Off-air recordings for week 18-24 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 18th August

Factual; Documentaries

Time of Shift: Of Ice and Men
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am



Time Shift reveals the history of the frozen continent, finding out why the most inhospitable place on the planet has exerted such a powerful hold on the imagination of explorers, scientists, writers and photographers.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth. Only a handful of people have experienced its desolate beauty, with the first explorers setting foot here barely a hundred years ago.

From the logbooks of Captain Cook to the diaries of Scott and Shackleton, from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner to HP Lovecraft, it is a film about real and imaginary tales of adventure, romance and tragedy that have played out against a stark white backdrop.

We relive the race to the Pole and the 'Heroic Age' of Antarctic exploration, and find out what it takes to survive the cold and the perils of 'polar madness'. We see how Herbert Ponting's photographs of the Scott expedition helped define our image of the continent and find out why the continent witnessed a remarkable thaw in Russian and American relations at the height of the Cold War.

We also look at the intriguing story of who actually owns Antarctica and how science is helping us re-imagine a frozen wasteland as something far more precious.




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Sunday 19th August

Factual; History; Documentaries

Britain's Hidden Heritage
BBC1, 7:00-8:00pm, series 2, 1/3 - Osbourne


The popular Sunday night heritage series returns, with host Paul Martin visiting the fabulous seaside retreat of Queen Victoria - Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. With Osborne unchanged since the end of her reign, Paul discovers intimate family life details of Britain's longest-serving monarch.

Regular reporters Clare Balding and Charlie Luxton also return, with Clare in Gloucestershire delving into the weird and wonderful collection of Charles Paget Wade, possibly Britain's first extreme hoarder. Charlie travels to Scotland to visit a forgotten ruin that was once an architectural masterpiece.

The team are joined by guest reporter Richard E Grant, who goes behind the scenes at Pinewood Studios, revealing secrets of the British cinema and the classic films that inspired him as a young actor.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Omnibus: Gore Vidal's Gore Vidal
BBC4, 10:50-11:40pm, 2/2

Part two of a film biography about 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. In this part he recalls the last 35 years of his life, starting from the time his friend John F Kennedy was elected as US president.



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Monday 20th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 6/6 - Svalbard

In a revelatory look at Svalbard, the most northerly region in the series, Steve Backshall leaves no stone unturned as he unravels the secrets that lie covered in ice for most of each year. Svalbard is cold, dark and foreboding, yet it is home to the world's largest land predator and the most northerly population of large herbivore, but Steve discovers that the real secret to this place comes from a very different world.


Criminology; Psychology

Ian Brady: Endgames of a Psychopath
4Seven, 11:05pm-12:05am


Ian Brady, psychopath, sadist and child murderer, has been in captivity for nearly 50 years, but he is still a powerful and disturbing presence in the nation's consciousness.

This Cutting Edge film, which has unprecedented access to those closest to Brady, charts his ongoing attempts to influence and control those around him.

When acclaimed director Paddy Wivell set out to make a film about Ian Brady's legal bid to be transferred from a psychiatric facility to a prison, he had no idea that he would find himself witnessing one of Brady's notorious power plays.

At the outset of filming, Wivell met the solicitors and psychiatrists who've been closely involved in his cases over the last decades, many of whom would be speaking publicly for the first time.

But a meeting with Brady's mental health advocate for the last 15 years changed the course of the film. His mental health advocate is also one of the executors of Brady's will and recently applied for power of attorney for his health and welfare.

Following Brady's seizure and the subsequent indefinite postponement of his mental health tribunal, she discloses, on camera, some startling information that appears to present further important evidence of Brady's ongoing attempts to assert power over the victims' families.

This film presents the inside story of the Moors Murderer since his crimes were discovered and charts his continued determination for power and control.


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Wednesday 22nd August

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries; Magazines and Reviews

The Culture Show at the Edinburgh Festival
BBC2, 19:00-10:30pm, 2/3


Sue Perkins presents a second helping of The Culture Show from the Edinburgh Festival and meets author Kirsty Gunn and music legend Nile Rodgers.

Also featured tonight, the 25th anniversary of So You Think You're Funny, the Edinburgh comedy competition which has uncovered stars from Dylan Moran to Peter Kay. Artists including David Hockney, Paul Gaugin and Sir Peter Blake swap paint for wool in an exhibition of contemporary tapestries, and we take a look at Speed of Light - a spectacular mass participatory event in which walkers and endurance runners ascend Arthur's Seat and illuminate the iconic mountain.


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Thursday 23rd August

Documentaries; Disability

Tonight: Don't Hate Us
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm

As London prepares to host the 2012 Paralympic Games, new figures reveal that hate crimes against the disabled are at record levels. Comedienne Francesca Martinez, who has cerebral palsy, investigates whether a welfare crackdown - which includes reassessing whether people claiming benefits are fit for work - is behind an apparent hardening of public attitudes.


Science and Nature; Nature and the Environment; Documentaries

Springwatch Guide to Seabirds
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games present the annual series charting the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Goya: Crazy Like a Genius
BBC4, 10:50pm-12:00am

Documentary in which art critic Robert Hughes travels across Spain in search of the reality beyond the mythology of Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Goya has long been Hughes' favourite artist but has become a particular obsession since a near-fatal car accident left Hughes living with nightmares of Goya's often dark and violent imagery.


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