Off-air recordings for week 7-13 July 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.
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Saturday 7th July

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History

Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm, 2/3 - What a King Should Know


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.

Drama

The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 1
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

The heir to the throne, Prince Hal, defies his father, King Henry, by spending his time at Mistress Quickly's tavern in the company of the dissolute Falstaff and his companions. The King is threatened by a rebellion led by Hal's rival, Hotspur, his father Northumberland and his uncle Worcester. In the face of this danger to the state, Prince Hal joins his father to defeat the rebels at the Battle of Shrewsbury and kill Hotspur in single combat.




Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Jeremy Irons on the Henrys: Shakespeare Uncovered
BBC2, 10:55-11:55pm


In Henry IV and Henry V, Jeremy Irons (who is playing Henry IV in the new BBC films) uncovers the extraordinary appeal of Shakespeare's History Plays. He unravels the differences between the real history and the drama that Shakespeare creates. He discovers what William's sources were - and how he distorts them! And he invites us behind the scenes at the filming of some of the most important scenes in the new films of all of these plays.

The History plays were the big hits of the 1590s because they allowed the ordinary men and women of Elizabethan England the chance to talk and think about power and politics without being controlled by the church or the state. In these plays Shakespeare appears to be writing heroic and patriotic propaganda - but as soon as you look at them in more detail, you discover that he was also undermining all those values at the same time. With detailed coverage of the filming of these plays by Richard Eyre and Thea Sharrock for the BBC and with clips from these new films as well as other iconic versions from Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, Jeremy uncovers the truth behind the version of history that Shakespeare was telling and even uncovers the very sources that inspired him to write some of the most famous speeches he ever composed. He travels to the true locations described in the plays but also to Shakespeare's Globe to see how these extraordinarily ambitious plays were performed in Shakespeare's time.

As Jeremy himself visits the battlefield at Agincourt in Northern France, which is the climax of these history plays, the truth emerges that Shakespeare's view of History was rather more subversive and less patriotic than some of his most ardent admirers often think.


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Sunday 8th July

Factual; Pets and Animals; Science and Nature; Documentaries

Lonesome George and the Battle of Galapagos
BBC4, 7:00-8:00pm

Documentary about Lonesome George, officially the loneliest animal on the planet until his death in June 2012. He was the last remaining Pinta Island giant tortoise in existence and now his race is extinct. He was an icon of his native Galapagos Islands and symbol of the battle to preserve their unique wildlife. The islands are at a critical point in their history - threatened by illegal fishing, the demands of a booming population and an ever-expanding tourism industry - yet the will within the islanders to protect Galapagos is strong. This is both the personal story of Lonesome George and of the local characters intent on turning around the fortunes of their unique tropical paradise.




Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Secrets of the Living Planet
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm, 4/4 - Waterworlds


Secrets of Our Living Planet showcases the incredible ecosystems that make life on Earth possible. Using beautifully shot scenes in the wild, Chris Packham reveals the hidden wonder of the creatures that we share the planet with, and the intricate, clever and bizarre connections between the species, without which life just could not survive.

Discover previously unknown relationships, like why a tiger needs a crab, or why a gecko needs a giraffe. Each week Chris visits one of our planet's most vital and spectacular habitats and dissects it to reveal the secrets of how our living planet works.

In this episode, Chris travels across the world, from Iceland to Brazil, to Bangladesh and the Maldives. His aim: to reveal the secrets of our watery habitats, fresh and salty.

The extra ingredients, carried in water and necessary for life, are oxygen and sediment. But it's how the animals manage these resources that determines whether a habitat can actually support much live.

In the Brazilian Pantanal, Chris witnesses a riot of life, in a land where everything seems to be a giant: the snakes, the big cats, the otters, the fish- even the lilies! The reason? Well, it comes down to a very unassuming mollusc, the apple snail.

In the Sunderbans swamp of Bangladesh, Chris shows us how crabs create an environment fit for mangroves, deer and tigers. In the Maldives, he meets the hero of the coral reef - the sponge. And in the deep ocean, Chris meets the biggest (or smallest) hero of them all. Plankton not only feed our ocean giants, they even influence our atmosphere and climate.


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Monday 9th July

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

Talking Landscapes
BBC4, 7:30-8:00pm, 1/6 - The Weald

Aubrey Manning sets out to uncover the history of Britain's ever-changing landscape. This edition focuses on the Weald, investigating why so much woodland has survived here when so much ancient forest has been felled elsewhere. A trip to the Mary Rose and Nelson's Victory reveals the full story of the Weald and its valuable timber.




Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment


Volcano Live
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/4

Kate Humble and Professor Iain Stewart present a four day journey into our extraordinary and dynamic planet, live from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world's most active volcano. They broadcast from the edge of the summit crater and the Halema'uma'u lava lake. Kate also travels to Iceland to visit Eyjafyallajokull, the volcano which caused air traffic chaos in 2010, and comedian Ed Byrne heads to Bristol university to work out why different volcanoes erupt in different ways.




News


Panorama - Britain On The Brink: Back to the 70s?
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

Britain today is suffering the longest peacetime slump in decades. Our economy is in a double-dip recession for the first time since 1975. Panorama asks whether Britain is ready and able to cope with a new age of austerity with surprising echoes of the 1970s. Reporter Adam Shaw examines if we're about to suffer the same social and political upheaval that emerged from that decade.




Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment


Lost Land of the Volcano
BBC2, 11:20pm-12:20am


Series combining stunning wildlife with high-octane adventure, as a team of scientists and wildlife filmmakers from the BBC's Natural History Unit explores one of the last great unspoilt jungle wildernesses on earth.

New Guinea is a rugged tropical island that is home to some of the strangest creatures on the planet. The team is based at the foot of Mount Bosavi, a giant extinct volcano covered in thick and largely unexplored rainforest. With the help of trackers from a remote tribe, they aim to search for the animals that live there - and they make amazing finds.

Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan discovers the nest of the world's smallest parrot, insect expert Dr George McGavin finds a talking beetle, the scientists identify types of frog, gecko and bat that are completely new to science, and adventurer Steve Backshall has to live and sleep underground as he explores a cave system flooded with white water.

The cameras follow the team every sweaty step of the way as they search for the evidence that may help preserve this last great jungle forever.




Documentaries


Thelma's Gypsy Girls
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm, 1/6


Thelma begins the search for her ten new trainees. All of them are gypsies or travellers, some left school at 11 and some are unable to read, write or even tell the time.

Thelma's hopefuls include headstrong 16-year-old Margaret from a local trailer site, who doesn't like being told what to do regardless of who's telling her; 17-year-old Kathleen, whose domestic duties include looking after her 17 nieces and nephews; and 16-year-old Rosanne, who desperately lacks education and thinks Lady Gaga worships the devil.

For the girls it's the opportunity of a lifetime, for existing staff it feels like a serious upheaval, and for Thelma it could be out of the frying pan and into the fire.


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Tuesday 10th July


Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

Volcano Live
BBC1, 2/4, 8:00-9:00pm, 2/4

Kate Humble and Professor Iain Stewart present a four day journey into our extraordinary and dynamic planet, live from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world's most active volcano. They broadcast from the site of the 1969 Mauna Ulu eruption which saw more than 17 square miles of lush rainforest covered in lava. Kate also travels to Iceland to the island of Heimeay where a village of fishermen fought a volcano - and won. And volcanologist Hugh Tuffen sends back a video diary of his expedition to Mount Puyehue in Chile.


Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries

Heart and Mind: What Makes Us Human?
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

The heart is the most symbolic organ of the human body. Throughout history it has been seen as the site of our emotions, the very centre of our being. But modern medicine has come to see the heart as just a pump; a brilliant pump, but nothing more. And we see ourselves as ruled by our heads and not our hearts.

In this documentary, filmmaker David Malone asks whether we are right to take this view. He explores the heart's conflicting histories as an emotional symbol and a physical organ, and investigates what the latest science is learning about its structures, its capacities and its role. In the age-old battle of hearts and minds, will these new discoveries alter the balance and allow the heart to reclaim something of its traditional place at the centre of our humanity?




Documentaries


Kashmir's Torture Trail
Channel 4, 11:10pm-12:10am



In the most militarised place on earth, one man is standing up to the armed might of the world's largest democracy. Kashmir's Torture Trail follows a Kashmiri lawyer as he uncovers India's best kept secret.

With the world's media attention focused on repression in Syria and the threat to the Euro, the Indian state of Kashmir, nestling in the shadow of the Himalayas, is in danger of becoming a forgotten conflict.

But in 2010 this valley in the shadow of the Himalayas erupted in some of the most violent street protests it has ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of stone-throwing teenagers took aim at heavily armed Indian Security Force troops, who returned live fire, with 118 demonstrators killed, many of them children, followed by a lock-down in which no one could get in or out of the state.

Kashmiri lawyer Parvez Imroz has never filed a divorce or defended a thief. Instead, this veteran Supreme Court advocate has spent his entire legal career dressed in a grey morning suit and working pro-bono.

Broke but determined, with two young children and a wife who complain he has yet to take them on a picnic, Imroz has always risked his life to keep the Indian authorities accountable in this disputed mountain state where, unseen by most of the world, an insurgency has rumbled on since 1989, claiming an estimated 70,000 lives.

Meeting the rioters to find out why they risked their lives, and accompanying a local human rights lawyer determined to investigate how India restored an uneasy peace, this powerful and shocking film uncovers a state-sanctioned torture programme that has set India on a collision course with the international community.




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Wednesday 11th July

Factual; History; Documentaries

The Secret History of Our Streets
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 6/6 - Arnold Circus


In 1886 Charles Booth embarked on an ambitious plan to visit every one of London's streets to record the social conditions of residents. His project took him 17 years.

Once he had finished he had constructed a groundbreaking series of maps which recorded the social class and standing of inhabitants. These maps transformed the way Victorians felt about their capital city.

This series takes six archetypal London streets as they are now, discovering how they have fared since Booth's day.

Booth colour coded each street, from yellow for the 'servant keeping classes' down to black for the 'vicious and semi-criminal'. With the aid of maps the series explores why certain streets have been transformed from desperate slums to become some of the most desirable and valuable property in the UK, whilst others have barely changed.

This landmark series features residents past and present, exploring how what happened on the street in the last 125 years continues to shape the lives of those who live there now.

Charles Booth's vast 1886 Survey of London ranks each one of London streets according to the class

The sixth episode features Arnold Circus, in the east end and the story of a Victorian social experiment that changed Britain. Arnold Circus is home to the first council estate which opened in 1896. The planning of the estate, from its lack of pubs to the pattern of the brickwork, was deliberate in order to make its residents respectable, as previously the land had played host to a notorious crime-ridden slum.

Featuring compelling accounts from residents both past and present, this is the story of how Arnold Circus made the difficult journey from feared underclass to a self-respecting community; of how it became and still is a haven in heart of the City.




Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries


Blink: A Horizon Guide to Senses
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

Touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste - our senses link us to the outside world. Dr Kevin Fong looks back through 40 years of Horizon archives to find out what science has taught us about our tools of perception - why babies use touch more than any other sense, why our eyes are so easily tricked and how pioneering technology is edging closer to the dream of replacing our human senses if they fail.


Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

Volcano Live
BBC1, 8:00-9:00pm, 3/4

Kate Humble and Professor Iain Stewart present a four day journey into our extraordinary and dynamic planet, live from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world's most active volcano. They broadcast from the town of Kalapana, destroyed 20 years ago by Kilauea's lava flows and look at the connections between volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. Iain visits the Bay of Naples and explains the forces at work behind the most devastating volcanic eruptions. Kate's Icelandic adventure continues as she descends 150 metres into the mouth of a dormant volcano.

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Thursday 12th July

Science and Nature;

Guts: The Strange and Mysterious World of the Human Stomach
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm


Michael Mosley puts his guts on display for one day at the Science Museum in this one-off programme part of the BBC Four season, Flesh, Blood and Bone: The Amazing Human Body.

Undergoing experiments to explore the vital role of the stomach he takes viewers on a journey through his digestive system - and with the help of a small pill camera offers a unique view of his innards as they digest his food.

Michael uncovers an intricate 'second brain' present in the intestines, made up of millions of neurones which orchestrate digestion - and visits a gastroenterologist where he discovers a fascinating relationship between personality types and pain responses.

He also learns of the advent of faecal transplants increasingly used to treat sufferers of serious stomach and bowel disorders.

Guts: The Strange and Mysterious World of the Human Stomach lays bare the mysteries of the digestive system and reveals a complexity and intelligence in the human gut that science is only just beginning to uncover.




Science and Nature


Rupture: Living with My Broken Brain

BBC4, 10:00-11:10pm


In 2007 former Bond girl Maryam d'Abo suffered a brain haemorrhage. The experience inspired her to make a film about survivors of brain injuries, giving a sense of hope to those isolated by the disease.

As she guides us through her personal journey of recovery, Maryam talks to others who have suffered brain injury, including Robert McCrum, former literary editor of The Observer; Pat Martino, jazz guitarist and music producer Quincy Jones.

Along with testimony of eminent neurosurgeons, neurologists, and neuro-psychologists, these first-hand stories celebrate human life force and the will to survive. Directed by Maryam’s husband Hugh Hudson, who witnessed her illness, this film offers a unique insight into the fragility of the extraordinary human brain.




Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

Volcano Live
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm

No programme information yet




Factual


June Brown: Respect Your Elders
BBC1, 10:35-11:25pm

June Brown explores the rise of care homes and society’s attitude towards growing old.


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Friday 13th July

Documentaries

Building The London Underground
Channel 5, 7:00-8:00pm

A fascinating look at the great engineering leaps that built the London Underground, the biggest metro system in the world.


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