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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Sunday 18 November
Factual; Documentaries
The Last Days of Steam
BBC4, 7:00-8:00pm
Documentary which tells the surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.
After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?
The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.
But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrap-yards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries
Sandy: Anatomy of a Superstorm
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm
A dramatic minute-by-minute account of the superstorm that brought New York State to its knees. Using satellite imagery, CGI mapping and the powerful personal testimony of those who lived through it, this is a forensic analysis of the meteorological, engineering and human devastation wreaked by Sandy.
Factual; Documentaries
From the Sea to the Land Beyond: Britain's Coast on Film
BBC4, 9:00-10:15pm
Storyville: Made from over 100 years of BFI archive footage, From the Sea to the Land Beyond offers a poetic meditation on Britain's unique coastline and the role it plays in our lives. With a soundtrack specially created by Brighton-based band British Sea Power, award-winning director Penny Woolcock's film offers moving testimony to our relationship to the coast - during wartime, on our holidays and as a hive of activity during the industrial age.
Factual; History; Documentaries
Michael Wood: The Story of India
BBC4, 11:50pm-12:50am
Michael Wood charts the coming of Islam to the subcontinent and one of the greatest ages of world civilisation: the Mughals. Michael visits Sufi shrines in Old Delhi, desert fortresses in Rajasthan and the cities of Lahore and Agra, where he offers a new theory on the design of the Taj Mahal. He also looks at the life of Akbar, a Muslim emperor who decreed that no single religion could hold the ultimate truth. But Akbar's dream of unity ended in civil war and waiting in the wings to pick up the spoils were the British.
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Monday 19th November
Factual; Families and Relationships; Life Stories; Documentaries
Four Born Every Second
BBC1, 10:35-11:35pm
130 million babies are born each year, but the circumstances and country of their birth will determine their life story. Brian Hill travels from the UK to America, Cambodia and Sierra Leone to reveal the shocking lottery of child birth across the globe.
In Sierra Leone - the worst country to be born in terms of infant mortality - we meet Hawa, who is expecting her fifth baby, as well as the MSF obstetricians working to reduce the infant and maternal mortality rate. However for some of the women arriving at the Gondama Referral Centre with complications, they will already be too late.
In Cambodia, babies are more likely to grow up malnourished than attend high school. We meet Neang, 36, and her 12-year-old son Pisey who helps support his pregnant mother and little sister by scavenging the streets.
In the UK - where four million children live in poverty - we follow single mum, Lisa, 22, who is expecting her second child. She is reluctant to be a 'stereotypical mum on benefits' and wants to work to provide for her children. However with her childcare costs at £1,400 per month, her options are limited.
In America, the infant mortality rate has worsened over the last 20 years. In San Francisco, we meet expectant mother Starr, her partner and two children. A year ago, they became homeless, making her children among the 1.6 million homeless children now living in the US.
Poignant and sobering, the film features scenes of stillbirths and shocking statistics about infant mortality.
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Tuesday 20th November
Factual; History; Documentaries
Britain on Film
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 3/5 - Getting Down to Business
This episode examines Look at Life's surprisingly entertaining films on the British economy, at a time when industry faced ever-increasing competition from abroad.
factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
Imagine... The Many Lives of William Klein
BBC1, 10:35-11:40pm
William Klein has lived many lives. One of the world's most influential photographers, he pioneered the art of street photography and created some of the most iconic fashion images of the 20th century. He also made over twenty films, including the first ever documentary about Muhammad Ali and a brilliant satire of the fashion world, Who Are You Polly Magoo?
With a major Tate Modern exhibition currently celebrating his work, imagine... spends time with William Klein to discover the irrepressible, charismatic personality behind a remarkable creative life.
Factual; Documentaries
Storyville: Jonestown - The World's Biggest Mass Suicide
BBC2, 11:20pm-12:45am
On November 17th, 1978, San Francisco congressman Leo Ryan travelled to the Guyanan rainforest to investigate the Jonestown cult, led by Jim Jones.
According to rumours from the area, US citizens were being imprisoned in death camp conditions, subject to violence and sexual abuse. As an impassioned human rights activist, Ryan wanted to find out the truth. But within 48 hours of his arrival, Ryan, Jones and more than 900 Jonestown settlers were dead in what may have been the largest mass suicide in history. In the next few days, grisly tales of cyanide-laced fruit punch and children poisoned by their parents emerged from the jungle.
This documentary goes beyond the headlines to provide a revealing portrait of Jones, his followers and the times that produced the calamity in the Guyanese jungle. It is told by eye witnesses: Jonestown survivors, Temple defectors, relatives of the dead and journalists.
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Wednesday 21st February
Factual; Documentaries
Supersized Earth
BBC1, 1/3 - A Place to Live
Supersized Earth traces the spectacular story of how humans have transformed our world in a generation. In this awe-inspiring three-part series, Dallas Campbell travels the globe, visiting the world's largest and most ambitious engineering projects, exploring the power of human ingenuity and the making of the modern world.
In this episode, Dallas explores how we have been redesigning the planet as we build ever more astonishing places to live. In Dubai, he climbs to the very top of the world's tallest building - over half a mile above the desert sand - to help clean the highest windows in the world; and he explores how desert wastelands have been transformed into bristling forests of skyscrapers as we've conquered the sky and turned it into a place we can call home.
In China, the rate of change is accelerating as millions move into the cities; to keep pace, they have learned to erect 30-storey buildings in under three weeks. The world is changing underneath our feet too; Dallas dives beneath Mexico City with one of the two-man team whose unenviable job it is to keep the city sewers flowing, before examining a very new-world solution to this age-old problem.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History; Documentaries
Metalworks!
BBC4, 11:30pm-12:30am, 1/3 - The Golden Age of Silver
Dan Cruickshank visits Britain's finest country houses, museums and factories as he uncovers the 18th- and 19th-century fascination with silver. Delving into an unsurpassed era of shimmering opulence, heady indulgence and conspicuous consumption, Dan discovers the Georgian and Victorian obsession with this tantalising precious metal which represented status, wealth and excellent taste. He gives us a glimpse of some of the most extensive collections and exquisite pieces of silverware to have ever been made on British shores.
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Friday 22nd February
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries
Attenborough: 60 Years in the World
BBC2, 9:00-10:00-m, 2/3 - Understanding the Natural World
David Attenborough shares his passion for exciting scientific discoveries in his lifetime.
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