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.
_________________________________________________________
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.
________________________________________________________
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?
________________________________________________________
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
_________________________________________________________
Tuesday 31 January 2012
Thursday 26 January 2012
Off-air recordings for week 28th January - 3rd 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.
___________________________________________________________
Saturday 28th January
Factual; History; Documentaries
Atlantis: The Evidence - A Timewatch Special
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm
In this Timewatch special, historian Bettany Hughes unravels one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. She presents a series of geological, archaeological and historical clues to show that the legend of Atlantis was inspired by a real historical event, the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world.
___________________________________________________________
Sunday 29th January
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and the Enviroment
Penguin Island
BBC1, 3:30-4:00pm, 1/6
Meet Bluey and Sheila, one of the 13,000 little penguin couples who live on Phillip Island, off the coast of Australia. As the devoted penguin couple returns to their cliff-top home to begin the annual breeding cycle, Penguin Island introduces the dedicated team of rangers and scientists who will monitor and protect them through the hottest summer on record.
Among them is Marg Healy. With over 26 years of experience with penguins and other animals, Marg runs Phillip Island's animal hospital, looking after injured wildlife including little penguins, possums, koalas and other birds.
Field researcher Leanne Renwick weighs and examines the penguins to ensure they are up to the task of breeding. Her colleague Elizabeth Lundahl-Hegedus is a parade ranger and has lived within the Summerlands penguin colony for 30 years. It is a short walk from her house to the Penguin Parade, where the nightly parade of little penguins returns from sea.
We meet the feathered residents of the Penguin Cafe, a cluster of 'love nests' behind the busy Phillip Island tourist centre, where perennial bachelor Rocky and the determined yet slightly dim-witted Spike vie for the attention of the passing females as they attempt to attract a mate - including recent divorcee Tash.
Meanwhile, Bluey and Sheila lay their first clutch of eggs. While Sheila is off at sea hunting for food, the eggs hatch and Bluey must guard them until Sheila is home to meet her two young sons for the first time.
___________________________________________________________
Monday 30th January
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History
The Secret Catacombs of Paris
BBC Radio 4, 11:00-11:30am
Famously known as the City of Light, Paris is a diverse metropolis rich in architecture and steeped in history. But it has a dark alter ego that lies 30 metres under the ground, mirroring centuries of bloody wars, revolutions and riots on the surface. For Paris is porous - built on 177 miles of tunnels that were formed when limestone and gypsum were quarried to build the capital. Most people are only aware of just a tiny fraction of these tunnels - the world famous ossuary known as The Catacombs. The authorities have tried to keep a lid on the full extent of the labyrinthine remainder for hundreds of years. But there are little known entry points everywhere - in basements, in train stations, cellars and sewers. Throughout history, invaders have always found a way in, whether they were fighting Prussian soldiers, fleeing royalty of the French Revolution, the Nazis or The Resistance. Today they're home to the cataphiles - urban explorers who use the tunnels as an art space, a music venue or even a clandestine meeting point for secret societies.
The Guardian's architecture and design correspondent Jonathan Glancey investigates the underground maze of Paris, revealing a mysterious and intriguing history.
___________________________________________________________
Tuesday 31st January
Factual; Documentaries
Wonderland: My Child The Rioter
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
In August 2011, parents all over Britain were waking up to a morning they had never imagined. For some, it was the police knocking on the door, for others, it was the sight of a pile of stolen goods in their child's bedroom. Some simply realised that it was their kid who had been out on the streets, smashing windows, looting shops and attacking the police.
In sitting rooms and kitchens around the country, these families endured some of the most difficult conversations of their lives. Olly Lambert's film takes viewers inside those homes and inside those conversations. Many of these families would find their children facing lengthy prison sentences, and they themselves were singled out by a prime minister who blamed the worst riots in recent British history on 'a lack of proper parenting, a lack of proper upbringing, a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals'.
Eileen and Alan Bretherton's son Liam had recently served in Afghanistan, and was at the beginning of a promising career in the army. He got caught up in the events of last summer while home on leave; consequently, his parents now have to face the fact that the son in whom they took so much pride is now an ex-offender whose military career is in ruins.
In Manchester, childhood sweethearts Kerry and Liam Parkes looked on as their 19-year-old son defended the riots and took pride in what he did on the streets of Manchester. And in Willesden, David Clark watched his son break down in tears in fear of what his future may now hold.
This simple film cuts to the heart of families at the frontline of rioting Britain.
Factual; Politics
What Are The Police For?
BBC Radio 4, 8:00-8:30pm, 1/3
With policing top of the political agenda, and major change on the way, Mark Easton asks what we want from our police.
Mark spends time with police officers doing jobs as diverse as roads policing, neighbourhood policing and monitoring sex offenders to paint a picture of how we are policed in 2012 and examine whether the daily reality matches the political rhetoric. And he speaks to politicians, academics and the public to assess whether what we are getting is what we want.
In this first programme, he digs into the origins of the current political debate over policing, and asks what the huge political changes lined up for policing in 2012 - including budget cuts, elected Police and Crime Commissioners and major changes to working practices - will mean for the service.
___________________________________________________________
Wednesday 1st February
Factual; Crime and Justice
Burglar in the House
BBC1, 10:45-11:30pm
Every two minutes a house in Britain is burgled, and for years Nottingham has suffered the highest burglary rates in the UK. But the city's police are fighting back, and are now capturing the burglars on camera. They are installing hidden minicams inside ordinary homes, which record the thieves in action. They call them 'capture houses', Nottingham's new weapon in the fight against crime. But is this new technology as reliable as the police think? And should the police be allowed to set traps for burglars?
Part of the Modern Crime season, this gripping documentary takes viewers to the frontline of a surburban crime-wave, witnessing first-hand the cat-and-mouse battle currently being played out across Nottingham. The film shows heart-stopping footage of burglars breaking into homes, and follows the intelligence and burglary teams as they hunt the burglars down. And cameras are there in the interview room as the burglar is shown the damning footage. Many burglars protest their innocence at first, but once they see the capture house footage, the game is up.
___________________________________________________________
Thursday 2nd February
Factual; History
Lost Kingdoms of Africa
BBC4, 11:10pm-12:10am, 1/4, The Kingdom of Asante
We know less about Africa's distant past than almost anywhere else on Earth. But the scarcity of written records doesn't mean that Africa lacks history - it is found instead in the culture, artefacts and traditions of the people. In this series, art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford explores some of the richest and most vibrant histories in the world, revealing fascinating stories of four complex and sophisticated civilisations: the Kingdom of Asante, the Zulu Kingdom, the Berber Kingdom of Morocco and the Kingdoms of Bunyoro & Buganda.
In this episode, Dr Casely-Hayford travels to Ghana in West Africa, where a powerful kingdom once dominated the region. Asante was built on gold and slaves, which ensured its important place in an economy that linked three continents. He reveals how this sophisticated kingdom emerged from the unlikely environment of dense tropical forest and how it was held together by a shared sense of tradition and history - one deliberately moulded by the kingdom's rulers.
Factual; History; Youth Culture
Teen Spirit
Yesterday, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3
In this first episode, Suggs takes a look at post-war Britain in the 50s where the word teenager didn't even exist. Instead children simply left school and entered straight into adult life by getting a job, getting married and having children themselves. In an era where homes finally got the washing machine, electric fire and the telephone, young adults were also starting their own rebellious uprising. Bored of following the establishment, they decided to cry out to society by donning drainpipe trousers, drape jackets and crepe shoes to form the well known culture of the Teddy Boys. Suggs takes viewers back in time to explore the music, fashions and rebellious attitudes of the 50s teens. Don't forget your hair grease and comb.
___________________________________________________________
Friday 3rd February
News; Factual; Current Affairs
Egypt: Children of the Revolution
BBC2, 7:00-8:00pm
Documentary following three revolutionaries after the downfall of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring, exploring their different visions for the country's future. Western-educated Gigi Ibrahim discusses his desire for a more liberal Egypt, Ahmed Hassan hopes the changes will lead to greater employment opportunities, and Tahir Yasin, who was tortured while in prison, dreams of the nation becoming an Islamic state.
*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 28th January
Factual; History; Documentaries
Atlantis: The Evidence - A Timewatch Special
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm
In this Timewatch special, historian Bettany Hughes unravels one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. She presents a series of geological, archaeological and historical clues to show that the legend of Atlantis was inspired by a real historical event, the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world.
___________________________________________________________
Sunday 29th January
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and the Enviroment
Penguin Island
BBC1, 3:30-4:00pm, 1/6
Meet Bluey and Sheila, one of the 13,000 little penguin couples who live on Phillip Island, off the coast of Australia. As the devoted penguin couple returns to their cliff-top home to begin the annual breeding cycle, Penguin Island introduces the dedicated team of rangers and scientists who will monitor and protect them through the hottest summer on record.
Among them is Marg Healy. With over 26 years of experience with penguins and other animals, Marg runs Phillip Island's animal hospital, looking after injured wildlife including little penguins, possums, koalas and other birds.
Field researcher Leanne Renwick weighs and examines the penguins to ensure they are up to the task of breeding. Her colleague Elizabeth Lundahl-Hegedus is a parade ranger and has lived within the Summerlands penguin colony for 30 years. It is a short walk from her house to the Penguin Parade, where the nightly parade of little penguins returns from sea.
We meet the feathered residents of the Penguin Cafe, a cluster of 'love nests' behind the busy Phillip Island tourist centre, where perennial bachelor Rocky and the determined yet slightly dim-witted Spike vie for the attention of the passing females as they attempt to attract a mate - including recent divorcee Tash.
Meanwhile, Bluey and Sheila lay their first clutch of eggs. While Sheila is off at sea hunting for food, the eggs hatch and Bluey must guard them until Sheila is home to meet her two young sons for the first time.
___________________________________________________________
Monday 30th January
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History
The Secret Catacombs of Paris
BBC Radio 4, 11:00-11:30am
Famously known as the City of Light, Paris is a diverse metropolis rich in architecture and steeped in history. But it has a dark alter ego that lies 30 metres under the ground, mirroring centuries of bloody wars, revolutions and riots on the surface. For Paris is porous - built on 177 miles of tunnels that were formed when limestone and gypsum were quarried to build the capital. Most people are only aware of just a tiny fraction of these tunnels - the world famous ossuary known as The Catacombs. The authorities have tried to keep a lid on the full extent of the labyrinthine remainder for hundreds of years. But there are little known entry points everywhere - in basements, in train stations, cellars and sewers. Throughout history, invaders have always found a way in, whether they were fighting Prussian soldiers, fleeing royalty of the French Revolution, the Nazis or The Resistance. Today they're home to the cataphiles - urban explorers who use the tunnels as an art space, a music venue or even a clandestine meeting point for secret societies.
The Guardian's architecture and design correspondent Jonathan Glancey investigates the underground maze of Paris, revealing a mysterious and intriguing history.
___________________________________________________________
Tuesday 31st January
Factual; Documentaries
Wonderland: My Child The Rioter
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
In August 2011, parents all over Britain were waking up to a morning they had never imagined. For some, it was the police knocking on the door, for others, it was the sight of a pile of stolen goods in their child's bedroom. Some simply realised that it was their kid who had been out on the streets, smashing windows, looting shops and attacking the police.
In sitting rooms and kitchens around the country, these families endured some of the most difficult conversations of their lives. Olly Lambert's film takes viewers inside those homes and inside those conversations. Many of these families would find their children facing lengthy prison sentences, and they themselves were singled out by a prime minister who blamed the worst riots in recent British history on 'a lack of proper parenting, a lack of proper upbringing, a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals'.
Eileen and Alan Bretherton's son Liam had recently served in Afghanistan, and was at the beginning of a promising career in the army. He got caught up in the events of last summer while home on leave; consequently, his parents now have to face the fact that the son in whom they took so much pride is now an ex-offender whose military career is in ruins.
In Manchester, childhood sweethearts Kerry and Liam Parkes looked on as their 19-year-old son defended the riots and took pride in what he did on the streets of Manchester. And in Willesden, David Clark watched his son break down in tears in fear of what his future may now hold.
This simple film cuts to the heart of families at the frontline of rioting Britain.
Factual; Politics
What Are The Police For?
BBC Radio 4, 8:00-8:30pm, 1/3
With policing top of the political agenda, and major change on the way, Mark Easton asks what we want from our police.
Mark spends time with police officers doing jobs as diverse as roads policing, neighbourhood policing and monitoring sex offenders to paint a picture of how we are policed in 2012 and examine whether the daily reality matches the political rhetoric. And he speaks to politicians, academics and the public to assess whether what we are getting is what we want.
In this first programme, he digs into the origins of the current political debate over policing, and asks what the huge political changes lined up for policing in 2012 - including budget cuts, elected Police and Crime Commissioners and major changes to working practices - will mean for the service.
___________________________________________________________
Wednesday 1st February
Factual; Crime and Justice
Burglar in the House
BBC1, 10:45-11:30pm
Every two minutes a house in Britain is burgled, and for years Nottingham has suffered the highest burglary rates in the UK. But the city's police are fighting back, and are now capturing the burglars on camera. They are installing hidden minicams inside ordinary homes, which record the thieves in action. They call them 'capture houses', Nottingham's new weapon in the fight against crime. But is this new technology as reliable as the police think? And should the police be allowed to set traps for burglars?
Part of the Modern Crime season, this gripping documentary takes viewers to the frontline of a surburban crime-wave, witnessing first-hand the cat-and-mouse battle currently being played out across Nottingham. The film shows heart-stopping footage of burglars breaking into homes, and follows the intelligence and burglary teams as they hunt the burglars down. And cameras are there in the interview room as the burglar is shown the damning footage. Many burglars protest their innocence at first, but once they see the capture house footage, the game is up.
___________________________________________________________
Thursday 2nd February
Factual; History
Lost Kingdoms of Africa
BBC4, 11:10pm-12:10am, 1/4, The Kingdom of Asante
We know less about Africa's distant past than almost anywhere else on Earth. But the scarcity of written records doesn't mean that Africa lacks history - it is found instead in the culture, artefacts and traditions of the people. In this series, art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford explores some of the richest and most vibrant histories in the world, revealing fascinating stories of four complex and sophisticated civilisations: the Kingdom of Asante, the Zulu Kingdom, the Berber Kingdom of Morocco and the Kingdoms of Bunyoro & Buganda.
In this episode, Dr Casely-Hayford travels to Ghana in West Africa, where a powerful kingdom once dominated the region. Asante was built on gold and slaves, which ensured its important place in an economy that linked three continents. He reveals how this sophisticated kingdom emerged from the unlikely environment of dense tropical forest and how it was held together by a shared sense of tradition and history - one deliberately moulded by the kingdom's rulers.
Factual; History; Youth Culture
Teen Spirit
Yesterday, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3
In this first episode, Suggs takes a look at post-war Britain in the 50s where the word teenager didn't even exist. Instead children simply left school and entered straight into adult life by getting a job, getting married and having children themselves. In an era where homes finally got the washing machine, electric fire and the telephone, young adults were also starting their own rebellious uprising. Bored of following the establishment, they decided to cry out to society by donning drainpipe trousers, drape jackets and crepe shoes to form the well known culture of the Teddy Boys. Suggs takes viewers back in time to explore the music, fashions and rebellious attitudes of the 50s teens. Don't forget your hair grease and comb.
___________________________________________________________
Friday 3rd February
News; Factual; Current Affairs
Egypt: Children of the Revolution
BBC2, 7:00-8:00pm
Documentary following three revolutionaries after the downfall of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring, exploring their different visions for the country's future. Western-educated Gigi Ibrahim discusses his desire for a more liberal Egypt, Ahmed Hassan hopes the changes will lead to greater employment opportunities, and Tahir Yasin, who was tortured while in prison, dreams of the nation becoming an Islamic state.
Wednesday 18 January 2012
Off-air recordings for week 21-27 January 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.
__________________________________________________________
Saturday 21st January
Art, culture and the Media; Documentaries
Catfish
More4, 10:00-11:55pm
When New York photographer Nev Schulman receives a painting based on one of his photographs from Abby, an eight-year-old child prodigy in Michigan, they become Facebook friends, and Nev develops online relationships with Abby's family, in particular with her attractive elder half-sister Megan.
But is everything as it seems? Nev travels to Michigan to find out.
A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 22nd January
Factual; History; Documentaries
The Last Explorers
BBC2, 6:00-7:00pm, 1/4 Livingstone
Neil Oliver follows in the footsteps of four Scottish explorers who planted ideas rather than flags - ideas that shaped the modern world we know today. In this first programme, Neil travels down the Zambesi river to reveal how David Livingstone took the faith of his nation to the ends of the Earth and exploited his celebrity to end the slave trade. His was a moral mission: to reshape British values and bring commerce, Christianity and civilisation to the African continent.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 24th January
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and the Environment; Documentaries
Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 The Great Dying
It is estimated that 99 per cent of species have become extinct and there have been times when life's hold on Earth has been so precarious it seems it hangs on by a thread.
This series focuses on the survivors - the old-timers - whose biographies stretch back millions of years and who show how it is possible to survive a mass extinction event which wipes out nearly all of its neighbours. The Natural History Museum's Professor Richard Fortey discovers what allows the very few to carry on going - perhaps not for ever, but certainly far beyond the life expectancy of normal species. What makes a survivor when all around drop like flies?
In this episode Professor Fortey focuses on a series of cataclysms over a million year period, 250 million years ago.
Factual; Politics; Documentaries
The World Against Apartheid: Have You Heard From Johannesburg?
BBC2, 10:00-11:00pm, 1/5, The Road To Resistance
Ten years in the making, this series explores how a violent and racist government was destroyed by the concerted efforts of men and women working on multiple fronts inside and outside South Africa for more than three decades. Featuring archive of the struggle never seen before on television and interviews with the major players, it is one of the most fascinating stories of the last century.
In this opening episode, Oliver Tambo leads citizens of the world in their condemnation of South Africa's cruel and racist new regime. The world reacts with horror when protesters are gunned down in the town of Sharpeville and the entire ANC leadership is forced underground or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela is jailed for life and ANC deputy president Oliver Tambo escapes into exile, embarking on what will become a 30-year journey to engage the world in the struggle to bring democracy to South Africa. With resistance inside South Africa effectively crushed by the brutal apartheid regime, the fate of the liberation struggle is in Tambo's hands.
_________________________________________________________
Wednesday 25th January
Factual; Science and Nature
Natural World: Jungle Gremlins of Java
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm
The slow loris is the real-life gremlin, extremely cute but with a venom that can kill. Now it's also a YouTube superstar with millions of hits. Dr Anna Nekaris travels to the jungles of Java to solve the riddle of its toxic bite, but a shocking discovery awaits.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media
Ken Russell: A Bit of a Devil
BBC2, 11:00pm-12:00am
Following the recent death of Ken Russell, Alan Yentob looks back over the career of the flamboyant film director responsible for Women In Love, Tommy and The Devils. Friends and admirers - including Glenda Jackson, Terry Gilliam, Twiggy, Melvyn Bragg, Robert Powell and Roger Daltrey - recall a pioneering documentary-maker, talented photographer and fearless film director.
When at the BBC in the Sixties, Russell first established his name with brilliant documentaries on Elgar, Delius and Debussy. Not only did he bring alive their music with inspiring images, he also humanised them by using actors, something unthinkable in factual film-making at the time. His unfettered imagination soon led to feature films. Women In Love earned Glenda Jackson an Oscar and notoriety for a nude wrestling scene featuring Oliver Reed and Alan Bates. Although infamy dogged him with The Devils, he enjoyed considerable commercial success with The Boyfriend and his extravagant take on The Who's Tommy. Furiously creative to the end, Russell showed himself determined to pursue his original ideas, sometimes regardless of the personal cost.
_________________________________________________________
Thursday 26th January
Factual; Archaeology
Saxon Hoard: A Golden Discovery
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm
Historian Dan Snow uncovers the secrets of one of Britain's most significant discoveries - the Staffordshire Hoard. Found by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast in 2009, the cache of 3,500 items offers an array of new clues into the Dark Ages, and the presenter pieces together the lives of the people who lived in these kingdoms.
Arts, Culture and the Media; Drama documentary
We'll Take Manhattan
BBC4, 9:00-10:30pm
We’ll Take Manhattan explores the explosive love affair between Sixties supermodel, Jean Shrimpton, and photographer, David Bailey.
Focusing on a wild and unpredictable 1962 Vogue photo shoot in New York, the drama brings to life the story of two young people falling in love, misbehaving and inadvertently defining the style of the Sixties along the way.
Set predominantly in 1962 but also exploring the story of how Bailey and Shrimpton first met, this one-off drama reveals how a young, visionary photographer refused to conform. He insisted on using the unconventional model Jean Shrimpton on an important photo shoot for British Vogue and, over the course of a freezing week in Manhattan, went against the wishes of fashion editor, Lady Clare Rendlesham, and made startling, original photographs.
We’ll Take Manhattan is the story of that wild week, of Bailey and Jean’s love affair, and of how two young people accidentally changed the world for ever.
Biography; Documentary
David Bailey: Four Beats To The Bar and No Cheating
BBC4, 10:30-11:35pm
From Vogue magazine fashion photographer to filmmaker, painter and sculptor, David Bailey is a cultural icon who has been at the cutting edge of contemporary art for 50 years. A working-class Londoner, he befriended the stars, married his muses and still captures the spirit and elegance of his times with his refreshingly simple approach and razor-sharp eye. Approaching his 73rd year, Bailey is showing no sign of slowing up. In his London studio and his country home in Devon, he continues to create one of the most varied and pertinent collections of any modern artist. Featuring interviews with art critic Martin Harrison, former wife Catherine Deneuve, current wife Catherine Dyer and close friend Jerry Hall, this is a portrait of a private man who bared the soul of the swinging sixties and seventies with his photographs and films. Grounded, honest, open and ferociously creative, Bailey makes art the way Count Basie played jazz - four beats to the bar and no cheating.
*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 21st January
Art, culture and the Media; Documentaries
Catfish
More4, 10:00-11:55pm
When New York photographer Nev Schulman receives a painting based on one of his photographs from Abby, an eight-year-old child prodigy in Michigan, they become Facebook friends, and Nev develops online relationships with Abby's family, in particular with her attractive elder half-sister Megan.
But is everything as it seems? Nev travels to Michigan to find out.
A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.
__________________________________________________________
Sunday 22nd January
Factual; History; Documentaries
The Last Explorers
BBC2, 6:00-7:00pm, 1/4 Livingstone
Neil Oliver follows in the footsteps of four Scottish explorers who planted ideas rather than flags - ideas that shaped the modern world we know today. In this first programme, Neil travels down the Zambesi river to reveal how David Livingstone took the faith of his nation to the ends of the Earth and exploited his celebrity to end the slave trade. His was a moral mission: to reshape British values and bring commerce, Christianity and civilisation to the African continent.
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday 24th January
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and the Environment; Documentaries
Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 The Great Dying
It is estimated that 99 per cent of species have become extinct and there have been times when life's hold on Earth has been so precarious it seems it hangs on by a thread.
This series focuses on the survivors - the old-timers - whose biographies stretch back millions of years and who show how it is possible to survive a mass extinction event which wipes out nearly all of its neighbours. The Natural History Museum's Professor Richard Fortey discovers what allows the very few to carry on going - perhaps not for ever, but certainly far beyond the life expectancy of normal species. What makes a survivor when all around drop like flies?
In this episode Professor Fortey focuses on a series of cataclysms over a million year period, 250 million years ago.
Factual; Politics; Documentaries
The World Against Apartheid: Have You Heard From Johannesburg?
BBC2, 10:00-11:00pm, 1/5, The Road To Resistance
Ten years in the making, this series explores how a violent and racist government was destroyed by the concerted efforts of men and women working on multiple fronts inside and outside South Africa for more than three decades. Featuring archive of the struggle never seen before on television and interviews with the major players, it is one of the most fascinating stories of the last century.
In this opening episode, Oliver Tambo leads citizens of the world in their condemnation of South Africa's cruel and racist new regime. The world reacts with horror when protesters are gunned down in the town of Sharpeville and the entire ANC leadership is forced underground or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela is jailed for life and ANC deputy president Oliver Tambo escapes into exile, embarking on what will become a 30-year journey to engage the world in the struggle to bring democracy to South Africa. With resistance inside South Africa effectively crushed by the brutal apartheid regime, the fate of the liberation struggle is in Tambo's hands.
_________________________________________________________
Wednesday 25th January
Factual; Science and Nature
Natural World: Jungle Gremlins of Java
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm
The slow loris is the real-life gremlin, extremely cute but with a venom that can kill. Now it's also a YouTube superstar with millions of hits. Dr Anna Nekaris travels to the jungles of Java to solve the riddle of its toxic bite, but a shocking discovery awaits.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media
Ken Russell: A Bit of a Devil
BBC2, 11:00pm-12:00am
Following the recent death of Ken Russell, Alan Yentob looks back over the career of the flamboyant film director responsible for Women In Love, Tommy and The Devils. Friends and admirers - including Glenda Jackson, Terry Gilliam, Twiggy, Melvyn Bragg, Robert Powell and Roger Daltrey - recall a pioneering documentary-maker, talented photographer and fearless film director.
When at the BBC in the Sixties, Russell first established his name with brilliant documentaries on Elgar, Delius and Debussy. Not only did he bring alive their music with inspiring images, he also humanised them by using actors, something unthinkable in factual film-making at the time. His unfettered imagination soon led to feature films. Women In Love earned Glenda Jackson an Oscar and notoriety for a nude wrestling scene featuring Oliver Reed and Alan Bates. Although infamy dogged him with The Devils, he enjoyed considerable commercial success with The Boyfriend and his extravagant take on The Who's Tommy. Furiously creative to the end, Russell showed himself determined to pursue his original ideas, sometimes regardless of the personal cost.
_________________________________________________________
Thursday 26th January
Factual; Archaeology
Saxon Hoard: A Golden Discovery
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm
Historian Dan Snow uncovers the secrets of one of Britain's most significant discoveries - the Staffordshire Hoard. Found by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast in 2009, the cache of 3,500 items offers an array of new clues into the Dark Ages, and the presenter pieces together the lives of the people who lived in these kingdoms.
Arts, Culture and the Media; Drama documentary
We'll Take Manhattan
BBC4, 9:00-10:30pm
We’ll Take Manhattan explores the explosive love affair between Sixties supermodel, Jean Shrimpton, and photographer, David Bailey.
Focusing on a wild and unpredictable 1962 Vogue photo shoot in New York, the drama brings to life the story of two young people falling in love, misbehaving and inadvertently defining the style of the Sixties along the way.
Set predominantly in 1962 but also exploring the story of how Bailey and Shrimpton first met, this one-off drama reveals how a young, visionary photographer refused to conform. He insisted on using the unconventional model Jean Shrimpton on an important photo shoot for British Vogue and, over the course of a freezing week in Manhattan, went against the wishes of fashion editor, Lady Clare Rendlesham, and made startling, original photographs.
We’ll Take Manhattan is the story of that wild week, of Bailey and Jean’s love affair, and of how two young people accidentally changed the world for ever.
Biography; Documentary
David Bailey: Four Beats To The Bar and No Cheating
BBC4, 10:30-11:35pm
From Vogue magazine fashion photographer to filmmaker, painter and sculptor, David Bailey is a cultural icon who has been at the cutting edge of contemporary art for 50 years. A working-class Londoner, he befriended the stars, married his muses and still captures the spirit and elegance of his times with his refreshingly simple approach and razor-sharp eye. Approaching his 73rd year, Bailey is showing no sign of slowing up. In his London studio and his country home in Devon, he continues to create one of the most varied and pertinent collections of any modern artist. Featuring interviews with art critic Martin Harrison, former wife Catherine Deneuve, current wife Catherine Dyer and close friend Jerry Hall, this is a portrait of a private man who bared the soul of the swinging sixties and seventies with his photographs and films. Grounded, honest, open and ferociously creative, Bailey makes art the way Count Basie played jazz - four beats to the bar and no cheating.
Wednesday 11 January 2012
Off-air recordings for week 14-20 January 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.
___________________________________________________________
Saturday 14th January
Factual; Documentaries
Timeshift: The Rules of Drinking
BBC4, 11:00-pm-12:00am, series 11
Timeshift digs into the archive to discover the unwritten rules that have governed the way we drink in Britain. In the pubs and working men's clubs of the forties and fifties there were strict customs governing who stood where. To be invited to sup at the bar was a rite of passage for many young men, and it took years for women to be accepted into these bastions of masculinity. As the country prospered and foreign travel became widely available, so new drinking habits were introduced as we discovered wine and, even more exotically, cocktails.
People began to drink at home as well as at work, where journalists typified a tradition of the liquid lunch. Advertising played its part as lager was first sold as a woman's drink and then the drink of choice for young men with a bit of disposable income. The rules changed and changed again, but they were always there - unwritten and unspoken, yet underwriting our complicated relationship with drinking.
___________________________________________________________
Monday 16th January
Factual; Documentaries
Secrets of the Shoplifters
Channel 4, 10:00-11.05pm
Britain is the shoplifting capital of Europe - the crime has increased by over 12% in the last year. This film heads to the front line of the battle between shops and robbers, revealing the cunning and clever up-to-date tactics employed by both sides.
The summer riots highlighted that Brits are prepared to break the law and steal to get what they want. Whilet store detectives are refusing to give up the fight, shoplifters are equally determined to outwit them. It's a surreal world of cat and mouse - detectives scour Facebook while lifters use a range of complex tricks to try to disable those seemingly unmovable tags.
The recession is dramatically changing the goods that are being stolen - the theft of clothing is being replaced by a huge rise in meat stealing. With shoplifters becoming smarter and more presentable in appearance, security staff have to become experts in body language to stay one step ahead.
These committed detectives are putting their necks on the line, often without handcuffs or stab vests, while they try and detain people who, when caught, can sometimes turn violent.
___________________________________________________________
Tuesday 17th January
Drama. Classic and Period
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
BBC1, 1:25-2:25am, part 1 (part 2 tomorrow)
A two-part period drama adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens.
Opium addict and choirmaster John Jasper has vivid dreams of killing his beloved nephew Edwin Drood and stealing his fiancee Rosa. When two exotic strangers arrive in town, Jasper's dark desires take shape and his life will never be the same again.
With Edwin Drood feared dead, Jasper tries desperately to remember events of the night before. He pursues Rosa with an intensity that pushes him to the edge of sanity, while a trail of evidence points ominously to the cathedral crypt.
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology
Horizon: Playing God
BBC2, 9:30-10:30pm
Adam Rutherford meets a new creature created by American scientists, the spider-goat. It is part goat, part spider, and its milk can be used to create artificial spider's web.
It is part of a new field of research, synthetic biology, with a radical aim: to break down nature into spare parts so that we can rebuild it however we please.
This technology is already being used to make bio-diesel to power cars. Other researchers are looking at how we might, one day, control human emotions by sending 'biological machines' into our brains.
____________________________________________________________
Wednesday 18th January
Factual; History
Illuminations: The Private Life of Medieval Kings
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am, Second of three part series (part 1 already recorded)
Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of medieval illuminated manuscripts and shows how they gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare and rebellion. She discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare him for his great victory at the battle of Crecy and reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the 100 Years War with France (1340-1453).
In the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection she finds out that magnificent manuscripts like the Bedford Hours, taken as war booty from the French royal family, were adapted for the education of English princes. Dr Ramirez also explores how knowledge spread through a new form of book - the encyclopaedia.
Factual; History
The Crusades
BBC2, 9:30-10:30pm, 1/3 Holy War
The story of the Crusades is remembered as a tale of religious fanaticism and unspeakable brutality, of medieval knights and jihadi warriors; of castles and kings; of heroism, betrayal and sacrifice.
But now, using fresh evidence, eye-witness testimonies and contemporary accounts - from both the Christian and Islamic worlds - Dr Thomas Asbridge re-examines this epic medieval tale. Retracing the steps of the crusaders from a small town in France to the magnificent cities of the Holy Land, he brings to life the human experience of the Crusades, and sheds new light on how it was that two of the world's great religions waged war in the name of God; why hundreds of thousands of Christians and Muslims answered the call to crusade and jihad.
___________________________________________________________
Thursday 19th January
News; Documentaries
Putin, Russia and the West
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/4, Taking Control
Vladimir Putin, after eight years as President of Russia and four more as Prime Minister, is stubbornly holding onto power. He has announced his intention to return as President and declared his United Russia party the winner in parliamentary elections that have widely been seen as fraudulent, causing mass protests in Moscow and elsewhere with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets.
But just how did this consummate political operator with a background in the KGB become a valued ally of the West? And when did his policies start to provoke deep concern in Washington and London? Putin, Russia & the West tells the inside story, with contributions from Putin’s top colleagues and the Western statesmen who have clashed with him.
This is a four-part series from Norma Percy and the team at Brook Lapping behind the multi-award-winning documentaries The Death of Yugoslavia, The Second Russian Revolution and Iran & the West.
The first film, Taking Control, starts with George W Bush meeting Putin in June 2001 and declaring how he looked Putin in the eye and ‘got a sense of his soul’. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice recall their reactions to the discussions that happened behind closed doors, with Putin delivering a prophetic warning about Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban. Three months later, 9/11 happened.
Following the terrorist attacks, Putin quickly aligned Russia with the West, to the surprise of many in the Kremlin. The US and Russia had opposed each other for decades, but the world had now changed. Sergei Ivanov, Russian’s Defence Minister, tells how offers from Taliban to join forces with Russia against America were rejected with strong language.
But at home Putin was becoming increasingly authoritarian. Mikhail Kasyanov, then Russia’s Prime Minister, recalls a meeting with Putin and the country’s top businessmen, where ‘all the oligarchs present almost hid under the table in fear.' The film also tells the story of how Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, challenged Putin and ended up in prison.
Documentaries
True Stories: Gypsy Blood
More4, 10:00-11:35pm
Filmed over two years by award-winning photographer Leo Maguire, Gypsy Blood examines the violent culture that some gypsy and traveller fathers hand on to their sons.
The film is an intimate portrait of two gypsy families, their fight for respect and the price they pay in cycles of revenge that can erupt into sudden and terrifying violence.
The Dohertys are Irish Traveller royalty. While Hughie Doherty, 27, becomes embroiled in a fight to defend his family's name, his seven-year-old son Francie is caught between two worlds, learning to read at primary school while learning to fight with his fists at home.
Fred Butcher is Romany but torn between the gypsy fighting tradition and his love as a father. His nine-year-old son, Freddy Cole, is terrified his father will be badly hurt in a fight. The film follows the story of how Fred nearly dies in a machete attack as a day of drinking and sparring goes terribly wrong.
Gypsy Blood is a haunting study of masculinity, violence and the uneasy relationship gypsy and traveller men have with their bare-knuckle traditions, and an insight into people living amongst a wider society but sometimes with values that are a world apart.
_________________________________________________________
Friday 20th January
Documentary; Historical
Pugin: God's Own Architect
BBC4, 1:35-2:35am
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th century Gothic Revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Presenter Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media
Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-up in History
BBC4, 3:35-4:35am
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of Western art and ethics.
He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history; how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze; and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.
In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.
*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 14th January
Factual; Documentaries
Timeshift: The Rules of Drinking
BBC4, 11:00-pm-12:00am, series 11
Timeshift digs into the archive to discover the unwritten rules that have governed the way we drink in Britain. In the pubs and working men's clubs of the forties and fifties there were strict customs governing who stood where. To be invited to sup at the bar was a rite of passage for many young men, and it took years for women to be accepted into these bastions of masculinity. As the country prospered and foreign travel became widely available, so new drinking habits were introduced as we discovered wine and, even more exotically, cocktails.
People began to drink at home as well as at work, where journalists typified a tradition of the liquid lunch. Advertising played its part as lager was first sold as a woman's drink and then the drink of choice for young men with a bit of disposable income. The rules changed and changed again, but they were always there - unwritten and unspoken, yet underwriting our complicated relationship with drinking.
___________________________________________________________
Monday 16th January
Factual; Documentaries
Secrets of the Shoplifters
Channel 4, 10:00-11.05pm
Britain is the shoplifting capital of Europe - the crime has increased by over 12% in the last year. This film heads to the front line of the battle between shops and robbers, revealing the cunning and clever up-to-date tactics employed by both sides.
The summer riots highlighted that Brits are prepared to break the law and steal to get what they want. Whilet store detectives are refusing to give up the fight, shoplifters are equally determined to outwit them. It's a surreal world of cat and mouse - detectives scour Facebook while lifters use a range of complex tricks to try to disable those seemingly unmovable tags.
The recession is dramatically changing the goods that are being stolen - the theft of clothing is being replaced by a huge rise in meat stealing. With shoplifters becoming smarter and more presentable in appearance, security staff have to become experts in body language to stay one step ahead.
These committed detectives are putting their necks on the line, often without handcuffs or stab vests, while they try and detain people who, when caught, can sometimes turn violent.
___________________________________________________________
Tuesday 17th January
Drama. Classic and Period
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
BBC1, 1:25-2:25am, part 1 (part 2 tomorrow)
A two-part period drama adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens.
Opium addict and choirmaster John Jasper has vivid dreams of killing his beloved nephew Edwin Drood and stealing his fiancee Rosa. When two exotic strangers arrive in town, Jasper's dark desires take shape and his life will never be the same again.
With Edwin Drood feared dead, Jasper tries desperately to remember events of the night before. He pursues Rosa with an intensity that pushes him to the edge of sanity, while a trail of evidence points ominously to the cathedral crypt.
Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology
Horizon: Playing God
BBC2, 9:30-10:30pm
Adam Rutherford meets a new creature created by American scientists, the spider-goat. It is part goat, part spider, and its milk can be used to create artificial spider's web.
It is part of a new field of research, synthetic biology, with a radical aim: to break down nature into spare parts so that we can rebuild it however we please.
This technology is already being used to make bio-diesel to power cars. Other researchers are looking at how we might, one day, control human emotions by sending 'biological machines' into our brains.
____________________________________________________________
Wednesday 18th January
Factual; History
Illuminations: The Private Life of Medieval Kings
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am, Second of three part series (part 1 already recorded)
Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of medieval illuminated manuscripts and shows how they gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare and rebellion. She discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare him for his great victory at the battle of Crecy and reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the 100 Years War with France (1340-1453).
In the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection she finds out that magnificent manuscripts like the Bedford Hours, taken as war booty from the French royal family, were adapted for the education of English princes. Dr Ramirez also explores how knowledge spread through a new form of book - the encyclopaedia.
Factual; History
The Crusades
BBC2, 9:30-10:30pm, 1/3 Holy War
The story of the Crusades is remembered as a tale of religious fanaticism and unspeakable brutality, of medieval knights and jihadi warriors; of castles and kings; of heroism, betrayal and sacrifice.
But now, using fresh evidence, eye-witness testimonies and contemporary accounts - from both the Christian and Islamic worlds - Dr Thomas Asbridge re-examines this epic medieval tale. Retracing the steps of the crusaders from a small town in France to the magnificent cities of the Holy Land, he brings to life the human experience of the Crusades, and sheds new light on how it was that two of the world's great religions waged war in the name of God; why hundreds of thousands of Christians and Muslims answered the call to crusade and jihad.
___________________________________________________________
Thursday 19th January
News; Documentaries
Putin, Russia and the West
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/4, Taking Control
Vladimir Putin, after eight years as President of Russia and four more as Prime Minister, is stubbornly holding onto power. He has announced his intention to return as President and declared his United Russia party the winner in parliamentary elections that have widely been seen as fraudulent, causing mass protests in Moscow and elsewhere with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets.
But just how did this consummate political operator with a background in the KGB become a valued ally of the West? And when did his policies start to provoke deep concern in Washington and London? Putin, Russia & the West tells the inside story, with contributions from Putin’s top colleagues and the Western statesmen who have clashed with him.
This is a four-part series from Norma Percy and the team at Brook Lapping behind the multi-award-winning documentaries The Death of Yugoslavia, The Second Russian Revolution and Iran & the West.
The first film, Taking Control, starts with George W Bush meeting Putin in June 2001 and declaring how he looked Putin in the eye and ‘got a sense of his soul’. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice recall their reactions to the discussions that happened behind closed doors, with Putin delivering a prophetic warning about Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban. Three months later, 9/11 happened.
Following the terrorist attacks, Putin quickly aligned Russia with the West, to the surprise of many in the Kremlin. The US and Russia had opposed each other for decades, but the world had now changed. Sergei Ivanov, Russian’s Defence Minister, tells how offers from Taliban to join forces with Russia against America were rejected with strong language.
But at home Putin was becoming increasingly authoritarian. Mikhail Kasyanov, then Russia’s Prime Minister, recalls a meeting with Putin and the country’s top businessmen, where ‘all the oligarchs present almost hid under the table in fear.' The film also tells the story of how Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, challenged Putin and ended up in prison.
Documentaries
True Stories: Gypsy Blood
More4, 10:00-11:35pm
Filmed over two years by award-winning photographer Leo Maguire, Gypsy Blood examines the violent culture that some gypsy and traveller fathers hand on to their sons.
The film is an intimate portrait of two gypsy families, their fight for respect and the price they pay in cycles of revenge that can erupt into sudden and terrifying violence.
The Dohertys are Irish Traveller royalty. While Hughie Doherty, 27, becomes embroiled in a fight to defend his family's name, his seven-year-old son Francie is caught between two worlds, learning to read at primary school while learning to fight with his fists at home.
Fred Butcher is Romany but torn between the gypsy fighting tradition and his love as a father. His nine-year-old son, Freddy Cole, is terrified his father will be badly hurt in a fight. The film follows the story of how Fred nearly dies in a machete attack as a day of drinking and sparring goes terribly wrong.
Gypsy Blood is a haunting study of masculinity, violence and the uneasy relationship gypsy and traveller men have with their bare-knuckle traditions, and an insight into people living amongst a wider society but sometimes with values that are a world apart.
_________________________________________________________
Friday 20th January
Documentary; Historical
Pugin: God's Own Architect
BBC4, 1:35-2:35am
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th century Gothic Revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Presenter Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media
Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-up in History
BBC4, 3:35-4:35am
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of Western art and ethics.
He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history; how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze; and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.
In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.
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