Please email Rich Deakin rdeakin@glos.ac.uk if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*
*This applies to staff members and students at the University of Gloucestershire only. Any recordings made are to be used only for educational and non-commercial purposes under the terms of the ERA Licence.
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Saturday 25th August
Factual; Politics; Discussion and Talk
The Education Debates
BBC Radio 4, 10:15-11:00pm, 1/3
In the first of three debates to mark the most dramatic reforms in education in decades, John Humphrys asks leading education thinkers what we should teach.
Whether it's to get to university, to launch a fulfilling career, or to be a useful member of society, what our children learn at school today will profoundly shape their lives, the society we live in and the health of our economy in the 21st Century.
The web gives today's schoolchildren access to previously unimaginable amounts of knowledge - and yet across Europe there has been social unrest among young people who are angry and terrified that what they know will be meaningless in a future with no jobs.
At home, Government reforms have led to big changes in the national curriculum, increased university fees and parents running their own schools.
Has there ever been a more important time to come back to the fundamental questions of education? In this first programme, leading educationalists including Anthony Seldon, Estelle Morris and Rachel Wolf debate what we should teach.
In programme two, John Humphrys asks a panel including union leader Mary Bousted, cognitive scientist Prof Guy Claxton and inspections expert Roy Blatchford how we should teach.
And in the final debate, Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg, Neil O'Brien of Policy Exchange and Prof James Tooley, an expert on private schools for poor children, discuss who should teach.
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Monday 27th August
Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Technology; Documentaries
Horizon: How Big is The Universe?
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
It is one of the most baffling questions that scientists can ask: how big is the universe that we live in? Horizon follows the cosmologists who are creating the most ambitious map in history - a map of everything in existence. And it is stranger than anyone had imagined - a universe without end that stretches far beyond what the eye can ever see. And, if the latest research proves true, our universe may just be the start of something even bigger. Much bigger.
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Tuesday 28th August
Crime; Criminal Psychology; Documentaries
Born To Kill? Myrah Hindley
Channel 5, 8:00-9:00pm, 5/5
Profile of Moors murderer Myra Hindley who, along with her partner Ian Brady, abducted and killed five children during the 1960s. Featuring contributions from the relatives of her victims as well as criminal psychologists, who discuss whether she was innately evil or an impressionable woman under the power of a perverted man.
Religion; Documentaries
Islam: The Untold Story
Channel 4, 9:00-10:35pm
Historian Tom Holland explores how a new religion - Islam - emerged from the seedbed of the ancient world, and asks what we really know for certain about the rise of Islam.
The result is an extraordinary detective story.
Traditionally, Muslims and non-Muslims alike have believed that Islam was born in the full light of history. But a large number of historians now doubt that presumption, and question much of what Muslim tradition has to tell us about the birth of Islam.
As a result, Tom finds himself embroiled in what, for 40 years now, has been an underground but seismic debate: the issue of whether, as Muslims have always believed, Islam was born fully formed in all its fundamentals, or else evolved gradually, over many years - and in ways that Muslims today might not necessarily recognise.
So who was the historical Muhammad, and where - if not from God - might the Qur'an, the Holy Book of Islam, actually have come from?
By asking these questions, Tom - as a non-Muslim - has no choice, over the course of the film, but to negotiate the fault-line that runs between history and religion, between doubt and faith.
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
The World of Parade's End
BBC2, 11:50pm-12:20am
To tie in with Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Parade's End, this documentary celebrates Ford Madox Ford's classic novel cycle. Well-known writers and actors, for whom Parade's End has special meaning, give extra insight into the characters and the world they inhabit. The challenges of adapting this epic work for the screen are also revealed.
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Wednesday 29th August
History; Documentaries
Britain Then and Now
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm
This new 60-minute documentary for ITV1 follows the residents of one East London street as they attempt to turn back the clock and re-enact a street party held for the Coronation to the last detail.
From tracking down the original party-goers, piecing together peoples’ memories of the day Morpeth Street held its party in 1953, to recreating the original Spam sandwiches and photographs, what unfolds is a fascinating look into the lives of people in post-war Britain.
One of the main obstacles facing the 2012 party’s organisers is that the street has changed beyond all recognition – where there were once Victorian terraced houses now stand 1960s tower blocks.
Narrated by Sarah Lancashire, the factual documentary charts how Morpeth Street resident Ruth Scola teams up with other locals to bring the street party together and shows the parallels between life in 1953 and 2012.
Ruth’s fellow organiser Elaine Embery says: “We are trying to recreate exactly what happened 60 years ago, so I would really love you all to get involved. Sandwiches, yes. Bunting, yes. I want you all to get on your telephones, try and get people who were involved at that time. If not try to get involved yourself because getting together and doing something like this would be wonderful.”
Many of the people in the photos taken by Picture Post photographer John Chilllingworth no longer live in the area. But then-teenage waitress Ruth Scola’s father put the original event together.
“Well, he started it up and we didn’t think it would be anything like this. When the Picture Post came down, we thought ‘Hello, what’s going on here then?’ It worked out wonderfully really, it was really lovely.”
June Rose was six at the time and still lives in the area.
“I remember excitement that we were going to have a street party, all the neighbours coming together to organise it. The tables being laid in the street, and all the children sitting down. And sandwiches, and jelly and custard, and later on there was lots of entertainment. We had Punch and Judy, and a magician – that was just a brilliant day.”
Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries
The Culture Show at the Edinburgh Festival
BBC2, 10:00-10:30pm, 3/3
Sue Perkins presents highlights from the final week of this year's festival, including an exhibition of work by the experimental artist Dieter Roth. There is also an interview with Howard Jacobson, author of 2010 Booker Prize-winning novel The Finkler Question, who discusses his latest book Seriously Funny.
Sue Perkins presents highlights from the final week of this year's festival, including an exhibition of work by the experimental artist Dieter Roth. There is also an interview with Howard Jacobson, author of 2010 Booker Prize-winning novel The Finkler Question, who discusses his latest book Seriously Funny.
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Thursday 30th August
News; Current Affairs
Tonight: The Kindness of Strangers
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm
This week, a controversial website launches in the UK that allows kidney donors to select who receives their organ. Julie Etchingham meets the nation's first patient to find a match using the service and the Brits already signed up to pick their recipients.
Science and Nature; Documentaries
Iceland Erupts: A Volcano Live Special
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm
Fresh from her Hawaiian sojourn with Professor Iain Stewart, Kate Humble returns to Iceland to see what’s been happening since Eyjafjallajokull caused transport mayhem in 2010. In the scheme of things on Iceland, it isn’t even a particularly major volcano. There are other, much scarier ones that volcanologists are keeping a beady eye on.
Two years after an ash cloud created by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano caused travel chaos across Europe, Kate Humble travels to Iceland to learn how the country's scientists monitor and manage its most dangerous volcanoes. She hears about some of the most notable eruptions in its history, including an 18th-century incident that killed thousands locally and has been linked to the deaths of many more people in Britain and Europe, and asks what can be done to prepare for similar events in the future.
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