Oxstalls Learning Centre Off-Air Recordings 9 - 15 April

Please email oxstallsmediaservices@glos.ac.uk if you would like any of the following series or programmes recording. * *This applies to staff members and students at the University of Gloucestershire. Any recordings made are to be used only for educational and non-commercial purposes under the terms of the ERA Licence. _____________________________________________

Saturday 9th April
Film
Mamma Mia! 7:00pm - 9:10pm ITV1 London
Not since the invention of fondue has 1970s cheese been this hot. This shiny, happy romantic comedy set to Abba's greatest hits has already proved a winning formula on stage and with this big-screen adaptation it's been taken up another notch. Meryl Streep sings her heart out here as ageing rock chick-turned-hotel owner Donna, whose daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is about to get married on the Greek island where they live. But the wedding is thrown into chaos when three of Donna's ex-lovers (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard) turn up. Each has a case for being Sophie's father, but only one stakes a claim on Donna's heart. It's a feather-light story patched together with little elegance or élan, but that's entirely fitting when the film is populated with big, brash disco numbers like Dancing Queen and Voulez-Vouz. The fun is in watching usually straight actors like Streep, Brosnan and company throwing caution to the wind and making up for weak vocals with infectious gusto. ______________________________________________

Sunday 10th April
Film
Atonement 10:15pm - 12:25am ITV1 London
The kind of collaboration that seems designed to produce the perfect British film, this adaptation of Ian McEwan's bestseller from screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) and director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice) actually pulls it off. Beginning in 1935, the drama pivots on the burgeoning love affair between privileged Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) and servant's son Robbie Turner (James McAvoy). An intercepted love letter, sibling jealousy and an assault combine to tear them apart. Their hopes of reunion are further complicated by the outbreak of war, Robbie's conscription and the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk - stunningly staged here by Wright. A handsome, heart-thumping, character-based love story, this is impeccably acted - Keira Knightley truly comes of age, blending cut-glass, Celia Johnson-like refinement and something altogether more passionate - and stylishly scored (by Dario Marianelli). Atonement transcends the expectations of its country-house setting, via the privations of war, to deliver a knockout twist that works better on the screen than it did on the page.
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Monday 10th April
Documentary
A Home for Maisie 9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC2.
Documentary following the progress of a couple who hope to adopt a seven-year-old girl who has been neglected and abused. Jim and Sue, who have successfully adopted eight other children, plan to help Masie confront and come to terms with her traumatic past - but must overcome obstacles in the adoption process before they can act as her parents. Narrated by Sue Johnston.

Documentary
Dispatches: Undercover Hospital 8:00pm - 9:00pm Channel 4.
Tazeen Ahmad investigates planned changes to the NHS in light of the Government's pledge to protect its services. The programme goes inside one of Britain's busiest hospitals, which faces spending cuts and the potential loss of hundreds of jobs in the next 12 months.

Documentary
The Great Estate:The Rise & Fall of the Council House 9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC4.
Journalist and author Michael Collins explores the history of council housing, meeting the people whose lives were affected by the social experiment that began with a bang at the start of the 20th century, but ended with a whimper 80 years later. He visits flats in Liverpool and a high-rise structure in Sheffield that has become the largest listed building in the world, as well as an estate on the banks of the Thames that was billed as the `town of the 21st century'. Part of A History of the Home season.

Film
Chariots of Fire 6:40pm - 9:00pm Film4.
Unfairly dismissed by some as an empty exercise in cheap schmaltz, this has an old-fashioned innocence that celebrates the human spirit with a lot of careful detail. It's a powerful tale about two British athletes - one a contemplative Scottish missionary, the other an anxious Jewish student - aiming for glory in the 1924 Olympics, and it contains a compelling study of their characters and those of their competitors. Their experiences are drawn in thoughtfully by Hugh Hudson's direction and Colin Welland's Oscar-winning script. Indeed, it was Welland who exclaimed at the Oscar ceremony that "the British are coming!". The two British actors on screen here, Ian Charleson (the missionary) and Ben Cross (the student), prove that, at a time when British cinema had such talent to fall back on, Welland should have been right. _______________________________________________

Tuesday 12th April
Documentary
Is Breast Best? Cherry Healey Investigates 9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC3.
TV presenter Cherry Healey explores both sides of the breastfeeding debate. While the World Health Organisation advises all mothers to give their children their own milk for at least the first six months after birth, Cherry found the experience painful and traumatic. She follows a 19-year-old woman's struggle to nourish her baby, hears practical advice from experts and asks why the UK has such a low breastfeeding rate. Part of the Bringing Up Britain season.

Documentary
Britain Goes Camping 11:00pm - 12:00am BBC4.
Archive footage and the memories of enthusiasts detail how sleeping under canvas has evolved, changing from a leisure activity for adventurous Edwardians into a quintessentially British family pastime.
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Wednesday 13th April
Documentary
The Gatwick Baby: Abandoned at Birth 9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC3.

Documentary following Steven Hydes' worldwide search for his true identity. The 24-year-old was left in a ladies toilet at Gatwick Airport when he was just 10 days old, and was later adopted by a loving family. With the help of DNA testing, he hopes to pinpoint his racial make-up and increase the chances of locating his mother, and along the way he hears the stories of other people's quests to find their birth parents. Part of the Bringing Up Britain season. _______________________________________________

Thursday 14th April
Documentary
Misbehaving Mums to Be 9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC3 1/6, series 1
New series. A team of midwives helps pregnant women give up their bad habits and reverse the dangers posed to their babies' health. Lisa Fendall meets a 22-year-old woman who is struggling to stop smoking, Alison Williams mentors a wine-drinking workaholic, and Carol Hemmings advises an obese mother-to-be who lives on a diet of chips and gravy. Narrated by Jaime Winstone. Part of the Bringing Up Britain season. ______________________________________________

Please email oxstallsmediaservices@glos.ac.uk if you would like any of the following series or programmes recording. * *This applies to staff members and students at the University of Gloucestershire. Any recordings made are to be used only for educational and non-commercial purposes under the terms of the ERA Licence.
_______________________________________________