Monday 1st June
Channel 4 - Dispatches: Orphan's of Burma's Cyclone - "As Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, faces trial by the country's military government, this timely and remarkable Dispatches film follows the lives of eight Burmese orphans as they struggle to survive the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.
Shot covertly over the course of a year by two Burmese cameramen, who risked an instant 30-year jail sentence if caught, Orphans of Burma's Cyclone exposes the official intransigence of one of the world's most brutal and secretive regimes and, for the first time, reveals what day-to-day life is like for the ordinary people of Burma."
BBC4 - Storyville: The Genius and the Boys - "D Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. He was a star of the scientific world. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. His adoptions were hailed as wonderful fatherly beneficence. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile.
Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind like Gajdusek's lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations?... "
Tuesday 2nd June
BBC4 - Terry Jones's Barbarians - 'The Primitive Celts' - "Terry Jones pieces together new archaeological evidence to reveal the startling truth about the Barbarians, in the process discovering how the Roman propaganda machine was able to pull off a great con-trick and turn their enemies into monsters fit for childrens' stories.
In 58 BC Julius Caesar invaded Celtic Gaul. He claimed it was to protect the northern borders of the Empire from these volatile people. But Terry discovers that Caesar's account was a smokescreen for a more sinister truth.
The Celts, according to Rome, were a warring and illiterate people. Yet Terry discovers that these people had mathematical know-how way beyond the Romans. They also had a society that, in stark contrast to Rome, was compassionate and protected the young and the weak, one built on an advanced and complex trading network that spread way beyond the borders of the Celtic world."
ITV 1 - Nature's Fury: 'Tornado' 1/3 - "In the first episode of the series Chris takes on the tornado – braving giant fist-sized hail, high speed winds and skin-piercing rain as he risks his life to get up close to a twister as it hits the ground. Chris’s film provides a view of tornados from very different perspectives: capturing the excitement and wonder of the awestruck storm chasers and weather tourists who are drawn to their power, drama and beauty, which contrasts sharply with the fearfulness of the people living in the path of twisters that continually threaten to destroy their communities and even claim their lives."
Wednesday 3rd June
BBC4 - Feasts: Mexico 3/3 - "Series in which food writer and presenter Stefan Gates immerses himself in some of the most extraordinary feasts and festivals on earth. By joining ordinary people in these strange and wonderful distillations of their culture and beliefs, he hopes to gain a revelatory insight into how the world thinks and feels.
Stefan goes on a wild emotional and spiritual rollercoaster ride, starting with a teenage girl's bizarre coming-of-age ceremony and ending with the Day of the Dead, a cacophonous cross-cultural festival of the senses during which Mexicans truly believe that their loved ones come back from the dead for three days every year to spend the day with them.
In Oaxaca, he is dressed up as a dead woman and made to dance like a lunatic at the head of a procession as it makes its way through town. He is turned into an emotional wreck at the moment the dead return, bursting into tears as Dias de los Muertos makes him experience grief and loss for the first time.
But then in the next breath, the family Stefan is living with teach him to celebrate and laugh at death. They turn his views on their head, allowing him to embrace and conquer his fear of death through an extraordinary sensual onslaught of food, flowers, songs and smells. The sight of the graveyards overflowing with flowers and mescal-drinking revellers is a truly life-changing experience."
Thursday 4th June
BBC4 - Masterpieces of the British Museum - The Lewis Chessmen
3/6. "Amongst the most appealing objects in the British Museum is a 12th century chess set"; The Sutton Hoo Helmet
1/6. "The story of the discovery and subsequent restoration of the Sutton Hoo treasure.";
The Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs
2/6. "The Assyrian reliefs depict the great Assyrian monarch King Ashburnipal hunting lions."
BBC4 - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - "In an exclusive for the Poetry Season site, Simon Armitage reads the full, uncut version of The Advent, the poem he wrote while on the trail of Gawain for the BBC Four documentary Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."
BBC2 - A World of Pain: Meera Syal on Self-Harm - "Meera Syal looks at the issue of self harm in the UK. It's a difficult and distressing subject, but one that Meera has studied closely over the years and which is close to her heart.
In this moving journey Meera she will seek to answer: what is self harm, who does it affect and why? Meera meets people who have experienced self harm, including those that have now recovered and others who are still suffering. She also learns about the complicated issues that can lead to a person taking such drastic action."
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* This applies to staff members 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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