its lowliest prisons, meeting contemporary writers like Martin Amis, Will Self, Tom McCarthy and Jenny Uglow on the way.
Although 18th century novels are woefully neglected today compared to those of the following two centuries, Hitchings shows how the best of them can offer as much pleasure to the reader as any modern classic.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 9th August
Factual; Documentaries
Timeshift: When The Circus Comes To Town
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/2
Roll up! Roll up! Join Timeshift under the big top for unique access to the University of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive which tells the story of the circus. From Billy Smart to Gerry Cottle and Archaos to Cirque du Soleil, the documentary captures the appeal of this enduring mass entertainment. Find out what a josser is, discover why clowns are one of the few acts to achieve lasting celebrity and marvel at the sheer spectacle of some of the biggest circuses of all time. In an age when almost every form of popular entertainment owes something to the circus, When the Circus Comes to Town is a nostalgic journey into the origins of one of the ultimate expressions of human athleticism and showmanship.
Factual; Science & Nature; Science & Technology; Documentaries
Horizon: Do You See What I See?
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
Roses are red, violets are blue but according to the latest understanding these colours are really an illusion. One that you create yourself.
Horizon reveals a surprising truth about how we all see the world. You may think a rose is red, the sky is blue and the grass is green, but it now seems that the colours you see may not always be the same as the colours I see. Your age, sex and even mood can affect how you experience colours.
Scientists have unlocked the hidden power that colours can have over your life - how red can make you a winner, how blue makes time speed up, and more.
___________________________________________________________
Wednesday 10th August
Factual; History; Documentaries
Kidnapped: A Georgian Adventure
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
In 1728, 12-year-old James Annesley was snatched from the streets of Dublin and sold into slavery in America - the victim of a wicked uncle hell-bent on stealing his massive inheritance. Dan Cruickshank traces James's astonishing journey from the top table of 18th century society to its murky depths. The story, which helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped, reveals some disturbing home truths that cast a shadow over the century of the Enlightenment.
Factual; Science and Nature; Documenataries
Natural World: Empire of the Ants
Natural World visits the Arizona desert, where a new honey ant queen wages an intense battle for survival as she attempts to build and defend her empire. Eliminating rivals with ruthless efficiency, sacrificing thousands in her quest for domination, murder, cannibalism, genocide - she will do anything to keep her crown.
Empire of the Ants is the epic story of one honey ant queen's dramatic rise to power - her brutal fall from grace.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 11th August
Documentaries
Me, My Sex and I
New documentary looking at the truth about the sexes. It is a deeply-held assumption that every person is either male or female, but many people are now questioning whether this belief is correct.
This compelling and sensitive film unlocks the stories of people born neither entirely male nor female. Conditions like these have been known as 'intersex' and shrouded in unnecessary shame and secrecy for decades. It is estimated that DSDs (Disorders of Sexual Development) are, in fact, as common as twins or red hair - nearly one in 50 of us. The programme features powerful insights from people living with these conditions, and the medical teams at the forefront of the field, including clinical psychologist Tiger Devore, whose own sex when born was ambiguous.
__________________________________________________________
Friday 12th August
Documentaries
Carrot Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids
BBC4, 2:30-3:30am
Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus delves into the Horizon archive to find out how science has shaped our approach to parenting and education over the last fifty years. From lessons in motherly love to tough discipline to bribery tactics, she asks what's the best approach when it comes to bringing up children. Laverne also explores how extreme behaviour can sometimes be explained by underlying neurological problems and discovers whether children learn best in a more child-centred environment.
Factual; History
A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter
BBC4, 3:30-4:30am
The intellectual forces at work in the Tudor era ensured it was a pivotal period for children's education. Historian Dr Helen Castor reveals how the life and education of Margaret More, daughter of Thomas More, tell a story of the transforming power of knowledge. As a child in Tudor England, and educated to an exceptionally high level, Margaret embodies the intellectual spirit of the age - an era which embraced Humanism, the birth of the Church of England and the English Renaissance. This film reveals what a revolutionary intellectual spirit Margaret More was and how the ideas that shaped her education helped change the cultural life of England forever.
Factual
Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3
The second episode in the series looks at the murder of Jamie Lavis – one of Britain’s most appalling child murder cases. The programme speaks to the Lavis family and those involved in the case as a manipulative paedophile infiltrated those closest to his victim.
Jamie was murdered fourteen years ago when he was just eight years old. The Lavis family lived in Openshaw, Manchester - one of the cities most deprived suburbs. Jamie was the middle of five children and he and his siblings would often stay out playing all day.
But on bank holiday Monday, May 5th 1997 Jamie did not return home on time. His mother Karen remembers: “I was waiting for John to come home from work at eight o’clock, I told him and we just started panicking then. The police were phoned at ten.”
As the search intensified Jamie’s parents grew more worried. His older sister Nicola, now a mum herself, says: “I remember having to do everything because my mum and dad were just focused on finding him. Which is what I would be doing if it was one of [my children missing].”
Police knew that Jamie loved riding on the local buses, sometimes travelling around Manchester for hours at a time. 24 hours after his disappearance a local bus driver, Darren Vickers, approached the family and told them that Jamie had been travelling on his bus the day he went missing. As the last person to have seen Jamie alive, the Lavis family welcomed him into their home...
Factual; Documentaries
Of Time and The City
BBC2, 11:55pm-1:10am
Acclaimed British director Terence Davies's love song to his native city of Liverpool, looking at the city's transformation over the years through archival footage, personal memory and a powerful soundtrack.
___________________________________________________________
*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.
_________________________________________________________
Saturday 6th August
Factual; Arts, Culture & the Media; Documentaries
The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm, 4/4, Final Flourish
This episode takes a closer look at the late years of Impressionism, using the last show these artists did together as a starting point.
Waldemar looks in considerable depth at the work of Georges Seurat, taking into consideration his academic training at the Beaux-Arts School in Paris and the artists that influenced him, such as Piero della Francesca and Puvis de Chavannes.
There is also an insight into the complex but fascinating world of optics and art, and the ways in which the Impressionists were using the new discoveries in light and eyesight to influence their work. A fascinating 'after-image' experiment brings to life the ways in which our own eyes see colour, both in its presence and its absence.
Van Gogh's time in Paris, a period very little is known about, is also covered, charting the incredible journey the artist made from his brown and dull canvases to the splendid colour and light that pervaded his work on the cusp of his departure for the South of France.
The film finishes with a revisiting of Monet and his later waterlily paintings in the Orangerie in Paris. Waldemar investigates how a bad case of cataracts was responsible for a seismic shift in his colour palette and his brushstrokes. Spending time with an ophthalmologist, he finds out how old age and a fairly common ailment of the eyes caused Impressionism to shift and become radical again at the turn of the century and into the 20th century.
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Sunday 7th August
Factual; News
This World: Thailand - Justice Under Fire
BBC2, 10:30-11:30
In Thailand a charismatic woman leader has just won a general election promising justice for the victims of army violence. Last year more than ninety people were killed in bloody clashes between demonstrators and the army in central Bangkok.
Award-winning correspondent Fergal Keane investigates the struggle of victims' families as they seek the truth about what happened to their loved ones. He explores claims of cover-up and impunity for the powerful.
Documentaries
Sperm Whale: Inside Nature's Giants Special
Channel 4, 9:00-10:30pm
The BAFTA-winning team battle through the night against a rising tide to explore the mysteries of the largest predator on Earth: the sperm whale.
Veterinary scientist Mark Evans and comparative anatomist Joy Reidenberg dissect the whale's enormous organs to reveal the secrets of this 45-foot deep-sea giant, which stranded and died on Pegwell Bay in Kent.
Despite their enormous size, we know very little about sperm whales because their lives are normally hidden deep beneath the waves.
The programme reveals how they can survive diving down thousands of metres for over an hour on one gulp of air in conditions that would freeze our blood and crush our bones.
As the team go inside the whale, biologist Simon Watt tracks whales in the Azores with modern-day Jonah, Malcolm Clarke, who gives him a sniff of his prized whale rectum samples and shows him the huge number of squid beaks in a whale's stomach.
Meanwhile, joined by diggers, trucks and a reluctant local tree surgeon, the team on the beach discover how sperm whales use the largest nose in creation to hunt giant squid in the dark.
In a memorable hands-on demonstration, whale expert Joy Reidenberg demonstrates how the whale can manoeuvre a prehensile penis of huge proportions with devastating precision.
And evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins marvels at the gigantic teeth that have evolved in the lower jaw of a sperm whale and digs out his copy of the King James Bible for a reading from the Book of Job about Leviathan.
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Monday 8th August
Drama
Women In Love
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm, 1/2
Adaptation of DH Lawrence's classic novels The Rainbow and Women in Love, focusing on the lives of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, as they struggle with love, passion and commitment in the build up to the First World War.
Factual; Arts, Culture & the Media; Documentaries
Birth of the British Novel
BBC4, 11:30pm-12:30am
Author Henry Hitchings explores the lives and works of Britain's radical and pioneering 18th century novelists who, in just 80 years, established all the literary genres we recognise today. It was a golden age of creativity led by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney and William Godwin, amongst others. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy are novels that still sparkle with audacity and innovation.
On his journey through 18th century fiction, Hitchings reveals how the novel was more than mere entertainment, it was also a subversive hand grenade that would change British society for the better. He travels from the homes of Britain's great and good to its lowliest prisons, meeting contemporary writers like Martin Amis, Will Self, Tom McCarthy and Jenny Uglow on the way.
Although 18th century novels are woefully neglected today compared to those of the following two centuries, Hitchings shows how the best of them can offer as much pleasure to the reader as any modern classic.
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Tuesday 9th August
Factual; Documentaries
Timeshift: When The Circus Comes To Town
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/2
Roll up! Roll up! Join Timeshift under the big top for unique access to the University of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive which tells the story of the circus. From Billy Smart to Gerry Cottle and Archaos to Cirque du Soleil, the documentary captures the appeal of this enduring mass entertainment. Find out what a josser is, discover why clowns are one of the few acts to achieve lasting celebrity and marvel at the sheer spectacle of some of the biggest circuses of all time. In an age when almost every form of popular entertainment owes something to the circus, When the Circus Comes to Town is a nostalgic journey into the origins of one of the ultimate expressions of human athleticism and showmanship.
Factual; Science & Nature; Science & Technology; Documentaries
Horizon: Do You See What I See?
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
Roses are red, violets are blue but according to the latest understanding these colours are really an illusion. One that you create yourself.
Horizon reveals a surprising truth about how we all see the world. You may think a rose is red, the sky is blue and the grass is green, but it now seems that the colours you see may not always be the same as the colours I see. Your age, sex and even mood can affect how you experience colours.
Scientists have unlocked the hidden power that colours can have over your life - how red can make you a winner, how blue makes time speed up, and more.
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Wednesday 10th August
Factual; History; Documentaries
Kidnapped: A Georgian Adventure
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
In 1728, 12-year-old James Annesley was snatched from the streets of Dublin and sold into slavery in America - the victim of a wicked uncle hell-bent on stealing his massive inheritance. Dan Cruickshank traces James's astonishing journey from the top table of 18th century society to its murky depths. The story, which helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped, reveals some disturbing home truths that cast a shadow over the century of the Enlightenment.
Factual; Science and Nature; Documenataries
Natural World: Empire of the Ants
Natural World visits the Arizona desert, where a new honey ant queen wages an intense battle for survival as she attempts to build and defend her empire. Eliminating rivals with ruthless efficiency, sacrificing thousands in her quest for domination, murder, cannibalism, genocide - she will do anything to keep her crown.
Empire of the Ants is the epic story of one honey ant queen's dramatic rise to power - her brutal fall from grace.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 11th August
Documentaries
Me, My Sex and I
New documentary looking at the truth about the sexes. It is a deeply-held assumption that every person is either male or female, but many people are now questioning whether this belief is correct.
This compelling and sensitive film unlocks the stories of people born neither entirely male nor female. Conditions like these have been known as 'intersex' and shrouded in unnecessary shame and secrecy for decades. It is estimated that DSDs (Disorders of Sexual Development) are, in fact, as common as twins or red hair - nearly one in 50 of us. The programme features powerful insights from people living with these conditions, and the medical teams at the forefront of the field, including clinical psychologist Tiger Devore, whose own sex when born was ambiguous.
__________________________________________________________
Friday 12th August
Documentaries
Carrot Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids
BBC4, 2:30-3:30am
Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus delves into the Horizon archive to find out how science has shaped our approach to parenting and education over the last fifty years. From lessons in motherly love to tough discipline to bribery tactics, she asks what's the best approach when it comes to bringing up children. Laverne also explores how extreme behaviour can sometimes be explained by underlying neurological problems and discovers whether children learn best in a more child-centred environment.
Factual; History
A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter
BBC4, 3:30-4:30am
The intellectual forces at work in the Tudor era ensured it was a pivotal period for children's education. Historian Dr Helen Castor reveals how the life and education of Margaret More, daughter of Thomas More, tell a story of the transforming power of knowledge. As a child in Tudor England, and educated to an exceptionally high level, Margaret embodies the intellectual spirit of the age - an era which embraced Humanism, the birth of the Church of England and the English Renaissance. This film reveals what a revolutionary intellectual spirit Margaret More was and how the ideas that shaped her education helped change the cultural life of England forever.
Factual
Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3
The second episode in the series looks at the murder of Jamie Lavis – one of Britain’s most appalling child murder cases. The programme speaks to the Lavis family and those involved in the case as a manipulative paedophile infiltrated those closest to his victim.
Jamie was murdered fourteen years ago when he was just eight years old. The Lavis family lived in Openshaw, Manchester - one of the cities most deprived suburbs. Jamie was the middle of five children and he and his siblings would often stay out playing all day.
But on bank holiday Monday, May 5th 1997 Jamie did not return home on time. His mother Karen remembers: “I was waiting for John to come home from work at eight o’clock, I told him and we just started panicking then. The police were phoned at ten.”
As the search intensified Jamie’s parents grew more worried. His older sister Nicola, now a mum herself, says: “I remember having to do everything because my mum and dad were just focused on finding him. Which is what I would be doing if it was one of [my children missing].”
Police knew that Jamie loved riding on the local buses, sometimes travelling around Manchester for hours at a time. 24 hours after his disappearance a local bus driver, Darren Vickers, approached the family and told them that Jamie had been travelling on his bus the day he went missing. As the last person to have seen Jamie alive, the Lavis family welcomed him into their home...
Factual; Documentaries
Of Time and The City
BBC2, 11:55pm-1:10am
Acclaimed British director Terence Davies's love song to his native city of Liverpool, looking at the city's transformation over the years through archival footage, personal memory and a powerful soundtrack.
___________________________________________________________
*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.
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