Off-air recordings for week 25-31 May 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 25th May

Factual > Science & Nature > Documentaries

Swarm: Nature's Incredible Invasions
BBC4, 7:00-8:00pm, 2/2 - One Million Heads, One Beautiful Mind

Extraordinary photography reveals the incredible swarm intelligence that lies behind animal invasions.

Millions of free-tailed bats form a living tornado in which complex information is exchanged. Huge shape-shifting shoals of herring use swarm intelligence to detect predators. Billions of alkali flies form a rolling wave to evade the gaping mouths of gulls. Vast numbers of shore birds synchronise their migration with swarming horseshoe crabs, a feat of timing unparalleled in the animal world.
Fire ants invade and destroy computer equipment and, when their nest is flooded, create living rafts with their bodies. Inside a driver ants' nest we discover the inner workings of a brain made from thousands of individuals. One swarm is even helping to save the planet from the greenhouse effect.
Incredible images show the true complexity of the swarm and how their intelligence impacts on our world. 


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

British Masters
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm, 2/3 - In Search of England

The inter-war years were a period of alarming national change. With a generation of youth lost to the trenches and the cracks in the Empire growing fast, the nation's confidence was in tatters. If we were no longer a mighty Imperial power, what were we? John Nash's mesmerising visions of rural arcadia, Stanley Spencer's glimpses of everyday divinity, Alfred Munnings' prelapsarian nostalgia, Paul Nash's timeless mysticism, John Piper's crumbling ruins, even William Coldstream's blunt celebration of working-class life - all, in their own way, were attempts to answer this question. And, as a reprise of war grew ever more likely, they struggled more urgently than ever to create an image of Britain we could fight for.


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Sunday 26th May

Factual > History > Pets & Animals > Documentaries

Ice Age Giants
BBC2, 8:30-9:30pm, 2/3 - Land of the Cave Bear

Professor Alice Roberts journeys 40,000 years back in time on the trail of the great beasts of the Ice Age. Drawing on the latest scientific detective work and a dash of graphic wizardry, Alice brings the Ice Age giants back to life.

In the Land of the Cave Bear, Alice ventures to the parts of the northern hemisphere, hit hardest by the cold - Europe and Siberia.

High in the mountains of Transylvania, a cave sealed for thousands of years reveals grisly evidence for a fight to the death between two staving giants, a cave bear and a cave lion. These animals, which would dwarf their modern day relatives, were probably driven into conflict by the pressure on food supplies as the Ice Age gathered pace.

Yet Alice discovers that, for woolly rhinos and woolly mammoths, the Ice Age created a bounty. The Mammoth Steppe, a vast tract of land which went half way round the world, provided food all year round, for those that liked the cold. It was these mammoths that Europe's most dangerous predators - Neanderthals and our own ancestors - hunted for their survival.


History > Documentaries

Clare Balding's Secrets of a Suffragette
4Seven, 11:55pm-1:00am

On 4 June1913 Emily Wilding Davison stepped into the path of the King's horse at the Derby and was fatally injured. 

Astonishingly, the terrible moment was captured on three newsreel cameras. The footage of a well-dressed Edwardian woman being killed by racehorses travelling at 35 miles an hour remains deeply shocking.

But though the act itself was captured in horrific detail, a century on, mystery and argument surround the story behind it: what exactly Emily Davison intended to do on the track that day; and what drove her to take such reckless action in the first place.

Clare Balding and a team of forensic experts have analysed the footage frame by frame, re-examined the evidence and, astonishingly, believe they may have made new discoveries that will change our view of what really happened on that fateful summer day.

Clare uncovers the story of Emily herself and finds out how a middle-class governess from a genteel family became a radical activist.

And she explores the hidden history of the militant wing of the votes for women campaign to which Emily belonged, revealing stories of terrible police brutality, forced feeding of hunger strikers, the early use of surveillance tactics that persist to this day and women prepared to use any means necessary to advance their cause.



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Monday 27th May

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

Britain on Film
BBC4, 8:00-8:30pm, 1/10, Series 2 - Times of Change

In 1959 Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. During the 1960s - a decade that witnessed profound shifts across Britain's political, economic and cultural landscapes - many felt anxiety about the dizzying pace of change.

Look at Life reflected the increasing social and moral unease in films that tackled subjects ranging from contraception to immigration; from increasing stress at work to the preservation of the Sabbath; and from the environmental implications of waste management to the threat of nuclear weapons. Through these films, we can glimpse many of the seismic societal transformations of the Sixties developments that polarised the nation and changed life in Britain forever.


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Tuesday 28th May

Factual

Town with Nicholas Crane
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/4, Series 2 - Saffron Walden

More intimate than a city, towns are where we first learned to be urban. Harbour towns, market towns, island towns, industrial towns: collectively they bind our land together.
An attractive market town within easy commuting distance of London, Saffron Walden has some of the best preserved medieval architecture in the country. However its heritage is now under threat. Nicholas Crane discovers what gave this town its unique name and how the UK's housing crisis is affecting its future.


Documentaries > History > Writing

Words of Everest
ITV1, 10:35-11:35pm

When Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Everest on 29th May 1953, his thoughts turned to a previous failed attempt made 29 years earlier, which remained shrouded in mystery.  Marking the 60th anniversary of Hillary’s successful expedition, which was attempted as Coronation fever took hold in the lead up to the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II, a brand new documentary from ITV’s award-winning ‘Words of…’ strand brings to life the two stories, intertwined and retold side-by-side. 

 After Britain lost the race to both Poles, the word’s highest peak, Mount Everest was seen as the greatest remaining challenge on Earth.  In 1924, intrepid British climbers, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared after being spotted just 800 yards from the summit.  Twenty-nine years later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay approached the same summit after a long and arduous journey, determined to claim their prize of being the first explorers to conquer the mountain.

The stories of these two expeditions are retold using the climbers’ own diaries and private letters read by actors including John Hannah, Jason Flemyng, Freddie Fox and Stephen Campbell Moore.  Their personal perspectives, delivered straight to camera by the cast, along with original archive film and pictures plus some reconstruction, provide a vivid insight into the motivations of the key figures, the decisions and sacrifices they made and the challenges they faced, as well as the profound emotional peaks and troughs they experienced in making their attempts to conquer Everest.   A brilliant climber, George Mallory (Stephen Campbell Moore: Hunted, Titanic, The History Boys) was made famous by two expeditions to Everest in 1921 and 1922.  In 1923 a third trip was planned but Mallory had just moved to a new house in Cambridge with his wife Ruth (Zoe Boyle: Downton Abbey) and their children.  Despite being deeply in love, fate would all too frequently pull the couple apart. 

In a letter to his father, George wrote: “It is an awful tug to contemplate going away from here instead of settling down to make a new life with Ruth.  We have both thought that it would look rather grim to see others, without me, engaged in conquering the summit. And now that the prospect arrives, I want to have a part in the finish.”  Thirteen days later he’d made his mind up: “It’s all settled, and I’m to go again.  I only hope it is a right decision.  It has been a fearful tug.  I’ve had to think precisely what I was wanted for.”  Also part of the team was recent Oxford graduate Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine (Freddie Fox: Parade’s End, The Three Musketeers), the youngest of the party at 22 and with the least mountaineering experience.  Colonel Edward Norton (John Hannah: The Mummy, Four Weddings and a Funeral), an expert climber and Everest veteran, was in charge.

 For three weeks they sailed through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal to Bombay, crossed the plains of India and the high Himalayan passes into Tibet.  After four weeks trekking across the freezing Tibetan desert they finally reached the north slopes of Everest and climbed to the foot of the Rongbuk Glacier.  Norton said:  “We have reached the Base Camp exactly to plan, with not one sick man, English or Himalayan.  The camp is humming as I write.”   In a letter to his beloved Ruth, Mallory wrote: “The telegram announcing our success, if we succeed, will precede this letter, I suppose.  But it will mention no names.  How you will hope that I was one of the conquerors!  And I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”...



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Wednesday 29th May

Factual > History > Documentaries

Mothers, Murderers and Mistresses:  Empresses of Ancient Rome
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3

Professor Catharine Edwards explores the story of the remarkable Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus, mother of the emperor Tiberius and a woman whose influence was felt across the Roman world for over 60 years. But as Catharine explains, imperial women who lacked perfect political judgement would end up not as leaders but as victims. Both Augustus's daughter Julia and his granddaughter Agrippina would die miserably in exile.


Factual > History > Politics > Documentaries

The Iraq War
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - Regime Change

The people at the top of the CIA and Saddam's Foreign Minister describe just how the US and Britain got it so wrong about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction before the invasion.
Tony Blair recounts how he flew to President Bush's private retreat at Camp David to go head-to-head with Vice President Dick Cheney. Colin Powell explains how he came to make his disastrous presentation to the United Nations. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw describes how he - and even President Bush himself - tried to persuade Tony Blair that to join in the invasion was political suicide. 


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Thursday 30th May

Factual > History

Henry VII: Winter King
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Thomas Penn charts the dark story of the godfather of the Tudors, a man who was never meant to be king but founded the most famous dynasty ever: Henry VII.


Psychology > Human Behaviour

Human Swarm
4Seven, 11:05pm-12:05am

We all like to think of ourselves as individuals, making up our own minds what to do and when to do it. But this eye-opening documentary, presented by Jimmy Doherty, reveals new evidence that suggests that in many ways we actually think and move like members of a herd of animals.
We each leave behind us a vast 'data trail' every time we travel, use our phone or credit card, search or buy online, use social media or visit a supermarket.

The documentary reveals how, by analysing and unlocking this mountain of data, scientists can monitor, predict and even manipulate our actions with amazing precision.
The programme shows how one of the most powerful influences on each of us is the temperature, with the smallest changes affecting us physically and psychologically, without us even being aware of it.

And it shows how individual changes in mood, appetite, behaviour and health can add up to a huge shift in behaviour across the country, with consequences for the health service, energy companies and retailers.

The programme reveals: how a tiny gland in our brains helps to choose our breakfast for us when it's cold; how each one degree drop in the temperature leads to an extra 200 heart attacks; why flu flourishes in winter; how our online searches can help track disease outbreaks; how supermarkets can predict when you will want to have a BBQ; when online dating sites see a 350% spike in traffic; and how sales of swimwear go up by 600% when the sun shines, whatever the temperature.


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Friday 31st May

News > World Affairs

Unreported World: Making Brazil Beautiful
Channel 4, 7:30-8:00pm

Unreported World reports on the huge growth in cosmetic plastic surgery in Brazil.
Reporter Seyi Rhodes and producer Suemay Oram reveal that even poor women living in favelas can achieve the Brazilian body beautiful through subsidised or free cosmetic surgery provided by plastic surgeons who feel all Brazilians have a right to be beautiful, even on the country's Public Health Service.

In Brazil, plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons is not frowned on like it can be in the UK, and having a surgically enhanced body is sometimes seen as a status symbol. The number of surgeries offering cosmetic enhancement has grown by 30 per cent in two years and there are now 10 times more plastic surgeons in Brazil than in the UK. Brazil is second only to the USA in the number of plastic surgery operations carried out each year.

Reasons for surgery vary: from wanting to have a body they feel comfortable with on the beach, to one that they feel will enhance their ability to get a job.
Many women that Rhodes talks to say that in body conscious Brazil, if you don't fit the perception of the perfect body, your chances of career advancement aren't as great.

As well as private operations, plastic surgery is available in Brazilian public hospitals. As in most countries, reconstructive surgery takes precedence, but surgeons also carry out aesthetic procedures.
They also have a very wide definition of what is reconstructive. Women who've had children can apply for a 'reconstructive' tummy tuck. Or a woman whose small breasts are causing her 'psychological distress' could have a breast augmentation for free.

Hospital administrator Karen Da Silva Chaves is being given a tummy tuck following the birth of her son, so that she can wear a bikini again. The operation is free on the Brazilian health service.
The team meet 87-year-old professor and former surgeon Dr Ivo Pitanguy. He pioneered the increase in plastic surgery treatment for poorer Brazilians and his organisation runs Santa Casa hospital's plastic surgery ward.

Patients make a 'donation' to the hospital, the amount of which depends on their chosen surgery and their earnings. Those who can't afford to pay but are deemed 'in need' of surgery can get it for free...


History > Documentaries

Britain's Stone Age Tsunami
4 Seven, 8:00-9:00pm

Tony Robinson reveals astonishing new evidence that shows how, 8000 years ago, a huge tsunami swamped the east coast of Britain.
The new research also explains the tsunami's cause, and transforms our understanding of the people whose lives it devastated.

Like recent tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and Japan, Britain's tsunami was a phenomenally destructive force, with waves as high as 10 metres in many places.
But new research on the people who faced those waves has forced a new appreciation of the impact of the wave's destruction.

For years, these Mesolithic communities were thought to be primitive hunter-gatherers. But through remarkable new archaeological excavation, Tony discovers that people in Britain at that time were living comfortable, settled lives in their own houses, with varied diets and sophisticated skills.
The tsunami didn't just scare a few cavemen; it swamped a civilisation.
It was also the most dramatic incident in a long and volatile epoch of climate change that eventually separated Britain from continental Europe, and set the shape of our current coastline.
In 6000 BC, Britain was still joined to the rest of Europe by Doggerland, an area of dry land the size of Germany, where thousands of Mesolithic people lived.

In the programme, scientists take Tony on an astonishing virtual journey through Doggerland's rich and plentiful landscape, which was to be destroyed by the tsunami and then persistent flooding as the world's ice melted.
And they also reveal how the tsunami was caused by melting ice, triggering a chain reaction that left a trail of destruction from the top of these islands to the bottom.


Factual > History

The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - The Common People

Dr. Ian Mortimer offers a unique travel guide to the world of Queen Elizabeth I. In a lavish and ground-breaking new way of exploring history, Ian takes us on a present-tense journey through this golden age of English history.




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