Off-air recordings for week 6-12 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 6th April

History > Documentaries

Walking Through History
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm, 2/4 - Frontline Dorset

Tony's walk in this episode takes him back to 1940 when Dorset became the unlikely frontline in the war against Hitler.  His five-day, 60-mile walk along the Jurassic coast reveals the county's hidden World War II story.  Starting by the defences on Chesil Beach (still standing 70 years on), Tony's journey encompasses stunning scenery and amazing acts of ingenuity and bravery as he heads east towards Swanage and Studland Bay.  He uncovers the strange part a world-famous swannery played in developing a secret weapon.

He hears of the bravery of the man who won the Victoria Cross serving in Portland Harbour when it became one of the first places in Britain to be bombed by the Germans.  He reveals the role Dorset had to play in protecting Britain from invasion, and in an emotional climax he meets one of the veterans who survived after landing on Omaha Beach on D Day.


Factual > Documentaries

Archive on 4: Riding into Town
BBC Radio 4, 8:00-9:00pm

The excitement and romance of the wild west was a powerful force on the imaginations of the British from the 1930s until the '70s. Samira Ahmed reflects on the love of the Western.

The American Film Institute defines western films as those "set in the American West that embody the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier". The term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine.

In this personal exploration, Samira Ahmed will see how Westerns nourished post-war British children and how they explored the politics and fears of their day. Samira says, "I remember sitting at an uncle's house in Hillingdon, possibly celebrating Eid, with lots of Hyderabadi relatives, and we were all - kids and adults alike - gathered round the TV watching the end of the original True Grit."

The programme considers the central cast of characters in the western form. Samira explores her interest in the weird and wonderful women and their ranches full of outlaws, such as Marlene Dietrich in Rancho Notorious: "I especially loved the strong Indian and Mexican women - Katy Jurado in High Noon, as opposed to anaemic Grace Kelly. And there were always strong women in Westerns, holding their own in a deeply macho world. Then there were those secretly gay, camp, polysexual or just plain wacko Westerns - Johnny Guitar, the French critics' favourite, and The Singer Not the Song featuring Dirk Bogarde's highly unlikely Mexican bandido in black leather jeans and gloves."


Drama > Films

Coriolanus
BBC2, 9:45-11:40pm

Ralph Fiennes's acclaimed directorial debut transposes Shakespeare's Roman tragedy to a contemporary Balkan conflict. Proud Roman General Caius Martius refuses to court public opinion, laying bare his contempt for his fellow citizens even when his equally proud mother Volumnia encourages him to run for consul.


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Sunday 7th April

Arts, Culture & the Media > Documentaries

Perspectives: Portillo on Picasso
ITV1, 10:00-11:00pm

Broadcaster, journalist and former government minister Michael Portillo shares his love for art as he travels to Spain and France to discover the genius of Picasso in this fourth programme of the Perspectives arts strand on ITV.  Michael talks of how his love of art has been influenced by his father, an exiled Spanish republican, as he explores the life and work of Pablo Picasso.  He travels to Malaga, birthplace of the celebrated artist, and where he came to love the bullfight. Michael stands in the bullring which inspired his famous paintings.  He meets Picasso’s granddaughter Diana in the Paris studio where he painted Guernica, his most iconic work, and Salvador Farelo, one of Malaga’s greatest bullfighters, who says bullfighting appears so much in Spanish art because bullfighting is itself pure art.

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Monday 8th April

Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Arts

What Do Artists Do All Day?
BBC4, 8:00-9:00pm, 3/3 - Jack Vettriano

Jack Vettriano is arguably Britain's most popular artist, with his nostalgic paintings of a lost age of glamour being instantly recognisable and his most famous work, The Singing Butler, the country's bestselling image, reproduced on everything from calendars to jigsaws. But despite his popularity, the self-taught miner's son from Fife has never been fully accepted by the art establishment. This film offers an intimate and revealing portrait of Vettriano, as he creates his latest painting, featuring actress Kara Tointon, and sees him talk with brutal honestly about his critics and how he deals with fame. 




Factual > History > Documentaries

Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - Tudors to Stuarts: From Gods to Men

Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, explores how the physical and mental health of our past monarchs has shaped the history of the nation. From Henry VIII to Edward VIII's abdication in 1936, this three-part series re-introduces our past royals not just as powerful potentates, but as human beings, each with their own very personal problems of biology and psychology.

Stripping away the regal facade, Lucy examines their medical problems, doctors' reports, personal correspondence and intimate possessions to gain a unique insight into the real men and women behind the royal portraits. She uncovers how kings and queens have had to deal with infertility, religious extremism, depression, bisexuality and culture shock. But could these supposed chinks in the royal armour provide a surprising explanation for the enduring power of the British monarchy? Lucy argues that the survival of the monarchy has been determined not so much by the strengths of our past monarchs but by their weaknesses.

In this first episode, Lucy explores the medical histories of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties, beginning with the ascension of Henry VIII and tracing the changing fortunes of these two very different royal families up to the execution of Charles I. Five hundred years ago our monarchs derived their authority from God alone, but despite their semi-divine status, they were subject to exactly the same harsh physical realities as the rest of us. Lucy discovers how the Tudors and Stuarts coped with royal bodies that were often too young or too old, too infirm or too infertile and sometimes simply the wrong sex at a time when male heirs were all important.

Lucy investigates the most critical medical problems and family psychodramas faced by a fascinating cast of royal characters, including the trouble Henry VIII had in producing a male heir and the cause of his daughter Mary I's phantom pregnancy. She sheds new light on the biological and psychological make-up of some of our greatest rulers by examining their personal correspondence and private possessions, including intimate love letters exchanged between James I and his lover the Duke of Buckingham, and the special orthopaedic boots worn by Charles I. 


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Tuesday 9th April

Documentaries

The Prozac Economy
BBC Radio 4, 8:00-8:40pm

Prozac is 25 years old. One of the first blockbuster drugs, it has been taken by over 40 million people around the world and made billions of dollars for Eli Lilly, the company that created it.

In this programme, Will Self examines the legacy of the so-called ‘wonder drug’. As he sets off on a personal exploration of the conflicting and sensational stories that surround Prozac, he talks to those who make the drug, those who take it and those who prescribe it.

Anti-depressant use in the UK is rising sharply, but as Will discovers when he talks to Eli Lilly's Dr Robert Baker, the medical world still doesn't really know exactly how Prozac works. Dr David Wong, one of the fathers of the drug, reveals to Will that he believes too many people are taking it. Psychotherapist Susie Orbach diagnoses a generation of 'Prozac children' raised on the promise of on-demand happiness.

Dr David Healy, one of Prozac's most outspoken critics, tells Will why he thinks that the drug and its siblings are responsible for hundreds of unnecessary deaths in this country each year, and Linda Hurcombe explains to Will why she believes Prozac is linked to the death of her teenage daughter, Caitlin. On the flip side, Will meets Dorothy Neilson who explains how the drug saved her from a horrifying pit of depression


Factual > Health & Wellbeing

Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/8

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.

In the third episode: a GP struggling with an unusual medical emergency on a Scottish Island and a top surgeon performing a high risk brain operation while the patient Daryl is still awake. In London, Pat waits anxiously for his wife Laura to come round from an induced coma. This film shows the vastly different contexts in which the NHS operates; urban and rural; both the cutting edge treatment for those who are critically ill with the more everyday procedures that make up the ailments and dilemmas of modern Britain.


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Wednesday 10th April

History > Documentaries

The Century that Wrote Itself
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3 - The Written Self

In a new three-part series for BBC Four, author Adam Nicolson takes an intimate look at the diarists and letter writers of the 17th century who produced the first great age of self-depiction.

The Century That Wrote Itself explores how, at a time of great upheaval in England, writing was both a means of escape and of fighting for what you believed. It was a time when account books became confessionals, and letters became weapons against the authorities.

In the first episode, The Written Self, Adam traces our modern sense of self back to the time when ordinary people first took up the quill. From a Quaker woman who used the written word as an instrument of revolution (imprisoned after sparking debates with her pamphlets and leaflets fighting for free speech, a free press and for the rights of women as preachers), to an ambitious shepherd who traded one of his sheep in return for lessons in reading and writing, the programme explores how rising literacy allowed people to re-write the country’s future - and their own.

Of the series, presenter Adam Nicolson says: “The 17th century was the most revolutionary moment in our history. The whole geometry of the country, the way people dealt with each other, the way they were thinking about religion and science, their relationships with the rest of the world - all of that was in flux.

“You could think of it as 'the English Spring' - the moment when all kinds of inherited authority, medieval hierarchies, the crown and the church, started to melt and bubble. But this wasn't an easy slide into modernity – it was an agonising process, with many steps forward and many back. And all of it was dependent on the liberalising effects of written communication. If you could read and write you didn't have to depend on what others told you. You could know it for yourself. You could challenge what they had to say.”


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Thursday 11th April

Factual > History > Religion & Ethics > Documentaries

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

In this final episode, Ifor ap Glyn sets out to discover why subterranean sites have some of the richest religious histories in Britain. Why do people seem to feel closer to the divine by going underground?

Ifor’s first stop is Lud’s Church in Derbyshire, a natural canyon of labyrinthine corridors which is one of the most dramatic and atmospheric holy places in the country. He then ventures into the depths of a cave in North Wales where evidence of ritual use dating back 14,000 years make this perhaps the oldest holy place in Britain.

Ifor then follows in the footsteps of St Cuthbert’s body, which was shifted between caves in the north of England to escape the attention of Viking raiders, and he visits a coastal cave in St Govan, South Wales, where a hermit is said to have been miraculously enveloped in rock, allowing him to evade a gang of local wreckers.

Back in Derbyshire, Ifor visits the Anchor Church at Ingleby, arguably the finest example of a cave church in Britain, before heading to Norwich, where he meets a nun who tells him all about a young woman who, in the 1370s, chose to be bricked up alive for over 40 years in an act of almost unbelievable devotion. Finally, Ifor visits the dramatic crypt at Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire, a recreation of the most holy site in Christendom - Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem.


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

The High Art of the Low Countries
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3 - Boom and Bust

This second episode of the series is the very exemplar of art-history documentaries. Andrew Graham-Dixon looks at the Dutch Golden Age, exploring the period lasting just over a century from the 1560s to the 1670s. It saw this small country become the most powerful on Earth, exchanging regal tyranny for a market-led republicanism, built, like the country itself, by its citizens. But it was a boom-and-bust economy — witness the mania for tulips of the early 1600s — that was reflected in the wavering fortunes of its finest artists: Franz Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer. 

The paintings are stupendous, but so is the analysis. Graham-Dixon is in his element here, quoting Descartes and Montaigne one minute, and asking, “Have you ever seen a more vividly rendered cowpat?” (about a painting of a majestic bull) the next. Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the countries of Holland and Belgium, famous for their tulips and windmills, but which were actually forged through conflict and division. He examines how a period of economic prosperity, driven by the secular middle class, led to the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, during which time the concept of oil painting was conceived, and the master painters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer found success.


Documentaries

One Mile Away
Channel 4, 11:10pm-1:00am

Penny Woolcock's award-winning documentary charts the attempts by two warring gangs, the Burger Bar Boys (B21) and the Johnson Crew (B6), to bring peace to their neighbourhoods in inner city Birmingham.  It follows Penny Woolcock's hip hop musical 1 Day, which was partly informed by these postcode wars.

One Mile Away was initiated by Shabba, a young man affiliated to the Johnson side, who met Penny during her research for 1 Day. He saw her as neutral and as someone who had built trust on both sides.  Penny agreed to get involved and introduced Shabba to Dylan Duffus, the lead actor in 1 Day and affiliated to the Burger side.

The film follows their painstaking journey over two years to recruit supporters from both sides. Along the way, they get advice from Jonathan Powell, who oversaw the Good Friday Agreement, and the riots erupt in Birmingham in summer 2011, with surprising consequences. This compelling documentary demonstrates how film and the determination of ordinary people can transform entrenched social problems. One Mile Away is now also a developing social enterprise, working with schools to reduce gang culture in the UK.


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Friday 12th April

History > Science & Nature > Science & Technology > Documentaries

Isaac Newton: The Last Magician
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Recluse. Obsessive. Heretic. Isaac Newton is now considered to be the greatest genius of all-time, a great rationalist who laid the foundations for many of the scientific and mathematical breakthroughs that shape the modern world.

But this 60-minute biography, part of the BBC’s Genius Of Invention season, reveals a much more complex figure by interviewing experts and delving into his own writings and those of his contemporaries. Newton emerges as an often divisive figure, one who lived a largely solitary life. In the secrecy of his study and laboratory, we find that he also delved into heretical religion, alchemy and the occult.

Sir Isaac Newton transformed how we understand the universe. By the age of 21, he had rejected 2,000 years of scientific orthodoxy to develop his own insights through a relentless - and often dangerous – series of experiments. From his obsessions with light and gravity, to alchemy and biblical texts, Newton held no truth – or text – so sacred that it could not be questioned. His work put him at odds with fellow scientists and led to dark periods of isolation throughout his life.

But his genius could not be denied: he rose through the scientific ranks to become the President of the Royal Society and one of the most influential scientists in the world. His heretical religious views and his obsession with alchemy remained a closely guarded secret in his lifetime. After his death, his unpublished alchemical research and documents relating to his heretical views were buried to protect his reputation. They remained largely hidden until 1936 when they were purchased by the economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynes revealed that Newtown was a much more complex man than history had allowed. The programme concludes that Newton’s secret obsession with alchemy helped him to achieve some of his greatest scientific insights.

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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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Off-air recordings for week 23-29 March 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 23rd March

Factual > Pets & Animals > Science & Nature > Documentaries

Natural World Special: Attenborough's Ark
BBC2, 8:30-9:30pm

David Attenborough chooses his ten favourite animals that he would most like to save from extinction. From the weird to the wonderful, he picks fabulous and unusual creatures that he would like to put in his 'ark', including unexpected and little-known animals such as the olm, the solenodon and the quoll. He shows why they are so important and shares the ingenious work of biologists across the world who are helping to keep them alive.


Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries > Films

Project Nim
BBC2, 9:30-11:05pm

Documentary about Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human.


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Monday 24th March

Factual › Arts, Culture & the Media › Arts

What Do Artists Do All Day?
BBC4, 8:00-8:30pm, Polly Morgan


Taxidermist Polly Morgan, described by Banksy as 'Britain's hottest bird stuffer', is one of Britain's most high profile young artists.

Her macabre and unsettling works, including a coffin bursting with open-mouthed chicks and a rat asleep in a champagne glass, have won her celebrity fans including Kate Moss and considerable media coverage.

In the second of this series of artist profiles, this film offers an intimate peek at the strange and wonderful art of Polly Morgan and asks what her reputation reveals about the relationship between art and celebrity.



Factual › Arts, Culture & the Media › Arts

John Portman: A Life of Building
BBC4, 10:15-11:10pm

Film about the architect John Portman, capturing his approach in an intimate portrait that, by turn, assesses and appreciates his work, using dramatic time-lapse footage to show off his buildings at their best. Once a maverick who was nearly run out of the American Institute of Architects, Portman is now recognized as one of the most innovative and imitated architects ever. Over 45 years, his iconic urban statements and eye-popping interiors have risen in 60 cities on four continents to redefine cityscapes in America and skylines in China and the rest of Asia.


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Tuesday 25th March

Factual › Health & Wellbeing

Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/8


The first of a landmark eight-part series, filmed on a single day in the NHS. 100 camera crews filming across the country capture the extraordinary breadth of demands placed on the country's biggest institution on just one day at a critical time in its history. On this day, 1,300 of us will die, 2,000 will be born and one and a half million of us will be treated.

In this first episode alone, this groundbreaking portrait of our national health service moves across the country revealing how the NHS copes with the growing demands of obesity, old age and cancer amongst others.

While Matron Liz deals with 130 patients through her doors in a Clinical Decision Unit in Birmingham, patient Lynn's weight-loss surgery in Chichester is interrupted by a devastating discovery. Further north in Leeds, stroke doctors use a revolutionary treatment to save the speech and movement of 64-year-old Graham.

'Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day' provokes profound questions about what the NHS does for us now and what we expect of it in the future.



Comedy › Satire

Frost on Satire
BBC4, 11:35pm-12:35am


Sir David Frost presents an investigation into the power of political satire with the help of some of the funniest TV moments of the last 50 years.

Beginning with the 1960s and That Was the Week That Was, he charts the development of television satire in Britain and the United States and is joined by the leading satirists from both sides of the Atlantic. From the UK, Rory Bremner, Ian Hislop and John Lloyd discuss their individual contributions, while from the US, Jon Stewart analyses the appeal of The Daily Show, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell talk about their respective portrayals of Sarah Palin and George W Bush, and Chevy Chase remembers how Saturday Night Live turned them into huge stars.

All of them tackle the key question of whether satire really can alter the course of political events.



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Wednesday 26th March

Factual › Science & Nature › Nature & Environment

Insect Worlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 3/3 - The Secrets of Their Success


Totalling an estimated 10 million species, the insects and their close relatives are the most abundant and diverse group of animals in the world, so what is the secret of their success? Their hard external skeleton provides strength and protection and their small size allows them to exploit many microhabitats.

In Yellowstone, Steve Backshall reveals how teamwork allows a colony of bees to scare off a hungry bear, and in Australia this same teamwork allows a colony of ants to beat the rising tide. But to unlock the real secret of their success Steve visits the Swiss Alps, where an incredible relationship exists between the ant, the wasp and the butterfly.



History > Documentaries

Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time
BBC1, 9:00-10:00pm


In a one off landmark drama documentary for BBC One, Dr Margaret Mountford presents Pompeii: The Mystery Of The People Frozen In Time.

The city of Pompeii uniquely captures the public’s imagination; in 79AD a legendary volcanic disaster left its citizens preserved in ashes to this very day. Yet no-one has been able to unravel the full story that is at the heart of our fascination: how did those bodies become frozen in time?

For the first time the BBC has been granted unique access to these strange, ghost-like body casts that populate the ruins, and using the latest forensic technology, the chance to peer beneath the surface of the plaster in order to rebuild the faces of two of the people who were killed in this terrible tragedy.

Margaret will turn detective to tell a new story at the heart of one of history’s most iconic moments; she’ll look at the unique set of circumstances that led to the remarkable preservation of the people of Pompeii. By applying modern day forensic analysis to this age-old mystery, Margaret dispels the myths surrounding the events in 79AD. She’ll also explore the lives of the individuals who once lived in this vibrant and enigmatic city, as well as recreating the last moments of the people caught up in this tragedy.



Factual › Health & Wellbeing

Terry Pratchett: Facing Extinction
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm


Best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett, diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007, has one last adventure he wants to go on. Eighteen years ago Terry had a life-changing experience in the jungles of Borneo, where he encountered orangutans in the wild for the first time. Now he is going back to find out what the future holds for these endangered species, and discover a new threat to their habitat that could push them to the brink of extinction. His Alzheimer's will make the trip an incredible challenge both physically and mentally, as he contemplates the role of mankind in the eradication of the planet's species, and considers his own inevitable extinction.

Terry is accompanied by his friend and assistant Rob Wilkins, as they investigate an Indonesian street market where endangered species are reportedly on sale, meet the world expert on orangutans, Dr Birute Galdikas, and journey into the rainforest in search of the former king of the orangutans, Kusasi.



Factual › Arts, Culture & the Media › Arts

Danny Boyle: Man of Wonder: A Culture Show Special
BBC2, 10:00-10:30pm

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle talks to Mark Kermode about his new thriller Trance, which stars James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel. He also discusses the highs and lows of his film-making career, which includes Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, and reveals how his working-class, left-wing upbringing helped shape his vision for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.


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Thursday 27th March

Factual > History > Religion & Ethics > Documentaries

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 4/6 - Shrines


For those outside the Catholic and Orthodox Church, the ancient tradition of visiting a shrine to venerate the bones of a dead person - however holy - can seem quite alien. Ifor’s voyage to understand why saintly relics have played such a major role in our religious history begins at an unlikely starting point: at the side of a road in South London where T-Rex frontman, Marc Bolan, suffered a fatal car crash.

Fans still come here to remember a man most of them never met. Even things celebrities have merely touched can change hands at auction for eye-watering prices. Is today’s celebrity memorabilia the modern day equivalent of what, in mediaeval times, would have been called relics?

Ifor heads to Scotland where he learns that the city of Glasgow only exists because of a shrine, and in Wales, he visits the newly renovated shrine of its patron saint, St David. In St Albans Cathedral, Ifor learns that the relic – St Alban’s shoulder bone – was only returned to this shrine in 2002, prompting Ifor to ask if shrines are starting to creep back into the Anglican mainstream.

After viewing a genuinely shocking relic in Westminster Cathedral, Ifor meets the Catholic Arch Bishop Vincent Nichols who has a radical theory about how the return of shrines represents the final chapter of the reformation - and Ifor explores how much of this is down to Princess Diana. Finally, after seeing some of the finest Cathedrals in the land, Ifor ends his journey in a place that couldn’t be more different: a tiny church on the fringe of Snowdonia, which is home to a shrine that some people consider one of the holiest place in Britain.


Documentaries

Kids with Tourettes: In Their Own Words
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm


“When he first started swearing, you do a big intake of breath and think ‘oh my gosh, now what am I going to do?’ At that point I don’t think I was even able to support him. The emotions took over and I just literally cried for two days…I was sad. I’d lost part of my son.”  Kristy, mum to Connor, age 12

It is believed that 1 in 100 school children are affected by Tourette’s Syndrome, mostly boys. There is no cure, but there is hope, thanks to a pioneering treatment programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

This one-off, hour-long documentary follows the lives of three boys and their families over a six-month period as they share the reality of living with the condition and the daily obstacles they face. This is their story, in their own words. They are filmed at home and in public and both the boys and their families share their personal thoughts direct to camera in individual interviews which are woven into the programme.

It offers a compelling insight into Tourette’s and how it can be treated, with unprecedented access to Great Ormond Street’s Clinic, which deals with the most severe and complex cases in the country.

Callum, age 9, wants to be an astronaut when he grows up and proudly shares his impersonation of an alien with Tourette’s. His mum Maria explains he started by getting eye tics and now gets new ones all the time. Callum says: “Other people stare at me and it’s annoying and sometimes I just want to go over there and tell them that I’ve got Tourette’s and I can’t help it, can you stop staring at me? Animals are easier to be with than people because the animals just ignore you because they can’t talk or say anything.”

Connor is age 12. He says: “I look normal but I happen to have Tourette’s Syndrome. I can’t help shout, swear or do movements. I call my Tourette’s Johnny because it’s Johnny who shouts and swears and me who doesn’t shout and swear.”

Connor’s dad Carl describes him as: “Loving, caring, funny, sensitive, drives you mad, pushes you to the limit. And the next minute he makes you proud to be a parent. And then he’ll push you again.” ...


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Off-air recordings foe week 16-22 March 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 16th March

Documentaries

Matters of Fact: Sex in a Cold Climate
More 4, 11:05pm-12:15am

In February 2013, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny formally apologised on behalf of the Irish state for its role in the Magdalene laundries. This documentary, first broadcast in 1998 on Channel 4, tells the story of women who were sent to the asylums in the 1940s to be reformed through harsh and punitive regimes, as told by rare archive film and photographs.


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Sunday 17th March

Drama > Animation

Miniscule: The Private Lives of Insects
BBC4, 8:45-9:00pm

Using a seamless combination of animation and real life, the insect world comes to life in this award-winning series of French animated shorts exploring all things insects and bugs. Based on years of study of insect movement, our computer-modelled characterful heroes show off their skills in a charming and comic way. Inside a cosy countryside cottage in midwinter, two rival gangs of ants fight for a bunch of pistachio nuts. From their respective flower pots, they get ready for the final attack.



Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries


The Incredible Story of the Monarch Butterfly: Four Wings and a Prayer
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm


Every autumn a miracle happens. A Monarch butterfly born in Canada will fly 5,000 km to the rainforests of Mexico, across land it has never seen. It is a journey filled with peril. Many never make it, and those that do will never return. It takes three more generations to make the journey back to Canada the following spring. No butterfly has ever made the journey before and none of them will ever make it again.

Based on the critically-acclaimed book by Sue Halpern and narrated by Kristin Scott Thomas, the migration of the Monarch butterfly from its birthplace in Canada to its wintering site in the rainforests of Mexico is an epic struggle for survival: an astonishing story of scientific marvel and awesome beauty.

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Monday 18th March

Factual > Food & Drink

Can Eating Insects Save the World?
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm


How would you feel about eating deep fried locusts, ant egg salad or barbequed tarantulas? This documentary sees presenter and food writer Stefan Gates immerse himself in the extraordinary world of hardcore insect-eating in a bid to conquer his lingering revulsion of bugs and discover if they really could save the planet.

With 40 tonnes of insects to every human, perhaps insects could offer a real solution to the global food crisis - where billions go hungry every day whilst the meat consumption of the rich draws vast amounts of grain out of the global food chain.

Stefan's on a mission to meet the people in Thailand and Cambodia that hunt, eat and sell edible insects for a living. But nothing quite prepares him for bug farming on this terrifying scale, from stalking grasshoppers at night to catching fiercely-biting ants. And it's not just insects on the menu. Stefan also goes hunting for the hairiest, scariest spider on the planet - the tarantula. Stefan asks if the solution is for everyone - the British included - to start eating insects too.



Factual > Science, Nature & Environment > Documentaries

Storyville: Surviving the Tsunami - My Atomic Aunt
BBC4, 10:00-11:15pm


Marking the second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, this documentary tells an insightful and surprisingly funny story of a family adjusting to life after the tsunami.

Director Kyoko Miyake revisits her Aunt Kuniko, who was forced to abandon her businesses and home following the disaster. Now living aimlessly in temporary accommodation on the edge of the contaminated zone, Aunt Kuniko is determined to return home as soon as possible. Miyake is puzzled as to why she and the family are not angry. As the first year after the disaster unfolds, she unearths the uncomfortable past that prevents things being so clear cut.

Through the attempts of the warm and indefatigable Aunt Kuniko to adapt at her ripe age, this deeply personal film explores notions of homeland, nuclear power and family love



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Tuesday 19th March

Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Documentaries

What Do Artists Do All Day? - Norman Ackroyd
BBC4, 8:00-8:30pm

What Do Artists Do All Day? is a short series of intimate observational portraits that explore the working lives of leading artists in studios, bedrooms, and the outdoors to uncover the daily routines and moments of inspiration that bring art to life.


Norman Ackroyd is one of the country’s most celebrated landscape artists. Born in Leeds in 1938, he attended the Royal College of Art in the 1960s. After experimenting with pop art, he gradually turned to his first love, the landscape, and over the last thirty years he has documented some of the most remote corners of Britain.

In a new BBC Four programme, What Do Artists Do All Day, Norman tells the story of his artistic journey and gives us a unique glimpse into his working life.

Filmed in the converted London warehouse where he lives and works, we follow Norman as he embarks on the final stages of one of his monochrome prints. From delicate work on the copper plate, through preparation of the aquatint resin that brings shade and texture to the image and the application of the acid which etches the final picture from the copper, What Do Artists Do All Day captures each stage of the process behind his craft. At the end of the day, without knowing how the piece will turn out, Norman passes it through the printing press, revealing for the first time his latest work, capturing the atmospheric craggy cliff of Muckle Flugga in the Shetland Islands.


Factual > Health & Wellbeing > Factual > Life Stories

Stacey Solomon: Depression, Teen Mums and Me

BBC3, 9:00-10:00pm


On the surface it would seem that Stacey Solomon, X Factor finalist and Queen of the Jungle, has it all – two beautiful children, a loving partner, a singing career and celebrity status. But behind the glamour of her new life, Stacey has been keeping a secret.

Her first son was born when Stacey was only 18 years old and she developed an illness that most mums are scared to acknowledge – postnatal depression (PND). One in 10 mothers gets postnatal depression, but for teenagers the rate is three times more than older mothers.

For the first time, Stacey sets out to meet other teenage mothers suffering from this debilitating mental health condition, talks to her own mother who helped her through, discusses PND with professionals in the field and has an emotionally charged session with a psychotherapist to understand why she felt the way that she did. Stacey bravely embarks on a journey to highlight an illness that can have potentially fatal consequences. She sets out to overcome the social stigma that surrounds a condition that she believes should never be dismissed as 'the baby blues'.


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Wednesday 20th March

Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Arts > Life Stories > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment

Edwardian Insects on Film
BBC4, 2:40-3:40am


In 1908 amateur naturalist Percy Smith stunned cinema goers with his surreal film The Acrobatic Fly. Featuring a bluebottle juggling a series of objects, the film became front page news. Now wildlife cameraman Charlie Hamilton-James attempts to recreate this fascinating film.

Along the way, Hamilton-James (helped by Sir David Attenborough who saw Smith's films as a boy) tells the story of Percy's remarkable career and reveals the genius behind this forgotten pioneer of British film.



Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries

Insect Worlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 2/3 - Making Worlds


The series explores the intricate and at times bizarre relationships these animals have with humans, with our planet and with each other; Steve reveals how they play key roles in almost every intricate ecosystem that humans rely upon.  Using stunning behavioural sequences, these three programmes will reveal the relationships, dependencies, challenges and dramas that arthropods have developed throughout the world.



Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries

Insect Dissection: How Insects Work
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm


Insects outnumber us 200 million to one. They thrive in environments where humans wouldn’t last minutes. We mostly perceive them as pests - yet without bugs, entire ecosystems would collapse, crops would disappear and waste would pile high.  The secret of their success? Their incredible alien anatomy.

To reveal this extraordinary hidden world, entomologists Dr James Logan and Brendan Dunphy carry out a complete insect dissection. Cutting edge imaging technology shows us the beauty and precision of the natural engineering inside even the simplest insects.  Stripping back the layers, they uncover ingenious body systems and finely tuned senses – a bug body plan that is the hidden blueprint behind insects’ global domination.  And they discover how science is now using the secrets of insect anatomy to inspire technology that could save human lives.



Factual > Families & Relationships > Life Stories > Documentaries

A Very British Wedding
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm, 2/4

Gary and Cat arrange to tie the knot on a beach in Cyprus, while the groom-to-be's mother Jo plans a Chinese wedding party complete with a tea ceremony. Bibiana and Sam's families are officially united at a traditional Nigerian Yoruban engagement and the couple also bring some of their Pentecostal-style worship to an Anglican church, where more than 400 guests attend their big day.


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Thursday 21st March

News > Religion

Live Enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury
BBC2, 2:30-4:30pm


Huw Edwards sets the scene in Canterbury Cathedral as Archbishop Justin Welby is enthroned as 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and President of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

In the presence of a 2,000-strong congregation, including clergy from the UK, and around the world, political leaders, heads of faith communities, family and friends, the new Archbishop will swear an oath of obedience and deliver his first sermon, as Archbishop, from the Chair of St Augustine.

Huw will be joined by a panel of guests, including The Rt Rev. Nigel McCulloch and The Rev. Dr Giles Fraser, who will discuss the significance of the occasion and the challenges facing the new Archbishop. Music will include anthems sung by Canterbury Cathedral Choir, including a new commission from Michael Berkeley, plus hymns and music reflecting the diverse traditions of the Church of England.



Factual > History > Religion & Ethics > Documentaries


Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places

BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 2/3 - Trees and Mountains

Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn visits trees and mountains that were holy to Britain's old pagan followers to understand the journey Britain took from paganism to Christianity. He begins by exploring the famous Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, before heading to Knowlton in Dorset where a Norman church was built in the centre of an earthern henge. He also travels to Snowdonia, and ends his journey at Pendle Hill, Lancashire, said to be the inspiration for an anti-pagan denomination.


Documentaries > Science & Technology > Factual

Horizon: How to Avoid Mistakes in Surgery
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Dr Kevin Fong examines what can be done to reduce the number of mistakes being made by surgeons in the operating theatre. Speaking to professionals in high-pressure careers - including airline pilots, firemen and Formula One pit workers - he explores the coping mechanisms they each employ when faced with emergency situations, and looks at how these tactics could be transferred to the world of surgery.


Documentaries > Crime

Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story
Channel 5, 2/4, series 2, Stephen Griffiths: The Crossbow Killer

Professor David Wilson investigates the crimes of former criminology student Stephen Griffiths, the self-dubbed Crossbow Cannibal, who killed and dismembered three women between 2009 and 2010 - and ate parts of their bodies. Meeting some of the country's leading crime experts and putting his own cutting-edge theories to the test, Wilson asks when Griffiths' killing cycle began and whether he is responsible for more deaths than those already known about.


Documentaries > Crime

Britain's Worst Serial Killers: Dennis Nilsen
Channel 5, 10:00-11:00pm

Documentary profiling the infamous murderer, who killed 15 men between 1978 and 1983. Nilsen's crimes went unnoticed for years, until he was caught when a company called in to unblock his drains found them to be congested with human flesh and entrails. Featuring interviews with an ex-boyfriend of Nilsen, a victim who survived, and the arresting officers. This programme attempts to tell the full story of the horrific killings.


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Friday 22nd March

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

Heritage! The Battle for Britain's Past
BBC4, 2:50-3:50am, 3/3 - Broken Propylaeums


The final part of the documentary investigates how the heritage movement suffered setbacks due to the after-effects of the Second World War, but also how people including John Betjeman and Dan Cruickshank gave families access to the historical buildings on TV. The preservation of unpleasant properties such as workhouses is also explored, along with a discussion on what the future may hold for heritage in Britain. Last in the series.


Factual > History > Life Stories

Ancient Egypt: Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/2 - Life


Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher goes on a fascinating journey in search of people like us – not the great Pharaohs, but the ordinary people who built and populated this incredible ancient civilization.

In this first episode we explore life in Ancient Egypt; the village that was their home, how they dressed and what they ate. We discover their love poetry, their enthusiasm for interior design, use of colour, and what it was like to work in the most famous cemetery on earth, the Valley of the Kings.






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Off-air recordings for week 9-15 March 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 9th

Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Arts; Magazines & Reviews

Your Paintings: A Culture Show

BBC2, 6:30-7:30pm

For years, thousands of paintings owned by the British public have been hidden away and inaccessible - until now. Thanks to the work of the Your Paintings project, over 200,000 works in our national collections have been painstakingly uncovered, photographed and put online - some for the very first time - allowing art experts and amateur-sleuths alike to make connections and discoveries that wouldn't have been possible before.  Alastair Sooke teams up with art detective Dr Bendor Grosvenor to unearth some hidden gems and find out what our paintings say about us.

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Sunday 10th

Drama > Animation

Minuscule

BBC4, 8:40-9:00pm

Using a seamless combination of animation and real life, the insect world comes to life in this award-winning series of French animated shorts exploring all things insects and bugs. Based on years of study of insect movement, our computer-modelled characterful heroes show off their skills in a charming and comic way. Wasps set a date for their annual flight demonstration competition, but the deafening racket annoys a ladybird, who, wanting to save a quiet place for herself, disturbs this acrobatics championship. 

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Monday 11th

New

Panorama: America's Gun Addiction

BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

The Newtown massacre, in which 20 primary schoolchildren died, has been hailed as a turning point on gun control in America. President Obama wants to ban assault weapons, but his opponents say more guns are the answer, not fewer. Panorama meets the teachers learning to use guns to protect their schools.  With many of America's mass killers having mental health issues and easy access to guns, Panorama reveals the national crisis in mental healthcare which has left 3.5 million severely mentally ill Americans receiving no treatment at all.  Reporter Hilary Andersson goes undercover to show how easy it is to buy the type of assault weapon used at Newtown, with no checks. Will Newtown finally change things, or will the mass killings continue?

Documentaries

A History of Syria with Dan Snow

BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Dan Snow travels to Syria on a journey to explore the fascinating and tumultuous history that lies behind the civil war now raging in the country.

For thousands of years Syria has been one of the most strategically important regions on Earth. Dan Snow visits Roman temples, the centre of the world’s greatest Islamic empire, crusader castles and today’s battlegrounds to piece together the complex history of a country at the heart of the Middle East. To understand what's happening in Syria and this region at the moment, there's only one place to start, and that's in the past.

In an hour-long documentary for BBC Two’s This World, Dan finds that the influence of history has been complicating Syria’s civil war. What started as peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian regime have turned increasingly into a struggle along sectarian lines fuelled by historic tensions, involving global and regional powers. From the historic split between Sunni and Shia Islam, the divide-and-rule tactics of the French colonial rulers, and the struggle between secular and religious political parties, Syria’s history is a living and crucial element of the war.

Dan meets those fighting on both sides of the conflict and hears grievances stretching back centuries. He also spends time with ordinary Syrians who are bearing the brunt of the casualties. They’re asking what the future for them and their country, which has often borne the brunt of history, now holds.

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Tuesday 12th

Factual > Science and Nature > Documentaries

Planet Ant: Inside the Colony

BBC4, 9:00-10:30pm

Ant colonies are one of the wonders of nature: complex, organised… and mysterious. This programme reveals the secret, underground world of the ant colony, in a way that’s never been seen before.  At its heart is a massive, full-scale ant nest, specially designed and built to allow cameras to see its inner workings. The nest is a new home for a million-strong colony of leafcutter ants from Trinidad.

For a month, entomologist Dr George McGavin and leafcutter expert Prof Adam Hart capture every aspect of the life of the colony, using time-lapse cameras, microscopes, microphones and radio tracking technology.  The programme explores how these tiny insects can achieve such spectacular feats of collective organisation. It also reveals the workings of one of the most complex and mysterious societies in the natural world – and shows the surprising ways in which ants are helping us solve global problems.

Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Arts; Factual > Life Stories

Beyond Time: William Turnbull

BBC4, 10:30-11:30pm

Documentary which journeys into the life and work of an artist widely recognised as one of the pioneers of modernism in Britain. In a life that has spanned horse-drawn transport to the internet, the film chronicles William Turnbull's intimate involvement in the critical developments of modern art. Exploring his experiences in Paris, London and New York where he befriended and worked alongside artists like Alberto Giacometti, Richard Hamilton, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, the film gives an insightful account into the life of one of the great masters of 20th-century art. 

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Wednesday 13th

Factual > Families & Relationships; Factual > Life Stories

A Very British Wedding

BBC2, 8:30-9:30pm, 1/4

Following the weddings of two multicultural couples to explore how traditions are maintained by couples in Britain today.

Sikh couple Kami and Dav they tread the same steps their ancestors did in the northern Indian state of Punjab hundreds of years ago as the programme follows them to their wedding day. Also following Sasha and Vlod, a couple who are among the newest of Britain's immigrants and who are looking to stick to the oldest of traditions originating in Eastern Europe. 

Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment

Insect Worlds

BBC4, 1/3 - Them and Us

Steve Backshall explores the connections and relationship that we have with insects and other arthropods. In Kenya huge armies of driver ants give houses a five-star clean up and in China we discover how silkworm caterpillars have shaped our culture and distribution. While locusts devastate crops in Africa, bees and beetles across the world provide a key link in our food chains. Many of us perceive these animals merely as creepy crawlies and nothing more than a nuisance, but as Steve reveals, we couldn't live without them. 

Factual > Science and Nature > Documentaries

Metamorphosis: The Science of Change

BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

Metamorphosis seems like the ultimate evolutionary magic trick: the amazing transformation of one creature into a totally different being: one life, two bodies. From Ovid to Kafka to X-Men, tales of metamorphosis richly permeate human culture. The myth of transformation is so common that it seems almost pre-programmed into our imagination. But is the scientific fact of metamorphosis just as strange as fiction… or even stranger?  In this programme, filmmaker David Malone explores the science behind metamorphosis. How does it happen and why? And might it even, in some way, happen to us?

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Thursday 14th

Factual > History; Religion & Ethics

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places

BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 2/6 - Water

Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn explores the wealth of Britain's extraordinary holy places on a pilgrimage that spans almost 2,000 years of history. Travelling across the breadth of the UK, Ifor uncovers the stories and rich history behind many of our most famous sites, explaining the myths and legends of some of Britain's most sacred places.

In the second episode, Ifor explores why water crops up again and again as the essential element in many of our most holy places. Why has a yearning for pure natural water always been bound up with our spiritual beliefs?

His journey takes him to our oldest mass baptismal pool which marks the place that Scottish Picts first came into the Christian fold, the site on Loch Ness where Celtic missionaries battling the forces of paganism first encountered the legendary monster, a healing well where a young woman was reputedly brought back to life by having her severed head re-attached to her body, and a 2,000-year-old holy spring that has become a major international brand.

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

Heritage: The Battle for Britain's Past

BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3 - The Men from the Ministry

The second episode reveals the unsung heroes of the heritage movement, the clever civil servants who saved the great ruins of Britain. It explores the determination of Charles Reed Peers from the Office of Works, who seized the chance in the interwar years to make history a popular cause, and looks at how the increasingly mobile British public began to embrace the idea of a day out at an historic site. As the country houses faced a crisis with owners demolishing or abandoning their homes, who would come to the rescue - the Ministry of Works or the National Trust? 

Factual > Science & Nature > Factual > Science & Nature > Science & Technology

Horizon: The Creative Brain - How Insight Works

BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

It is a feeling we all know - the moment when a light goes on in your head. In a sudden flash of inspiration, a new idea is born.  Today, scientists are using some unusual techniques to try to work out how these moments of creativity - whether big, small or life-changing - come about. They have devised a series of puzzles and brainteasers to draw out our creative behaviour, while the very latest neuroimaging technology means researchers can actually peer inside our brains and witness the creative spark as it happens. What they are discovering could have the power to make every one of us more creative.

Crime > Documentaries

Killers Behind Bars

Channel 5, 9:00-10:00pm, series 2, 1/4 - Levi Bellfield

This week, Professor Wilson investigates Levi Bellfield. Infamous for the murder of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, Bellfield is one of the UK's most notorious serial killers. As well as Milly's murder, he was convicted of the brutal murders of French student Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell, whom he killed with series of hammer blows to the head, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, whom he ran down with his car in Twickenham as she walked home from a night out.

However, linking Bellfield to further crimes proves to be one of the most complicated cases that Professor Wilson has ever studied. Bellfield had multiple signatures and seemed to be on a mission to destroy young women in anyway that he could. He hated blondes and prowled for victims on streets that he knew intimately, leaving them dead or dying after spotting them on buses or near bus stops.

Professor Wilson looks into these cases in detail to build up a profile of Bellfield. He meets a young 

blonde named Edel Harbison, who miraculously survived a hammer attack on Twickenham Green, just months before the murder of Amelie Delagrange. Wilson wants to see whether he can learn any new information that can unlock secrets of hidden crimes by Bellfield.

After his 2008 murder trial, Bellfield was named by police as a suspect in connection with at least 

20 unsolved murders and attacks on women dating back to 1990. Professor Wilson believes that there are reasons why Bellfield should be investigated in connection with two hideous murders, including a case that made headlines around the world but for which another man is already serving a life sentence.

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Off-air recordings for week 2-8 March 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 2nd March

Natural World > Science and Nature > Documentaries

Queen of Tigers: Natural World Special
BBC2, 8:30-9:30pm


In this tender, elegaic film, wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson charts his 13-year association with Machli, “Queen of Tigers”, in the Ranthambore National Park in India. He’s been on hand for most of the milestones in her life, but she’s reaching the end of her days (though, to the inexpert eye, she still looks pretty healthy). He wants to pay her one last visit because “I have no desire to see her when she’s dead”.

So this is effectively a greatest hits compilation from their association. She is irresistible, of course, and quite a scrapper; the footage of her fighting and killing a fully grown crocodile is familiar, yet remains incredibly powerful. Stafford-Johnson’s final “meeting” is touching and tearful.

Machli is one of the world's most famous tigers - the star of five films, with her own Facebook page and more than a million YouTube hits of her attacking a crocodile. Wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson returns to India to find his old friend in this documentary charting the extraordinary milestones in Machli's life as a mother and a hunter.



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Monday 4th March

Current Affairs > News > Documentaries

Dispatches: Death in the Wards
Channel 4, 8:00-9:00pm


Dispatches investigates the truth behind allegations that tens of thousands of seriously ill people have been put on a pathway to death - likened to legalised euthanasia - and claims from families that doctors have callously killed off patients who could have had months or even years of life to live.  Death on the Wards interviews leading specialists, terminally ill patients and families. And, it reveals the results of the first survey of thousands of doctors into how the process of dying is managed in our hospitals.

The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), which originated in the hospice movement for cancer patients, is intended to ease the often lengthy and painful process of dying. A key principle is to stop treating a patient’s underlying condition if treatment is judged to be futile or harmful.  Official guidelines now mean that every hospice and hospital has to have an approved end of life pathway, and the LCP is by far the most prevalent. An estimated 130,000 people last year died after being placed on the LCP and many of us can expect to have our deaths, or those of our loved ones, managed using the pathway.

However, the process has become hugely controversial. It is not only those with terminal cancer who are now being put on the LCP. Many more patients are now put on the pathway following other illnesses such as strokes and some families are claiming that their relatives could, and should, have lived longer.  At the heart of the controversy is a simple question: can doctors accurately tell when someone is dying? Dispatches includes an exclusive interview with leading neurologist Professor Patrick Pullicino, who believes they can't. "There is no data for telling that somebody is in the last hours or days of life," he tells the programme. "If you start to say somebody has a poor prognosis then you make it a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Professor Pullicino believes the case of one his patients proves him right. Salvatore De Francisci was placed on the LCP, not by him, but by doctors on a weekend team who judged his condition to have seriously deteriorated to the point he had hours to live. When returning to work, Professor Pullicino insisted Sammy be taken off the pathway. Within days he was allowed home and subsequently lived with his family for a further 14 months.  Speaking to the media for the first time, his daughter Rosaria Squire tells Dispatches: "It wasn't time for him to go. I did mention to the nurse, I did say to them my dad's not a number, he's my dad; he's a husband, a granddad. And I wanted my dad home with us."

Dispatches also interviews Professor Sam Ahmedzai, one of the UK’s leading palliative care doctors. He has more than 30 years' experience in this area yet chooses not to use the LCP with his patients. "I've no doubt that many patients do achieve a good, calm, peaceful death," he says. "The problem is that it's not always initiated at the right time, on the right patient, and the medication and the actual things that are taken away can sometimes aggravate a person's dying rather than smooth it over."

The allegations have now become so serious that the government has ordered a review to look at all aspects of the LCP, including whether cost pressures play a role. While the review is being conducted, Dispatches, in conjunction with the British Medical Journal, has carried out the first ever survey of thousands of palliative care doctors to find out what they think of the pathway.  However, many doctors support the use of the pathway. One of them is Dr Kate Granger. She is in a unique position: diagnosed with a rare cancer just before her 30th birthday, she's decided she wants to go on the LCP and is worried that the backlash is beginning to affect its use. "What would we do if we got rid of it? What would happen to these patients?" she tells Dispatches. "That really worries me, and what - what would happen to me? Would I get the comfortable, dignified, serene death that I would like? I'm not sure."



Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries

The Great British Winter
BBC2, 6:30-7:30pm, 1/5 - Mountains


This series explores five of Britain's most extreme winter landscapes, looking at the conditions that challenge both the wildlife and people that try to survive in the countryside and uncovering a world few get to see.  Ellie Harrison looks at British mountains as she reveals the surprises this terrain holds, from volcanoes to avalanches, frogs attempting to spawn to the small herds of reindeer in Britain. There's more than meets the eye to this landscape in winter.



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Tuesday 5th March

Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries

The Great British Winter
BBC2, 6:30-7:30pm, 2/5 - Rivers and Lakes

Ellie Harrison is in the iconic landscape of the Lake District, uncovering the perils of our changeable weather, finding out about an extremely rare Arctic winter resident, and enjoying a lakeside spectacle put on by a family of otters.


Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Documentaries

The Kimbolton Cabinet: Secret Knowledge
BBC4, 8:00-8:30pm

Granted privileged access to the Victoria and Albert Museum after hours, John Bly seeks out the Kimbolton Cabinet, an exquisite piece of 18th century English furniture that promises to reveal much about not only our nation's craft heritage but also his very own childhood.


Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Documentaries

The Art of the Vikings: Secret Knowledge
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm

Through interpretations of some of the archaeological treasures of the Swedish National Museum, now on display in Edinburgh, Dr Janina Ramirez of Oxford University explores the fascinating wealth of Viking culture and its long-lasting influence on the British Isles.


Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Documentaries

Treasures of the Louvre
BBC4, 9:0--10:00pm

Paris-based writer Andrew Hussey travels through the glorious art and surprising history of an extraordinary French institution to show that the story of the Louvre is the story of France. As well as exploring the masterpieces of painters such as Veronese, Rubens, David, Chardin, Gericault and Delacroix, he examines the changing face of the Louvre itself through its architecture and design. Medieval fortress, Renaissance palace, luxurious home to kings, emperors and more recently civil servants, today it attracts eight million visitors a year. The documentary also reflects the very latest transformation of the Louvre - the museum's recently-opened Islamic Gallery.


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Wednesday 6th March

Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries

The Great British Winter
BBC2, 6:30-7:30pm, 3/5 - Forests

Explores five of Britain's most extreme winter landscapes, looking at the conditions that challenge both the wildlife and people that try to survive in the countryside.


Natural World > Science and Nature > Nature and Environment > Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 7/7 - Scotland

Steve Backshall visits the Scottish Highlands, home to some of the most iconic wildlife in the British Isles, including red squirrels and mountain hares. The two contrasting landscapes of open moor and Caledonian forest are equally important to the animals that live there, and yet the history of the area shows that they should not exist side by side. He also reveals the part that humans have to play in allowing both habitats to thrive.


This World: America's Poor Kids
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm


Ten-year-old Kayleigh totters along railway tracks, looking for discarded cans to recycle. It’s dangerous, of course, but she can earn up to five cents per can, and her family – her mum and brother – need all the money they can get. Kayleigh is just one of the small casualties of America’s biting recession, a sparky little girl who dreams of being a dancer and who lives in poverty, moving from cheap motel to cheap motel.

Jezza Neumann’s quietly passionate film will leave you feeling both angry and helpless, because this shouldn’t be happening anywhere. The kids are only too well aware of their plight. In San Francisco, 11-year-old Sera lives with her mum and sister in a one-roomed flat, their belongings in piles. “This is not the great American dream,” she says with a wisdom that is heartbreakingly beyond her years.

Child poverty has reached record levels in the US, with more than 16 million children now affected, food banks facing unprecedented demand and homeless shelters dealing with long waiting lists. This documentary offers a unique insight into the impact of the country's economic crisis, as three children affected by the downturn reveal how life in modern America is viewed from their perspective.


Factual > Arts, Culture & the Media > Magazines

Going Underground: A Culture Show Special

BBC2, 10:00-10:30pm

Alastair Sooke presents a cultural history of the London Underground to celebrate its 150th anniversary. He follows the progress of a major new artwork for all 270 stations by Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger and tells the story of Frank Pick, who steered the development of the Tube's corporate identity by commissioning eye-catching commercial art, graphic design and modern architecture. With contributions by writers Paul Morley, Peter York and John Lanchester.


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Thursday 7th March

Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries

The Great British Winter
BBC2, 6:30-7:30pm, 4/5 - Estuaries

Explores five of Britain's most extreme winter landscapes, looking at the conditions that challenge both the wildlife and people that try to survive in the countryside.


Religions > Beliefs >  Documentaries

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holy Places
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 1/6


Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn explores the wealth of Britain’s extraordinary holy places on a pilgrimage that spans almost 2,000 years of history.

Travelling across the breadth of the UK, Ifor will uncover the stories and rich history behind many of our most famous sites, explaining the myths and legends of some of Britain’s most sacred places.

Over six half-hour episodes, Ifor will visit crumbling ruins, tranquil healing pools, sacred caves, island refuges, towering mountain hideaways and ancient shrines to find out what these historical sites tell us about who we are today. From the divine to the unexpected, the series uncovers Britain’s extraordinary variety of inspirational, surprising and half-forgotten holy places, and brings to life our spiritual history.

In the first episode, Ifor explores why ruins are among the best-preserved and most-loved holy sites in Britain. He’ll take in the famous ruins of St Andrews Cathedral, the mystical atmosphere of Wales’ best-preserved Roman site, the battered remains of Coventry’s iconic cathedral and the Gothic majesty of North Yorkshire’s Whitby Abbey - the inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Along the way, he’ll ask why we’re drawn to holy ruins long after their religious use is over. Is it just nostalgia or something much deeper that fuels our obsession and enduring fascination with the decaying grandeur of a ruin?



Religion > Beliefs > Documentaries

How to Get to Heaven with the Hutterites
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm


Like the Amish, the Hutterites are a religious group who live communally, keeping the world at arm’s length. “We try to insulate our people, not isolate them,” is how Zach, the minister at a remote colony in Canada, puts it.

Everyone works for the common good, men and women’s roles are clearly defined and there are strict rules about everything, whether it’s visiting relatives in another community, taking preserves from the food stores or where you sit at the communal dining table.

Lynn Alleway filmed at the Maple Grove Colony over a period of four months as they went about their lives, but while the Hutterites extol the virtues of their simple life and the benefits of an ordered system, they struggle to explain the reasoning behind the rules. “Because we’ve always done it that way,” is all they can eventually come up with.

An insight into clandestine Christian community the Hutterites, who believe that living communally and separately from what they refer to as `the world' will secure them a place in heaven. With exclusive access, this film follows one member of the religious society as he embarks on a secret escape.



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Friday 8th March



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


Heritage! The Battle for Britain's Past
BBC4, 3:00-4:00am, 1/3


The birth of the heritage movement and the first arguments of radical thought, from figures including John Lubbock MP, Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, Charles Darwin and John Ruskin. These remarkable individuals asked important questions and came up with the building blocks of a new world - a world that valued the past.



Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Documentaries

The Great British Winter
BBC2, 6:30-7:30pm, 5/5 - Islands

Explores five of Britain's most extreme winter landscapes, looking at the conditions that challenge both the wildlife and people that try to survive in the countryside.


Factual > Science & Nature > Nature & Environment > Factual > Travel

Wild Arabia
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/3 - Shifting Sands


In a rapidly changing Arabia, wildlife finds surprising opportunites and allies.



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