Off-air recordings 21-27 March 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

21 March

Five - Mega Flood: Perfect Disaster - London - "Speculative documentary, featuring CGI effects, expert interviews and dramatisations. Could the same thing happen to London that happened in New Orleans? The city is among the best defended in the world against flooding but there is a weakness... and London is about to find out what it is."

23 March

ITV1 - Tonight: Kevin Whately on Dementia - "For the past 20 years, Kevin Whately has played television detective Robbie Lewis, who was Inspector Morse's right-hand man. But in his latest on-screen appearance, the actor investigates a subject close to his heart - dementia. Kevin's mother Mary, now 83, was diagnosed with the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, eight years ago. Sadly, Mary's condition is so advanced that her family had to take the difficult decision to admit her to a nursing home... Kevin discusses his concerns about the vast difference in standards of care for patients with dementia in care homes in Britain. The programme also looks at the need for better diagnosis for dementia, as currently doctors and nurses do not receive mandatory training in diagnosing and dealing with dementia. It is believed that only one third of people with dementia have been diagnosed. In a recent survey, 29 per cent of GPs said they have not had enough training in how to diagnose and manage dementia."

BBC1 - Cleopatra, Portrait of a Killer - "Cleopatra - the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared - until now.
In one of the world's most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
From Egypt to Turkey, Neil Oliver investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power. This is the portrait of a killer."


24 March

BBC2 - Horizon: Why Can't We Predict Earthquakes? - "Last century, earthquakes killed over one million, and it is predicted that this century might see ten times as many deaths. Yet when an earthquake strikes, it always takes people by surprise.
So why hasn't science worked out how to predict when and where the next big quake is going to happen? This is the story of the men and women who chase earthquakes and try to understand this mysterious force of nature.
Journeying to China's Sichuan Province, which still lies devastated by the earthquake that struck in May 2008, as well as the notorious San Andreas Fault in California, Horizon asks why science has so far fallen short of answering this fundamental question."

25 March

More4 - Dispatches: Confessions of a Nurse - "As patient numbers and pressures increase, Dispatches investigates the reality of work for nurses around the country and examines whether patient care is being compromised in NHS hospitals.
In candid interviews, nurses - mostly speaking anonymously for fear of jeopardising their careers - describe what life is really like on many wards. They speak of their frustrations with the health service system and make shocking admissions."

Five - Interview With a Cannibal - "In 2002, German cannibal Armin Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to over eight years in prison for killing, dismembering and eating another man - who allegedly agreed to the arrangement over the internet. In 2005, a German court ordered a retrial and Meiwes was eventually convicted of murder. This documentary explores the extraordinary case and features an exclusive interview with Meiwes, home footage and access to police evidence."

26 March

BBC2 - Natural World - Uakari: Secrets of the English Monkey - "In the flooded forests of the Peruvian Amazon lives one of the world's rarest and most mysterious primates, the red-faced uakari monkey. Local people call them English monkeys because of their resemblance to sunburnt visitors. Now there is a new Englishman on the scene, Mark Bowler, a young biologist who battles through the forest in his quest to understand the monkeys' secret lives."

BBC2 - The Rabbits of Skomer - "Documentary about the wild rabbits which live on sea cliffs on the Pembrokeshire coast alongside seabirds like puffins and seagulls. They come in many shades, owing to their intriguing history, and each spring the island of Skomer itself is transformed by wild flowers, creating one of Britain's most beautiful natural spectacles. The green and brown island turns blue and pink for a couple of spectacular weeks under a carpet of bluebells and red campion."

BBC2 - Oil Spill - the Exxon Valdez Disaster - "Just after midnight on Good Friday 1989 the giant supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound to create one of the biggest man-made ecological disasters of the 20th century.
Eleven million gallons of crude oil gushed from the stricken tanker into the pristine waters of the Sound, killing whales, millions of fish and birds, and thousands of sea otters. The spill had a catastrophic effect on local communities, wiping out their herring fishery and severely depleting the Alaskan salmon industry for years to come.
The skipper of the Exxon Valdez had been drinking but that was just the start of the calamity. The aftermath led to bitter disputes over the bungled clear-up and law suits on behalf of 32,000 local victims that lasted nearly twenty years, as Exxon fought the $5 billion damages awarded against them all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Twenty years on, this documentary retraces the catalogue of errors that led to the disaster and investigates the legacy of the spill and the lasting environmental damage to Prince Wiliam Sound, featuring interviews with crew members aboard the supertanker on the fateful night, with the Exxon executives and Alaskan politicians in the eye of the storm and with the local fishermen and activists who had prophetically warned of disaster and now led the fight for justice."

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* This applies to staff members 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.

Off-air recordings 14-20 March 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

Timewatch: Captain Cook - The Man Behind the Legend - "In the late 18th century, Captain James Cook led three great voyages of discovery which pushed the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the earth. In just over a decade, his ability as a navigator and chart maker would add one-third to the map of the known world. For many he was the greatest explorer in history, but for others, he was a ruthless conqueror.
While the exploits of Captain Cook are well documented, much less is known about James Cook the man. Presenter Vanessa Collingridge sets out on her own voyage of discovery - travelling in his footsteps to uncover the forces that drove him to success, and ultimately to his own death."

The Lost World of Communism - New 3 part series - “A Socialist Paradise. 1989 marked the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe and an end to an entire way of life for millions of people. Having lived through those extraordinary times, they now tell their stories of life behind the Iron Curtain, looking beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political repression to reveal an astonishingly rich tapestry of experience. We open with a look at the ’socialist paradise’ of communist East Germany.”

Yellowstone - New 3 part series "A natural history portrait of a year in Yellowstone, following the fortunes of America's wildlife icons as they face the challenges of one of the most extraordinary wildernesses on Earth."

Malaria: Return to Fever Road - "Documentary highlighting man's interminable fight against malaria, a disease which kills millions every year and which is continuing to worsen.
Filmed on three continents over eighteen months, it delivers an up-to-date account of the global malaria situation from the perspectives of a few heroic individuals, each fighting their own very different battles against the disease.
The film reveals the harsh realities of malaria within a rural Kenyan village community, telling the story of Peter Kombo, chief of Kiagware village in the Kisii highlands, as he battles through the malaria season... "

Panorama: Crime Pays - "Panorama reveals how organised crime is defeating attempts to claw back its profits.
Reporter Samantha Poling goes undercover and shows how major drug dealers and money launderers are making a mockery of high-profile laws designed to take the proceeds of their crime.
And the programme discovers the Crown is now reduced to making deals with criminals that can result in a drug dealer paying less "tax" than the rest of the population."

Horizon: Who Do You Want Your Child To Be? - "David Baddiel, father of two, sets out to answer one of the greatest questions a parent can ask: how best to educate your child.
Taking in the latest scientific research, David uncovers some unconventional approaches: from the parent hot-hosing his child to record-breaking feats of maths, to a school that pays hard cash for good grades.
David witnesses a ground-breaking experiment that suggests a child's destiny can be predicted at four, and hears the three little words that can ruin a child's chance of success for good. He also uncovers the neurological basis for why teenagers can be stroppy and explosive and has his own brain tinkered with to experience what it is like to struggle at school.
Through it all, David's quest remains true: to maximise his child's potential for success and happiness."

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* This applies to staff members 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.

Off-air recordings 7-13 March 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*



Timewatch: The Real Bonnie and Clyde - "Hollywood portrayed them as the most glamorous outlaws in American history, but the reality of life on the run for Bonnie and Clyde was one of violence, hardship and danger.
With unprecedented access to gang members' memoirs, family archives and recently released police records, Timewatch takes an epic road trip through the heart of depression-era America, in search of the true story of Bonnie and Clyde."



The Satanic Verses Affair - "Twenty years ago, novelist Salman Rushdie was a wanted man with a million pound bounty on his head. His novel, The Satanic Verses, had sparked riots across the Muslim world. The ailing religious leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini, had invoked a little-known religious opinion - a fatwa - and effectively sentenced Rushdie to death. Never before had a novel created an international diplomatic crisis on such a scale, and never before had a foreign Government publicly called for the killing of a private citizen of another country.
This film looks back on the extraordinary events which followed the publication of the book and the ten year campaign to get the fatwa lifted. Interviews with Rushdie's friends and family and testimony from leaders of Britain's Muslim community and the Government reveal the inside story of the affair. Rushdie himself was forced into hiding for nearly ten years. Arguably this was the moment when religious identities, in Britain and abroad, became more important than ethnic and cultural belonging."



The Lost Pictures of Eugene Smith - "In 1950 the American photo-journalist W Eugene Smith came to Britain to cover the general election for Life Magazine, but his photographs were never published. Welsh writer and broadcast Professor Dai Smith goes in search of these lost pictures and discovers how the magazine's opposition to Attlee's radical Labour government caused them to suppress Smith's work."



Panorama: Immigration - Time for an Amnesty? - "Panorama looks at a proposed amnesty for hundreds of thousands of long-standing illegal immigrants, offering them the right to work and full citizenship. London mayor Boris Johnson is in favour of the idea, and ninety-three MPs from across the country support it. But it is a big ask with the UK in the grip of a credit crunch, and amid protests calling for British jobs for British workers. Should the amnesty be granted?"



The Miners' Strike - "Documentary which captures the extraordinary passions unleashed by the 1984 miners' strike and examines how it changed Britain forever. Mining villages were consumed by violence and hatred as pickets fought running battles with police and striking and working miners were locked in confrontation.
With powerful interviews, evocative archive and dramatic reconstructions, the film follows the lives of five young miners from one village through a torrid but exciting year."



All Our Working Lives: Cutting Coal - "In their peak period, Britain's coal mines powered the nation's industrial rise and provided jobs for over a million men. With the help of old miners and pit managers, this documentary highlights the dangerous conditions, insecurity and disputes that led to the nationalisation of the mines after the Second World War and charts the rapid decline of the industry in the 1970s and 80s."



My Strike - "My Strike explores the experience of going on strike and the impact it has on individuals on both sides of a dispute. Drawing on a time when millions of days were lost to industrial action each year in Britain, it covers a spectrum of industries and includes personal accounts from people not normally thought of as strikers – including Lord Tebbit, who took part in a pilots' strike before he went on to become Trade And Industry Secretary, and former BBC Director-General Greg Dyke.
Every striker confronts personal pressure. Women machinists at the Ford Motor Company plant in Dagenham incurred the wrath of husbands and families when they forced the temporary closure of their factory in the fight for pay parity in 1968. Ian Lowes, who led the gravediggers' strike in 1979, tells how they faced physical attack from furious members of the public who were unable to bury their dead, and Norman Tebbit's agent had some stern questions for his striking Tory candidate.
The programme examines how each strike had a different tone. For some, striking was a very gentlemanly affair – London Weekend Television allowed strikers inside the building, in case of rain, and Greg Dyke split his time between the picket line and wind-surfing in Wales.
For others, strike action was out-and-out war. Former newspaper boss and one-time reluctant striker Eddie Shah recounts some of the dirty tricks he claims print unions used when he confronted them over the closed shop.
The programme also examines how striking changes lives. South Shields miner Norman Strike split from his wife and family in the strike but found a new life as an academic; Anne Scargill lost her faith in the police after her arrest during the miners' strike, but found her independence; Peter Snow faced his own crisis of confidence on crossing the picket line in the run-up to an election; and Norman Tebbit used his experience of striking to shape legislation to curb the unions. "



Call Yourself A Feminist - BBC Radio 4 3 part series - "Historian Bettany Hughes presents the first in a series of three discussions tracing the development of feminist ideas from the 1960s onwards."


Baroque! From St Peter's to St Paul's - new 3 part series - "Writer and presenter Waldemar Januszczak continues his exploration into the Baroque age in this BBC Four series, filmed in high definition in locations across Europe. The series explores the impact of the world's first truly global art movement as it travelled from Catholic Rome to Protestant London between 1600 and 1720.
Programme two follows the Baroque on its travels to the dark heart of Spain, where it thrived – and sometimes shocked – and then onwards to Flanders and Holland, where Rubens and Rembrandt took it on.
One of the chief reasons why the Baroque became the first global art movement was because it was so adaptable – adopting the local tastes and customs wherever it arrived and making itself at home. But when it got to Spain it didn't have much adapting to do. Spain was already very Catholic with an appetite for drama, emotion and passion – so a ready-made home for the Baroque.
Waldemar joins the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela – the Via de la Plata – starting in Seville, the birthplace of Velazquez, and the setting of Rossini's Barber Of Seville and Mozart's Marriage Of Figaro. He also charts the journey of Spanish Baroque exported from as far afield as Peru and Latin America.
In Spanish Flanders, Waldemar hunts down Rubens's greatest Baroque paintings. And in Holland, he watches the Baroque turning protestant for the first time with Rembrandt, Frans Hals and the incomparable Vermeer."



That's all folks! Any more just let me know.

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* This applies to staff members 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.

Off-air recordings 28 Feb - 6 March 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*



After The War: Conquering Germany - Parts 1&2 "Documentary looking at what happened in Germany at the end of WW2, and how the Allies tried to create a working democracy from the ruins of a defeated people and a defeated nation. "



Gladstone and Disraeli: Clash of the Titans - "Huw Edwards presents a documentary examining the relationship between Victorian prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone, whose bitter personal rivalry dominated British politics for 40 years.
Disraeli was a peacock with an elegant wit and an outsider who made it to the top, while Gladstone was an insider and a stern moralist who chopped down trees and saved fallen women, and the two of them drove each other onwards and changed the face of British politics."



Natural World: Iron Curtain, Ribbon of Life - "When communism crumbled in 1989, it created an opportunity for wildlife. The Iron Curtain that divided communist Eastern Europe from the capitalist West had created a no-man's-land protected by barbed wire and minefields - a last haven for many rare animals and plants. This film tells the story of the movement, led by biologist Dr Kai Frobel, that set out to save the wildlife of this precious strip.
Now as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain, we can also celebrate the birth of the biggest conservation movement in the world, a ribbon of life stretching 13,000 kilometres across Europe, protecting everything from bears and wolverines in Finland to rare eagles in Bulgaria."



Rocket Science - "Documentary series that tracks a typical class in a typical school over a rollercoaster nine months, as inspirational physics teacher Andy Smith tries to convert his pupils to physics and chemistry."

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* This applies to staff members 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.

Off-air recordings 21-27 February 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*



Timewatch: Queen Elizabeth's Lost Guns - "A mile off the coast of the channel island of Alderney lies a shipwreck that could rewrite English naval history. Presenter Saul David joins a team of divers and experts as they attempt to find and raise the ship's four-hundred-year-old cannons. By recasting and firing them, they hope to demonstrate how Elizabeth I became the mother of British naval dominance... "



Guns, Germs and Steel - "Jared Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality, tracing humanity's meanderings across 13,000 years of history.
Jared asks why Europeans were the ones to conquer so much of the planet - why didn't the Chinese or the Incas become masters of the globe instead, and why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?
As he peels back the layers of history to uncover fundamental, environmental factors shaping the destiny of humanity, Diamond finds both his theories and his own endurance tested."



Sissinghurst - "Series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent." - "Battling the National Trust can take time. Three years into the action, writer Adam Nicolson attends his 47th committee meeting, armed with tea, biscuits and bucketloads of patience. His grandfather, writer and politician Harold Nicolson, had donated the property at Sissinghurst in Kent to the Trust, on condition the family could always live there. While his wife Sarah yearns to modernise the restaurant, Adam itches to restore the farm as he believes his grandmother, writer Vita Sackville-West, would have wished. But it's the Trust that makes the decisions. In this opening double-bill, Adam's plans get the green light; but he'll undoubtedly need to stock up on digestive biscuits. "



Drama on 3: The Time Machine - Part of BBC Radio's forthcoming sci-fi season - "Robert Glenister stars in Philip Osment's dramatisation of HG Wells' classic story of a time-traveller's journey to the future, where mankind has diverged into two species - the Eloi and the Morlocks."



Horizon: The Secret Life of Your Bodyclock - "Why are you more likely to have a heart attack at eight o'clock in the morning or crash your car on the motorway at two o'clock in the afternoon? Can taking your medication at the right time of day really save your life? And have you ever wondered why teenagers will not get out of bed in the morning?
The answers to these questions lie in the secret world of the biological clock."



True Stories: Trouble at the Water - "A Grand Jury Prize winner at the Sundance Festival (and up for an Oscar two nights ago), this harrowing doc uses camcorder footage shot by New Orleans couple Kimberly and Scott Roberts to show Hurricane Katrina and the floods ripping through their community. "



Lloyd George: People's Champion - "Huw Edwards presents a profile of the former Prime Minister, depicting him as a brilliantly innovative social reformer to whom we owe old age pensions, National Insurance and much else. Contributors include Stephen Constantine, Margaret MacMillan, Neil Kinnock, Michael Heseltine and David Steel."

The Naked Archaeologist - "Bringing a touch of rock and roll to archaeology as he dances and raps his way around the ancient Middle East, he's been affectionately termed Ali G meets Indiana Jones. We know him better as The Naked Archaeologist. But just who really is Simcha Jacobovici?... "

Britain's Best Drives: 1/6 - Scarborough to Whitby - "Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.
In a classic Morris Minor Traveller, he drives from Scarborough to Whitby via the Yorkshire moors. He learns about the rise and fall of the British seaside resorts, takes a toll road through the Dalby Forest and checks out the mythical roadside wonder that is the Hole of Horecum.
He finds out how the village of Goathland now lives a double life and ends up with a carload of goths on their way to visit Whitby Abbey."

Britain's Best Drives 2/6 - North Wales - "Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.Richard takes the wheel of Ford Zodiac to drive the circular route from Caernarfon that loops through some of Snowdonia's most sensational scenery.He gets a Welsh lesson at Caernarfon Castle, learns the significance of the Dinorwic slate quarry, drives the Llanberis Pass, meets 71-year-old human fly Eric Jones and takes a trip down memory lane at a former Butlins holiday camp."

Caravans: A British Love Affair - "Documentary about the love affair between the British and their caravans, which saw the country establish the world's largest caravan manufacturer and transformed the holiday habits of generations of families.
In telling the intriguing story of caravanning in Britain from the 1950s through to the present day, the film reveals how caravans were once the plaything of a privileged minority but after World War II became a firm favourite with almost a quarter of British holidaymakers.
It explores how changes in caravanning across the years reflect wider changes in British society, in particular the increased availability of cars during the 1950s and 60s, but also the improved roads network and changing attitudes towards holidaymaking and leisure time.
Enthusiasts and contributors include Dorrie van Lachterop from the West Midlands and Christine Fagg from Hertfordshire, remarkable and adventurous women who started touring alone in their caravans during the 1950s."

Touring Britain: The Victorian Way 1/2 - "Cultural historian David Heathcote uses his favourite old 1887 Baedeker Guide to explore modern-day Britain, discovering unexpected delights and hidden treasures which were popular with Victorian tourists but are rarely visited today.
Following in the footsteps of early American tourists who arrived off the boats in Liverpool, he takes the advice of the Guide and discovers 'the most fashionable of Welsh watering places'. The Guide then recommends a trip to the salt mines, popular with American visitors 100 years ago and, surprisingly, just as interesting today.
He then travels on to Manchester, recommended by Baedeker as a hotbed of music, politics and radical thinking and discovers that the spirit of what attracted the curious visitors 100 years ago lives on.
The journey ends in York where modern day tourists follow in the footsteps of their Victorian counterparts and enjoy the magnificent medieval city and cathedral.
As he travels, Heathcote explores the story behind the guide books that were so influential in creating the independent traveller as we know it today."

Michael Smith's Drivetime - 6 part series "Novelist and raconteur Michael Smith explores Britain's modern obsession with cars and driving, as well as seeking to understand the effects it has on our daily lives." Part 1 Escape From London and Part 2 Long Days On Watling Street

The Joy of Motoring - "Tristram Hunt looks at how motoring has gone from allowing us to explore the English countryside to the present day of speed cameras, congestion charges and environmental issues."

Snowstorms: Britain's Big Freeze - "In the first weeks of February, travellers were stranded and thousands of schools closed as Britain suffered its worst snow falls in 18 years. This film documents that extraordinary week and the fallout from the storm, exploring the possible factors behind the freak weather.
On Monday February 2, large parts of Britain almost ground to a halt. The snow and ice continued over the week as parts of Britain began to adapt and resume their routine. Still, great swathes of the nation suffered from heavy snow, icy roads and flooding, crippled by relentless snow and rainfall, and unable to cope. People battled to get to work, some taking eight hours using skis and sledges, while others made the most of their wintry day off. Parents gave up and joined their children in a great snow romp across the country.
In a climate mostly dominated by the recession, Britain was turned into a fun, white wonderland by this sudden change in conditions, but with more than just a few broken bones as a result. Snowstorm: Britain's Big Freeze examines the causes of this dramatic weather and if it really is that unusual. The last great storms were in 1946, 1963 and 1991, and if this was part of a cycle we might have to wait another two decades before the next one.

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* This applies to staff members 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.

Off-air recordings 14-20 February 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

Iran and Britain - "Documentary in which writer and journalist Christopher de Bellaigue explores the fraught but often surprisingly intimate history of Britain's relations with Iran, and asks why Iranians think that if something goes wrong in Iran then Britain must have something to do with it.
De Bellaigue has lived in Tehran, speaks fluent Persian and knows well the phenomenon of 'Uncle Napoleonism', the notion that the cunning British are 'out to get you' that has been a common attitude in Iranian society for 100 years.
He looks at some key events in the relationship, notably Britain's role in the overthrow of several Iranian governments, its control of Iran's oil and the on-off support for Iran's democrats.
Meeting prominent Iranians, including Uncle Napoleon's inventor and others with direct knowledge of these events, he examines the foundations and justification for these Iranian suspicions and asks if they are still there after 30 years of isolation."

Storyville: Prostitution Behind the Veil - "Director Nahid Persson follows the lives of two Iranian women whose misfortunes have landed them in the same run-down building. Their husbands are serving long prison sentences, both have been left to look after their young children and both have had to resort to prostitution to support their heroin habits.
Persson's sympathetic portrait follows them as they struggle to create a better life for themselves and their children."

Panorama: Muslim First, British Second - "MI5 say that they cannot keep tabs on all of the country's Muslim extremists.
As ministers prepare to announce a new counter-terrorism strategy, Panorama asks whether we should isolate or talk to the radicals, and examines suspicions that government-funded community projects are being covertly used to gather intelligence."

Storyville: Ghosts of the 7th Cavalry - "Powerful documentary from Emmy award-winning director Tom Roberts which explores the profound human consequences of America's frontier wars through the moving personal journey of retired US Major Robert 'Snuffy' Gray, who fought with the controversial 7th Cavalry Regiment."

Storyville: How Vietnam Was Lost - "Based on David Maraniss' book, They Marched into Sunlight, the film tells the story of two seemingly unconnected events in October 1967 that changed the course of the Vietnam War... "

Poetry Pie - "Straight from the oven, CBeebies cooks up a fresh, daily serving of scrummy poetry pie in a specially created new series for three-six-year-olds, in which poets including Brian Patten, Roger McGough, Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen and primary school pupils across the UK contribute a mix of funny and original rhythms and rhymes.
Each episode of Poetry Pie is a unique recipe for poetic fun with every poem animated and brought vividly to life by one of five characters who act, dance and sing the words to the poems. They are Evie the cow, Charlie the alien, Amber the hermit crab, Mischa the hamster and Findlay the dragon. Roger McGough’s title poem starts the journey into this enchanting world and at the end of each episode a Greek chorus of Liverpudlian worms recites a short, amusing poem, created with children from schools around the UK.... "

Arena: Harold Pinter - "Nigel Williams presents a two-part film biography exploring the life, work and political passions of the famous playwright and actor. This first part explores Pinter's key theme, the room, through the rooms in which he wrote his first series of plays."

The Victorians - "New series in which Jeremy Paxman takes his love of Victorian paintings as the starting point for a journey into Victorian Britain. Such pictures may not be fashionable today, but they are a gold mine of information about the most dynamic age in British history.
In this episode he investigates the most dramatic event of Victorian Britain - the explosion of great cities. At first the Victorians feared these new monsters in their midst but then grew to love and transform them.
Jeremy explores the canals and sewers, suburbs and back streets, workhouses and magnificent buildings of the great Victorian city, while also picturing the fun-filled chaos of Derby Day."

Natural World: A Farm For the Future - "As her farmer father nears retirement, Rebecca Hosking looks into methods of making the family farm less reliant on fossil fuel. having discovered that food production in this country is virtually entirely dependent on cheap oil, Rebecca is shocked to discover how unstable the supply lines are.
She then sets about exploring pioneering techniques, which suggest that nature holds the answer to a low-energy future."

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* This applies to staff members 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.

Off-air recordings 7-13 February 2009

Please email Rich Deakin < rdeakin@glos.ac.uk > if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

Iran and the West - New 3-part series "Militant Islam enjoyed its first modern triumph with the arrival in power of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in 1979. In this series of three programmes, key figures tell the inside story... "

Citizen Smith - "Publisher Michael Smith takes on the guise of a contemporary Citizen Smith, scouring England in search of a modern day definition of nationality... "

Just Read with Michael Rosen - "Children's laureate and poet Michael Rosen, worried that children don't seem to read as much as they used to, takes on an ordinary primary school in Cardiff to see if he can start a reading revolution in just ten weeks.
He gives the staff permission to break into a packed curriculum simply to introduce good books and stories, after discovering that a lot of the children don't have many books at home and have never visited a library."

Why Reading Matters - "Science writer Rita Carter tells the story of how modern neuroscience has revealed that reading, something most of us take for granted, unlocks remarkable powers. Carter explains how the classic novel Wuthering Heights allows us to step inside other minds and understand the world from different points of view, and she wonders whether the new digital revolution could threaten the values of classic reading."

Storyville: Heavy Load - "Documentary about punk band Heavy Load, subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, fantasy, expectation and desire that fuels any emerging band, but uniquely made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities.
This makes the band's survival a precarious negotiation between two different worlds - on the one hand the institutional timetable of day centres, work placements and social workers and, on the other, the chaotic slacker life of rehearsal rooms, studios and gigs."

Horizon: Why Do We Dream? - "Horizon uncovers the secret world of our dreams. In a series of cutting-edge experiments and personal stories, we go in search of the science behind this most enduring mystery and ask: where do dreams come from? Do they have meaning? And ultimately, why do we dream?
What the film reveals is that much of what we thought we knew no longer stands true. Dreams are not simply wild imaginings but play a significant part in all our lives as they have an impact on our memories, the ability to learn, and our mental health. Most surprisingly, we find nightmares, too, are beneficial and may even explain the survival of our species."

Nature's Great Events - "Using state of the art filming technology, Nature's Great Events on BBC One captures the Earth's most dramatic and epic wildlife spectacles and the intimate stories of the animals caught up in them.
From the flooding of the Okavango Delta, in Africa, to the great summer melt of ice in the Arctic and the massive annual bloom of plankton in the northern Pacific Ocean, each of the six programmes features a different event set in one of the world's most iconic wildernesses."

Books for Boys: A Mission Impossible- "Richard Hammond investigates the art of writing children's fiction and discovers that it isn't as easy as he thinks. Contributors include authors Mallory Blackman and Anthony Horowitz, publishers David Elliot and Brad Thompson, novelist John O'Farrell, children's author Garth Nix and feminist writer Natasha Walter."

Samuel Johnson: The Dictionary Man - "Drama documentary telling the story of Samuel Johnson's creation of the first English dictionary, in an attic room just off Fleet Street in Georgian London. The depressive writer-for-hire with Tourette’s syndrome did for the English language what Newton had done for the stars, classifying words, fixing their meaning and bringing order to the chaos of language. It took him nine years, but in the process an anonymous writer became a literary superstar."

How Reading Made Us Modern - "English literature professor John Mullan explores the dramatic increase in reading which took place in 18th-century Britain, as it went from being the preserve of the rich to the national pastime it is today.
In 1695 a tiny amendment to the British constitution allowed for a flood of publications, without which Britain would be almost unrecognisable. This was the era that gave us the first ever magazines, newspapers and perhaps most vitally, the novel.
Mullan takes us from raucous, politically-charged coffee houses to the circulating library, the social space of the late 1700s. There is a glimpse inside an 18th century lady's closet where she hid with her novel, and Mullan also celebrates the hero of the reading revolution, Dr Samuel Johnson."

The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu - "Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. With its university founded around the same time as Oxford, Timbuktu is proof that the reading and writing of books have long been as important to Africans as to Europeans."

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