Please email Rich Deakin rdeakin@glos.ac.uk if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*
_________________________________________________________
Saturday 3rd December
Documentaries
Tony Robinson's Gods and Monsters
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm, 2/2 Evil Spirits
Featuring dramatic reconstructions, the opening programme examines our fascination with and terror of dead bodies.
People in the past believed that even in death a body retained some vital force, and that the dead could rise from the grave to cause havoc among the living. Why did they believe this? What powers did they believe the dead had? And what did they do about it?
Tony's journey takes him on a fascinating and sometimes humorous tour of some of the darkest recesses of the ancient mind, and brings him face to face with a plague-breathing zombie, a dead body that seems alive three weeks after it died, and the English monarchs who ate the bodies of their subjects.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 4th December
Factual; Money; Documentaries
Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
In just seven years, Mark Zuckerberg has gone from his Harvard college dorm to running a business with 800 million users, and a possible value of $100 billion. His idea to 'make the world more open and connected' has sparked a revolution in communication, and now looks set to have a huge impact on business too.
Emily Maitlis reports on life inside Facebook. Featuring a rare interview with Zuckerberg himself, the film tells the story of Facebook's creation, looks at the accuracy of The Social Network movie, and examines Facebook's plans to use the personal information it has collected to power a new kind of online advertising.
__________________________________________________________
Monday 5th December
Documentaries; News, Current Affairs and Politics
Dispatches: Landlords from Hell
Channel 4, 8:30-9:00pm
In this undercover investigation, Jon Snow reports on the return of the slum landlord in 21st-century Britain. At a time when more people than ever are having to rent privately, unable to get on the property ladder, Dispatches reveals the shocking conditions in which tenants are forced to live.
Dispatches sends an undercover reporter to work for a rogue property empire in the north of England. He reveals a world of forced evictions, slum properties in dangerous condition, and routine bullying of tenants. Jon confronts the man raking in millions while his tenants suffer.
Dispatches also exposes an extraordinary new phenomenon: thousands of people living in illegal sheds, transforming parts of London into slums. A second undercover reporter lives in a squalid, illegal shed in London, paying £40 a week rent to another rogue landlord.
Dispatches lifts the lid on a world where unscrupulous landlords are exploiting the most vulnerable people in society and getting away with it.
August 2011:
Since the programme has gone out, the Charity Commission has opened an inquiry into housing charity, the Meridian Foundation, exposed in a recent Channel 4 Dispatches undercover investigation.
Meridian's property empire extends across greater Manchester and the north west of England. It has a turnover of hundreds of thousands of pounds with much of that money from the taxpayer in the form of Housing Benefit.
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission confirmed it had received 25 complaints about the charity after the programme was broadcast.
Documentaries
The Great British Property Scandal
Channel 4, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/2 (part 2 on Tuesday)
Almost two million British families are currently on the waiting lists for social housing, and thousands live in unsuitable temporary accommodation or are struggling with soaring rent payments. Cutbacks and the recession also mean that homelessness has become a very real threat to thousands across the whole social spectrum who are increasingly struggling to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, one million properties lie empty across the UK, even though many cost huge amounts to keep secure - a bill often footed by taxpayers. In some areas whole streets of houses stand deserted, damaging the local community as well as neighbourhood businesses. In others, empty stranded houses are a blight on the local landscape attracting vermin and vandals, and depressing surrounding property prices.
For The Great British Property Scandal season, Channel 4 investigates some of the issues that have contributed to the housing crisis and speak to a broad range of the people affected by it.
_________________________________________________________
Tuesday 6th December
Documentaries
My Child's Not Perfect
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/2
Children struggling with problems which drastically affect their behaviour and profoundly impact on their families’ lives are the focus of this brand new ITV1 series.
Among the children featured are a six-year-old girl who, despite being talkative at home, becomes mute as soon as she passes through the school gates each day, a 16 year old boy with Tourette’s Syndrome, whose condition appeared suddenly following a seizure, and a ten-year-old boy whose family have spent almost his entire life desperately searching for a clear, satisfactory diagnosis to help them understand why something ‘is not right’ with him.
Produced by Maverick Television, 2x60 documentary series, My Child’s Not Perfect, focuses on each family’s efforts to understand more about their child’s behaviour and ways to cope with the challenge of raising young people with a range of behavioural, emotional or clinical problems. In each programme, the children and their families, drawn from across the country and from a range of backgrounds, are shown dealing with the emotional demands and practical difficulties of searching for and testing methods of combating and managing each condition.
And, as the series will show, for some a significant part of their struggle is finding an adequate diagnosis for their condition in the first place.
Working with mental health professionals from established institutions including The Maudsley Hospital, The Anna Freud Centre and The Priory Hospital, My Child’s Not Perfect sets out to provide an insight into issues faced by many families today.
Episode 1
In episode one we meet Katherine, a lively little six year old who is the life and soul of the family at home. However, as soon as she passes through the school gates each day, she becomes mute. Unable to speak a word for eight hours a day, her family embarks on a course of intensive speech therapy to get to the cause of her resistance to talk.
For 16 year old Henry, the problem isn’t talking, it’s what he says: Henry has Tourette’s Syndrome. Diagnosed just over a year ago, following a sudden seizure, Henry and his family’s lives were turned upside down in an instant. Unable to control either physical movement or vocal expression, he’s coming to terms with the impact of this incurable condition and seeking alternative therapies to manage it, while studying for his GCSEs.
The programme also features Charlotte, who has been searching for a diagnosis to explain her ten year old son Adam’s behaviour. Convinced that something just ‘wasn’t right’ since he was a baby, she has come to the mental health unit of the Priory in Cheadle, near Stockport, to meet Dr Faeza Khan. She assesses Adam and diagnoses him with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, which comes as a relief to his mother, who has spent his life searching for a diagnosis which will hopefully enable the family to access services and support to formulate a long-term care package for him.
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 7th December
Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries
After Life: The Strange Science of Decay
BBC4, 4:00-5:30am
Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay.
For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old.
Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 8th December
Documentaries
Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3
Author and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore presents a three-part series that illuminates the history of the sacred, and peerlessly beautiful city - Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. For the Jewish faith, it is the site of the Western Wall, the last remnant of the second Jewish Temple. For Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the site of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest Sanctuary of Islam.
In episode one Simon Sebag Montefiore will delve into the past to explore how this unique city came into being, explaining how it became of such major importance to the three Abrahamic faiths; and how these faiths emerged from the Biblical tradition of the Israelites.
Starting with the Canaanites, Simon goes on a chronological journey to trace the rise of the city as a holy place and discusses the evidence for it becoming a Jewish city under King David. The programme explores the construction of the First Temple by Solomon through to the life and death of Jesus Christ and the eventual expulsion of the Jews by the Romans, concluding in the 7th Century AD, on the eve of the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslim Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab.
__________________________________________________________
Friday 9th December
News, Current Affairs and Politics
Unreported World
Channel 4, 7:30-8:00, 10/10, Australia's Hidden Valley
Unreported World investigates the effect of controversial emergency legislation on Australia's Aboriginal population. The government has used this legislation to take control of many Aboriginal settlements. It said this was help to end violence and child abuse, and combat the alcohol abuse that ravages many Aboriginal communities.
Reporter Oliver Steeds and director Ed Braman begin their journey in Alice Springs - visited by tens of thousands of Britons every year for its aboriginal art galleries and tourist sites - where alcohol addiction is still ravaging the lives of the country's original inhabitants, many of whom live in desolate squatter camps on the outskirts of town.
The team joins a regular night patrol, staffed by volunteers who search the streets for Aboriginal people incapacitated by alcohol. Many of them live in townships or settlements outside the town: a legacy from 1928 when they weren't allowed to live in the town itself.
Steeds and Braman visit a settlement called Hidden Valley. At the entrance is a sign warning that, under emergency legislation, alcohol is illegal. Despite this, the ground is littered with bottles and cans.
They give one resident, Beverley, a lift to the largest supermarket in the centre of Alice Springs. Since the emergency legislation, which required the suspension of Australia's race discrimination act, her welfare payments are ring-fenced to help prevent the purchase of alcohol.
Aboriginal people are five times more likely to die of alcohol-related causes than other Australians. However, the legislation, and the knowledge of the harm alcohol is doing, does little to stop her - or her friends - from buying it.
__________________________________________________________
*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 29 November 2011
Thursday 24 November 2011
Off-air recordings for week 26 November - 2 December 2011
Please email Rich Deakin rdeakin@glos.ac.uk if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*
_________________________________________________________
Sunday 27th November
Factual; Surfing; Documentaries
Riding Giants
BBC4, 9:00-10:30pm
The history of surfing culture is told through the exploits of the pioneers and contemporary heroes of big-wave surfing in Stacy Peralta's documentary, which features the likes of Greg Noll and Jeff Clark. Riding Giants makes palpable the magnitude and terrifying power of the waves they seek to conquer and captures the unfathomable combination of adrenaline and fear that the surfers experience each time they take on a monster swell.
_________________________________________________________
Monday 28th November
Crime and Justice; Documentaries
The British Woman on Death Row
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm
Linda Carty was born on the Commonwealth island of St Kitts. She's awaiting execution in Texas: if she's killed, she'll be the first British woman to be executed since Ruth Ellis, over 50 years ago.
In this moving documentary, film maker Steve Humphries goes in search of the real Linda Carty: who she is, where she came from, and how she ended up in arguably the worst place in the world, Death Row.
Linda was convicted of capital murder in 2002 after it was alleged she was the mastermind behind a horrific crime. In May 2001, a criminal gang broke into the home of Linda's neighbours and abducted a young mother and her three-day-old baby boy.
The next day the baby was found alive in one of Linda's cars, but his mother was found dead in another: she had been suffocated.
Linda has always denied any involvement in the crime, but testimony from the gang and circumstantial evidence found at the scene led to her arrest.
At her trial, Linda was represented by one of the State's capital defence attorneys, who's had over 20 of his clients end up on Death Row. It's claimed his poor defence of Linda helped lead to her conviction.
But this isn't just a film about a miscarriage of justice; it's a revealing account of Linda and her extraordinary life: she's been a primary school teacher, a dedicated single mother who overcame the stigma of illegitimacy, the victim of rape and abuse, and a woman blackmailed into becoming a confidential informant for the Drugs Enforcement Administration.
With contributions from family, friends, lawyers and Linda herself, this is an intimate and emotional portrait of a woman facing death and an exploration of why society believes she should die.
Factual; Travel; Documentaries
American Nomads
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm
Beneath the America we think we know lies a nation hidden from view - a nomadic nation, living on the roads, the rails and in the wild open spaces. In its deserts, forests, mountain ranges and on the plains, a huge population of modern nomads pursues its version of the American dream - to live free from the world of careers, mortgages and the white picket fence.
When British writer Richard Grant moved to the USA more than 20 years ago it wasn't just a change of country. He soon found himself in a world of travellers and the culture of roadside America - existing alongside, but separate from, conventional society. In this film he takes to the road again, on a journey without destination.
In a series of encounters and unplanned meetings, Richard is guided by his own instincts and experiences - and the serendipity of the road. Travelling with loners and groups, he encounters the different 'tribes' of nomads as he journeys across the deserts of America's south west.
Factual; Crime and Justice; Documentaries
Real Crime with Mark Austin: Manhunt
ITV1, 10:35-11:35pm, 4/4
The search for Northumbrian gunman Raoul Moat, a case that dominated the UK news in July 2010. Armed with a sawn-off shotgun, the former bouncer began his campaign of terror after being released from prison, murdering Chris Brown - his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart's partner - and shooting policeman David Rathband, which left the officer blind. Following a manhunt that lasted almost a week, Moat was found in Rothbury, Northumberland, where he eventually took his own life after a stand-off with police.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 29th November 2011
Documentaries; Politics
Jon Snow Meets Jimmy Carter
More4, 2:05-3:00am
In October 2011, Jimmy Carter entertained 2500 people at London's Southbank Centre with stories from his four years as US President and his subsequent life.
The Nobel Prize-winner, author, humanitarian, professor, farmer, naval officer and carpenter spoke to Jon Snow about everything from combatting guinea worm disease to the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Osama Bin Laden's death, the execution of Troy Davis, his assessment of the Harry Potter novels, and why he found it easier to work with George Bush Snr than Bill Clinton.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Food and Drink; Documentaries
America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith re-envisions the story of 20th century American culture through its most iconic institution - the diner. Whether Edward Hopper's Nighthawks or the infamous encounter between Pacino and de Niro in Heat, these gleaming, gawdy shacks are at the absolute heart of the American vision.
Stephen embarks on a girth-busting road journey that takes him to some of America's most iconic diners. He meets the film-makers and singers who have immortalised them, and looks at the role diners have played not only in America's greatest paintings and movies, but also in the fight against racial oppression and the chain restaurants' global takeover.
For Stephen, it's because the diner is the last vestige of a vital part of the American psyche - the frontier. Like the Dodge City saloon it's a place where strangers are thrown together, where normal rules are suspended and anything can happen. And it's this crackle of potentially violent and sexual energy that have drawn so many artists to the diner, and made it not a convenient setting but an engine room of 20th century American culture.
___________________________________________________________
Wednesday 30th November 2011
Documentaries; History
The Great Inca Rebellion
Mire 4, 11:10pm-12:10am
Recent archaeological discoveries in Peru are casting doubt on the received wisdom of the Spanish conquistadors' defeat of the Incas. It's long been believed that Francisco Pizarro led a lightning defeat of one of the mightiest civilisations of the New World.
But archaeologist Guillermo Cock has uncovered what may be the first physical evidence of an untold story of Inca guerrilla warfare, rebellion, counter-sieges and terror tactics.
The Great Inca Rebellion combines forensic anthropology, science and historical analysis to explore the possibility that it may have taken the Spanish decades to subdue Inca rebels who mounted guerrilla wars against the treasure-seeking conquistadors.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 1st December 2011
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media
America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Life was an iconic weekly magazine that specialised in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through its most dynamic decades, - the 40s, 50s and 60s - Life caught the spirit of America as it blossomed into a world superpower. Read by over half the country, its influence on American people was unparalleled. No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem. At Life the pictures, not the words, did the talking. As a result, the Life photographer was king.
In this film, leading UK fashion photographer Rankin celebrates the work of Life's legendary photographers including Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White, who went to outrageous lengths to get the best picture - moving armies, naval fleets and even the population of entire towns. He travels across the USA to meet photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson who, between them, have shot the big moments in American history - from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names in Hollywood.
These photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism, living with and photographing their subjects for weeks, enabling them to capture compelling yet ordinary aspects of American life too. Rankin discovers that Life told the story of America in photographs, and also taught America how to be American.
Factual, Art's, Culture and Media
Arena: James Ellroy's Feast of Death
BBC4, 11:25pm-1:00am
A programme exploring the work of crime writer James Ellroy, whose credits include LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia and My Dark Places, the latter a harrowing memoir of his own mother's murder. Ellroy later moved on from crime writing to pen his own secret history of the United States. As the second volume of his 'Underworld USA' trilogy - The Cold Six Thousand - was published in the UK in 2001, the film takes a tour of Ellroy's often disturbing world.
___________________________________________________________
Friday 2nd December 2011
World News; Current Affairs: Documentaries
Unreported World
Channel 4, 7:30-8:00pm, 9/10 Honduras: Diving Into Danger
Indigenous people in Honduras are risking their lives diving to dangerous depths for lobsters destined for North American and European diners. Overfishing means they must now dive as deep as 150ft to land their catch. Each time they dive, they risk paralysis or death from the bends.
Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Daniel Bogado travel into the Caribbean with divers on board a lobster diving boat. Kleeman discovers that while companies and consumers care about buying tuna that's caught in a way that doesn't harm dolphins, we don't seem to care about lobster that's caught in a way that has left hundreds dead and thousands paralysed.
The team begin their journey in Cocobila, where a lobster fishing boat is recruiting divers. Kleeman meets 29-year-old diver Alexis as he says goodbye to his wife and five children.
Alexis risks death on every trip but has no choice but make his living in this way, as he says there are no other work opportunities on the Mosquito Coast. Only four days ago, one of his friends was killed diving for lobster.
Kleeman and Bogado join the divers and crew as they head out to the lobster banks. For the next 12 days, this 60ft boat will be home to more than 100 men. The air is thick with marijuana and many of the men are very drunk, even though they will be diving the next day.
Overfishing means it takes 13 hours to reach the first banks where lobster could be found. Twenty years ago, they caught them metres from the shore...
____________________________________________________________
*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.
_________________________________________________________
Sunday 27th November
Factual; Surfing; Documentaries
Riding Giants
BBC4, 9:00-10:30pm
The history of surfing culture is told through the exploits of the pioneers and contemporary heroes of big-wave surfing in Stacy Peralta's documentary, which features the likes of Greg Noll and Jeff Clark. Riding Giants makes palpable the magnitude and terrifying power of the waves they seek to conquer and captures the unfathomable combination of adrenaline and fear that the surfers experience each time they take on a monster swell.
_________________________________________________________
Monday 28th November
Crime and Justice; Documentaries
The British Woman on Death Row
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm
Linda Carty was born on the Commonwealth island of St Kitts. She's awaiting execution in Texas: if she's killed, she'll be the first British woman to be executed since Ruth Ellis, over 50 years ago.
In this moving documentary, film maker Steve Humphries goes in search of the real Linda Carty: who she is, where she came from, and how she ended up in arguably the worst place in the world, Death Row.
Linda was convicted of capital murder in 2002 after it was alleged she was the mastermind behind a horrific crime. In May 2001, a criminal gang broke into the home of Linda's neighbours and abducted a young mother and her three-day-old baby boy.
The next day the baby was found alive in one of Linda's cars, but his mother was found dead in another: she had been suffocated.
Linda has always denied any involvement in the crime, but testimony from the gang and circumstantial evidence found at the scene led to her arrest.
At her trial, Linda was represented by one of the State's capital defence attorneys, who's had over 20 of his clients end up on Death Row. It's claimed his poor defence of Linda helped lead to her conviction.
But this isn't just a film about a miscarriage of justice; it's a revealing account of Linda and her extraordinary life: she's been a primary school teacher, a dedicated single mother who overcame the stigma of illegitimacy, the victim of rape and abuse, and a woman blackmailed into becoming a confidential informant for the Drugs Enforcement Administration.
With contributions from family, friends, lawyers and Linda herself, this is an intimate and emotional portrait of a woman facing death and an exploration of why society believes she should die.
Factual; Travel; Documentaries
American Nomads
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm
Beneath the America we think we know lies a nation hidden from view - a nomadic nation, living on the roads, the rails and in the wild open spaces. In its deserts, forests, mountain ranges and on the plains, a huge population of modern nomads pursues its version of the American dream - to live free from the world of careers, mortgages and the white picket fence.
When British writer Richard Grant moved to the USA more than 20 years ago it wasn't just a change of country. He soon found himself in a world of travellers and the culture of roadside America - existing alongside, but separate from, conventional society. In this film he takes to the road again, on a journey without destination.
In a series of encounters and unplanned meetings, Richard is guided by his own instincts and experiences - and the serendipity of the road. Travelling with loners and groups, he encounters the different 'tribes' of nomads as he journeys across the deserts of America's south west.
Factual; Crime and Justice; Documentaries
Real Crime with Mark Austin: Manhunt
ITV1, 10:35-11:35pm, 4/4
The search for Northumbrian gunman Raoul Moat, a case that dominated the UK news in July 2010. Armed with a sawn-off shotgun, the former bouncer began his campaign of terror after being released from prison, murdering Chris Brown - his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart's partner - and shooting policeman David Rathband, which left the officer blind. Following a manhunt that lasted almost a week, Moat was found in Rothbury, Northumberland, where he eventually took his own life after a stand-off with police.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 29th November 2011
Documentaries; Politics
Jon Snow Meets Jimmy Carter
More4, 2:05-3:00am
In October 2011, Jimmy Carter entertained 2500 people at London's Southbank Centre with stories from his four years as US President and his subsequent life.
The Nobel Prize-winner, author, humanitarian, professor, farmer, naval officer and carpenter spoke to Jon Snow about everything from combatting guinea worm disease to the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Osama Bin Laden's death, the execution of Troy Davis, his assessment of the Harry Potter novels, and why he found it easier to work with George Bush Snr than Bill Clinton.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Food and Drink; Documentaries
America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith re-envisions the story of 20th century American culture through its most iconic institution - the diner. Whether Edward Hopper's Nighthawks or the infamous encounter between Pacino and de Niro in Heat, these gleaming, gawdy shacks are at the absolute heart of the American vision.
Stephen embarks on a girth-busting road journey that takes him to some of America's most iconic diners. He meets the film-makers and singers who have immortalised them, and looks at the role diners have played not only in America's greatest paintings and movies, but also in the fight against racial oppression and the chain restaurants' global takeover.
For Stephen, it's because the diner is the last vestige of a vital part of the American psyche - the frontier. Like the Dodge City saloon it's a place where strangers are thrown together, where normal rules are suspended and anything can happen. And it's this crackle of potentially violent and sexual energy that have drawn so many artists to the diner, and made it not a convenient setting but an engine room of 20th century American culture.
___________________________________________________________
Wednesday 30th November 2011
Documentaries; History
The Great Inca Rebellion
Mire 4, 11:10pm-12:10am
Recent archaeological discoveries in Peru are casting doubt on the received wisdom of the Spanish conquistadors' defeat of the Incas. It's long been believed that Francisco Pizarro led a lightning defeat of one of the mightiest civilisations of the New World.
But archaeologist Guillermo Cock has uncovered what may be the first physical evidence of an untold story of Inca guerrilla warfare, rebellion, counter-sieges and terror tactics.
The Great Inca Rebellion combines forensic anthropology, science and historical analysis to explore the possibility that it may have taken the Spanish decades to subdue Inca rebels who mounted guerrilla wars against the treasure-seeking conquistadors.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 1st December 2011
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media
America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Life was an iconic weekly magazine that specialised in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through its most dynamic decades, - the 40s, 50s and 60s - Life caught the spirit of America as it blossomed into a world superpower. Read by over half the country, its influence on American people was unparalleled. No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem. At Life the pictures, not the words, did the talking. As a result, the Life photographer was king.
In this film, leading UK fashion photographer Rankin celebrates the work of Life's legendary photographers including Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White, who went to outrageous lengths to get the best picture - moving armies, naval fleets and even the population of entire towns. He travels across the USA to meet photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson who, between them, have shot the big moments in American history - from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names in Hollywood.
These photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism, living with and photographing their subjects for weeks, enabling them to capture compelling yet ordinary aspects of American life too. Rankin discovers that Life told the story of America in photographs, and also taught America how to be American.
Factual, Art's, Culture and Media
Arena: James Ellroy's Feast of Death
BBC4, 11:25pm-1:00am
A programme exploring the work of crime writer James Ellroy, whose credits include LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia and My Dark Places, the latter a harrowing memoir of his own mother's murder. Ellroy later moved on from crime writing to pen his own secret history of the United States. As the second volume of his 'Underworld USA' trilogy - The Cold Six Thousand - was published in the UK in 2001, the film takes a tour of Ellroy's often disturbing world.
___________________________________________________________
Friday 2nd December 2011
World News; Current Affairs: Documentaries
Unreported World
Channel 4, 7:30-8:00pm, 9/10 Honduras: Diving Into Danger
Indigenous people in Honduras are risking their lives diving to dangerous depths for lobsters destined for North American and European diners. Overfishing means they must now dive as deep as 150ft to land their catch. Each time they dive, they risk paralysis or death from the bends.
Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Daniel Bogado travel into the Caribbean with divers on board a lobster diving boat. Kleeman discovers that while companies and consumers care about buying tuna that's caught in a way that doesn't harm dolphins, we don't seem to care about lobster that's caught in a way that has left hundreds dead and thousands paralysed.
The team begin their journey in Cocobila, where a lobster fishing boat is recruiting divers. Kleeman meets 29-year-old diver Alexis as he says goodbye to his wife and five children.
Alexis risks death on every trip but has no choice but make his living in this way, as he says there are no other work opportunities on the Mosquito Coast. Only four days ago, one of his friends was killed diving for lobster.
Kleeman and Bogado join the divers and crew as they head out to the lobster banks. For the next 12 days, this 60ft boat will be home to more than 100 men. The air is thick with marijuana and many of the men are very drunk, even though they will be diving the next day.
Overfishing means it takes 13 hours to reach the first banks where lobster could be found. Twenty years ago, they caught them metres from the shore...
____________________________________________________________
*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 16 November 2011
Off-air recordings for week 19-25 November 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.*
_________________________________________________________
Sunday 20th November
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology; Documentaries
Frontline Medicine
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/2, Survival
War drives innovation and in this series, Michael Mosley travels from the frontline of war to the frontline of research to uncover the medical breakthroughs that are coming out of current conflicts.
The first episode takes Michael to Camp Bastion hospital in Afghanistan to find out how medics have achieved the highest survival rate in the history of warfare. And in A&E departments in the USA, he looks at the latest medical advances that could save thousands of lives both on and off the battlefield.
__________________________________________________________
Monday 21st November
Documentaries; Crime and Justice
Real Crime with Mark Austin
ITV1, 10:35-11:35pm, 3/4, Fallen Angel
The case of Hells Angel Gerry Tobin, who was murdered by members of rival motorcycle gang the Outlaws on the M40 while travelling back from the Bulldog Bash festival in August 2007. With access to the police investigation and CCTV footage, as well as interviews with Tobin's family, the programme pieces together the events that led up to his death.
Documentaries
We Need To Talk About Dad
Channel 4, 10:20-11:25pm
The Johnson family appeared to have it all after two decades of happy marriage: professional success, a beautiful house in Kent, flaxen-haired children. Locals jokingly referred to them as a 'Sunday Supplement Family'. But one day Nick told his wife he had a surprise for, led her blind-folded into the garden, and committed an act of violence far worse than anything they could have imagined. Henry, who was just 16 at the time, became a witness to the crime. We Need to Talk About Dad meets the Johnsons as they reunite for Christmas, fulfilling the dreams of the youngest son Felix who - until now - has been sheltered from the events of that day. Henry's need to confront what happened sees each of them come face to face with the mystery of the attack, and the impact it has had on their lives.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 22nd November 2011
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
John Steinbeck: Voice of America
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Melvyn Bragg travels from Oklahoma to California to examine the enduring legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck.
In novels such as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row, Steinbeck gave voice to ordinary people who were battling poverty, drought and homelessness. Travelling the famous Route 66 from the midwest to the Pacific coast, Melvyn assesses how relevant Steinbeck's work is today. He visits the site of the 1930s dust bowl in Oklahoma; the California orchards where bloody political battles were fought between migrant labourers and growers; and the Monterey coastline where Steinbeck developed his ideas on ecology. Melvyn makes a case for Steinbeck as one of the great voices of American literature.
Factual; Documentaries
Storyville: Deadline - New York Times
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm
Documentary which goes inside the newsroom at one of the most venerable publishing institutions in the world, the New York Times. Director Andrew Rossi gained unprecedented access to America's pre-eminent news factory during one of its most tumultuous years, as the film follows its struggle to survive in a year where Wikileaks emerged as a household name and other newspapers folded. Led by people such as David Carr - a firebrand journalist and former crack addict - can the foot soldiers of this bastion of old media keep up with the torrent of information that is the world wide web?
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 23rd November 2011
_________________________________________________________
Sunday 20th November
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology; Documentaries
Frontline Medicine
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/2, Survival
War drives innovation and in this series, Michael Mosley travels from the frontline of war to the frontline of research to uncover the medical breakthroughs that are coming out of current conflicts.
The first episode takes Michael to Camp Bastion hospital in Afghanistan to find out how medics have achieved the highest survival rate in the history of warfare. And in A&E departments in the USA, he looks at the latest medical advances that could save thousands of lives both on and off the battlefield.
__________________________________________________________
Monday 21st November
Documentaries; Crime and Justice
Real Crime with Mark Austin
ITV1, 10:35-11:35pm, 3/4, Fallen Angel
The case of Hells Angel Gerry Tobin, who was murdered by members of rival motorcycle gang the Outlaws on the M40 while travelling back from the Bulldog Bash festival in August 2007. With access to the police investigation and CCTV footage, as well as interviews with Tobin's family, the programme pieces together the events that led up to his death.
Documentaries
We Need To Talk About Dad
Channel 4, 10:20-11:25pm
The Johnson family appeared to have it all after two decades of happy marriage: professional success, a beautiful house in Kent, flaxen-haired children. Locals jokingly referred to them as a 'Sunday Supplement Family'. But one day Nick told his wife he had a surprise for, led her blind-folded into the garden, and committed an act of violence far worse than anything they could have imagined. Henry, who was just 16 at the time, became a witness to the crime. We Need to Talk About Dad meets the Johnsons as they reunite for Christmas, fulfilling the dreams of the youngest son Felix who - until now - has been sheltered from the events of that day. Henry's need to confront what happened sees each of them come face to face with the mystery of the attack, and the impact it has had on their lives.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 22nd November 2011
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
John Steinbeck: Voice of America
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Melvyn Bragg travels from Oklahoma to California to examine the enduring legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck.
In novels such as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row, Steinbeck gave voice to ordinary people who were battling poverty, drought and homelessness. Travelling the famous Route 66 from the midwest to the Pacific coast, Melvyn assesses how relevant Steinbeck's work is today. He visits the site of the 1930s dust bowl in Oklahoma; the California orchards where bloody political battles were fought between migrant labourers and growers; and the Monterey coastline where Steinbeck developed his ideas on ecology. Melvyn makes a case for Steinbeck as one of the great voices of American literature.
Factual; Documentaries
Storyville: Deadline - New York Times
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm
Documentary which goes inside the newsroom at one of the most venerable publishing institutions in the world, the New York Times. Director Andrew Rossi gained unprecedented access to America's pre-eminent news factory during one of its most tumultuous years, as the film follows its struggle to survive in a year where Wikileaks emerged as a household name and other newspapers folded. Led by people such as David Carr - a firebrand journalist and former crack addict - can the foot soldiers of this bastion of old media keep up with the torrent of information that is the world wide web?
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 23rd November 2011
Documentaries
More 4, 12:50-2.30am
Twenty-year-old JoEllen Marsh has always known her family wasn't like other families. She grew up in Pennsylvania with two mothers and a burning curiosity to know more about her anonymous donor father.
When JoEllen discovers a unique online registry that connects donor-conceived children, she tracks down a half-sister in New York. The New York Times picks up the story, and, over time, 12 more half-siblings emerge across the United States.
The New York Times article also falls into the hands of Jeffrey Harrison, living alone with four dogs and a pigeon in a broken-down RV in a Venice Beach car park. In the 1980s, Jeffrey supplemented his meagre incoming by becoming a sperm donor at California Cryobank.
This is a uniquely 21st-century story. The children and their donor dad are reunited as much by modern technology as by old-fashioned coincidence. While the siblings seem to take their ever-expanding family in their stride, Jeffrey is more apprehensive about meeting some of his biological children for the first time.
Funny, moving and surprising, Sperm Donor Unknown raises intriguing questions about our understanding of parenthood, and the strange power of our genetic connections.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 24th November 2011
Factual; Documentaries
Close Up: Jackson Pollock - Love and Death On Long Island
BBC4, 11:25pm-12:15am
First transmitted in 1999, this documentary profiles American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, who died at the age of 44 in a car accident. At the time of his death in 1956, Jackson Pollock was the most celebrated artist in America. His new way of pouring or dripping paint onto the canvas redefined the nature of painting.
Jackson Pollock remains one of America's most controversial artists. "Sometimes I use a brush, but often prefer using a stick. Sometimes I pour the paint straight out of the can. I like to use a dripping fluid paint. A method of painting has a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them," he says in this programme. It was this desire to find a more direct form of expression that led to Pollock and his contemporaries being called the 'abstract impressionists'.
Pollock led life to the full, but it was a troubled existence which led to a violent death. Jackson Pollock's lover, Ruth Kligman, reflects, "It was a romantic way to die. If he hadn't met Lee and died in that car he would have died a sick man with maybe an enlarged liver, which is not as romantic as dying tragically in a car with a woman he loved." Artist and friend Cile Downs adds, "It's a lot easier to think about the drama of his history than it is to think about what he did in the realm of art." This documentary explores both themes, leaving you to make up your own mind.
________________________________________________________
Friday 25th November 2011
News; Current Affairs and Politics
Unreported World
Channel 4, 7:30-8:00pm, episode 18. Trinidad: Guns, Drugs and Secrets
Trinidad has become the murder capital of the Caribbean. While half a million tourists soak up the carnival atmosphere every year, the government has introduced a state of emergency to try to stop the gang violence that results in a murder on average every 17 hours.
At 11pm in the capital Port of Spain the atmosphere changes as a strict curfew comes into force and the normally bustling city becomes a ghost town. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Will West are only allowed out because they have obtained a special curfew pass for journalists.
The state of emergency has been in force since August and while the murder rate has halved, the killings are continuing.
The team follows police to Laventille, a notoriously violent area. Police officers tell the team that illegal guns and gangs are the cause of most of the murders.
Under the emergency powers the police and army can enter any property without a warrant and arrest anyone they choose. They've rounded up more than 4000 people in the two months since the start of the state of emergency.
Another neighbourhood, Calvary Hill, has been the scene of scores of murders as gang culture and drug dealing have spiraled out of control over the last decade. During the state of emergency many families here have had their homes raided and their sons arrested.
One mother, Susan, has just seen two of her sons arrested, suspected of being gang members. She doubts the state of emergency will end the violence.
Round the corner in Nelson Street, the team discovers that the drug dealing that has blighted this area is still going on, in spite of the police presence.
___________________________________________________________
*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.
When JoEllen discovers a unique online registry that connects donor-conceived children, she tracks down a half-sister in New York. The New York Times picks up the story, and, over time, 12 more half-siblings emerge across the United States.
The New York Times article also falls into the hands of Jeffrey Harrison, living alone with four dogs and a pigeon in a broken-down RV in a Venice Beach car park. In the 1980s, Jeffrey supplemented his meagre incoming by becoming a sperm donor at California Cryobank.
This is a uniquely 21st-century story. The children and their donor dad are reunited as much by modern technology as by old-fashioned coincidence. While the siblings seem to take their ever-expanding family in their stride, Jeffrey is more apprehensive about meeting some of his biological children for the first time.
Funny, moving and surprising, Sperm Donor Unknown raises intriguing questions about our understanding of parenthood, and the strange power of our genetic connections.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 24th November 2011
Factual; Documentaries
Close Up: Jackson Pollock - Love and Death On Long Island
BBC4, 11:25pm-12:15am
First transmitted in 1999, this documentary profiles American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, who died at the age of 44 in a car accident. At the time of his death in 1956, Jackson Pollock was the most celebrated artist in America. His new way of pouring or dripping paint onto the canvas redefined the nature of painting.
Jackson Pollock remains one of America's most controversial artists. "Sometimes I use a brush, but often prefer using a stick. Sometimes I pour the paint straight out of the can. I like to use a dripping fluid paint. A method of painting has a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them," he says in this programme. It was this desire to find a more direct form of expression that led to Pollock and his contemporaries being called the 'abstract impressionists'.
Pollock led life to the full, but it was a troubled existence which led to a violent death. Jackson Pollock's lover, Ruth Kligman, reflects, "It was a romantic way to die. If he hadn't met Lee and died in that car he would have died a sick man with maybe an enlarged liver, which is not as romantic as dying tragically in a car with a woman he loved." Artist and friend Cile Downs adds, "It's a lot easier to think about the drama of his history than it is to think about what he did in the realm of art." This documentary explores both themes, leaving you to make up your own mind.
________________________________________________________
Friday 25th November 2011
News; Current Affairs and Politics
Unreported World
Channel 4, 7:30-8:00pm, episode 18. Trinidad: Guns, Drugs and Secrets
Trinidad has become the murder capital of the Caribbean. While half a million tourists soak up the carnival atmosphere every year, the government has introduced a state of emergency to try to stop the gang violence that results in a murder on average every 17 hours.
At 11pm in the capital Port of Spain the atmosphere changes as a strict curfew comes into force and the normally bustling city becomes a ghost town. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Will West are only allowed out because they have obtained a special curfew pass for journalists.
The state of emergency has been in force since August and while the murder rate has halved, the killings are continuing.
The team follows police to Laventille, a notoriously violent area. Police officers tell the team that illegal guns and gangs are the cause of most of the murders.
Under the emergency powers the police and army can enter any property without a warrant and arrest anyone they choose. They've rounded up more than 4000 people in the two months since the start of the state of emergency.
Another neighbourhood, Calvary Hill, has been the scene of scores of murders as gang culture and drug dealing have spiraled out of control over the last decade. During the state of emergency many families here have had their homes raided and their sons arrested.
One mother, Susan, has just seen two of her sons arrested, suspected of being gang members. She doubts the state of emergency will end the violence.
Round the corner in Nelson Street, the team discovers that the drug dealing that has blighted this area is still going on, in spite of the police presence.
___________________________________________________________
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Off-air recordings for week 12-18 November 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 12th November
Factual; Life Stories; Documentaries
Arena: George Harrison - Living in the Material World
BBC1, 9:45-11:20pm, 1/2
Arena broadcasts the UK television premiere of Martin Scorsese's portrait of the late George Harrison.
Scorsese traces Harrison's life from his beginnings in Liverpool to becoming a world-famous musician, philanthropist and filmmaker, weaving together interviews with George and his closest friends, photographs and archive footage including live performances - much of it previously unseen.
The result is a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the most talented artists of his generation.
Part one looks at George's early years in The Beatles - from their first gigs in Hamburg and the beginning of Beatlemania, through to his psychedelic phase and involvement in religion and Indian music.
The programme includes contributions from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and Phil Spector.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 13th November
News; Performances and Events
Remembrance Sunday: The Cenotaph
BBC1, 10:25am-12:15pm
Her Majesty the Queen leads the nation's Remembrance Sunday commemorations. Dignitaries from around the Commonwealth, the prime minister, leading politicians, representatives of many of the world's religions and military leaders join thousands of veterans from countless conflicts for the two minute silence, service and march past. All gather to remember those men and women who have died in action serving their country.
Factual; Life Stories; Documentaries
Arena: George Harrison - Living in the Material World
BBC1, 9:45-11:20pm, 2/2
Factual; History; Documentaries
Timewatch: Beatlemania
Documentary which tells the inside story of the rise and fall of Beatlemania, using previously unseen archive footage and interviews with those who accompanied the Beatles on tour.
By 1966 they had played over 1,400 gigs, toured the world four times and sold the equivalent of 200 million records. At the height of their popularity, and without warning, they pulled the plug and never toured again.
_________________________________________________________
Monday 14th November
News
Panorama: Meet The Burglars
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm
SynopsisVictims of burglary and other crimes are increasingly being offered the opportunity to meet the criminals who offended against them, in a controversial scheme aimed at empowering victims and potentially cut levels of re-offending among former prisoners.
Panorama reporter Raphael Rowe goes into a jail to witness a tense encounter between two young women and the youth who broke into their home while they slept.
Meetings between victims and offenders have proved to be remarkably successful in cutting reoffending and allowing victims to recover far more quickly. The government wants to see more of these restorative justice meetings used in the criminal justice system following all types of crimes.
Another victim of a horrific attack reveals to Panorama how her true motive in agreeing to meet her burglar was to get revenge and kill him.
Documentaries
Confessions of an Undercover Cop
Channel 4, 9:00-10:00pm
With exclusive access to Mark Kennedy, Britain's most controversial undercover police officer, this gripping and revelatory documentary tells the definitive, inside story of Mark Stone/Kennedy.
Directed by BAFTA Award-winner Brian Hill and narrated by Kennedy, the Cutting Edge film, coming soon to Channel 4, also features interviews with the police to reconstruct the story of how Mark Kennedy went from being a regular south London police officer, with a wife and two children, to becoming Mark Stone.
This was Mark the environmental campaigner, militant activist and undercover cop who broke into power stations, learned how to make bombs, infiltrated groups hell-bent on attacking major corporations and stood arm-in-arm with anti-capitalist anarchists.
He also had a relationship with a female activist for four years and was even beaten up by fellow police officers who were unaware he was undercover. All the time he was feeding intelligence back to his handlers.
Now, with his cover blown, he lives in fear for his life. He is separated from his wife and family. The woman he fell deeply in love with as Mark Stone never wants to see him again.
For the first time, Kennedy is returning to face up to himself, his actions and to the people who claim he betrayed them.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
Art of America
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - Looking For Paradise
n the first episode of a series exploring the history of American art, Andrew Graham-Dixon embarks on an epic journey from east to west, following in the footsteps of the pioneers who built the foundations of modern America.
During his journey, he travels to Massachusetts to see the earliest portraits in America depicting the Puritan settlers and visits Pennsylvania to uncover the dark truth behind Benjamin West's most famous painting, the spectacular Treaty of Penn with the Indians. In Philadelphia, he turns the pages of one of the world's most expensive books - John James Audubon's exquisite Birds of America, and explores the wilderness that inspired America's greatest landscape painter, Thomas Cole.
He also uncovers the paradox at the heart of America: that progress and innovation have come at a tragic price, the destruction of the unique cultural heritage of Native Americans by European settlers.
Andrew's journey takes us to the end of the 19th century and the announcement that the era of westward expansion was officially over.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Crime and Justice
Storyville: Billion Dollar Art Heist
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm
Documentary which chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, a private art collection valued at more than $25bn. In 1922, Dr Albert C Barnes formed a remarkable educational institution around his priceless collection of art, located just five miles outside of Philadelphia. Now, more than 50 years after Barnes's death, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court for control of the art, intending to bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia. Standing in their way is a group of Barnes's former students and his will, which contains strict instructions stating the foundation should always be an educational institution and that the paintings may never be removed. Will politics prevail over a man's dying wishes?
Documentaries
The Man Who Forged America
BBC4, 11:30pm-12:30am
Mark Hofmann is the greatest forger of the 20th century. In the 1980s he forged historic American and Mormon documents that fooled the world's best experts. As well as making money, many of his forgeries had a darker purpose - to undermine and ridicule the institution that had dominated his life - the Mormon Church.
On 15 October 1985, Hofmann's crimes reached another level when he murdered two innocent people. This film explores the complex motivations behind his forgery and the pressures that drove him to become a killer.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 15th November
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
Imagine... Alan Ayckbourn: Greetings from Scarborough
BBC1, 10:35-11:45pm
In Imagine: Alan Ayckbourn – Greetings From Scarborough, Alan meets playwright and director Alan Ayckbourn as he unveils his 75th play, Neighbourhood Watch. Ayckbourn is often described as the world's most performed living playwright and his work has been translated into more than 35 languages, and in this fascinating programme Alan Yentob uncovers what lies beneath the writer's tragi-comic characters. He also speaks to some of the actors and directors who have worked with Ayckbourn, including Sir Peter Hall, Michael Gambon, Richard Briers, Catherine Tate and Alain Resnais.
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 16th November
Factual
Rich Hall's Continental Drifters
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Returning from his successful BBC Four documentary The Dirty South, comedian Rich Hall embarks on a new journey across America to explore the symbolism of the classic road movie.
Cruising through the breathtaking badlands of South Dakota to the mountains of Montana, Rich follows in the famous Thunderbird tyre tracks of Thelma And Louise and serial killer classic Natural Born Killers, as well as Vanishing Point, Badlands, Lost In America, Easy Rider and Sugarland Express, to name a few.
This seductive exploration of the open road leads him on an inspiring journey of freedom and escapism, as he chases the horizon, discovering why the combination of road and rubber had become so iconic.
Rich Hall's Continental Drifters is not only a visual feast, but also a fascinating insight into classic Americana and the history of the American highway system.
With historians, motel experts and interstate scholars joining him on his captivating journey, and with a remarkable mixture of history, symbolism, wit and classic clips, viewers can sit back, enjoy – and let Rich do the driving.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 17th November
News
Tonight: Waking Up To Insomnia
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm
No programme information yet
__________________________________________________________
Friday 18th November
News; Current Affairs
Unreported World - India's Child Savers
ITV1, 7:30-7:55pm
Reporter Evan Williams and Director James Brabazon journey to the dark side of India's booming economy, where they that find thousands of children are being kidnapped into domestic slavery for the growing middle class and businesses; and the growth of a deadly new terror: children being kidnapped for ransom by those desperate to share some of the country's new wealth. Across India more than 60,000 children go missing every year; in Delhi alone seven children go missing every day. Williams and Brabazon discover that the capital has become a major destination and transit point for tens of thousands of children being trafficked into forced labour, prostitution, begging and drug running. And India's boom appears to be fueling the trade in children.
Criminology; Crime and Justice
Real Crime With Mark Austin: The Jigsaw Killer
ITV4, 9:00-10:00pm
The case of `jigsaw killer' Stephen Marshall, who murdered businessman Jeffrey Howe in March 2009 and scattered his body parts in locations around Hertfordshire and Leicestershire. Featuring interviews with police officers involved, the programme reveals how the grisly case was solved, with Marshall sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2010 and his girlfriend Sarah Bush jailed for three years and nine months for perverting the course of justice.
__________________________________________________________
*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 12th November
Factual; Life Stories; Documentaries
Arena: George Harrison - Living in the Material World
BBC1, 9:45-11:20pm, 1/2
Arena broadcasts the UK television premiere of Martin Scorsese's portrait of the late George Harrison.
Scorsese traces Harrison's life from his beginnings in Liverpool to becoming a world-famous musician, philanthropist and filmmaker, weaving together interviews with George and his closest friends, photographs and archive footage including live performances - much of it previously unseen.
The result is a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the most talented artists of his generation.
Part one looks at George's early years in The Beatles - from their first gigs in Hamburg and the beginning of Beatlemania, through to his psychedelic phase and involvement in religion and Indian music.
The programme includes contributions from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and Phil Spector.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 13th November
News; Performances and Events
Remembrance Sunday: The Cenotaph
BBC1, 10:25am-12:15pm
Her Majesty the Queen leads the nation's Remembrance Sunday commemorations. Dignitaries from around the Commonwealth, the prime minister, leading politicians, representatives of many of the world's religions and military leaders join thousands of veterans from countless conflicts for the two minute silence, service and march past. All gather to remember those men and women who have died in action serving their country.
Factual; Life Stories; Documentaries
Arena: George Harrison - Living in the Material World
BBC1, 9:45-11:20pm, 2/2
Factual; History; Documentaries
Timewatch: Beatlemania
Documentary which tells the inside story of the rise and fall of Beatlemania, using previously unseen archive footage and interviews with those who accompanied the Beatles on tour.
By 1966 they had played over 1,400 gigs, toured the world four times and sold the equivalent of 200 million records. At the height of their popularity, and without warning, they pulled the plug and never toured again.
_________________________________________________________
Monday 14th November
News
Panorama: Meet The Burglars
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm
SynopsisVictims of burglary and other crimes are increasingly being offered the opportunity to meet the criminals who offended against them, in a controversial scheme aimed at empowering victims and potentially cut levels of re-offending among former prisoners.
Panorama reporter Raphael Rowe goes into a jail to witness a tense encounter between two young women and the youth who broke into their home while they slept.
Meetings between victims and offenders have proved to be remarkably successful in cutting reoffending and allowing victims to recover far more quickly. The government wants to see more of these restorative justice meetings used in the criminal justice system following all types of crimes.
Another victim of a horrific attack reveals to Panorama how her true motive in agreeing to meet her burglar was to get revenge and kill him.
Documentaries
Confessions of an Undercover Cop
Channel 4, 9:00-10:00pm
With exclusive access to Mark Kennedy, Britain's most controversial undercover police officer, this gripping and revelatory documentary tells the definitive, inside story of Mark Stone/Kennedy.
Directed by BAFTA Award-winner Brian Hill and narrated by Kennedy, the Cutting Edge film, coming soon to Channel 4, also features interviews with the police to reconstruct the story of how Mark Kennedy went from being a regular south London police officer, with a wife and two children, to becoming Mark Stone.
This was Mark the environmental campaigner, militant activist and undercover cop who broke into power stations, learned how to make bombs, infiltrated groups hell-bent on attacking major corporations and stood arm-in-arm with anti-capitalist anarchists.
He also had a relationship with a female activist for four years and was even beaten up by fellow police officers who were unaware he was undercover. All the time he was feeding intelligence back to his handlers.
Now, with his cover blown, he lives in fear for his life. He is separated from his wife and family. The woman he fell deeply in love with as Mark Stone never wants to see him again.
For the first time, Kennedy is returning to face up to himself, his actions and to the people who claim he betrayed them.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
Art of America
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - Looking For Paradise
n the first episode of a series exploring the history of American art, Andrew Graham-Dixon embarks on an epic journey from east to west, following in the footsteps of the pioneers who built the foundations of modern America.
During his journey, he travels to Massachusetts to see the earliest portraits in America depicting the Puritan settlers and visits Pennsylvania to uncover the dark truth behind Benjamin West's most famous painting, the spectacular Treaty of Penn with the Indians. In Philadelphia, he turns the pages of one of the world's most expensive books - John James Audubon's exquisite Birds of America, and explores the wilderness that inspired America's greatest landscape painter, Thomas Cole.
He also uncovers the paradox at the heart of America: that progress and innovation have come at a tragic price, the destruction of the unique cultural heritage of Native Americans by European settlers.
Andrew's journey takes us to the end of the 19th century and the announcement that the era of westward expansion was officially over.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Crime and Justice
Storyville: Billion Dollar Art Heist
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm
Documentary which chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, a private art collection valued at more than $25bn. In 1922, Dr Albert C Barnes formed a remarkable educational institution around his priceless collection of art, located just five miles outside of Philadelphia. Now, more than 50 years after Barnes's death, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court for control of the art, intending to bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia. Standing in their way is a group of Barnes's former students and his will, which contains strict instructions stating the foundation should always be an educational institution and that the paintings may never be removed. Will politics prevail over a man's dying wishes?
Documentaries
The Man Who Forged America
BBC4, 11:30pm-12:30am
Mark Hofmann is the greatest forger of the 20th century. In the 1980s he forged historic American and Mormon documents that fooled the world's best experts. As well as making money, many of his forgeries had a darker purpose - to undermine and ridicule the institution that had dominated his life - the Mormon Church.
On 15 October 1985, Hofmann's crimes reached another level when he murdered two innocent people. This film explores the complex motivations behind his forgery and the pressures that drove him to become a killer.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 15th November
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
Imagine... Alan Ayckbourn: Greetings from Scarborough
BBC1, 10:35-11:45pm
In Imagine: Alan Ayckbourn – Greetings From Scarborough, Alan meets playwright and director Alan Ayckbourn as he unveils his 75th play, Neighbourhood Watch. Ayckbourn is often described as the world's most performed living playwright and his work has been translated into more than 35 languages, and in this fascinating programme Alan Yentob uncovers what lies beneath the writer's tragi-comic characters. He also speaks to some of the actors and directors who have worked with Ayckbourn, including Sir Peter Hall, Michael Gambon, Richard Briers, Catherine Tate and Alain Resnais.
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 16th November
Factual
Rich Hall's Continental Drifters
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Returning from his successful BBC Four documentary The Dirty South, comedian Rich Hall embarks on a new journey across America to explore the symbolism of the classic road movie.
Cruising through the breathtaking badlands of South Dakota to the mountains of Montana, Rich follows in the famous Thunderbird tyre tracks of Thelma And Louise and serial killer classic Natural Born Killers, as well as Vanishing Point, Badlands, Lost In America, Easy Rider and Sugarland Express, to name a few.
This seductive exploration of the open road leads him on an inspiring journey of freedom and escapism, as he chases the horizon, discovering why the combination of road and rubber had become so iconic.
Rich Hall's Continental Drifters is not only a visual feast, but also a fascinating insight into classic Americana and the history of the American highway system.
With historians, motel experts and interstate scholars joining him on his captivating journey, and with a remarkable mixture of history, symbolism, wit and classic clips, viewers can sit back, enjoy – and let Rich do the driving.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 17th November
News
Tonight: Waking Up To Insomnia
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm
No programme information yet
__________________________________________________________
Friday 18th November
News; Current Affairs
Unreported World - India's Child Savers
ITV1, 7:30-7:55pm
Reporter Evan Williams and Director James Brabazon journey to the dark side of India's booming economy, where they that find thousands of children are being kidnapped into domestic slavery for the growing middle class and businesses; and the growth of a deadly new terror: children being kidnapped for ransom by those desperate to share some of the country's new wealth. Across India more than 60,000 children go missing every year; in Delhi alone seven children go missing every day. Williams and Brabazon discover that the capital has become a major destination and transit point for tens of thousands of children being trafficked into forced labour, prostitution, begging and drug running. And India's boom appears to be fueling the trade in children.
Criminology; Crime and Justice
Real Crime With Mark Austin: The Jigsaw Killer
ITV4, 9:00-10:00pm
The case of `jigsaw killer' Stephen Marshall, who murdered businessman Jeffrey Howe in March 2009 and scattered his body parts in locations around Hertfordshire and Leicestershire. Featuring interviews with police officers involved, the programme reveals how the grisly case was solved, with Marshall sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2010 and his girlfriend Sarah Bush jailed for three years and nine months for perverting the course of justice.
__________________________________________________________
*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 3 November 2011
Off-air recordings for week 5-11 November 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 5th November
Documentaries
The Truth About Binge Drinking
ITV2, 8:00-9:00pm
As the debate continues over Britain's apparently increasing `booze culture', former Liberty X star Michelle Heaton participates in a social experiment. Under the close supervision of medics, she drinks more than the recommended level of alcohol for 30 consecutive days, intending to reveal the full price that binge drinkers pay for their habit.
_________________________________________________________
Sunday 6th November
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology; Weather
Will It Snow?
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
This topical programme taps into the nation's obsession with the weather and asks whether we are heading for another 'snowmageddon' as experienced in the previous two years.
Can forecasters give us warning this time around? How does the 'olde' weather lore compare with the supercomputers? And what are we doing across Britain to prepare ourselves as we head into winter?
'Will It Snow?' predicts what another extreme cold snap would spell for Britain's economy as it puts the science of weather forecasting to the test and asks the experts what we are in store for between now and spring.
Factual; Crime and Justice; Documentaries
Storyville: Murder on a Sunday Morning
BBC4, 10:00-11:55pm
Jacksonville, Florida, May 2000. Mary Ann Stephens is shot in the head at point blank range in front of her husband. Two hours later, a 15-year-old black American, Brenton Butler, is arrested walking down a nearby street.
Jean-Xavier De Lestrade's Academy Award-winning film follows his trial. Everyone involved with the case, from investigators to journalists, is ready to condemn Butler, except his lawyer Patrick McGuiness. A dazzling and magnetic presence of Hollywood proportions, McGuiness reopens the inquiry, and in a dramatic and spine-tingling sequence of events, he and his team discover a slew of shocking and troubling elements about the case.
Murder on a Sunday Morning is gripping and heart-wrenching - the stuff suspense novelists only dream of writing.
Factual; Science and Nature
A History of the Brain
BBC Radio 4, 10 part series
Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe. From Neolithic times to the present day, Geoff journeys through the many ideas of what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions. While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.
In Episode 1: A Hole in the Head, the focus is on trepanation, the practice of drilling holes in the skull believing that such operations might correct physiological or spiritual problems. Trepanation reveals much about the understanding of the brain from Neolithic to recent times. The Ancient Egyptians, however, rarely trepanned, even though their Secret Book of the Physician, one of the oldest medical texts in the world, shows that they recognised how damage to the brain can paralyze limbs on opposite sides of the body. Believing the heart to be the core organ, they discarded the brain altogether at death, since it had no part to play in the afterlife.
The series is written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University. Actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes provide the voices of those who have written about the brain across the ages. Actor Hattie Morahan gives the Anatomy Lesson establishing the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the cranium and the meninges. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton. The producer is Marya Burgess.
Factual; Documentaries
Shankill Butchers
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
With 19 murders between them, the Shankill Butchers were the most prolific gang of serial killers in UK history. During the dark days of the Troubles their savagery stood apart, paralysing both communities in Northern Ireland with fear. With unique access to the evidence, and exclusive interviews, Stephen Nolan goes back to the patch where he was brought up to ask how the Shankill Butchers got away with murder for so long.
One Life: Getting Away With Murder
BBC4, 11:30pm-12:10am
Documentary which follows Ann Ming as she campaigns to have her daughter's killer tried for murder a second time. Julie was murdered 17 years ago by her boyfriend, Billy Dunlop. Billy was subsequently tried for her murder, but found not guilty. Only later did he brag that he had committed the crime, but the double jeopardy law, which has stood for 800 years in Britain, meant that he could not be tried for the same crime twice. Ann Ming has successfully campaigned to change the law. ONE life follows Ann as she seeks to get justice for the murder of her daughter as the first double jeopardy case is brought back to the courts.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 8th November
Documentaries
My Transsexual Summer
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm, 1/4
Max, 25, has already undergone 'top surgery': a double mastectomy and male chest sculpting. He is hoping to become Britain's first transgender Rabbi.
Former policeman Karen, 52, is preparing for full gender re-assignment surgery. Drew, 22, is stuck living at home, and desperate to lead a 'normal' life in a world that constantly asks 'Is that a boy or a girl?'
Lewis, 22, is looking to raise money for a double mastectomy and investigating a phalloplasty: penis construction; the surgeries he wants to make him feel fully male.
Fox, 30, has only been transitioning for six months, and struggles daily to overcome his feminine looks. Donna, 25, is content living between genders, but navigating relationships can be hard.
Sarah, 28, has just begun to live full-time as a woman and is building up the courage to tell her parents that she has changed her life forever.
The decision to change gender can leave many trans people profoundly isolated, and this group of seven is no different. Though some derive enormous strength from family and friends, others can find themselves cut off and many struggle to find work.
Now they are coming together to share advice and support, reflecting a growing on-line community where many hundreds of transgender people have been making contact with one another.
By physically coming together, the group develops genuine friendships and gives themselves the strength to overcome some of the multiple challenges of being trans in day-to-day life.
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 9th November
Factual; Crime and Justice; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment
Murder On The Lake
BBC4, 2:30-4:00am
Joan Root, with her husband Alan, produced beautiful and famous natural history films, born of her deep love of Africa and its flora and fauna. This delicate but determined member of Kenya's Happy Valley was gunned down in January 2006 by intruders bearing AK-47s. Four men were charged with her murder, including David Chege, the leader of a private vigilante group Root herself had financed to stop the illegal fishing that was killing Lake Naivasha, the beautiful lake beside which she lived.
Chege was from Karagita, the largest of the slums that has sprung up beside the lake in the last twenty years. In that time, the population of Naivasha has rocketed from 30,000 to 350,000 as a desperate tide of impoverished migrant workers arrived in search of employment on Kenya's flourishing flower farms. This has created squalor, crime and, in the minds of Root and her fellow naturalists, ecological apocalypse.
This film tells the story of the extraordinary life and brutal death of Joan Root, and of her campaign to save the lake she loved. Who killed Joan Root? Was it the fish poachers, whom Root stopped from plying their illegal trade in a bid to save her beloved Lake Naivasha? Was it her loyal lieutenant Chege, whom Root ultimately cut off from her payroll? Or was it one of her white neighbours, with whom Root had feuded?
Through the telling of Root's story, the film opens a window onto contemporary Africa and the developed world's relationship to it. For it is the Kenyan rose, which is exported by the millions on a daily basis from Naivasha, that has brought not just jobs and foreign exchange earnings, but a population explosion that has caused the destruction of the environment Root worked so hard to stop. Her campaign may have ultimately cost her her life.
Factual; Crime and Justice; Documentaries
The Thin Blue Line
BBC4, 9:00-10:35pm
Errol Morris broke cinematic ground with The Thin Blue Line, establishing a new genre in the non-fiction feature by creating a fascinating reconstruction and investigation of a brutal and senseless murder.
The case in question is centred on the 1976 murder of a Dallas policeman. The murder remained unsolved for over a month until the Dallas police department received word that 16-year-old David Harris had been arrested in Vidor, Texas, after having bragged to friends that he killed a Dallas cop. Although the murder weapon was found in a nearby swamp, Harris later insisted that his boasting was meant only to impress his friends and insisted the real murderer was a hitchhiker he had picked up earlier that day named Randall Adams.
Morris assembles diverse interviews, photo montages, film clips and reenactments of the crime to make a strong case for Adams's innocence, leading to a shocking finale.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 10th November
News; Current Affairs; Politics
Tonight: Life After The Riots
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm
Julie Etchingham visits towns and cities affected by the August riots to discover whether promises to help families and business owners affected by the disturbances have been kept. She also examines how the police are faring in their efforts to catch those responsible for the looting and violence.
Factual; Science and Nature; Religion and Ethics
The End of God? A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm
The relationship between science and religion has been long and troubled: from the condemnation of Galileo by the Catholic Church in 17th century Italy, through the clashes between creationism and evolution in 20th century America, right up to recent claims that the universe does not need God.
Delving through the rich archive of programmes from Horizon and BBC Science, Thomas Dixon looks at what lies behind this difficult relationship. Using original footage from 1925, he tells the story of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher who was tried for teaching evolution. He sees the connections between religion and American politics in the story of a more recent court case – the trial of Intelligent Design. He looks at what happens when new scientific discoveries start to explain events that were once seen as the workings of God, and explains how some of our most famous scientists have seen God in the grandest laws of the universe. Finally, he finds intriguing evidence from brain science which hints that belief in God is here to stay.
Documentary
Brunel's Last Launch: A Time Team Special
Channel 4, 9:00-10:00pm
Nowadays, London's East End is synonymous with the 2012 Olympic Games. Cutting-edge engineering and design have transformed the Olympic Park. But 150 years ago, the world was watching for a very different reason, although the spectacle on display was as high-tech as anything on offer today. The East End was once home to the most advanced shipbuilding industry - and best workers and shipyards - in the world. A century and a half ago, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's most famous engineer, was about to launch a ship five times bigger than any that had ever been built before, the most revolutionary vessel the world had ever seen: the SS Great Eastern. Pioneering the transition from sail to steam and timber to iron, Brunel and East London's ship builders created vessels that were bigger, faster and tougher than ever before. But this launch was a disaster. Brunel went from hero to laughing stock overnight as his leviathan stuck on the slipway. Brunel died not long after. Today archaeologists are scouring the banks of the Thames to discover why launching such a big vessel proved a complete disaster. Examining the slipways, they hope to discover what went wrong and how it affected shipbuilding in London for ever. Tony Robinson joins them in their quest to solve the puzzle. But he and the team also explore some of the extraordinary successes of this long-gone industry and a time when the East End led the world.
__________________________________________________________
Friday 11th November
Art, Culture and the Media
Art For Heroes: A Culture Show Special
BBC2, 7:00-8:00pm
Tim Samuels offers an insight into the role of art therapy in the rehabilitation of former servicemen and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Veterans of recent British conflicts share their experiences of the condition and reveal how drawing, sculpting and painting are helping alleviate their symptoms. Tim also travels to Chicago, where he meets Professor of Neurology Dr Lukas Konopka, whose brain mapping demonstrates art's potential to heal.
__________________________________________________________
*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 5th November
Documentaries
The Truth About Binge Drinking
ITV2, 8:00-9:00pm
As the debate continues over Britain's apparently increasing `booze culture', former Liberty X star Michelle Heaton participates in a social experiment. Under the close supervision of medics, she drinks more than the recommended level of alcohol for 30 consecutive days, intending to reveal the full price that binge drinkers pay for their habit.
_________________________________________________________
Sunday 6th November
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology; Weather
Will It Snow?
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
This topical programme taps into the nation's obsession with the weather and asks whether we are heading for another 'snowmageddon' as experienced in the previous two years.
Can forecasters give us warning this time around? How does the 'olde' weather lore compare with the supercomputers? And what are we doing across Britain to prepare ourselves as we head into winter?
'Will It Snow?' predicts what another extreme cold snap would spell for Britain's economy as it puts the science of weather forecasting to the test and asks the experts what we are in store for between now and spring.
Factual; Crime and Justice; Documentaries
Storyville: Murder on a Sunday Morning
BBC4, 10:00-11:55pm
Jacksonville, Florida, May 2000. Mary Ann Stephens is shot in the head at point blank range in front of her husband. Two hours later, a 15-year-old black American, Brenton Butler, is arrested walking down a nearby street.
Jean-Xavier De Lestrade's Academy Award-winning film follows his trial. Everyone involved with the case, from investigators to journalists, is ready to condemn Butler, except his lawyer Patrick McGuiness. A dazzling and magnetic presence of Hollywood proportions, McGuiness reopens the inquiry, and in a dramatic and spine-tingling sequence of events, he and his team discover a slew of shocking and troubling elements about the case.
Murder on a Sunday Morning is gripping and heart-wrenching - the stuff suspense novelists only dream of writing.
Factual; Science and Nature
A History of the Brain
BBC Radio 4, 10 part series
Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe. From Neolithic times to the present day, Geoff journeys through the many ideas of what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions. While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.
In Episode 1: A Hole in the Head, the focus is on trepanation, the practice of drilling holes in the skull believing that such operations might correct physiological or spiritual problems. Trepanation reveals much about the understanding of the brain from Neolithic to recent times. The Ancient Egyptians, however, rarely trepanned, even though their Secret Book of the Physician, one of the oldest medical texts in the world, shows that they recognised how damage to the brain can paralyze limbs on opposite sides of the body. Believing the heart to be the core organ, they discarded the brain altogether at death, since it had no part to play in the afterlife.
The series is written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University. Actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes provide the voices of those who have written about the brain across the ages. Actor Hattie Morahan gives the Anatomy Lesson establishing the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the cranium and the meninges. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton. The producer is Marya Burgess.
Factual; Documentaries
Shankill Butchers
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
With 19 murders between them, the Shankill Butchers were the most prolific gang of serial killers in UK history. During the dark days of the Troubles their savagery stood apart, paralysing both communities in Northern Ireland with fear. With unique access to the evidence, and exclusive interviews, Stephen Nolan goes back to the patch where he was brought up to ask how the Shankill Butchers got away with murder for so long.
One Life: Getting Away With Murder
BBC4, 11:30pm-12:10am
Documentary which follows Ann Ming as she campaigns to have her daughter's killer tried for murder a second time. Julie was murdered 17 years ago by her boyfriend, Billy Dunlop. Billy was subsequently tried for her murder, but found not guilty. Only later did he brag that he had committed the crime, but the double jeopardy law, which has stood for 800 years in Britain, meant that he could not be tried for the same crime twice. Ann Ming has successfully campaigned to change the law. ONE life follows Ann as she seeks to get justice for the murder of her daughter as the first double jeopardy case is brought back to the courts.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 8th November
Documentaries
My Transsexual Summer
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm, 1/4
Max, 25, has already undergone 'top surgery': a double mastectomy and male chest sculpting. He is hoping to become Britain's first transgender Rabbi.
Former policeman Karen, 52, is preparing for full gender re-assignment surgery. Drew, 22, is stuck living at home, and desperate to lead a 'normal' life in a world that constantly asks 'Is that a boy or a girl?'
Lewis, 22, is looking to raise money for a double mastectomy and investigating a phalloplasty: penis construction; the surgeries he wants to make him feel fully male.
Fox, 30, has only been transitioning for six months, and struggles daily to overcome his feminine looks. Donna, 25, is content living between genders, but navigating relationships can be hard.
Sarah, 28, has just begun to live full-time as a woman and is building up the courage to tell her parents that she has changed her life forever.
The decision to change gender can leave many trans people profoundly isolated, and this group of seven is no different. Though some derive enormous strength from family and friends, others can find themselves cut off and many struggle to find work.
Now they are coming together to share advice and support, reflecting a growing on-line community where many hundreds of transgender people have been making contact with one another.
By physically coming together, the group develops genuine friendships and gives themselves the strength to overcome some of the multiple challenges of being trans in day-to-day life.
__________________________________________________________
Wednesday 9th November
Factual; Crime and Justice; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment
Murder On The Lake
BBC4, 2:30-4:00am
Joan Root, with her husband Alan, produced beautiful and famous natural history films, born of her deep love of Africa and its flora and fauna. This delicate but determined member of Kenya's Happy Valley was gunned down in January 2006 by intruders bearing AK-47s. Four men were charged with her murder, including David Chege, the leader of a private vigilante group Root herself had financed to stop the illegal fishing that was killing Lake Naivasha, the beautiful lake beside which she lived.
Chege was from Karagita, the largest of the slums that has sprung up beside the lake in the last twenty years. In that time, the population of Naivasha has rocketed from 30,000 to 350,000 as a desperate tide of impoverished migrant workers arrived in search of employment on Kenya's flourishing flower farms. This has created squalor, crime and, in the minds of Root and her fellow naturalists, ecological apocalypse.
This film tells the story of the extraordinary life and brutal death of Joan Root, and of her campaign to save the lake she loved. Who killed Joan Root? Was it the fish poachers, whom Root stopped from plying their illegal trade in a bid to save her beloved Lake Naivasha? Was it her loyal lieutenant Chege, whom Root ultimately cut off from her payroll? Or was it one of her white neighbours, with whom Root had feuded?
Through the telling of Root's story, the film opens a window onto contemporary Africa and the developed world's relationship to it. For it is the Kenyan rose, which is exported by the millions on a daily basis from Naivasha, that has brought not just jobs and foreign exchange earnings, but a population explosion that has caused the destruction of the environment Root worked so hard to stop. Her campaign may have ultimately cost her her life.
Factual; Crime and Justice; Documentaries
The Thin Blue Line
BBC4, 9:00-10:35pm
Errol Morris broke cinematic ground with The Thin Blue Line, establishing a new genre in the non-fiction feature by creating a fascinating reconstruction and investigation of a brutal and senseless murder.
The case in question is centred on the 1976 murder of a Dallas policeman. The murder remained unsolved for over a month until the Dallas police department received word that 16-year-old David Harris had been arrested in Vidor, Texas, after having bragged to friends that he killed a Dallas cop. Although the murder weapon was found in a nearby swamp, Harris later insisted that his boasting was meant only to impress his friends and insisted the real murderer was a hitchhiker he had picked up earlier that day named Randall Adams.
Morris assembles diverse interviews, photo montages, film clips and reenactments of the crime to make a strong case for Adams's innocence, leading to a shocking finale.
__________________________________________________________
Thursday 10th November
News; Current Affairs; Politics
Tonight: Life After The Riots
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm
Julie Etchingham visits towns and cities affected by the August riots to discover whether promises to help families and business owners affected by the disturbances have been kept. She also examines how the police are faring in their efforts to catch those responsible for the looting and violence.
Factual; Science and Nature; Religion and Ethics
The End of God? A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm
The relationship between science and religion has been long and troubled: from the condemnation of Galileo by the Catholic Church in 17th century Italy, through the clashes between creationism and evolution in 20th century America, right up to recent claims that the universe does not need God.
Delving through the rich archive of programmes from Horizon and BBC Science, Thomas Dixon looks at what lies behind this difficult relationship. Using original footage from 1925, he tells the story of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher who was tried for teaching evolution. He sees the connections between religion and American politics in the story of a more recent court case – the trial of Intelligent Design. He looks at what happens when new scientific discoveries start to explain events that were once seen as the workings of God, and explains how some of our most famous scientists have seen God in the grandest laws of the universe. Finally, he finds intriguing evidence from brain science which hints that belief in God is here to stay.
Documentary
Brunel's Last Launch: A Time Team Special
Channel 4, 9:00-10:00pm
Nowadays, London's East End is synonymous with the 2012 Olympic Games. Cutting-edge engineering and design have transformed the Olympic Park. But 150 years ago, the world was watching for a very different reason, although the spectacle on display was as high-tech as anything on offer today. The East End was once home to the most advanced shipbuilding industry - and best workers and shipyards - in the world. A century and a half ago, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's most famous engineer, was about to launch a ship five times bigger than any that had ever been built before, the most revolutionary vessel the world had ever seen: the SS Great Eastern. Pioneering the transition from sail to steam and timber to iron, Brunel and East London's ship builders created vessels that were bigger, faster and tougher than ever before. But this launch was a disaster. Brunel went from hero to laughing stock overnight as his leviathan stuck on the slipway. Brunel died not long after. Today archaeologists are scouring the banks of the Thames to discover why launching such a big vessel proved a complete disaster. Examining the slipways, they hope to discover what went wrong and how it affected shipbuilding in London for ever. Tony Robinson joins them in their quest to solve the puzzle. But he and the team also explore some of the extraordinary successes of this long-gone industry and a time when the East End led the world.
__________________________________________________________
Friday 11th November
Art, Culture and the Media
Art For Heroes: A Culture Show Special
BBC2, 7:00-8:00pm
Tim Samuels offers an insight into the role of art therapy in the rehabilitation of former servicemen and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Veterans of recent British conflicts share their experiences of the condition and reveal how drawing, sculpting and painting are helping alleviate their symptoms. Tim also travels to Chicago, where he meets Professor of Neurology Dr Lukas Konopka, whose brain mapping demonstrates art's potential to heal.
__________________________________________________________
*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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