Off-air recordings for week 20-26 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 20th April

History > Documentaries

Walking through History
Channel 4, 8:15-9:20pm, 4/4 - Battle in the Glens


Tony takes on a tough four-day trek through the Kintail region of the west Scottish Highlands to discover the story of the Jacobite uprisings of the early 1700s.  On three occasions, Highland armies, assisted by the French and the Spanish, attempted to overthrow the King and put a Stuart back on the throne.

What made the Highlands such a breeding ground for revolution and how did the unique character of this landscape shape the character of the Highlanders?  Tony's journey of discovery starts in Shiel Bridge, at the mouth of Glen Shiel, where he heads to the site of the earliest known dwellings here, the 'skyscrapers' of the Iron Age.  On to the village of Glenelg with its fantastic views over the Sound of Sleat to Skye... and the hulking remains of a British barracks built 200 years ago by George I to pacify and terrify the locals.

Via the town of Kyle of Lochalsh, Tony reaches the stunning Eilean Donan Castle. It has now been rebuilt, but it was destroyed after the invading Spanish troops landed here and were attacked by British warships.  Finally, Tony heads up the awe-inspiring Glen Shiel to the site of the climactic battle where royalist troops faced off against the rebels.



Factual > Arts, Culture and the Media > Documentaries

America in Primetime
BBC2, 10:15-11;15pm, 1/4 - Man of the House


Alan Yentob presents the first in a series of star-studded documentaries on the history of primetime television in America. With a potential audience in excess of 300 million to please, the most popular and enduring drama series and sitcoms have had to track the dramatic changes that have transformed America since the age of mass television began in the 1950s, so this more than an entertainment history, it's a social history of the 'United States of Television'.

Man of the House traces the trajectory of the archetypal American dad from the breadwinning patriarch of the 'Honey I'm Home' 1950s to the angst-ridden, plate-spinning multitasker who has to build his home on the shifting sands of the 21st century. From the cast iron certainties and benign omniscience of Jim X (Father Knows Best) and Andy Griffith to the crippling anxieties and bad choices Tony Soprano and Homer Simpson, Man of the House takes us on the rollercoaster ride of six decades of American masculinity. Includes interviews with legendary creators, stars, writers and producers: Ron Howard (The Andy Griffith Show), David Lynch (Twin Peaks), Rob Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show), David Chase (The Sopranos), John Hamm (Mad Men). James L. Brooks (The Simpsons) and many more.



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Sunday 21st April

Factual > Life Stories > Documentaries

Arena: aka Norman Parkinson
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

To mark the centenary of his birth, Arena examines the glamorous life and exceptionally long career of pioneering photographer Norman Parkinson, an eccentric English gentleman who also produced his own brand of sausages. Featuring an abundance of beautiful images and with previously unseen footage, the film explores Parkinson's work with contributions from his models and collaborators, including Iman, Jerry Hall, Carmen Dell'Orefice, creative director of Vogue Grace Coddington and his grandson Jake Parkinson-Smith.


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Monday 22nd April

Documentaries > Crime

Dispatches: Britain's Millionaire Criminals
Channel 4, 8:00-8:30pm


Why are some convicted criminals still enjoying luxury lifestyles funded by their ill-gotten gains?  Successive governments have pledged to ensure crime doesn't pay and that the public purse will get these rich criminals' money. However, a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation has discovered that dozens of fraudsters, drug dealers and money launderers are still enjoying the high life despite being convicted of serious crimes.

Luxury properties, fast cars and overseas bank accounts are supposed to be in reach of the long arm of the law. Despite this, Dispatches reveals the institutional failings and legal loopholes that result in some of the country's most serious offenders being able to retain their criminal wealth, and discovers that the state has failed to recover even a fifth of the cash that Britain's wealthiest criminals have been ordered to pay back.

Reporter Antony Barnett speaks to police, lawyers and a convicted money launderer who explains how easy it is to avoid having criminal assets confiscated by the authorities.  He discovers a combination of legal obstacles and incompetence mean smart criminals are evading the justice system. Dispatches goes on the hunt for the criminals who have found that crime does pay.


News

Panorama: Secrets of Britain's Sharia Councils

BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

Panorama goes undercover to investigate what is really happening in Britain's Sharia Councils - Islamic religious courts. Some women reveal they have suffered domestic violence ignored by these councils as campaigners say it is time to tackle the parallel legal system which can run counter to British law.


Documentaries > Crime and Punishment

The Prisoners
BBC1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3


Filmed over a year, this episode - Holloway And Pentonville - follows a group of repeat offenders from both Pentonville and Holloway prison.  Chloe, in Holloway, has a cross-prison relationship with her fiancé and co-defendant Michael in Pentonville. They want to build a better life together on release but Chloe gets out first and has to face the world outside alone.  Ben deliberately offended to get into jail and receive help, but can he stay clean when released? And can Holloway’s Jayde finally break her re-offending cycle?



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Tuesday 23rd April

Factual > Health & Wellbeing > Documentaries

Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 5/8


Agnes and Rose are in hospital in London to have brain surgery to help control their tremors, which has a dramatic and immediate impact. In Blackpool, Terry, a patient in a psychiatric unit, is taken on a day trip to the zoo to help assess whether he's well enough to return to the community. We meet some of the 130 chemotherapy patients that are treated at a Manchester Cancer Unit on any one day and follow Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, just six weeks into the job, being given a tour of a new cancer centre in London.  The film shows the challenge of taking care of people with long-term conditions, a job only likely to get tougher with an ageing population.



Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Arts > Documentaries

The High Art of the Low Countries
BBC4, 10:55-11:55pm, 3/3


Following a brief period of decline, the entrepreneurial and industrious region of the Low Countries rose again to become a cultural leader in the modern age. Despite its small and almost insignificant size it produced important forward-thinking artists like Van Gogh, Mondrian, Magritte and Delvaux, who changed the face of art forever.

Andrew's journey takes him to a remote beach in north west Holland that inspired Mondrian's transition to his now-renowned abstract grid paintings. Andrew digs deep into the psychology and social history of the region, exploring how the landscape of the past has informed the culture and identity of the Low Countries today and the impossibility of the Dutch drive to turn the philosophy of Mondrian's geometric order into a way of living.



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Wednesday 24th April

History > Literature > Documentaries

The Century that Wrote Itself
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/3 - A World Shaped by Writing


This final instalment argues that the British Empire would never have happened without the new appetite for the written word in the 1600s. To prove his point, presenter Adam Nicolson pores over the letters of a Puritan couple and their wayward son, the beautifully illustrated journal of a lowly seaman and correspondence of a colonial wheeler-dealer. He also takes a plunge in a pool in Barbados, bounces around on a BMX bike and loses his train of thought on a choppy rollercoaster.

While the visual gimmicks are sometimes more distracting than illuminating, Nicolson has a lovely way with words and paints a vivid portrait of 17th-century life.

Adam Nicolson traces the roots of today's globalised Britain to a 17th-century golden age of communication, and reveals how it was a period during which society was on the move, with writing making this change possible. He looks at the letters of a lowly sailor able to document strange new worlds for those at home, and a slave-trader laying the foundations for a new global economy, highlighting how their work brings to life this turbulent era.



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Thursday 25th April

Archaeology > History > Documentaries

Jerusalem: An Archaeological Mystery Story
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm


Archaeology is politics in the Middle East. The precarious balance of Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites in the ancient heart of Jerusalem is informed as much by what’s below ground as what’s above. Which is why evidence revealed here, suggesting that the Jewish exile from Jerusalem in AD 70 may never have actually happened, has such severe ramifications for relations in the region.

Film-maker Ilan Ziv explores the archaeological challenges to the traditional narrative of the Jewish Diaspora, long buried in the sands of Galilee and beneath the streets of Jerusalem, and asks what this means for both Israelis and Palestinians today.

Documentary by Ilan Ziv looking at new evidence which suggests the majority of Jewish people may not have been exiled after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Travelling from Galilee, Israel, to the catacombs of Rome, he discovers whether the event that has played a central role in Christian and Jewish theology for nearly 2000 years really happened, raising ethical questions about its impact on modern Middle Eastern issues.



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Friday 26th April

Science, Nature & the Environment > Documentaries

Iceland: Ash Cloud Apocalypse
Channel 5, 8:00-9:00pm

Documentary examining past volcanic events in Iceland, such as the poisonous sulphur dioxide haze exhaled by Laki in 1783, and exploring how it is possible for us to reconstruct them. The film also looks at how science enables us to predict the style and magnitude of future eruptions and the effect they might have on modern society.


Science & Technology > Arts, Culture and the Media > History > Documentaries

The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm


JMW Turner is considered the great Romantic landscape painter - a master of sunsets and dramatic skies. Against wild seas and vast, daunting crags man is portrayed as small and helpless, dwarfed by the awesome power of nature. But there's another side that doesn't necessarily fit with this Romantic view – Turner as a man of science.

This fascinating film for BBC Two takes six of Turner’s works and looks at them alongside some of the most pivotal scientific and industrial moments in 19th century British history. As the country was transformed by steam power, rather than resist change, Turner delivered a visual story of the Industrial Revolution in his work. Captivated by science, technology and machines, Turner found his artistic voice in the new age of industry.



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