Off-air recordings for week 26 January - 1 February 2013

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 26th January

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

The Treasure's of Ancient Rome
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/3 - Warts 'n' All

Alastair Sooke traces how the Romans during the Republic went from being art thieves and copycats to pioneering a new artistic style - warts 'n' all realism. Roman portraits reveal what the great names from history, men like Julius Caesar and Cicero, actually looked like. Modern-day artists demonstrate the ingenious techniques used to create these true to life masterpieces in marble, bronze and paint.


We can step back into the Roman world thanks to their invention of the documentary-style marble relief and to a volcano called Vesuvius. Sooke explores the remarkable artistic legacy of Pompeii before showing how Rome's first emperor, Augustus, used the power of art to help forge an empire.


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Sunday 27th

Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries

Wonders of Life
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/5 - What is Life?

Professor Brian Cox embarks upon an exploration of how a few fundamental laws gave birth to the most complex, diverse and unique feature of our universe - life. In this episode, he journeys to the volcanic landscapes of South-East Asia, seeking to understand how life first began and how that spark has endured to this day.

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Monday 28th

News

Panorama: The Great Disability Scam
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

Only half of all people with a disability are in work. Panorama investigates if one of the government's most ambitious welfare reforms, costing billions of pounds, can solve the problem of disability unemployment. Reporter Sam Poling reveals the private companies who are getting rich from the new reforms despite only being able to get a small fraction of disabled people back to work, and speaks to the charities who feel the most vulnerable in our society are being failed.


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Tuesday 29th

Factual; History; Documentaries

Britain on Film
BBC4, 2:30-3:00am, 7/10 - This Sceptred Isle

In 1959, Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. For the next ten years, Look at Life chronicled - on high-grade 35mm colour film - the changing face of British society, industry and culture. Britain on Film draws upon the 500 films in this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into what became a pivotal decade.


This episode examines Look at Life's quirky films that documented unusual or eccentric British customs, rituals and traditions. In an era where many Britons embraced change as never before, these revealing and highly entertaining films show that people were determined to preserve the idiosyncratic aspects of our national life.


Factual; Science and Nature

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm, 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.


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Thursday 31st

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment


Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 1:45-2:45am, 2/7 - The Great Barrier Reef

Steve Backshall goes beneath the surface of Australia's Great Barrier Reef to discover the crucial conditions that allowed a tiny coral building block to create the largest living structure on the planet. He unravels the complex mosaic of reef environments to reveal the key to the microworld's success, but discovers that life on this coast is not always easy. Nutrient-poor water, enormous storms and rising seas should make it impossible for such a vibrant ecosystem to exist here, so what allows the Great Barrier Reef to not only survive but flourish as the largest reef on Earth?



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