Off-air recordings for week 30 March - 5 April 2013

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 30th March

History >  Documentaries

Walking Through History
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/4 - The Birth of Industry

In each programme Tony will follow a newly created bespoke route that will allow him to explore on foot both the history of a particularly colourful historical period or event, and the spectacular landscape in which those events unfolded. So, in the series he'll seek out the origins of the Industrial Revolution in the Derwent Valley, explore Britain's secret WWII frontline in Dorset, reveal the hidden stories of Henry VIII's court in the Weald, and track traces of the Jacobites in the remote Western Highlands of Scotland

The walks are proper expeditions with each one taking Tony a week; and they will be rewarding not just for the history but also as genuinely pleasurable walks, complete with B&Bs, pubs, views ...and fellow walkers.

With various experts he encounters on the way, Tony will reveal and discover places and their hidden stories that ordinary walkers and ramblers might otherwise miss. And, as well as the history, Tony will infuse each walk with an appreciation of some of the striking landscapes and geographical features Britain contains.


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Sunday 31st March

Factual > Documentaries

Medicalising Grief
BBC Radio 4, 1:30-2:00pm

Matthew Hill reports on the debate surrounding the US publication the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Its detractors argue that with every edition more aspects of human experience are being pathologised, leading the way to the possible medicalisation of normal reactions such as grief. And since the manual also indicates what the appropriate clinical treatments should be, questions are being raised about the pharmaceutical industry and whether it stands to benefit.


Factual > Documentaries

Storyville: The Road,  a Story of Life and Death
BBC4, 7:00-8:15pm

Documentary in which critically-acclaimed filmmaker Marc Isaacs paints a rich portrait of multicultural life in the UK by looking at the lives of immigrants living along the A5, one of Britain's longest and oldest roads. Stretching from London to the Welsh coast, the road has always been an important lifeline for new émigrés. Today, it is a microcosm of the wider world, and the film meets people from across the globe whose lives now orbit around the road.

From Irish immigrants like aspiring young singer Keelta, and Billy, an ageing Irish labourer struggling to find meaning to his life, to glamorous German-born air hostess Brigitte, Austrian Peggy, 95, who lost most of her family during the Holocaust, and Iqbal, a Kashmiri hotel concierge trying to secure a visa for his wife so she can join him in London, their poignant stories of loss and the search for belonging are woven together into a rich tapestry of human experience.


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Monday 1st April


Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment


Africa: The Greatest Show on Earth
BBC1, 7:00-8:00pm

Sir David Attenborough takes a breath-taking journey through the vast and diverse continent of Africa as it's never been seen before. From the richness of the Cape of Good Hope to blizzards in the high Atlas Mountains, from the brooding jungles of the Congo to the steaming swamps and misty savannahs, Africa explores the whole continent. An astonishing array of previously unknown places are revealed along with bizarre new creatures and extraordinary behaviours.

Using the latest in filming technology including remote HD cameras, BBC One takes an animal's eye view of the action. The journey begins in the Kalahari, Africa's ancient southwest corner, where two extraordinary deserts sit side by side and even the most familiar of its creatures have developed ingenious survival techniques. Black rhinos reveal a lighter side to their character as they gather around a secret waterhole. Springbok celebrate the arrival of rains with a display of 'pronking'. Bull desert giraffes endure ferocious battles for territory in a dry river bed.


Factual > History > Documentaries

The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill presents a documentary following the scientific investigation that aims to lift the lid on what life was like in the small Roman town of Herculaneum, moments before it was destroyed by a volcanic erruption.

Just 10 miles from Pompeii, 12 arched vaults are telling a whole new story about what life was like before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They contain the skeletons of no less than 340 people, just 10% of the local population, killed by the volcano. Amongst them are the first new skeletons to be found in the area for 30 years which are now the subject of a ground-breaking scientific investigation. The finds included a toddler clutching his pet dog, a two-year-old girl with silver earrings and a boy staring into the eyes of his mother as they embraced in their last moment.

Those found inside the vaults were nearly all women and children. Those found outside on the shoreline were nearly all men. Why?

The Other Pompeii: Life and Death In Herculaneum unravels a surprising story of resilience, courage and humanity, with the local population going to their deaths not in the apocalyptic orgy of sex and self-destruction often portrayed in Pompeii's popular myth, but, much more like the passengers of the Titanic, it seems that like their British counterparts, the ancient inhabitants of Herculaneum put women and children first.


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Tuesday 2nd April

Factual > Health & Wellbeing > Documentaries

Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/8

The groundbreaking eight-part series that tells the story of a single day in the NHS. One hundred camera crews were dispatched across the country to capture how this giant institution collides with every aspect of life in Britain. Through the experience of patients and staff, each film reveals the grief, frustration, heroism and joy evident in the NHS every single day.

This second film in the series features the anxious parents in a neonatal unit awaiting news from a critical scan, and an ex-boxing champion battling his demons at a Welsh detox clinic. In Essex, Susan struggles with her husband's worsening dementia, while in London, Alan prepares for his first ever operation, in which he will donate a kidney to wife, Ann.

The film shows those things the NHS can fix and those long term conditions it can't - where the burden of care often falls on loved ones.



Arts, Culture & the Media > Photography > Documentaries

In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Letter
BBC4, 10:50-11:50pm

Documentary following photographer Saul Leiter as he clears his New York apartment of the collection of work he has amassed throughout his career. The artist reveals how he was once considered a pioneer of colour photography and rose to fame in the 1980s, but chose an individual style of life and work over success, which he reflects on as he clears his home.

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Wednesday 3rd April

Factual

River of Dreams: Crossing England in a Punt
BBC4, 2:35-3:35am

From the Staffordshire Hills to the Humber Estuary, spirited explorer Tom Fort embarks on a 170 mile journey down Britain's third longest river - the Trent. Beginning on foot, he soon transfers to his own custom-built punt, "The Trent Otter" and rows many miles downstream. Along the way he encounters the power stations that generate much of the nation's electricity; veterans of the catastrophic floods of 1947; the 19th Century brewers of Burton; and a Bronze Age boatman who once made a life along the river. In River of Dreams, Tom Fort discovers the secrets of a beautiful waterway and over 3000 years of history.


Factual > History > Documentaries

Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the dangers created in Victorian households when owners brought the latest gadgets and conveniences into their homes. In an era with no health and safety standards, they were often turning their homes into hazardous death traps.


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Thursday 4th April

History > Documentaries

Time to Remember
BBC4, 8:00-8:30pm

Archive footage of theatres, music halls and cinemas from the 1920s and 30s is combined with narrated reminiscences to shed light on the entertainment industry of the early 20th century. Includes reels of Charles Laughton applying his own stage make-up, chorus line auditions, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks' trip to Europe, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 release Blackmail.


Factual > History > Religion & Ethics > Documentaries

Pagans and Pilgrims:  Britain's Holiest Places
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 5/6 - Islands

Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn explores why some islands are believed to be holy retreats, learning it isn't just their natural beauty that has attracted pilgrims over the years. He travels from the Lake District to view the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral and then to Lindisfarne in Northumberland, before stopping at the Western Isles, where he explores a Buddhist monastery. Finally, he ends his journey on Bardsey, known as the Island of 20,000 Saints.


Science and Technology > Documentaries

Horizon: The Age of Big Data
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

An examination of the varying uses being made out of the huge amount of information now available in databases. In Los Angeles, an experiment is underway in which police are trying to predict crime before it even happens, one City of London trader believes he has found the secret of making billions with mathematics, and astronomers in South Africa are attempting to catalogue the entire universe.


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Friday 5th April

Art, Culture & the Media > Art > History > Documentaries

The High Art of the Low Countries
BBC4, 2:40-3:40am, 1 - Dream of Plenty

Andrew Graham-Dixon tours the Low Countries, exploring how history has influenced the area's art, architecture and culture. In the first edition, he details how the art of Renaissance Flanders evolved from the crafting of precious tapestries, and begins his journey at the altarpiece of Ghent Cathedral, created by the Van Eyck brothers, explaining their groundbreaking innovation in oil painting and marvels at how the colours are still vibrant today. Plus, he describes how during the era people believed they were preoccupied with the end of the world.


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