*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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Sunday 7th July
Factual > Science & Nature > Documentaries
Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life
BBC4, 7:00-8:00pm
David Attenborough asks three key questions: how and why did Darwin come up with his theory of evolution? Why do we think he was right? And why is it more important now than ever before?
David starts his journey in Darwin's home at Down House in Kent, where Darwin worried and puzzled over the origins of life. He goes back to his roots in Leicestershire, where he hunted for fossils as a child and where another schoolboy unearthed a significant find in the 1950s, and he revisits Cambridge University, where both he and Darwin studied and where many years later the DNA double helix was discovered, providing the foundations for genetics.
At the end of his journey in the Natural History Museum in London, David concludes that Darwin's great insight revolutionised the way in which we see the world. We now understand why there are so many different species, and why they are distributed in the way they are. But above all, Darwin has shown us that we are not set apart from the natural world, and do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its laws and processes, as are all other animals on earth to which, indeed, we are related.
Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Arts > Documentaries
Timeshift: Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm
Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.
Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.
Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.
Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists.
Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Life Stories > Documentaries
Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm
Alice Walker made history as the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her groundbreaking novel The Color Purple, in 1983. It was transformed into a Hollywood movie nominated for 11 Oscars and more recently to a successful Broadway musical. This film follows this extraordinary woman's journey from her birth in a shack in the cotton fields of Georgia to her recognition as a key writer of the 20th century.
The Color Purple's theme of triumph against the odds is not that different from Alice's own experience. Her early life unfolded in the midst of violent racism and poverty during some of the most turbulent years of profound social and political upheaval in North American history. Her writing was a vital voice at a time when the personal became the political.
Featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones, this is a penetrating insight into the life and work of an artist, a self-confessed renegade and passionate human rights activist.
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Monday 8th July
Religion > Documentaries
A Very British Ramadan
Channel 4, 8:00-8:30pm
Rashid Khan - former professional rugby league player and star of the award-winning Make Bradford British - travels across Britain, exploring the physical, logistical and spiritual preparations for the holy month of Ramadan.
A Very British Ramadan is the first programme in 4Ramadan, a season of programmes reflecting what life is like for Britain's Muslim population who observe this religious festival.
From dawn to dusk Muslims around the world do not eat, drink, smoke or engage in sexual relations, in an attempt to focus on what's important, think about those who have less than them and better appreciate all that they have.
But during Ramadan, life also has to carry on as normal, often working in mentally and physically demanding environments and raising families.
Channel 4 follows and hears from a range of British Muslims throughout Ramadan, on how they cope with daily life and the physical and spiritual effects of fasting, as they go through it.
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Tuesday 9th July
Religion > Diaries > Factual
Ramadan Diairies
Channel 4, 7:55-8:00pm
Nightly short films follow British Muslims as they observe Ramadan. Ramadan Diaries meets a cross-section of society - from doctors to radio djs, parents and children - to understand what Ramadan means to them. The films delve beyond the physical trial of fasting over Ramadan and seek to discover how the fast impacts at a deeper, spiritual level.
Using documentary footage, plus self-shot videos from participants, the films immerse the viewer in the world of fasting and give them an insight into what Ramadan is, as well as what it means to be Muslim in Britain today. The diaries cover a spectrum of everyday life and interesting characters, featuring a wide range of Muslims from across Britain, including some well-known faces.
Factual > Law > Crime > Documentaries
The Murder Trial
Channel 4, 9:00-11:10pm
After three years of negotiation, the Scottish High Court gave permission for this extraordinary and unique access: to film the case of a man accused of murdering his wife.
Her body has never been found, there is no weapon or crime scene, and her husband appears to have a cast iron alibi for the day she disappeared.
For the first time ever, remotely operated cameras have been placed inside a British criminal court to capture a murder trial in its entirety for this feature-length documentary.
Recorded over six weeks, this film shows the process of justice in a Scottish High Court like never before. With over 70 witnesses and 104 pieces of evidence, the complex case is dissected first by the Prosecution QC Alex Prentice and then the Defence QC John Scott.
The victim in the case is Arlene Fraser and her family have been waiting over 14 years for justice. Nat Fraser was first brought to trial in 2003 for the murder of his wife: he was found guilty.
But Fraser argued that the trial was a miscarriage of justice and challenged the verdict in the highest courts in the land. The case became a cause célèbre. Eventually, after years of protesting his innocence, the conviction was quashed in 2011.
In April 2012, Nat Fraser was sent back to the High Court in Edinburgh for a fresh trial, 14 years after his wife's disappearance. A new jury was sworn in to hear all the evidence against him. Would they find him innocent or convict him of murder?
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Wednesday 10th July
Factual > Health & Wellbeing > Sport > Football > Documentaries
Football's Suicide Secret
BBC3, 12:30-1:30am
Since the tragic suicide of Gary Speed in 2011, football has had to face up to a stigma in the game - mental illness. But is there a still taboo in the game? Footballer and chairman of the PFA Clarke Carlisle investigates depression - and even suicide - in British football and speaks to young players, managers and Gary Speed's family to find out why footballers are suffering in silence.
Factual > Science > Documentaries
Horizon: the Truth about Personality
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
“As you get older, are things better, the same or worse than you thought they would be?” It’s a simple enough question, but it turns out to be a killer in its way. Michael Mosley learns that having positive beliefs about ageing, as revealed via questions like this, has been shown to give people an improvement in life-expectancy of, on average – and this is the staggering bit – seven-and-a-half years.
It’s one of many eye-opening findings here. Mosley has become TV’s wellbeing guru via brilliant programmes on dieting and exercise, but he is habitually anxious, negative and stressed: can the latest science help? It’s almost as interesting to see the magical home movies of Mosley as a child. Then, at least, he was happy.
Michael Mosley explores the latest research in genetics and neuroscience to find out what factors shape people's personalities and whether they can be changed. Michael tries two techniques in an attempt to make him worry less and become more of an optimist - with surprising results.
Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > History > Documentaries
Who Were the Greeks?
BBC2, 11:20pm-12:20am, 2/2
Classicist Dr Michael Scott, explores the legacies of the Ancient Greeks, what they have given us today, and asks why these legacies have lasted through time.
Democracy, art, architecture, philosophy, science, sport, theatre - all can be traced back to ancient Greece. Travelling across the ancient Greek world, from Athens to Olympia, Macedon, Turkey and Sicily, Michael discovers why the ancient Greeks were so successful, why their culture and way of life spread across continents and through time and why they still have such a powerful hold over our imaginations today.
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Thursday 11th July
Factual > Crime > Documentaries
Brady and Hindley: Possession
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm
This landmark documentary on the fiftieth anniversary of the first of the Moors murders raises new questions about a case which remains open and whose impact continues to be felt.
Produced by Wild Pictures (makers of recent, acclaimed ITV factual series Her Majesty’s Prison: Aylesbury) the film features first hand accounts from key figures and photographs taken by the killers to offer a fresh insight into the horrific crimes committed by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. They were sentenced to life in prison in 1966 for the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, John Kilbride, 12, and Edward Evans, 17. In the mid-eighties they admitted that they had also killed Keith Bennett, 12, and Pauline Reade, 16.
The film includes a recording of Myra Hindley describing the killing that led to her capture, the trial of the century and reflecting on her crimes.
The recording, made for Myra Hindley biographer Duncan Staff, a consultant and contributor for the film, provides an insight into the calculated nature of the killings. She revealed to Staff how all the Moors murderers' burial sites were 'marked' using photographs, with Hindley and/or Brady posing by the graves.
In the film we hear from a child who was taken to Saddleworth moor by Brady and Hindley but came back alive. Speaking for the first time on television, Carol Waterhouse, a neighbour of Hindley's, describes how she and her brother were taken for a picnic there and tricked into posing in the area where Keith Bennett is believed to be buried.
“They seemed very nice. Friendly, not like other adults,” says Carol.
The film raises new questions about these grave-marking images. Experts tell the documentary they believe a set of photographs taken by Hindley and Brady - and handed to Staff - might be grave markers on a separate site away from Saddleworth Moor. Britain's leading forensic archaeologist, Professor John Hunter, is seen searching the site with body dogs....
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Friday 12th July
Documentaries >
World's Busiest.... Train Station
Channel 5, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/4
The series is a four-part co-production with GroupM Entertainment documenting the story of the busiest places on earth; from airports and train stations to hotels and border crossings.
The show combines technology and engineering with human stories to showcase the challenges and logistics that being the ‘world’s busiest’ brings.
Each episode focuses on a different location. The first centres around the World’s Busiest Border Crossing (San Ysidro between Mexico and the US), the second is the World’s Busiest Airport (Hong Kong International), episode three travels to the World’s Busiest Train Station (Shinjuku Station in Tokyo) and the concluding programme takes a trip to the World’s Busiest Hotel (Venetian/Palazzo Las Vegas).
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