Tuesday 21 August 2012

Off-air recordings for week 25 August 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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Saturday 25th August

Factual; Politics; Discussion and Talk

The Education Debates
BBC Radio 4, 10:15-11:00pm, 1/3


In the first of three debates to mark the most dramatic reforms in education in decades, John Humphrys asks leading education thinkers what we should teach.

Whether it's to get to university, to launch a fulfilling career, or to be a useful member of society, what our children learn at school today will profoundly shape their lives, the society we live in and the health of our economy in the 21st Century.

The web gives today's schoolchildren access to previously unimaginable amounts of knowledge - and yet across Europe there has been social unrest among young people who are angry and terrified that what they know will be meaningless in a future with no jobs.

At home, Government reforms have led to big changes in the national curriculum, increased university fees and parents running their own schools.

Has there ever been a more important time to come back to the fundamental questions of education? In this first programme, leading educationalists including Anthony Seldon, Estelle Morris and Rachel Wolf debate what we should teach.

In programme two, John Humphrys asks a panel including union leader Mary Bousted, cognitive scientist Prof Guy Claxton and inspections expert Roy Blatchford how we should teach.

And in the final debate, Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg, Neil O'Brien of Policy Exchange and Prof James Tooley, an expert on private schools for poor children, discuss who should teach.


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Monday 27th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Technology; Documentaries

Horizon: How Big is The Universe?
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm


It is one of the most baffling questions that scientists can ask: how big is the universe that we live in? Horizon follows the cosmologists who are creating the most ambitious map in history - a map of everything in existence. And it is stranger than anyone had imagined - a universe without end that stretches far beyond what the eye can ever see.  And, if the latest research proves true, our universe may just be the start of something even bigger. Much bigger.



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Tuesday 28th August

Crime; Criminal Psychology; Documentaries

Born To Kill? Myrah Hindley
Channel 5, 8:00-9:00pm, 5/5

Profile of Moors murderer Myra Hindley who, along with her partner Ian Brady, abducted and killed five children during the 1960s. Featuring contributions from the relatives of her victims as well as criminal psychologists, who discuss whether she was innately evil or an impressionable woman under the power of a perverted man.


Religion; Documentaries

Islam: The Untold Story
Channel 4, 9:00-10:35pm


Historian Tom Holland explores how a new religion - Islam - emerged from the seedbed of the ancient world, and asks what we really know for certain about the rise of Islam.

The result is an extraordinary detective story.

Traditionally, Muslims and non-Muslims alike have believed that Islam was born in the full light of history. But a large number of historians now doubt that presumption, and question much of what Muslim tradition has to tell us about the birth of Islam.

As a result, Tom finds himself embroiled in what, for 40 years now, has been an underground but seismic debate: the issue of whether, as Muslims have always believed, Islam was born fully formed in all its fundamentals, or else evolved gradually, over many years - and in ways that Muslims today might not necessarily recognise.

So who was the historical Muhammad, and where - if not from God - might the Qur'an, the Holy Book of Islam, actually have come from?

By asking these questions, Tom - as a non-Muslim - has no choice, over the course of the film, but to negotiate the fault-line that runs between history and religion, between doubt and faith.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

The World of Parade's End

BBC2, 11:50pm-12:20am

To tie in with Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Parade's End, this documentary celebrates Ford Madox Ford's classic novel cycle. Well-known writers and actors, for whom Parade's End has special meaning, give extra insight into the characters and the world they inhabit. The challenges of adapting this epic work for the screen are also revealed.

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Wednesday 29th August

History; Documentaries

Britain Then and Now
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm


This new 60-minute documentary for ITV1 follows the residents of one East London street as they attempt to turn back the clock and re-enact a street party held for the Coronation to the last detail.

From tracking down the original party-goers, piecing together peoples’ memories of the day Morpeth Street held its party in 1953, to recreating the original Spam sandwiches and photographs, what unfolds is a fascinating look into the lives of people in post-war Britain.

One of the main obstacles facing the 2012 party’s organisers is that the street has changed beyond all recognition – where there were once Victorian terraced houses now stand 1960s tower blocks.

Narrated by Sarah Lancashire, the factual documentary charts how Morpeth Street resident Ruth Scola teams up with other locals to bring the street party together and shows the parallels between life in 1953 and 2012.

Ruth’s fellow organiser Elaine Embery says: “We are trying to recreate exactly what happened 60 years ago, so I would really love you all to get involved. Sandwiches, yes. Bunting, yes. I want you all to get on your telephones, try and get people who were involved at that time. If not try to get involved yourself because getting together and doing something like this would be wonderful.”

Many of the people in the photos taken by Picture Post photographer John Chilllingworth no longer live in the area. But then-teenage waitress Ruth Scola’s father put the original event together.

“Well, he started it up and we didn’t think it would be anything like this. When the Picture Post came down, we thought ‘Hello, what’s going on here then?’ It worked out wonderfully really, it was really lovely.”

June Rose was six at the time and still lives in the area.

“I remember excitement that we were going to have a street party, all the neighbours coming together to organise it. The tables being laid in the street, and all the children sitting down. And sandwiches, and jelly and custard, and later on there was lots of entertainment. We had Punch and Judy, and a magician – that was just a brilliant day.”


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

The Culture Show at the Edinburgh Festival
BBC2, 10:00-10:30pm, 3/3

Sue Perkins presents highlights from the final week of this year's festival, including an exhibition of work by the experimental artist Dieter Roth. There is also an interview with Howard Jacobson, author of 2010 Booker Prize-winning novel The Finkler Question, who discusses his latest book Seriously Funny. 


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Thursday 30th August

News; Current Affairs

Tonight: The Kindness of Strangers
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm

This week, a controversial website launches in the UK that allows kidney donors to select who receives their organ. Julie Etchingham meets the nation's first patient to find a match using the service and the Brits already signed up to pick their recipients.


Science and Nature; Documentaries

Iceland Erupts: A Volcano Live Special
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm


Fresh from her Hawaiian sojourn with Professor Iain Stewart, Kate Humble returns to Iceland to see what’s been happening since Eyjafjallajokull caused transport mayhem in 2010. In the scheme of things on Iceland, it isn’t even a particularly major volcano. There are other, much scarier ones that volcanologists are keeping a beady eye on.

Two years after an ash cloud created by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano caused travel chaos across Europe, Kate Humble travels to Iceland to learn how the country's scientists monitor and manage its most dangerous volcanoes. She hears about some of the most notable eruptions in its history, including an 18th-century incident that killed thousands locally and has been linked to the deaths of many more people in Britain and Europe, and asks what can be done to prepare for similar events in the future.


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Tuesday 14 August 2012

Off-air recordings for week 18-24 August 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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Saturday 18th August

Factual; Documentaries

Time of Shift: Of Ice and Men
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am



Time Shift reveals the history of the frozen continent, finding out why the most inhospitable place on the planet has exerted such a powerful hold on the imagination of explorers, scientists, writers and photographers.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth. Only a handful of people have experienced its desolate beauty, with the first explorers setting foot here barely a hundred years ago.

From the logbooks of Captain Cook to the diaries of Scott and Shackleton, from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner to HP Lovecraft, it is a film about real and imaginary tales of adventure, romance and tragedy that have played out against a stark white backdrop.

We relive the race to the Pole and the 'Heroic Age' of Antarctic exploration, and find out what it takes to survive the cold and the perils of 'polar madness'. We see how Herbert Ponting's photographs of the Scott expedition helped define our image of the continent and find out why the continent witnessed a remarkable thaw in Russian and American relations at the height of the Cold War.

We also look at the intriguing story of who actually owns Antarctica and how science is helping us re-imagine a frozen wasteland as something far more precious.




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Sunday 19th August

Factual; History; Documentaries

Britain's Hidden Heritage
BBC1, 7:00-8:00pm, series 2, 1/3 - Osbourne


The popular Sunday night heritage series returns, with host Paul Martin visiting the fabulous seaside retreat of Queen Victoria - Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. With Osborne unchanged since the end of her reign, Paul discovers intimate family life details of Britain's longest-serving monarch.

Regular reporters Clare Balding and Charlie Luxton also return, with Clare in Gloucestershire delving into the weird and wonderful collection of Charles Paget Wade, possibly Britain's first extreme hoarder. Charlie travels to Scotland to visit a forgotten ruin that was once an architectural masterpiece.

The team are joined by guest reporter Richard E Grant, who goes behind the scenes at Pinewood Studios, revealing secrets of the British cinema and the classic films that inspired him as a young actor.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Omnibus: Gore Vidal's Gore Vidal
BBC4, 10:50-11:40pm, 2/2

Part two of a film biography about the late Gore Vidal, looking at the life of one of America's leading literary figures who for years entranced and enraged the US with his outspoken views, novels and essays. In this part he recalls the last 35 years of his life, starting from the time his friend John F Kennedy was elected as US president.



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Monday 20th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 6/6 - Svalbard

In a revelatory look at Svalbard, the most northerly region in the series, Steve Backshall leaves no stone unturned as he unravels the secrets that lie covered in ice for most of each year. Svalbard is cold, dark and foreboding, yet it is home to the world's largest land predator and the most northerly population of large herbivore, but Steve discovers that the real secret to this place comes from a very different world.


Criminology; Psychology

Ian Brady: Endgames of a Psychopath
4Seven, 11:05pm-12:05am


Ian Brady, psychopath, sadist and child murderer, has been in captivity for nearly 50 years, but he is still a powerful and disturbing presence in the nation's consciousness.

This Cutting Edge film, which has unprecedented access to those closest to Brady, charts his ongoing attempts to influence and control those around him.

When acclaimed director Paddy Wivell set out to make a film about Ian Brady's legal bid to be transferred from a psychiatric facility to a prison, he had no idea that he would find himself witnessing one of Brady's notorious power plays.

At the outset of filming, Wivell met the solicitors and psychiatrists who've been closely involved in his cases over the last decades, many of whom would be speaking publicly for the first time.

But a meeting with Brady's mental health advocate for the last 15 years changed the course of the film. His mental health advocate is also one of the executors of Brady's will and recently applied for power of attorney for his health and welfare.

Following Brady's seizure and the subsequent indefinite postponement of his mental health tribunal, she discloses, on camera, some startling information that appears to present further important evidence of Brady's ongoing attempts to assert power over the victims' families.

This film presents the inside story of the Moors Murderer since his crimes were discovered and charts his continued determination for power and control.


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Wednesday 22nd August

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries; Magazines and Reviews

The Culture Show at the Edinburgh Festival
BBC2, 19:00-10:30pm, 2/3


Sue Perkins presents a second helping of The Culture Show from the Edinburgh Festival and meets author Kirsty Gunn and music legend Nile Rodgers.

Also featured tonight, the 25th anniversary of So You Think You're Funny, the Edinburgh comedy competition which has uncovered stars from Dylan Moran to Peter Kay. Artists including David Hockney, Paul Gaugin and Sir Peter Blake swap paint for wool in an exhibition of contemporary tapestries, and we take a look at Speed of Light - a spectacular mass participatory event in which walkers and endurance runners ascend Arthur's Seat and illuminate the iconic mountain.


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Thursday 23rd August

Documentaries; Disability

Tonight: Don't Hate Us
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm

As London prepares to host the 2012 Paralympic Games, new figures reveal that hate crimes against the disabled are at record levels. Comedienne Francesca Martinez, who has cerebral palsy, investigates whether a welfare crackdown - which includes reassessing whether people claiming benefits are fit for work - is behind an apparent hardening of public attitudes.


Science and Nature; Nature and the Environment; Documentaries

Springwatch Guide to Seabirds
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games present the annual series charting the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Goya: Crazy Like a Genius
BBC4, 10:50pm-12:00am

Documentary in which art critic Robert Hughes travels across Spain in search of the reality beyond the mythology of Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Goya has long been Hughes' favourite artist but has become a particular obsession since a near-fatal car accident left Hughes living with nightmares of Goya's often dark and violent imagery.


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Tuesday 7 August 2012

Off-air recordings for week 11-17 August 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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Saturday 11th August 2012

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History

London - The Modern Babylon
BBC2, 9:20-11:25pm


Julien Temple's epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown. From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and above all ordinary people, this is the story of London's immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever.

Reaching back to the dawn of film in London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive, voices of Londoners past and present and the flow of popular music across the century; a stream of urban consciousness, like the river which flows through its heart. It ends now, as London prepares to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympics.



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Sunday 12th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

The Dark: Nature's Nighttime World
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/3 - Patagonian Mountains

Natural history series about wildlife at night culminates at the wild and windswept tip of South America. Coming face-to-face with the widest-ranging cat in the Americas - the puma - camerawoman Justine Evans attempts to film their nocturnal hunting behaviour for the first time. Even further south, Gordon Buchanan dives into the icy waters of the Strait of Magellan to solve a mystery - scientists have heard humpback whales moving close to the shore at night but have no idea what they could be doing. And Dr George McGavin attaches a miniature tracking device to a vampire bat's back to discover whose blood it is feeding on.

Entertainment; Discussion and Talk

Parkinson: The Tommy Cooper and Frankie Howerd Interviews
BBC4, 10:00-10:35pm


Michael Parkinson introduces a recut of two interviews he did with Frankie Howerd during the Parkinson show series and a Christmas interview with Tommy Cooper.

Frankie Howerd wanted everything scripted, resulting in an unprompted and unrehearsed interview whilst Tommy Cooper managed to run rings around a delighted Parkinson. Includes clips from Up Pompeii, The Main Attraction and The Bob Monkhouse Show.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Gore Vidal's Gore Vidal

BBC4, 10:35-11:25pm

Biography of the late Gore Vidal, looking at the life of one of America's leading literary figures who for years entranced and enraged the US with his outspoken views, novels and essays. This programme follows him around the scenes of his youth.

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Monday 13th August

News

Panorama - Justice Denied: The Greatest Scandal?
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

The case of the Cardiff Three - wrongly convicted of murder in 1992 - refuses to go away. Twenty years after a BBC Panorama investigation helped to clear the original men, the same team returns to investigate why the trial against the police officers accused of perverting the course of justice collapsed last year, and asks: is this the biggest scandal in British legal history?


Ethics; Documentaries

First Cut - What's My Body Worth?
More4, 10:00-10:35pm


With many people looking for ways to generate extra cash, this First Cut documentary asks if we are overlooking our most prized commodity: our own bodies.

Filmmaker Storm Theunissen explores the lucrative body-parts industry as she sets out to sell every bit of her body she legally can, from her fingernails to her own eggs, and discover whether her body is worth more dead than alive.

Working in a brothel is illegal in the UK, but Storm joins a Soho lap-dancing club for an evening and makes £20 for a lap-dance. And while UK law prohibits the sale of body-parts by individuals, 'Big Pharma' buys everything from bunions to blister fluid, and in these hard times, Storm looks for a piece of the action.

In Hollywood - the market leader in egg-brokering for IVF - intelligence and model looks can be worth $15,000. Egg donation must be altruistic in the UK but in early 2012 the government tripled the payment for expenses to £750 in a bid to solve a shortage of donors.

Exploring the legality and ethics of selling your own body, Storm discovers a dark side of the body-part market and, before leaving LA, she must make a momentous decision when she meets a couple who are desperate to be parents. Can a commercial market in future babies ever feel right?

First Cut is the critically acclaimed, eclectic documentary strand that showcases distinctive new films by up-and-coming directors.



Crime; Documentaries

Secrets of the Pickpockets
Channel 4, 10:35-11:40pm


As the Olympics draws millions to London gangs of pickpockets are on the rise across the capital. This film tells the story of the unseen war on a crime that has 1700 victims a day.

Organised crews of pickpockets have descended on London in search of easy pickings. This film tells the story of the unseen war on the 'dippers' and the specialist teams created to take them on.

Up 17% in the last two years, pickpocketing is a crime that is rarely witnessed by the public. This film follows the game of cat and mouse played out between the cops and robbers beneath the gaze of tourists and regular Londoners, catching the action as it unfolds and some of the astonishing tricks of the pickpocket trade, from the 'block and shield' to the 'two-fingered lift'.



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Tuesday 14th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

Talking Landscapes
BBC4, 7:30-8:00pm, 6/6 - The Vale of Evesham

Series in which Aubrey Manning sets out to discover the history of Britain's ever-changing landscape. Clues from the local art gallery, a spot of ploughing and a flight with a local pilot help uncover an Anglo-Saxon agricultural revolution.


Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 1:20-2:20am

Steve Backshall tries to discover just what makes it possible for a river to stop in the middle of a desert. The Okavango is the world's largest inland delta and home to a one of Africa's greatest congregations of wildlife, and in asking the difficult questions Steve reveals the astounding secret to its existence.


Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries

Growing Children
BBC4, 1:50-2:50am, Autism


Autism is a complicated and often misunderstood condition. In this film, child psychologist Laverne Antrobus goes on a quest to discover the different way that the brain works in children with autism and to explore the latest scientific research.

Laverne meets Tony, a severely autistic teenager who requires full-time care from his family, and learns some of the difficult sensory problems that children with autism can have. The autistic brain cannot always process light and sound in the correct way, leading to an overwhelming and exhausting overload of noise and colour. Laverne travels to the University of Cardiff to investigate new research into the link between sensory issues and the autistic brain. She also goes to the University of Nottingham to try and uncover why people like Tony appear to be so socially isolated. She begins to learn the amazing way our brains work when confronted with social situations and how we understand the social cues that we encounter every day - and what happens when this goes wrong.

With a better understanding of Tony's difficulties, Laverne then continues to follow his story as this family go through the difficult and highly emotional transition of putting their son into full-time residential care.

Laverne also meets a family with two young boys, Jake and Zaine. Jake has been diagnosed with high functioning autism - the opposite end of the spectrum to Tony. By spending time with Jake, Laverne sees some of the social difficulties associated with the condition, such as the daily struggle with school and making friends. Jake's younger brother Zaine is also beginning to show autistic traits and in a particularly poignant sequence Laverne attends a diagnosis session with the family. With amazing access to this emotional day, Laverne explores the complicated process of diagnosis and the symptoms that are looked for in order to reach the correct conclusion. Laverne also investigates some exciting and pioneering research being carried out at Birkbeck Babylab, which is offering hope for a simpler and earlier diagnostic procedure...


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Wednesday 15th August

Crime; Policing; Documentaries

Frontline Police
5*, 8:00-9:00pm 1/6


Ex-police officer Rav Wilding returns to the police and joins officers from Essex Police’s Specialist Operations Units.

Brand new series that sees Rav Wilding join officers on the frontline of policing. From dawn raids and emergency response to tough public order events, Rav takes viewers right to the heart of the action. Using his eight years of policing experience and getting up close and personal with the officers charged with cleaning up our streets, Rav gives viewers a unique insight into the reality of working at the sharp end of modern British policing.

Rav Wilding joins frontline officers in Essex as they police an English Defence League march.



History; Documentaries

Deathcamp Treblinka: Survivor Stories
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

An insight into how Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman escaped from the concentration camp in Poland, where more than 800,000 Polish Jews died during the Nazi Holocaust. The two men were able to flee during a revolt in August 1943, before one of them sought vengeance in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the other appeared at the trial of Adolf Eichmann for war crimes in 1961. This film documents their stories, the fate of their families and offers fresh accounts of a forgotten death camp.


Literature; Documentaries

Sex Story: Fifty Shades of Grey
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm


Has Fifty Shades of Grey really transformed us from a nation of prudes to one of happy spankers? It may have brought bondage into the mainstream, but are the British really ready to embrace sexual experimentation?

From visiting a spanking class, where novices are trained in the art of a good caning, to exploring the world of an S&M couple who have written sex contracts with each other, this documentary uncovers what the erotic paperback phenomenon tells us about 21st-century Britain.

The programme examines the sociological and cultural effects the book is having in the UK, as sales of obscure classical music and bondage gear increase.

A book club from North Yorkshire read the bestseller for the very first time and share their verdict, while adult retailers Ann Summers reveal what steps they are taking to exploit this trend.

Psychologist and sex columnist Pamela Stephenson and Brooke Magnanti, who wrote Belle De Jour, share their reactions to the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon.

The book has crossed continents, class barriers and the context in which porn is read - on the train, in book groups and even at the hairdresser.


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Thursday 16th August

Factual; Documentaries

Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery
BBC3, 9:00-10:00pm


Ten years ago Russell Brand was addicted to heroin, his career was unravelling and he was told he may only have six months to live. The story of how he battled to stay clean of drugs is at the heart of this eye-opening and honest, personal film in which Brand challenges how our society deals with addicts and addiction.


Documentaries

Neighbourhood Watched
BBC1, 10:35-11:20pm

The reality of life for housing officers in Greater Manchester, who face a different set of problem each day, from evicting anti-social tenants to dealing with hoarders. The first programme focuses on the issue of noise disturbance, which is one of the biggest problems in social housing and can lead to violence, ill health and even suicide if it is not resolved. Housing officer Cat Towl answers a call from a 20-year-old woman about her upstairs neighbour, who is blasting out his radio morning, noon and night. But what begins as a simple complaint escalates into a serious dispute. Meanwhile, a pair of cockerels in another tenant's garden are providing a 4am wake-up call for the everyone in earshot.


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