Oxstalls Off-Air Recordings 10th - 16th December 2011.

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.
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Saturday 10th

Film
A Damsel in Distress  
12:35pm - 2:15pm  BBC2.

Adapted by PG Wodehouse from a play that was based on his own novel, this was only Fred Astaire's second film without Ginger Rogers. But he's in sparkling form as a dance star who's attempting to trip the light fantastic with aristocratic Joan Fontaine. Hermes Pan's choreography won an Oscar, but every step is pure Astaire, and Fontaine (who was better known as a dramatic actress) never misses a beat. Playing themselves, George Burns and Gracie Allen show why they are so fondly remembered. And if that's not enough, there's a clutch of eminently hummable George Gershwin songs.

Film
Stage Door  
2:15pm - 3:45pm.  BBC2

Marvellous adaptation of the witty Edna Ferber/George S Kaufman play, set mainly in a boarding house for theatrical hopefuls. Scintillating casting gives bravura roles to a batch of Hollywood greats near the prime of their careers, most notably the fabulous Katharine Hepburn and the sassy Ginger Rogers. Points, too, for acerbic Eve Arden, dippy Constance Collier and a teenaged Ann Miller. Only Andrea Leeds in the obligatory tragic role isn't up to the demands of the plot or her co-stars. A true joy, especially for stage-struck female hopefuls.
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Monday 12th December

Factual
I Had the X Factor...25 Years Ago: A Wonderland Special
9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC2.

Catching up with the six finalists from the 1986 series of talent show New Faces - James Stone, Julie A Scott, Wayne Denton, Garry Lovini, Vinny Cadman and Billy Pearce - who were variously comedians, singers, a violinist and a club crooner. The programme explores how their brief time in the limelight shaped the next 25 years of their lives. While some went on to appear on cruise ships and more TV programmes, others were not so fortunate.

Documentary
Tourettes: I Swear I Can Sing
9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC3.

Documentary following the story of 25-year-old Ruth Ojadi, who was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome as a young woman. With plans to study music at university, her future as a singer looked promising, until her swearing and blurting out inappropriate comments caused her to abandon her studies and shut herself away. Now, three years on, Ruth hopes to overcome her symptoms and realise her singing dream.

Documentary
The Games That Time Forgot
7:30pm - 8:30pm BBC4.

Alex Horne investigates why some games have stood the test of time and others have been abandoned over the years. He tries to understand the rules of the jingling match, learns about the quintain and jousting, and discovers a form of cricket far removed from today's game.

Arts and culture
Arena: Ken Dodd - Happiness
10:30pm - 11:30pm BBC4.

Documentary tribute to the veteran comedian, originally shown in 2007 to mark his 80th birthday. Cameras spent several months following the funnyman - tickling stick and all - as he went about his everyday business. The film looks back on a career that had then spanned six decades, and features archive footage of performances from the 1960s and 70s as well as extracts of routines from his Happiness tour.

Documentary
Games Britannia: Dicing with Destiny
11:30pm - 12:30am BBC4
1/3, series 1.

Historian and broadcaster Benjamin Woolley explores the history of games in Britain. He discovers playing games was associated with gambling in the late Middle Ages, but a moral backlash in Victorian times transformed them into tools for moral education - and led to the development of the world's first games industry, with ludo, snakes & ladders and the Staunton chess set among the biggest sellers.
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Tuesday 13th

Documentary
My Big Fat Gypsy Christmas
9:00pm - 10:00pm Channel 4.

One-off special following the Irish travelling community during the festive season, featuring their yuletide preparations for 2010, as well as two typically extravagant weddings and a First Communion ceremony. Celebrity Big Brother winner Paddy Doherty and his wife Roseanne also invite the cameras into their Salford home on Christmas Day, and the film introduces new families to the viewers, who reveal how travellers manage to hide presents from their children when they live in a trailer and how many people can fit in a caravan for a sit-down feast.
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Wednesday 14th December

Music
The Royal Variety Performance 2011
7:30pm - 10:00pm ITV1 London.

Peter Kay hosts the annual event held at the Lowry in Salford Quays for the first time, where stars from the world of entertainment perform in the presence of Princess Anne. Music is provided by Barry Manilow, Leona Lewis, Il Divo, Nicole Scherzinger, Tony Bennett, Cee Lo Green, Pixie Lott, Hayley Westenra and Britain's Got Talent winner Jai McDowall. Comedy comes from the host himself, as well as Jason Manford, Greg Davies, Tim Minchin and Omid Djalili, and there are also performances by Adam Cooper and the West End cast of Singin' in the Rain, Penn & Teller, Stomp and Rolando Villazon.

Talk show
John Arlott in Conversation with Mike Brearley
10:00pm - 11:00pm BBC4.

Test Match Special commentator John Arlott, who died 20 years ago this week, is interviewed by England's 1981 Ashes-winning captain Mike Brearley in an edited version of a series first broadcast in 1984. He discusses his career as a cricket journalist, his childhood in 1920s Hampshire and the wide range of jobs he has held, including policeman, mental-health nurse, wine critic and radio producer.
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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.