Off-air recordings for week 4-10 February 2012

Please email Rich Deakin rdeakin@glos.ac.uk if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*


*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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Monday 6th February

News, Current Affairs

Panorama: Hunting the Internet Bullies
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

Online bullying is rapidly growing in frequency and intensity. A new breed of self-styled 'trolls' are stalking social networking websites, aiming their vicious attacks at victims who range from TV celebrities to grieving teenagers.

Declan Lawn meets X Factor star Cher Lloyd, who describes how cyber attacks are ruining her life, and highlights a new survey revealing that one in thirteen young people face persistent online bullying. Panorama tracks down some of the bullies and asks: what more could be done to stop them?



Factual; Health and Wellbeing; Documentaries

San Francisco's Year Zero: We Were Here
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm

2011 marks 30 years since AIDS descended. In 1981, the flourishing gay community in San Franscisco was hit with an unimaginable disaster. Through the eyes of those whose lives changed in unimaginable ways, this film tells how their beloved city was changed from a hotbed of sexual freedom and social experimentation into the epicentre of a terrible sexually transmitted 'gay plague'. From their different vantage points as caregivers, activists, researchers, friends and lovers of the afflicted and as people with AIDS themselves, it shares stories which are intensely personal. Speaking to our capacity as individuals to rise to the occasion, this is the story of the incredible power of a community coming together with love, compassion and determination.

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Tuesday 7th February

Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

How to Grow a Planet
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3, Life from a Light

In this series Professor Iain Stewart tells a stunning new story about our planet. He reveals how the greatest changes to the Earth have been driven, above all, by plants.


In this first episode Iain journeys from the spectacular caves of Vietnam to the remote deserts of Africa. He sees how plants first harnessed light from the sun and created our life-giving atmosphere. He uncovers the epic battle between the dinosaurs and the tallest trees on the planet. And, using remarkable imagery, he shows plants breathing - and for the first time talking to each other.



Documentaries; Science

Katie: The Science of Seeing Again
Channel 4, 9:00-10:00pm

Following a vicious acid attack in 2008, Katie Piper has undergone 109 operations to rebuild her face. But it is the 110th op, using controversial cutting-edge science, which could truly transform her life, providing her only chance of seeing again through her badly damaged left eye. After spending three and a half years struggling to accept she would forever be blind in one eye, Katie heard about pioneering surgery that could potentially restore her sight using the extraordinary power of stem cells. She tracked down the doctor responsible for it and has put herself forward to be one of the first people in the world to undergo the treatment, which entails transplanting stem cells directly into her eye.


Criminology; Forensics

Death Unexplained
BBC1, 10:35-11:20pm, 1/3

With unprecedented access to forensic pathologists, mortuary technicians, police and the Coroner herself, Death Unexplained follows Her Majesty’s Coroner Alison Thompson and her team as they examine in painstaking detail mysterious, violent and unnatural deaths in West London, one of the busiest jurisdictions in the country.

Behind each case is also a very human story, movingly told by families themselves and revealing more about the circumstances of loved ones’ lives and deaths.

In the first episode, Alison’s team investigate a rare case of suspected poisoning; a possible prescription drugs overdose and the case of a man whose body lay undiscovered for months.  In court the Coroner must reach her verdict – who were the deceased and when, where and how did they die?


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Wednesday 8th February

Factual; Homes and Gardens; Science and Nature; Science and Environment

Bees, Butterflies and Blooms
BBC2; 8:00-9:00pm, 1/3, Villages, Farms and Countryside

Our bees and other pollinating insects are in crisis. It’s a complex problem that scientists the world over are trying to fathom, but the prognosis is grim - without healthy populations of insect pollinators across the world, our food security is under threat.

Our pollinating insects are vital to the production of the vast majority of the fruits and vegetables we need in our healthy 5-a-day diets. If we don’t start to look after our insect pollinators, eventually our favourite foods could vanish from our supermarket shelves, from apples and pears through to coffee and chocolate.

Sarah wants to show us all that we could make a difference and reverse this trend if we all do our bit. She wants to inspire and inform everyone, no matter where they live – village, town, city or countryside – to get planting nectar rich plants.

Backed by recent research, Sarah believes that one of the main reasons our pollinators are under threat is due to their poor health and nutrition. A lack of a rich and varied supply of pollen and nectar throughout the year to feed our insect workforce is leaving them vulnerable to the effects of pesticides and parasites and threatening some species with extinction.

Sarah believes in ‘people power’, and that together, we can all do our bit to help save our precious pollinators, and bring their needs to the fore.

If we all make small changes in our local areas and grow more wildflowers and insect-friendly plants, then we can lend a strong helping hand to our bees, butterflies and pollinating bugs.

Together, we could help to reverse the trend, maybe stop extinctions and secure a future for our threatened pollinating insects.



Documentary

Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst
BBC2, 11:20pm-12:50am

Amongst all the crackpot politics of early 70s USA, the kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst by anti-capitalist revolutionaries was the freakiest act in town. Robert Stone's fascinating Guerrilla combines a stunning wealth of contemporary footage with interviews from many - but sadly not all - of the major surviving players to brilliantly document the ideological fury of the captors, the harebrained reaction of the establishment, and the whirling media lunacy that fuelled both sides.

In 1973, a dismayed group of Berkley radicals and an escaped convict formed the Symbionese Liberation Army dedicated to destroying the "fascist insect" the USA had become. Attempting to bring about a prisoner swap, the SLA snatched Hearst, great-granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst and heiress to the publishing empire the SLA regarded as "chief propagandists of the military dictatorship".

The film's most comic and shocking moments come from the fact that every wild twist in the drama was pumped out on wall-to-wall television, especially when Patty herself turned up two months later as a bank-robbing, gun-toting member of the SLA - or when a month after that, six SLA members ended up dead in a two-hour shootout with the LA police.

Claiming brainwashing and using her family's considerable influence, Hearst obtained an early release from her ensuing prison sentence and an eventual Presidential pardon. The film suffers slightly, then, from a gaping Patty-shaped hole in the finale. Just as we are ready for some answers, Stone sidesteps the question of her truthfulness, claiming that the interesting part of the tale is the way America reacted. True as that may be, we, the bloodthirsty consumers of personality-led media, cannot help but be disappointed by her absence.


News; Current Affairs; Environment

Tonight: The Cost of Going Green
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm

The UK Government is committed to having 15% of our total energy generated by renewable sources such as wind, water and solar power by the year 2020. This target has led to a number of innovative yet highly subsidised schemes – but at what cost to household bills? Jonathan Maitland investigates the cost of going green


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