Off-air recordings for week 29 September - 5 October 2012

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 29th September

Factual; History; Documentaries

Servants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs
BBC2, 8:00-9:00pm, 1/3 - Knowing Your Place

Dr Pamela Cox looks at the grand houses of the Victorian ruling elite - large country estates dependent on an army of staff toiling away below stairs.
The Victorians ushered in a new ideal of servitude - where loyal, selfless servants were depersonalised stereotypes with standardised uniforms, hairstyles and even generic names denoting position. In the immaculately preserved rooms of Erddig in North Wales, portraits of servants like loyal housekeeper Mrs Webster hint at an affectionate relationship between family and servants, but the reality for most was quite different.
In other stately homes, hidden passages kept servants separate from the family. Anonymity, invisibility and segregation were a crucial part of their gruelling job - and the strict servant hierarchy even kept them segregated from each other. 


Factual; Life Stories; Documentaries

The Clintons
BBC2, 10:15-11:15pm

The series explores the sordid scandal and grand achievement of an American president who rose from a turbulent childhood in Arkansas. Forming the ultimate power couple alongside his wife Hillary, William Jefferson Clinton becomes one of the most successful politicians in modern American history. Complex, conflicted and rife with scandal, Bill Clinton's presidency would define a crucial and transformative period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 9/11 attacks.
With unprecedented access to scores of Clinton insiders including White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers, White House chief of staff Leon Panetta and Kenneth Starr.
Winning the 1996 election in a landslide, Clinton pulls off one of the greatest turnarounds in political history and alongside him, Hillary succeeds in passing crucial legislation. Times are good, the economy is booming, and American prestige and power internationally are at an all-time high. The president's dream of repairing the breach with Republicans seems within reach and the Clintons seem stronger than ever. But then Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky - a White House intern - becomes public after she confides in a co-worker named Linda Tripp. The ensuing scandal gives Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr the ammunition he needs to recharge his stalled investigation of the Whitewater affair and Hillary her highest approval rating yet. 

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Sunday 30th September

Factual; History; Documentaries

Andrew Marr's History of the World
BBC1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/8 - Age of Empire

In this episode, Andrew Marr tells the story of the first empires which laid the foundations for the modern world.
From the Assyrians to Alexander the Great, conquerors rampaged across the Middle East and vicious wars were fought all the way from China to the Mediterranean. But this time of chaos and destruction also brought enormous progress and inspired human development. In the Middle East, the Phoenicians invented the alphabet, and one of the most powerful ideas in world history emerged: the belief in just one God. In India, the Buddha offered a radical alternative to empire building - a way of living that had no place for violence or hierarchy and was open to everyone.
Great thinkers from Socrates to Confucius proposed new ideas about how to rule more wisely and live in a better society. And in Greece, democracy was born - the greatest political experiment of all. But within just a few years, its future would be under threat from invasion by an empire in the east... 


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Monday 1st October

Factual; History; Travel; Documentaries

A303: Highway to the Sun
BBC4, 10:00-11:00pm

The A303 is the road that passes Stonehenge on the way to the beaches of Devon and Cornwall. On the way, it whisks drivers through 5,000 years of remarkable moments in English history. And it is the star of this film made for armchair travellers and history lovers.
Writer Tom Fort drives its 92-mile length in a lovingly-restored Morris Traveller. Along the way he has many adventures - he digs up the 1960s master plan for the A303's dreams of superhighway status; meets up with a Neolithic traveller who knew the road like the back of his hand; gets to know a section of the Roman 303; uncovers a medieval murder mystery; and discovers what lies at the end of the Highway to the Sun. 

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

The Shock of the New
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am

Robert Hughes grapples with the artists who made visual art from the crags and vistas of their internal world - the Expressionists, including Van Gogh, De Kooning, Pollock and beyond.


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Tuesday 2nd October

Factual; History; Documentaries

The Story of Wales
BBC2, 7:00-8:00pm, 1/6 - The Making of Wales

Huw Edwards presents this major television history of Wales, showing our country in ways it's never been seen before. Thirty thousand years in the making, this story begins with the drama of the earliest-known human burial in Western Europe. Huw delves into the biggest prehistoric copper mine in the world, and visits the mesmerising site of an Iron Age hillfort. He reveals the true scale of the Roman occupation and shows how Welsh saints carried the light of the gospel to the rest of the Celtic world, and left a mark on their homeland that we can all still read today.


Crime; Documentaries

The Manson Family: Born To Kill?
Channel 5, 8:00-9:00pm

Charles Manson and his so-called 'family' would become the most infamous killers of the 20th century. Over two bloody nights in August 1969, seven people including actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of movie director Roman Polanski, were savagely murdered in their homes.
Their orgy of brutal and seemingly senseless slaughter shocked the world andmarked the end of the 1960s hippie dream. But what made Charles Manson the man he was? Why did so many young people fall under his spell and how was he able to convince them so easily to slaughter innocent people without conscience?
Contributors include detectives, attorneys and psychiatrists who tried to unravel the mystery, plus former members of the cult. Were Manson and his 'family' born to kill?


Factual; Histpry; Documentaries

Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip - An Emotional History of Britain
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3

Ian Hislop asks when and why we British have bottled up or let out our feelings and how this has affected our history.
Revealing as much about ourselves today as about our past, this is a narrative history of emotion and identity over the last three hundred years, packed with extraordinary characters, fascinating vignettes and much humour, illuminated through the lens of culture - novels, paintings, magazines, cartoons, film and television - from which Ian gives his personal take on our evolving national character.
Far from being part of our cultural DNA, emotional restraint was a relatively recent national trait. Foreigners in Tudor England couldn't believe how touchy-feely we could be - 'wherever you move there is nothing but kisses' wrote a shocked Erasmus. In this opening episode, Ian Hislop charts how and why the stiff upper lip emerged in the late 18th and early 19th century in a country till then often awash with sentiment.
In 18th century British society, public emoting was a sign of refinement and there was a vogue for all things sentimental. It was very much the done thing for women and men to weep at Samuel Richardson's novels or have Johann Zoffany paint their portraits to highlight their tenderness and sensitivity. But Ian reveals that a new idea - politeness - paved the way for the emergence of the stiff upper lip by prizing consistency of behaviour over emotional honesty. To illustrate this he plunders the candid diary of James Boswell, an aspirational young Scot plagued with anxieties about how far he should show his feelings in fashionable London...


Factual; Families and Relationships; Health and Wellbeing

Is Breast best?: Cherry Healey Investigates
BBC1, 10:35-11:35pm


In this fun yet compelling documentary, Cherry Healey explores the topical issue of breastfeeding and asks Is Breast Best? The World Health Organisation advises that all mothers breastfeed their children for at least the first six months after birth, but Cherry herself found the experience painful and traumatic and eventually gave up.

Over a year later she is still plagued by feelings of guilt for not trying harder and is now on a mission to find out how other mums feel - is she the only one? Along the way she meets Jess, a teen mum who never even considered breastfeeding and has formula-fed all the way with no worries at all, and a group of 'lactivists' who strongly believe that breastfeeding is the only option for a new mum.

Join Cherry as she explores the world of boobs, bottles, babies and breast milk with her usual refreshing honesty.


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Wednesday 3rd October

Factual; History; Documentaries

The Story of Wales
BBC2, 7:00-8:00pm, 2/6 - Power Struggles


Huw Edwards presents this major television history of Wales, showing our country in ways it's never been seen before. This
Story of Wales spans seven centuries from the building of a great frontier to Owain Glyndwr's epic struggle for independence.
We meet the medieval kings who shape Wales and watch a nation emerge out of their lust for power and land. Amidst battles
with Vikings, Saxons and Normans, Welsh culture flourishes. But the death of our last native Prince is followed by a century of
plague and famine. Then, the charismatic Glyndwr leads a rebellion against the English Crown.


Factual; Documentaries

Welcome to India

BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/3


Learning how to survive on an increasingly crowded planet is probably our ultimate challenge. But there is one place, home to over a sixth of the world's population, which is already making a good shot at adapting: welcome to India. This extraordinary observational series casts aside the usual preconceptions about the sub-continent, and lets a few of India's 1.2 billion show how their world really works.

With astonishing access into the densest districts of Kolkata and Mumbai, it celebrates the impressive resourcefulness, resilience and absolute pragmatism of those living and working there, and reveals the psyche needed to get ahead in the biggest of crowds.

This follows two main characters as they employ all their ingenuity to carve out a home. With more people moving to cities in India than anywhere else on earth, securing that place you can call home is vital for nurturing your family's future.

Kaale has come to Kolkata in search of gold - incredibly, he earns a living by sweeping the streets of the jewellery district for stray gold dust. But to fulfil his business ambitions, he must escape his landlord and rent a room of his own. His plan pushes even his resourcefulness to the limit: dredging for gold in Kolkata's drains.

Rajesh and his wife Sevita have created their home on a Mumbai beach after their controversial love marriage. They support their kids' future with some impressive improvisation, including running their house as a makeshift beach pub selling cane liquor. But then eviction by the Mumbai council threatens their home for good.


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Thursday 4th October


Factual; Documentaries

Health Before the NHS
BBC4, 11:35pm-12:35am, 2/2 - A Medical Revolution

Timeshift: The Robert Winston-narrated mini-series concludes with the story of hospitals. At the beginning of the 20th century these were forbidding places very much to be avoided - a last resort for the destitute rather than places you would go to get better. Using unique archive footage from an era when infectious disease was virtually untreatable and powerful first-hand accounts from patients, doctors and nurses, the programme explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern centre of medicine.

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Friday 5th October

Factual; History; Documentaries

Servants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3 - Class War


Dr Pamela Cox explores what happened when servants directly challenged their masters and mistresses, causing havoc in the golden age of Edwardian society.

It is the story of wayward laundry maids, butlers selling their stories to the press and even suffragette maids. Above all, it is the story of how the Victorian 'ideal' of service came to be questioned - not by employers, but by the servants themselves.

The middle classes had an insatiable need for servants in their heavily furnished townhouses, but at the same time the number of people in the so-called 'servant class' dropped, as young workers were lured into shops and factories. To plug the gap, a new source of servants was found - shockingly, among the urban poor - mopping up orphans, waifs and strays from slums, workhouses and reforms schools and training them for careers in domestic service. As the clouds of war gathered, the whole notion of service was in crisis.


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Off-air recordings for week 22-28 September 2012

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 22nd

Factual; News

This World - Aung San Suu Kyi: The Choice
BBC2, 8:10-9:10pm


Documentary which captures the moment when the Nobel Prize winning dissident Aung San Suu Kyi took the huge, risky step into everyday politics in Burma. This tells Suu Kyi's extraordinary personal and political story, how she turned from Oxford housewife into national leader and then international icon of resistance.

Filmed over a year of tumultuous change in Burma, the film has two long interviews with Suu Kyi, with her colleagues in Burma and with her family and friends outside. Hillary Clinton describes the impact of meeting this woman, who she had long admired, as ''seeing a long lost friend'', yet comparing her to Nelson Mandela.

Suu Kyi talks of sadness but no regrets over the decision she took, while her colleagues outline clearly the ongoing gamble that they are all taking in compromising with the regime. Made over an extended period, the film uses a range of extraordinary unseen archive - not least the moment she meets her husband and son for the first time after five years.

Factual; Life Stories; Documentaries

The Clintons
BBC2, 10:25-11:25pm, 2/3 - Enemies


The series explores the sordid scandal and grand achievement of an American president who rose from a turbulent childhood in Arkansas. Forming the ultimate power couple alongside his wife Hillary, William Jefferson Clinton becomes one of the most successful politicians in modern American history. Complex, conflicted and rife with scandal, Bill Clinton's presidency would define a crucial and transformative period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 9/11 attacks.

With unprecedented access to scores of Clinton insiders including White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers, White House chief of staff Leon Panetta and Kenneth Starr.

The Whitewater scandal threatens to de-rail Clinton's first budget and trouble is brewing in the remote countries of Rwanda, Somalia and Bosnia. The Republicans, led by the formidable Newt Gingrich, gain control of Congress in the midterm elections shifting the political landscape to the right. Clinton, seemingly bereft of power, begins to sideline his most trusted advisors in favour of an aggressive political consultant named Dick Morris. The Republican 'Contract with America' is riding high and by spring of 1995, Gingrich and his allies choose the budget as the ground on which to wage their war. The Republican plan leads to a government shutdown and slowly the tide begins to turn in Clinton's favour.




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Sunday 23rd

Factual; History; Documentaries

Andrew Marr's History of the World
BBC1, 9:00-10:00pm, 1/8 - Survival


Andrew Marr sets off on an epic journey through 70,000 years of human history. Using dramatic reconstructions, documentary filming around the world and cutting-edge computer graphics, he reveals the decisive moments that shaped the world we live in today, telling stories we thought we knew and others we were never told.

Starting with our earliest beginnings in Africa, Marr traces the story of our nomadic ancestors as they spread out around the world and settled down to become the first farmers and townspeople. He uncovers extraordinary hand-prints left in European caves nearly 30,000 years ago and shows how human ingenuity led to inventions which are still with us today. He also discovers how the first civilisations were driven to extremes to try to overcome the forces of nature, adapting and surviving against the odds, and reveals how everyday life in ancient Egypt had more in common with today's soap operas than might be imagined.



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Monday 24th

News; Documentaries

Dispatches: Undercover Retirement Home
Channel 4, 8:00-8:30pm


Dispatches goes undercover to investigate the multi-million pound retirement property industry. As millions of retirees face downsizing their homes, reporter Morland Sanders and Dispatches' undercover pensioner look at some of the pitfalls of buying a retirement flat.  Sanders also meets the pensioners who've discovered living in a retirement home isn't what they hoped for as they battle through tribunals and try to reduce their living costs.


News

Panorama: Reading, Writing and Rip-Offs

BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm


Panorama investigates the computer supply companies whose directors have grown rich signing up hundreds of schools across the country to deals that have taken them to the brink of bankruptcy. Parents are usually unaware that their school can be carrying debts of up to 1.9 million pounds for overpriced or sub-standard equipment.

Reporter Paul Kenyon reveals the mis-selling that has ended the careers of head teachers who say they were duped by dishonest salesmen, forced some schools to make staffing cuts, and raises questions about the government's roll out of greater financial autonomy to schools.



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Tuesday 25th

Factual; History; Documentaries

Vikings
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/3

Neil Oliver explores how the Viking Age finally ended, tracing the Norse voyages of discovery, the first Danish kings, and the Christian conversions that opened the door to European high society. He also uncovers the truth about England's King Canute - he was not an arrogant leader who thought he could hold back the waves, but the Viking ruler of an entire empire of the north and an early adopter of European standardisation.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documnetaries

British Passions on Film
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 3/3 - Planes, Trains and Automobiles


Throughout the 20th century, archive films and newsreel footage has chronicled Britain's enduring fascination with the nation's most important modes of mass passenger transport. This film shows how Britons responded to advances in transport technologies and the emergence of new automobiles, rail services and aircraft designs - each of which held out the possibility of travel to new, exciting and previously inaccessible destinations.

Featuring contributions from the cultural critic Jonathan Glancey and the transport historian Christian Wolmar, it celebrates the contribution that these different forms of transport made to the collective imagination of the nation, and shows how such developments as jet aircraft and the Channel tunnel opened up new horizons for successive generations of British people.


Documentaries

The Boy Who Can't Forget

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


Can you remember what you were doing on 15 March 2003? Or what the weather was like on 30 May 2007?  Twenty-year-old British student Aurelien can. He is one of just a handful of people in the world who are baffling scientists with their ability to recall an incredible amount of their lives.

Some claim they can remember every day as if it were yesterday. Now Aurelien is the first Briton to go public with this extraordinary talent. Is it an elaborate trick or some sort of obsessive compulsive behaviour, or perhaps the result of physical differences in their brains?  Aurelien is put to the test by eight-time world memory champion Dominic O'Brien, and examined by memory expert Professor Giuliana Mazzoni.

This remarkable documentary explores the recently discovered phenomenon known as superior autobiographical memory. It looks into the theories of scientists trying to unravel the mystery in the UK and US, and the lives of the seemingly ordinary people who appear to have an extraordinary power we had no idea humans could possess. For the experts racing to find the answers, the discovery of this new group of people could transform the way we look at the workings of memory.

Perhaps we all have the same infinite memory system and we just need to work out how to unlock it. But if we could have an almost endless memory, would we really want it? American school administrator Jill Price was the first person in the world to be discovered with the condition and gives her first interview in over a year. Jill provides an insight into just how difficult life can be for some people when they can't forget.



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Wednesday 27th

News: Documentaries

Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm, 1/2


The first programme unravels the mysteries of MDMA, revealing how the drug affects the brain.

Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London will reveal the results of the scientific trial and the programme follows some of the volunteers - who include actor Keith Allen, novelist Lionel Shriver, a vicar, a former MP and an ex-soldier - through the trial.

The programme also looks at the potential side-effects and dangers of taking MDMA and includes a discussion with an expert who disagrees with the study and is sceptical about its purpose.


Documentaries

Exposure: The British Way of Death

ITV1, 10:35-11:35pm, 1/6

The first in a new series of Exposure documentaries goes undercover to reveal the dark side of the hugely profitable funeral business, with shocking examples of racism and disrespect of bodies and the bereaved.


Factual; Documentaries

Storyville: My Friend Sam - Living for the Moment

Documentary about an extraordinary man named Sam Frears. Sam, now 39 years old, was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder - Familial Dysautonomia - which left him with only a 50% chance of making it to his fifth birthday.

The film reveals a complex, engaging, exceptional person as he struggles with everyday life while pursuing his joint goals of getting his acting career back on track and finding love.



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Thursday 28th

News

Tonight: In Self Defence
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm

Julie Etchingham investigates the issue of a homeowner's right to defend themself and their property, meeting one couple who have been locked in a nightmare since intruders broke into their home with terrible consequences.


News: Documentaries


Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm, 2/2


The second programme investigates the implications of the scientific study of the effects of MDMA, including potential clinical uses - such as whether it could offer a breakthrough in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The programme discovers what recreational users can learn from the trial before discussing MDMA's classification as a Class A drug and possible long-term effects.




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Friday 29th

Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

JK Rowling - Writing for Grown-Ups: A Culture Show Special
12:50-1:20am


Harry Potter is one of the most successful publishing phenomena of our time, selling 450 million copies. Its success transformed its author, JK Rowling, from impoverished single mother to one of the nation’s richest women and our most successful living author.

Since The Deathly Hallows was published in 2007, Rowling’s fans have been desperate to know what she was going to do next. The answer is The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults with some very grown-up themes.

The novel is set in the idyllic fictional English town of Pagford. Parish councillor Barry Fairbrother dies and the community is left reeling. As tensions gather around the ensuing local election, cracks in the picture-perfect town start to emerge…

One of the most hotly anticipated books of the year, The Casual Vacancy is published on 27 September 2012 and details are shrouded in secrecy. Expectation and pressure are enormous. In this Culture Show Special, broadcast the night before the novel is published, JK Rowling will finally reveal the exact nature of the novel, with exclusive readings and in-depth discussion about its ideas, characters and inspiration.

Interviewer James Runcie will meet the notoriously private writer in her hometown of Edinburgh to find out about the pressure and pitfalls of following up the 20th Century’s biggest literary phenomenon. Rowling will reveal how she finally moved on from Potter and the challenges of making the leap writing fiction for adults.

Runcie believes The Casual Vacancy is an intensely personal and passionate work, reveals unseen facets of the writer and will shock many of her fans. The world has changed since 2007, and Rowling has taken on some huge themes.




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Off-air recordings for week 15-21 September 2012

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 15th September

Factual; Documentaries

The Clintons
BBC2, 10:25-11:25am, 1/3, Candidate


The series explores the sordid scandal and grand achievement of an American president who rose from a turbulent childhood in Arkansas. Forming the ultimate power couple alongside his wife Hillary, William Jefferson Clinton becomes one of the most successful politicians in modern American history. Complex, conflicted and rife with scandal, Bill Clinton's presidency would define a crucial and transformative period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 9/11 attacks.

With unprecedented access to scores of Clinton insiders including White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers, White House chief of staff Leon Panetta and Kenneth Starr.

This first episode follows Bill Clinton's bumpy road to the 1992 presidential victory. From the political backwaters of Arkansas, Bill Clinton rises to Yale, where he meets a young woman named Hillary Rodham, who shares his intellect and idealism and becomes his wife. During a campaign repeatedly under siege by allegations ranging from draft dodging to womanizing, the Clintons unite and appear on 60 Minutes to rebuff the charges. Having emerged as a political force, the Clintons win the election. But despite all of their education and experience, the pair are unprepared for political life in Washington, and the tragic suicide of their close friend and ally, deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, underlines the new harsh reality they have to face up to.


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Sunday 16th September

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media

British Passions on Film
BBC4, 11:45pm-12:15am, 1/3 - Fun and Games

Three-part series celebrating the hobbies, pastimes and leisure pursuits that have preoccupied the people of Britain during the last century. As a nation, the British have long been renowned for the creativity and enthusiasm they bring to their leisure pursuits. Whether by collecting cheese labels, painting characters on eggshells or finding unusual uses for sticky back plastic, Britons have always demonstrated enormous passion - and often, deep eccentricity - when pursuing the serious business of having fun. The first episode features enthusiasts of some of Britain's best-loved games, hobbies and leisure activities - and pays tribute to those with more offbeat preoccupations, including D-I-Y obsessives and those with a penchant for collecting street furniture.

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Monday 17th September

Crime; Law and Order; Documentaries

Frontline Police
Channel 5, 8:00-9:00pm, 6/6

With the weather turning from bad to worse it seems the roads have been transformed into a demolition derby and the frontline unit battles to keep the county moving. With the chopper overhead, the dog unit is dispatched to track down a driver involved in an accident, but will the irate father of the crash victim beat them to it?

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

The Shock of the New
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am, 4/8 - Trouble in Utopia

Robert Hughes' classic series about art in the twentieth century; the avant-garde and the modernist in the century of change.


This edition deals with the aspirations and reality of the art in which we live, architecture. Utopian visions rarely work in reality and Hughes examines the utopian in the parallel lines of concrete, towering verticals of steel and planes of glass of modernism in the buildings, built and planned, of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Gropius, which he contrasts with the paintings of Mondrian


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Tuesday 18th September

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

British Passions on Film
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 2/3 - Getting Away From it All

During the course of the 20th Century, millions of British workers benefited from the expansion of paid leave and an increase in leisure time. This enabled many Britons to realize a cherished dream: at last, they could escape from their everyday lives, and go on holiday.


Getting Away from it All traces the evolution of the British holiday, from hugely popular day-trips and annual fortnights in holiday camps to the mass market package holiday to the Costas - and shows how Britons have never been more at home when they've been far away from home, having fun in the sun.


Factual; History; Documentaries

Vikings
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3

Neil Oliver heads out from the Scandinavian homelands to Russia, Turkey and Ireland to trace the beginnings of a vast trading empire that handled Chinese silks as adeptly as Pictish slaves. Neil discovers a world of 'starry-eyed maidens' and Buddhist statues that are a world away from our British experience of axe-wielding warriors, although it turns out that there were quite a few of those as well.


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Wednesday 19th September

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Imagine... The Fatwa: Salman's Story
BBC1, 10:45pm-12:05am

Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, tells for the first time the inside story of how it felt to be condemned to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, and to spend the next decade in hiding. To coincide with the publication of Rushdie's new book about that time, Alan Yentob has been given unique access to the author and to the bodyguards who lived with him. Friends and writers like Ian McEwan and Hanif Kureshi speak frankly, as do Rushdie's sister, ex-wife and sons.


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Thursday 20th September

Documentaries

One Born Every Minute: Plus Size Mums

Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm

One Born: Plus Size Mums follows three severely obese pregnant mothers as they, and the professionals who care for them, do all they can to bring their children safely into the world


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Off-air recordings for week 25 August 2012

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. 

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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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Off-air recordings for week 18-24 August 2012

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 18th August

Factual; Documentaries

Time of Shift: Of Ice and Men
BBC4, 11:00pm-12:00am



Time Shift reveals the history of the frozen continent, finding out why the most inhospitable place on the planet has exerted such a powerful hold on the imagination of explorers, scientists, writers and photographers.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth. Only a handful of people have experienced its desolate beauty, with the first explorers setting foot here barely a hundred years ago.

From the logbooks of Captain Cook to the diaries of Scott and Shackleton, from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner to HP Lovecraft, it is a film about real and imaginary tales of adventure, romance and tragedy that have played out against a stark white backdrop.

We relive the race to the Pole and the 'Heroic Age' of Antarctic exploration, and find out what it takes to survive the cold and the perils of 'polar madness'. We see how Herbert Ponting's photographs of the Scott expedition helped define our image of the continent and find out why the continent witnessed a remarkable thaw in Russian and American relations at the height of the Cold War.

We also look at the intriguing story of who actually owns Antarctica and how science is helping us re-imagine a frozen wasteland as something far more precious.




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Sunday 19th August

Factual; History; Documentaries

Britain's Hidden Heritage
BBC1, 7:00-8:00pm, series 2, 1/3 - Osbourne


The popular Sunday night heritage series returns, with host Paul Martin visiting the fabulous seaside retreat of Queen Victoria - Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. With Osborne unchanged since the end of her reign, Paul discovers intimate family life details of Britain's longest-serving monarch.

Regular reporters Clare Balding and Charlie Luxton also return, with Clare in Gloucestershire delving into the weird and wonderful collection of Charles Paget Wade, possibly Britain's first extreme hoarder. Charlie travels to Scotland to visit a forgotten ruin that was once an architectural masterpiece.

The team are joined by guest reporter Richard E Grant, who goes behind the scenes at Pinewood Studios, revealing secrets of the British cinema and the classic films that inspired him as a young actor.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Omnibus: Gore Vidal's Gore Vidal
BBC4, 10:50-11:40pm, 2/2

Part two of a film biography about the late Gore Vidal, looking at the life of one of America's leading literary figures who for years entranced and enraged the US with his outspoken views, novels and essays. In this part he recalls the last 35 years of his life, starting from the time his friend John F Kennedy was elected as US president.



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Monday 20th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 6/6 - Svalbard

In a revelatory look at Svalbard, the most northerly region in the series, Steve Backshall leaves no stone unturned as he unravels the secrets that lie covered in ice for most of each year. Svalbard is cold, dark and foreboding, yet it is home to the world's largest land predator and the most northerly population of large herbivore, but Steve discovers that the real secret to this place comes from a very different world.


Criminology; Psychology

Ian Brady: Endgames of a Psychopath
4Seven, 11:05pm-12:05am


Ian Brady, psychopath, sadist and child murderer, has been in captivity for nearly 50 years, but he is still a powerful and disturbing presence in the nation's consciousness.

This Cutting Edge film, which has unprecedented access to those closest to Brady, charts his ongoing attempts to influence and control those around him.

When acclaimed director Paddy Wivell set out to make a film about Ian Brady's legal bid to be transferred from a psychiatric facility to a prison, he had no idea that he would find himself witnessing one of Brady's notorious power plays.

At the outset of filming, Wivell met the solicitors and psychiatrists who've been closely involved in his cases over the last decades, many of whom would be speaking publicly for the first time.

But a meeting with Brady's mental health advocate for the last 15 years changed the course of the film. His mental health advocate is also one of the executors of Brady's will and recently applied for power of attorney for his health and welfare.

Following Brady's seizure and the subsequent indefinite postponement of his mental health tribunal, she discloses, on camera, some startling information that appears to present further important evidence of Brady's ongoing attempts to assert power over the victims' families.

This film presents the inside story of the Moors Murderer since his crimes were discovered and charts his continued determination for power and control.


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Wednesday 22nd August

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries; Magazines and Reviews

The Culture Show at the Edinburgh Festival
BBC2, 19:00-10:30pm, 2/3


Sue Perkins presents a second helping of The Culture Show from the Edinburgh Festival and meets author Kirsty Gunn and music legend Nile Rodgers.

Also featured tonight, the 25th anniversary of So You Think You're Funny, the Edinburgh comedy competition which has uncovered stars from Dylan Moran to Peter Kay. Artists including David Hockney, Paul Gaugin and Sir Peter Blake swap paint for wool in an exhibition of contemporary tapestries, and we take a look at Speed of Light - a spectacular mass participatory event in which walkers and endurance runners ascend Arthur's Seat and illuminate the iconic mountain.


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Thursday 23rd August

Documentaries; Disability

Tonight: Don't Hate Us
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm

As London prepares to host the 2012 Paralympic Games, new figures reveal that hate crimes against the disabled are at record levels. Comedienne Francesca Martinez, who has cerebral palsy, investigates whether a welfare crackdown - which includes reassessing whether people claiming benefits are fit for work - is behind an apparent hardening of public attitudes.


Science and Nature; Nature and the Environment; Documentaries

Springwatch Guide to Seabirds
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games present the annual series charting the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Goya: Crazy Like a Genius
BBC4, 10:50pm-12:00am

Documentary in which art critic Robert Hughes travels across Spain in search of the reality beyond the mythology of Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Goya has long been Hughes' favourite artist but has become a particular obsession since a near-fatal car accident left Hughes living with nightmares of Goya's often dark and violent imagery.


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Off-air recordings for week 11-17 August 2012

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 11th August 2012

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; History

London - The Modern Babylon
BBC2, 9:20-11:25pm


Julien Temple's epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown. From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and above all ordinary people, this is the story of London's immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever.

Reaching back to the dawn of film in London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive, voices of Londoners past and present and the flow of popular music across the century; a stream of urban consciousness, like the river which flows through its heart. It ends now, as London prepares to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympics.



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Sunday 12th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

The Dark: Nature's Nighttime World
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/3 - Patagonian Mountains

Natural history series about wildlife at night culminates at the wild and windswept tip of South America. Coming face-to-face with the widest-ranging cat in the Americas - the puma - camerawoman Justine Evans attempts to film their nocturnal hunting behaviour for the first time. Even further south, Gordon Buchanan dives into the icy waters of the Strait of Magellan to solve a mystery - scientists have heard humpback whales moving close to the shore at night but have no idea what they could be doing. And Dr George McGavin attaches a miniature tracking device to a vampire bat's back to discover whose blood it is feeding on.

Entertainment; Discussion and Talk

Parkinson: The Tommy Cooper and Frankie Howerd Interviews
BBC4, 10:00-10:35pm


Michael Parkinson introduces a recut of two interviews he did with Frankie Howerd during the Parkinson show series and a Christmas interview with Tommy Cooper.

Frankie Howerd wanted everything scripted, resulting in an unprompted and unrehearsed interview whilst Tommy Cooper managed to run rings around a delighted Parkinson. Includes clips from Up Pompeii, The Main Attraction and The Bob Monkhouse Show.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

Gore Vidal's Gore Vidal

BBC4, 10:35-11:25pm

Biography of the late Gore Vidal, looking at the life of one of America's leading literary figures who for years entranced and enraged the US with his outspoken views, novels and essays. This programme follows him around the scenes of his youth.

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Monday 13th August

News

Panorama - Justice Denied: The Greatest Scandal?
BBC1, 8:30-9:00pm

The case of the Cardiff Three - wrongly convicted of murder in 1992 - refuses to go away. Twenty years after a BBC Panorama investigation helped to clear the original men, the same team returns to investigate why the trial against the police officers accused of perverting the course of justice collapsed last year, and asks: is this the biggest scandal in British legal history?


Ethics; Documentaries

First Cut - What's My Body Worth?
More4, 10:00-10:35pm


With many people looking for ways to generate extra cash, this First Cut documentary asks if we are overlooking our most prized commodity: our own bodies.

Filmmaker Storm Theunissen explores the lucrative body-parts industry as she sets out to sell every bit of her body she legally can, from her fingernails to her own eggs, and discover whether her body is worth more dead than alive.

Working in a brothel is illegal in the UK, but Storm joins a Soho lap-dancing club for an evening and makes £20 for a lap-dance. And while UK law prohibits the sale of body-parts by individuals, 'Big Pharma' buys everything from bunions to blister fluid, and in these hard times, Storm looks for a piece of the action.

In Hollywood - the market leader in egg-brokering for IVF - intelligence and model looks can be worth $15,000. Egg donation must be altruistic in the UK but in early 2012 the government tripled the payment for expenses to £750 in a bid to solve a shortage of donors.

Exploring the legality and ethics of selling your own body, Storm discovers a dark side of the body-part market and, before leaving LA, she must make a momentous decision when she meets a couple who are desperate to be parents. Can a commercial market in future babies ever feel right?

First Cut is the critically acclaimed, eclectic documentary strand that showcases distinctive new films by up-and-coming directors.



Crime; Documentaries

Secrets of the Pickpockets
Channel 4, 10:35-11:40pm


As the Olympics draws millions to London gangs of pickpockets are on the rise across the capital. This film tells the story of the unseen war on a crime that has 1700 victims a day.

Organised crews of pickpockets have descended on London in search of easy pickings. This film tells the story of the unseen war on the 'dippers' and the specialist teams created to take them on.

Up 17% in the last two years, pickpocketing is a crime that is rarely witnessed by the public. This film follows the game of cat and mouse played out between the cops and robbers beneath the gaze of tourists and regular Londoners, catching the action as it unfolds and some of the astonishing tricks of the pickpocket trade, from the 'block and shield' to the 'two-fingered lift'.



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Tuesday 14th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment

Talking Landscapes
BBC4, 7:30-8:00pm, 6/6 - The Vale of Evesham

Series in which Aubrey Manning sets out to discover the history of Britain's ever-changing landscape. Clues from the local art gallery, a spot of ploughing and a flight with a local pilot help uncover an Anglo-Saxon agricultural revolution.


Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 1:20-2:20am

Steve Backshall tries to discover just what makes it possible for a river to stop in the middle of a desert. The Okavango is the world's largest inland delta and home to a one of Africa's greatest congregations of wildlife, and in asking the difficult questions Steve reveals the astounding secret to its existence.


Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries

Growing Children
BBC4, 1:50-2:50am, Autism


Autism is a complicated and often misunderstood condition. In this film, child psychologist Laverne Antrobus goes on a quest to discover the different way that the brain works in children with autism and to explore the latest scientific research.

Laverne meets Tony, a severely autistic teenager who requires full-time care from his family, and learns some of the difficult sensory problems that children with autism can have. The autistic brain cannot always process light and sound in the correct way, leading to an overwhelming and exhausting overload of noise and colour. Laverne travels to the University of Cardiff to investigate new research into the link between sensory issues and the autistic brain. She also goes to the University of Nottingham to try and uncover why people like Tony appear to be so socially isolated. She begins to learn the amazing way our brains work when confronted with social situations and how we understand the social cues that we encounter every day - and what happens when this goes wrong.

With a better understanding of Tony's difficulties, Laverne then continues to follow his story as this family go through the difficult and highly emotional transition of putting their son into full-time residential care.

Laverne also meets a family with two young boys, Jake and Zaine. Jake has been diagnosed with high functioning autism - the opposite end of the spectrum to Tony. By spending time with Jake, Laverne sees some of the social difficulties associated with the condition, such as the daily struggle with school and making friends. Jake's younger brother Zaine is also beginning to show autistic traits and in a particularly poignant sequence Laverne attends a diagnosis session with the family. With amazing access to this emotional day, Laverne explores the complicated process of diagnosis and the symptoms that are looked for in order to reach the correct conclusion. Laverne also investigates some exciting and pioneering research being carried out at Birkbeck Babylab, which is offering hope for a simpler and earlier diagnostic procedure...


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Wednesday 15th August

Crime; Policing; Documentaries

Frontline Police
5*, 8:00-9:00pm 1/6


Ex-police officer Rav Wilding returns to the police and joins officers from Essex Police’s Specialist Operations Units.

Brand new series that sees Rav Wilding join officers on the frontline of policing. From dawn raids and emergency response to tough public order events, Rav takes viewers right to the heart of the action. Using his eight years of policing experience and getting up close and personal with the officers charged with cleaning up our streets, Rav gives viewers a unique insight into the reality of working at the sharp end of modern British policing.

Rav Wilding joins frontline officers in Essex as they police an English Defence League march.



History; Documentaries

Deathcamp Treblinka: Survivor Stories
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm

An insight into how Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman escaped from the concentration camp in Poland, where more than 800,000 Polish Jews died during the Nazi Holocaust. The two men were able to flee during a revolt in August 1943, before one of them sought vengeance in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the other appeared at the trial of Adolf Eichmann for war crimes in 1961. This film documents their stories, the fate of their families and offers fresh accounts of a forgotten death camp.


Literature; Documentaries

Sex Story: Fifty Shades of Grey
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm


Has Fifty Shades of Grey really transformed us from a nation of prudes to one of happy spankers? It may have brought bondage into the mainstream, but are the British really ready to embrace sexual experimentation?

From visiting a spanking class, where novices are trained in the art of a good caning, to exploring the world of an S&M couple who have written sex contracts with each other, this documentary uncovers what the erotic paperback phenomenon tells us about 21st-century Britain.

The programme examines the sociological and cultural effects the book is having in the UK, as sales of obscure classical music and bondage gear increase.

A book club from North Yorkshire read the bestseller for the very first time and share their verdict, while adult retailers Ann Summers reveal what steps they are taking to exploit this trend.

Psychologist and sex columnist Pamela Stephenson and Brooke Magnanti, who wrote Belle De Jour, share their reactions to the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon.

The book has crossed continents, class barriers and the context in which porn is read - on the train, in book groups and even at the hairdresser.


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Thursday 16th August

Factual; Documentaries

Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery
BBC3, 9:00-10:00pm


Ten years ago Russell Brand was addicted to heroin, his career was unravelling and he was told he may only have six months to live. The story of how he battled to stay clean of drugs is at the heart of this eye-opening and honest, personal film in which Brand challenges how our society deals with addicts and addiction.


Documentaries

Neighbourhood Watched
BBC1, 10:35-11:20pm

The reality of life for housing officers in Greater Manchester, who face a different set of problem each day, from evicting anti-social tenants to dealing with hoarders. The first programme focuses on the issue of noise disturbance, which is one of the biggest problems in social housing and can lead to violence, ill health and even suicide if it is not resolved. Housing officer Cat Towl answers a call from a 20-year-old woman about her upstairs neighbour, who is blasting out his radio morning, noon and night. But what begins as a simple complaint escalates into a serious dispute. Meanwhile, a pair of cockerels in another tenant's garden are providing a 4am wake-up call for the everyone in earshot.


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Off-air recordings for week 4-10 August 2012

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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Sunday 5th August

Factual: Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

The Dark: Nature's Nighttime World
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/3 - Amazon Flooded Forests

Natural history series revealing a totally new perspective on wildlife at night. Now the expedition travels south to a flooded forest in the heart of the Amazon. Large mammal expert Bryson Voirin encounters a curious sloth whilst camerawoman Sophie Darlington spends stormy nights precariously perched high in the jungle canopy attempting to film the only nocturnal monkey in the world. Further south, Gordon Buchanan heads to the largest wetland on earth in search of giant anteaters and enters a strange deserted house that's been taken over by vampire bats. And Dr George McGavin abseils deep into the perpetual darkness of a giant cave system - cut off from the light for millions of years. Deep inside he and the team discover species new to science.


Factual; Documentaries

Timeshift: Epic - A Cast of Thousands
BBC4, 10:20-11:20pm


Timeshift reveals the ten commandments of big cinema as it goes behind the scenes of the biggest film genre of them all - the epic. See the biggest sets ever known! Hear the sound of Ancient Rome! Count the spiralling costs as budgets soared!

From Ben-Hur to The Ten Commandments, from El Cid to Cleopatra, these were films that set a new standard in BIG. In the days before computers they recreated ancient worlds on a vast scale, and they did it for real. Epic cinema hired armies, defied the seasons and changed cinema. Even the screen wasn't big enough for the epic, so Hollywood made it bigger - and some cinemagoers experienced vertigo watching these vast productions.

Today, the epic lives on in the Oscar-laden Gladiator and the spectacular sweep of Avatar. As this documentary reveals, the stories behind the films are as spectacular as the films themselves.


Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media

Shakespeare from Kabul

BBC4, 11:20pm-12:05am


This is the story of a group of Afghan actors bringing a production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors to an international festival at London's Globe theatre.

Over 30 years of war have virtually destroyed Afghan theatre. Women can be harassed for performing on stage. Yet in just a few months the actors are expected to perform in front of an audience of thousands at one of the most prestigious theatres in the world.

The film starts with challenging auditions in the Afghan capital, caught in the grip of one of the worst winters of recent years. It follows the actors to rural India for rehearsals - safe from the security threats of Kabul but away from their friends and families. It ends with their triumphant and moving performance at the Globe. Facing an uncertain welcome on their return, the film gives real insight into the struggles and bravery of the actors determined to show the world a very different side to Afghanistan.



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Monday 6th August

Factual; Science and Nature; Science and Technology

Horizon: Eat, Fast and Live Longer
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm

Michael Mosley has set himself a truly ambitious goal: he wants to live longer, stay younger and lose weight in the bargain. And he wants to make as few changes to his life as possible along the way. He discovers the powerful new science behind the ancient idea of fasting, and he thinks he's found a way of doing it that still allows him to enjoy his food. Michael tests out the science of fasting on himself - with life-changing results.


Factual; Science and Nature; Nature and Environment; Documentaries

Nature's Microworlds
BBC4, 8:30-9:00pm, 4/6 - Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay on California's coast is one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world, its giant kelp forest bursting with life, from microscopic plankton to visiting ocean giants. The secret key to success in such a busy microworld is balance. Steve Backshall guides us through the unique geography of the bay and introduces some of its key characters in a quest to find the one species that keeps life in the kelp forest in check.


Factual; Science and Nature; Documentaries

After Life: The Strange Science of Decay
BBC4, 10:00-11:30pm


Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay.

For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old.

Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.




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Tuesday 7th August

Documentaries

Lost Children
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm, 2/2, Josh


With intimate access to staff, pupils and families, this film tells the surprising and touching story of one of the High Close School's most challenging children: Josh. Filmed over a year, we follow the ups and downs of his education and explore his history to discover what made him the way he is.

Fourteen-year-old Josh is the school's tough man. He was taken away from his heroin-addicted mum and put into care at the age of three. He had a staggering 24 moves between foster placements before the age of six, together with his younger sister Demi. However, for the past eight years, Josh and Demi have lived with their adoptive mother, former social worker Sue, who is determined to provide them with a loving and stable home.

'You think a lot of love and lot of attention will be enough,' Sue says. But soon teenager Josh's angry outbursts and aggressive behavior mean that both Sue and the teachers at High Close are struggling to help him.

As the story of Josh's past unfolds, tensions escalate at school, and he brings his mother closer to breaking point. Can Josh avoid repeating the mistakes of his birth family and make the necessary changes to remain at High Close?



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Wednesday 8th August

Factual; Arts, Culture and the Media; Documentaries

A History of Art in Three Colours
BBC4, 9:00-10:00pm, 3/3 - White


The history of white is a fascinating and controversial tale. In his concluding documentary James Fox’s core question is how the notion that all of antiquity was clad in white came to prominence.

The blame appears to lie with a flamboyant German Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who in the 18th century promoted ideas about the virtues of white in classical art. Fox also pulls in Duchamp, Whistler, Le Courbusier and Mussolini to show how those virtues were corrupted into something darker.

Art historian James Fox concludes his examination of gold, blue and white by arguing that the latter has moved from being a symbol of virtue and purity to one revealing the darkest human instincts. He explores why the colour fascinated 18th-century potter Josiah Wedgwood and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and examines how in the 20th century it came to be linked with the Italian dictator Mussolini and fascism.



Documentaries; Crime

Secrets of the Pickpockets
Channel 4, 10:00-11:05pm

As London 2012 draws hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world to the city, the historic event is also attracting organised gangs of pickpockets in search of easy money. This documentary reveals the tricks of the trade of this particular breed of criminal and explores the work of specialist teams created by the Metropolitan and British Transport Police to catch them.


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Thursday 9th August

News

Tonight: Proud to Be British
ITV1, 7:30-8:00pm

In 1972, dictator Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of tens of thousands of Asians from Uganda, forcing them to abandon their lives and seek shelter in other countries. Forty years later, Fiona Foster considers to what extent those who fled to Britain have changed the face of the nation.


Factual; Crime; Law; Documentaries

The Briefs
ITV1, 9:00-10:00pm, 2/2


With unprecedented access to Britain’s busiest legal aid practice, The Briefs takes us into the cut-throat world of criminal law.

Tonight, we experience the lawyers’ interesting marketing techniques, the case of a performance-poet accused of benefit fraud, a particularly emotive murder and a gay couple whose fights always seem to end up in a police station.

Franklin Sinclair, the partner who runs Tuckers’ Manchester office, is trying to attract business in unusual ways - umbrellas, beer mats, key rings and lighters, as well as DJing on a sponsored local radio show.

“There are less cases and more firms, or the same amount of firms, fighting for work. And you have to try to get a bit of a commercial advantage. If it doesn’t give us business, at least it creates jealousy amongst the other firms.”

Meanwhile, the firm has a new client - Tim - who was previously married but is now accused of fighting with his boyfriend in public.

“He hit me first ‘cos he thought I was flirting with another guy. Unfortunately I bit him in several places and he bit me. We both had quite a few injuries.”

Tim eventually gets a community service order. Later he appears in court a number of times, notably for damaging a restaurant window during another argument with his boyfriend. Franklin tells him he is surprised to see him again.

“I never thought you’d get involved with the justice system again and it was like I said to the court, it was like handbags at dawn, wasn’t it, your case?”

Tim is sentenced to six weeks in prison.

Part-time performance poet Gerard is accused of earning £14,000 on top of sickness benefits, which he denies. The Benefits Agency has also calculated that Gerard received £4,000 too much. He agrees to pay it back but is prosecuted for benefit fraud.

“I’m going to plead guilty. All I want is this to be over with. What I want to do is lie down on my couch and eat soup and talk to my friends about old times. That’s all I want to do ‘cos that’s what gets you better. Being dragged through court doesn’t make you better, it makes you worse.”

The court imposes a six-month community order on Gerard. He is also fined £250 and put on a four-week tag.


Documentaries


Wonderland: Young, Bright and on the Right
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm


Joe Cooke (Oxford University) and Chris Monk (Cambridge) come across as pompous, middle-aged men with posh accents rather than 20-year-old university students. But they know that Oxbridge is a conveyor belt for future political leaders and they both have their eyes on the prize. Much of this film has a tang of Twenty Twelve absurdity about it, but once the layers of faux-sophistication and political cant are peeled back, there are poignant moments that may touch even the most ardent Tory-basher.

Joe Cooke and Chris Monk dream of carving out careers in the Conservative Party, and hope to take the first step toward achieving their political aims by making an impression at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. However, both come from state-school backgrounds and feel like outsiders among their more privileged fellow students. Joe has become president of his party's association at Oxford, but faces an uphill battle to implement the changes he feels it needs to undergo, while Chris struggles to make a name for himself in Cambridge's renowned debating society.



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Friday 10th August

History; Documentaries

The Great British Story: A People's History
BBC2, 9:00-10:00pm, 8/8 - Modern Britain


Much of Michael Wood’s series so far has involved the little-told stories of working men and women. Now, in the final programme, he reaches an age when ordinary lives have been documented much more thoroughly. Wood is a skilled communicator and his meetings with people in the once-mighty industrial centres of the north reveal how the events of the past century are still affecting them.

Michael Wood concludes his survey of the past 2,000 years of British history by charting the dramatic changes seen during the 20th and 21st centuries. He assesses the impact that two world wars had on communities across the country, explores the spread of multiculturalism over the past 50 years and charts Britain's transition into a post-industrial economy. Finally, he assesses the future of the United Kingdom, and explains what he believes British citizens can learn from their shared history.


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