Off-air recordings for week 11-17 August 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 11th August 2012

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History

London - The Modern Babylon
BBC2, 9:20-11:25pm


Julien Temple's epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown. From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and above all ordinary people, this is the story of London's immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever.

Reaching back to the dawn of film in London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive, voices of Londoners past and present and the flow of popular music across the century; a stream of urban consciousness, like the river which flows through its heart. It ends now, as London prepares to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympics.



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Sunday 12th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

The Dark: Nature's Nighttime World
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/3 - Patagonian Mountains

Natural history series about wildlife at night culminates at the wild and windswept tip of South America. Coming face-to-face with the widest-ranging cat in the Americas - the puma - camerawoman Justine Evans attempts to film their nocturnal hunting behaviour for the first time. Even further south, Gordon Buchanan dives into the icy waters of the Strait of Magellan to solve a mystery - scientists have heard humpback whales moving close to the shore at night but have no idea what they could be doing. And Dr George McGavin attaches a miniature tracking device to a vampire bat's back to discover whose blood it is feeding on.

Entertainment; Discussion and Talk

Parkinson: The Tommy Cooper and Frankie Howerd Interviews
BBC4, 10:00-10:35pm


Michael Parkinson introduces a recut of two interviews he did with Frankie Howerd during the Parkinson show series and a Christmas interview with Tommy Cooper.

Frankie Howerd wanted everything scripted, resulting in an unprompted and unrehearsed interview whilst Tommy Cooper managed to run rings around a delighted Parkinson. Includes clips from Up Pompeii, The Main Attraction and The Bob Monkhouse Show.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Gore Vidal's Gore Vidal

BBC4, 10:35-11:25pm

Biography of the late Gore Vidal, looking at the life of one of America's leading literary figures who for years entranced and enraged the US with his outspoken views, novels and essays. This programme follows him around the scenes of his youth.

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Monday 13th August

News

Panorama - Justice Denied: The Greatest Scandal?
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

The case of the Cardiff Three - wrongly convicted of murder in 1992 - refuses to go away. Twenty years after a BBC Panorama investigation helped to clear the original men, the same team returns to investigate why the trial against the police officers accused of perverting the course of justice collapsed last year, and asks: is this the biggest scandal in British legal history?


Ethics; Documentaries

First Cut - What's My Body Worth?
More4, 10:00-10:35pm


With many people looking for ways to generate extra cash, this First Cut documentary asks if we are overlooking our most prized commodity: our own bodies.

Filmmaker Storm Theunissen explores the lucrative body-parts industry as she sets out to sell every bit of her body she legally can, from her fingernails to her own eggs, and discover whether her body is worth more dead than alive.

Working in a brothel is illegal in the UK, but Storm joins a Soho lap-dancing club for an evening and makes £20 for a lap-dance. And while UK law prohibits the sale of body-parts by individuals, 'Big Pharma' buys everything from bunions to blister fluid, and in these hard times, Storm looks for a piece of the action.

In Hollywood - the market leader in egg-brokering for IVF - intelligence and model looks can be worth $15,000. Egg donation must be altruistic in the UK but in early 2012 the government tripled the payment for expenses to £750 in a bid to solve a shortage of donors.

Exploring the legality and ethics of selling your own body, Storm discovers a dark side of the body-part market and, before leaving LA, she must make a momentous decision when she meets a couple who are desperate to be parents. Can a commercial market in future babies ever feel right?

First Cut is the critically acclaimed, eclectic documentary strand that showcases distinctive new films by up-and-coming directors.



Crime; Documentaries

Secrets of the Pickpockets
Channel 4, 10:35-11:40pm


As the Olympics draws millions to London gangs of pickpockets are on the rise across the capital. This film tells the story of the unseen war on a crime that has 1700 victims a day.

Organised crews of pickpockets have descended on London in search of easy pickings. This film tells the story of the unseen war on the 'dippers' and the specialist teams created to take them on.

Up 17% in the last two years, pickpocketing is a crime that is rarely witnessed by the public. This film follows the game of cat and mouse played out between the cops and robbers beneath the gaze of tourists and regular Londoners, catching the action as it unfolds and some of the astonishing tricks of the pickpocket trade, from the 'block and shield' to the 'two-fingered lift'.



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Tuesday 14th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

Talking Landscapes
BBC4, 7:30-8:00pm, 6/6 - The Vale of Evesham

Series in which Aubrey Manning sets out to discover the history of Britain's ever-changing landscape. Clues from the local art gallery, a spot of ploughing and a flight with a local pilot help uncover an Anglo-Saxon agricultural revolution.


Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 1:20-2:20am

Steve Backshall tries to discover just what makes it possible for a river to stop in the middle of a desert. The Okavango is the world's largest inland delta and home to a one of Africa's greatest congregations of wildlife, and in asking the difficult questions Steve reveals the astounding secret to its existence.


Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries

Growing Children
BBC4, 1:50-2:50am, Autism


Autism is a complicated and often misunderstood condition. In this film, child psychologist Laverne Antrobus goes on a quest to discover the different way that the brain works in children with autism and to explore the latest scientific research.

Laverne meets Tony, a severely autistic teenager who requires full-time care from his family, and learns some of the difficult sensory problems that children with autism can have. The autistic brain cannot always process light and sound in the correct way, leading to an overwhelming and exhausting overload of noise and colour. Laverne travels to the University of Cardiff to investigate new research into the link between sensory issues and the autistic brain. She also goes to the University of Nottingham to try and uncover why people like Tony appear to be so socially isolated. She begins to learn the amazing way our brains work when confronted with social situations and how we understand the social cues that we encounter every day - and what happens when this goes wrong.

With a better understanding of Tony's difficulties, Laverne then continues to follow his story as this family go through the difficult and highly emotional transition of putting their son into full-time residential care.

Laverne also meets a family with two young boys, Jake and Zaine. Jake has been diagnosed with high functioning autism - the opposite end of the spectrum to Tony. By spending time with Jake, Laverne sees some of the social difficulties associated with the condition, such as the daily struggle with school and making friends. Jake's younger brother Zaine is also beginning to show autistic traits and in a particularly poignant sequence Laverne attends a diagnosis session with the family. With amazing access to this emotional day, Laverne explores the complicated process of diagnosis and the symptoms that are looked for in order to reach the correct conclusion. Laverne also investigates some exciting and pioneering research being carried out at Birkbeck Babylab, which is offering hope for a simpler and earlier diagnostic procedure...


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Wednesday 15th August

Crime; Policing; Documentaries

Frontline Police
5*, 8:00-9:00pm 1/6


Ex-police officer Rav Wilding returns to the police and joins officers from Essex Police’s Specialist Operations Units.

Brand new series that sees Rav Wilding join officers on the frontline of policing. From dawn raids and emergency response to tough public order events, Rav takes viewers right to the heart of the action. Using his eight years of policing experience and getting up close and personal with the officers charged with cleaning up our streets, Rav gives viewers a unique insight into the reality of working at the sharp end of modern British policing.

Rav Wilding joins frontline officers in Essex as they police an English Defence League march.



History; Documentaries

Deathcamp Treblinka: Survivor Stories
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

An insight into how Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman escaped from the concentration camp in Poland, where more than 800,000 Polish Jews died during the Nazi Holocaust. The two men were able to flee during a revolt in August 1943, before one of them sought vengeance in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the other appeared at the trial of Adolf Eichmann for war crimes in 1961. This film documents their stories, the fate of their families and offers fresh accounts of a forgotten death camp.


Literature; Documentaries

Sex Story: Fifty Shades of Grey
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm


Has Fifty Shades of Grey really transformed us from a nation of prudes to one of happy spankers? It may have brought bondage into the mainstream, but are the British really ready to embrace sexual experimentation?

From visiting a spanking class, where novices are trained in the art of a good caning, to exploring the world of an S&M couple who have written sex contracts with each other, this documentary uncovers what the erotic paperback phenomenon tells us about 21st-century Britain.

The programme examines the sociological and cultural effects the book is having in the UK, as sales of obscure classical music and bondage gear increase.

A book club from North Yorkshire read the bestseller for the very first time and share their verdict, while adult retailers Ann Summers reveal what steps they are taking to exploit this trend.

Psychologist and sex columnist Pamela Stephenson and Brooke Magnanti, who wrote Belle De Jour, share their reactions to the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon.

The book has crossed continents, class barriers and the context in which porn is read - on the train, in book groups and even at the hairdresser.


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Thursday 16th August

Factual; Documentaries

Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery
BBC3, 9:00-10:00pm


Ten years ago Russell Brand was addicted to heroin, his career was unravelling and he was told he may only have six months to live. The story of how he battled to stay clean of drugs is at the heart of this eye-opening and honest, personal film in which Brand challenges how our society deals with addicts and addiction.


Documentaries

Neighbourhood Watched
BBC1, 10:35-11:20pm

The reality of life for housing officers in Greater Manchester, who face a different set of problem each day, from evicting anti-social tenants to dealing with hoarders. The first programme focuses on the issue of noise disturbance, which is one of the biggest problems in social housing and can lead to violence, ill health and even suicide if it is not resolved. Housing officer Cat Towl answers a call from a 20-year-old woman about her upstairs neighbour, who is blasting out his radio morning, noon and night. But what begins as a simple complaint escalates into a serious dispute. Meanwhile, a pair of cockerels in another tenant's garden are providing a 4am wake-up call for the everyone in earshot.


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