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 23rd March
Factual > Pets & Animals > Science & Nature > Documentaries
Natural World Special: Attenborough's Ark
BBC2, 8:30-9:30pm
David Attenborough chooses his ten favourite animals that he would most like to save from extinction. From the weird to the wonderful, he picks fabulous and unusual creatures that he would like to put in his 'ark', including unexpected and little-known animals such as the olm, the solenodon and the quoll. He shows why they are so important and shares the ingenious work of biologists across the world who are helping to keep them alive.
Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries > Films
Project Nim
BBC2, 9:30-11:05pm
Documentary about Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human.
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Monday 24th March
Factual › Arts, Culture & the Media › Arts
What Do Artists Do All Day?
BBC4, 8:00-8:30pm, Polly Morgan
Taxidermist Polly Morgan, described by Banksy as 'Britain's hottest bird stuffer', is one of Britain's most high profile young artists.
Her macabre and unsettling works, including a coffin bursting with open-mouthed chicks and a rat asleep in a champagne glass, have won her celebrity fans including Kate Moss and considerable media coverage.
In the second of this series of artist profiles, this film offers an intimate peek at the strange and wonderful art of Polly Morgan and asks what her reputation reveals about the relationship between art and celebrity.
Factual › Arts, Culture & the Media › Arts
John Portman: A Life of Building
BBC4, 10:15-11:10pm
Film about the architect John Portman, capturing his approach in an intimate portrait that, by turn, assesses and appreciates his work, using dramatic time-lapse footage to show off his buildings at their best. Once a maverick who was nearly run out of the American Institute of Architects, Portman is now recognized as one of the most innovative and imitated architects ever. Over 45 years, his iconic urban statements and eye-popping interiors have risen in 60 cities on four continents to redefine cityscapes in America and skylines in China and the rest of Asia.
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Tuesday 25th March
Factual › Health & Wellbeing
Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/8
The first of a landmark eight-part series, filmed on a single day in the NHS. 100 camera crews filming across the country capture the extraordinary breadth of demands placed on the country's biggest institution on just one day at a critical time in its history. On this day, 1,300 of us will die, 2,000 will be born and one and a half million of us will be treated.
In this first episode alone, this groundbreaking portrait of our national health service moves across the country revealing how the NHS copes with the growing demands of obesity, old age and cancer amongst others.
While Matron Liz deals with 130 patients through her doors in a Clinical Decision Unit in Birmingham, patient Lynn's weight-loss surgery in Chichester is interrupted by a devastating discovery. Further north in Leeds, stroke doctors use a revolutionary treatment to save the speech and movement of 64-year-old Graham.
'Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day' provokes profound questions about what the NHS does for us now and what we expect of it in the future.
Comedy › Satire
Frost on Satire
BBC4, 11:35pm-12:35am
Sir David Frost presents an investigation into the power of political satire with the help of some of the funniest TV moments of the last 50 years.
Beginning with the 1960s and That Was the Week That Was, he charts the development of television satire in Britain and the United States and is joined by the leading satirists from both sides of the Atlantic. From the UK, Rory Bremner, Ian Hislop and John Lloyd discuss their individual contributions, while from the US, Jon Stewart analyses the appeal of The Daily Show, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell talk about their respective portrayals of Sarah Palin and George W Bush, and Chevy Chase remembers how Saturday Night Live turned them into huge stars.
All of them tackle the key question of whether satire really can alter the course of political events.
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Wednesday 26th March
Factual › Science & Nature › Nature & Environment
Insect Worlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 3/3 - The Secrets of Their Success
Totalling an estimated 10 million species, the insects and their close relatives are the most abundant and diverse group of animals in the world, so what is the secret of their success? Their hard external skeleton provides strength and protection and their small size allows them to exploit many microhabitats.
In Yellowstone, Steve Backshall reveals how teamwork allows a colony of bees to scare off a hungry bear, and in Australia this same teamwork allows a colony of ants to beat the rising tide. But to unlock the real secret of their success Steve visits the Swiss Alps, where an incredible relationship exists between the ant, the wasp and the butterfly.
History > Documentaries
Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time
BBC1, 9:00-10:00pm
In a one off landmark drama documentary for BBC One, Dr Margaret Mountford presents Pompeii: The Mystery Of The People Frozen In Time.
The city of Pompeii uniquely captures the public’s imagination; in 79AD a legendary volcanic disaster left its citizens preserved in ashes to this very day. Yet no-one has been able to unravel the full story that is at the heart of our fascination: how did those bodies become frozen in time?
For the first time the BBC has been granted unique access to these strange, ghost-like body casts that populate the ruins, and using the latest forensic technology, the chance to peer beneath the surface of the plaster in order to rebuild the faces of two of the people who were killed in this terrible tragedy.
Margaret will turn detective to tell a new story at the heart of one of history’s most iconic moments; she’ll look at the unique set of circumstances that led to the remarkable preservation of the people of Pompeii. By applying modern day forensic analysis to this age-old mystery, Margaret dispels the myths surrounding the events in 79AD. She’ll also explore the lives of the individuals who once lived in this vibrant and enigmatic city, as well as recreating the last moments of the people caught up in this tragedy.
Factual › Health & Wellbeing
Terry Pratchett: Facing Extinction
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
Best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett, diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007, has one last adventure he wants to go on. Eighteen years ago Terry had a life-changing experience in the jungles of Borneo, where he encountered orangutans in the wild for the first time. Now he is going back to find out what the future holds for these endangered species, and discover a new threat to their habitat that could push them to the brink of extinction. His Alzheimer's will make the trip an incredible challenge both physically and mentally, as he contemplates the role of mankind in the eradication of the planet's species, and considers his own inevitable extinction.
Terry is accompanied by his friend and assistant Rob Wilkins, as they investigate an Indonesian street market where endangered species are reportedly on sale, meet the world expert on orangutans, Dr Birute Galdikas, and journey into the rainforest in search of the former king of the orangutans, Kusasi.
Factual › Arts, Culture & the Media › Arts
Danny Boyle: Man of Wonder: A Culture Show Special
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Thursday 27th March
Factual > History > Religion & Ethics > Documentaries
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 4/6 - Shrines
For those outside the Catholic and Orthodox Church, the ancient tradition of visiting a shrine to venerate the bones of a dead person - however holy - can seem quite alien. Ifor’s voyage to understand why saintly relics have played such a major role in our religious history begins at an unlikely starting point: at the side of a road in South London where T-Rex frontman, Marc Bolan, suffered a fatal car crash.
Fans still come here to remember a man most of them never met. Even things celebrities have merely touched can change hands at auction for eye-watering prices. Is today’s celebrity memorabilia the modern day equivalent of what, in mediaeval times, would have been called relics?
Ifor heads to Scotland where he learns that the city of Glasgow only exists because of a shrine, and in Wales, he visits the newly renovated shrine of its patron saint, St David. In St Albans Cathedral, Ifor learns that the relic – St Alban’s shoulder bone – was only returned to this shrine in 2002, prompting Ifor to ask if shrines are starting to creep back into the Anglican mainstream.
After viewing a genuinely shocking relic in Westminster Cathedral, Ifor meets the Catholic Arch Bishop Vincent Nichols who has a radical theory about how the return of shrines represents the final chapter of the reformation - and Ifor explores how much of this is down to Princess Diana. Finally, after seeing some of the finest Cathedrals in the land, Ifor ends his journey in a place that couldn’t be more different: a tiny church on the fringe of Snowdonia, which is home to a shrine that some people consider one of the holiest place in Britain.
Documentaries
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm
“When he first started swearing, you do a big intake of breath and think ‘oh my gosh, now what am I going to do?’ At that point I don’t think I was even able to support him. The emotions took over and I just literally cried for two days…I was sad. I’d lost part of my son.” Kristy, mum to Connor, age 12
It is believed that 1 in 100 school children are affected by Tourette’s Syndrome, mostly boys. There is no cure, but there is hope, thanks to a pioneering treatment programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This one-off, hour-long documentary follows the lives of three boys and their families over a six-month period as they share the reality of living with the condition and the daily obstacles they face. This is their story, in their own words. They are filmed at home and in public and both the boys and their families share their personal thoughts direct to camera in individual interviews which are woven into the programme.
It offers a compelling insight into Tourette’s and how it can be treated, with unprecedented access to Great Ormond Street’s Clinic, which deals with the most severe and complex cases in the country.
Callum, age 9, wants to be an astronaut when he grows up and proudly shares his impersonation of an alien with Tourette’s. His mum Maria explains he started by getting eye tics and now gets new ones all the time. Callum says: “Other people stare at me and it’s annoying and sometimes I just want to go over there and tell them that I’ve got Tourette’s and I can’t help it, can you stop staring at me? Animals are easier to be with than people because the animals just ignore you because they can’t talk or say anything.”
Connor is age 12. He says: “I look normal but I happen to have Tourette’s Syndrome. I can’t help shout, swear or do movements. I call my Tourette’s Johnny because it’s Johnny who shouts and swears and me who doesn’t shout and swear.”
Connor’s dad Carl describes him as: “Loving, caring, funny, sensitive, drives you mad, pushes you to the limit. And the next minute he makes you proud to be a parent. And then he’ll push you again.” ...
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