Good / interesting T.V. / Radio shows / documentaries

A thread to post interesting T.V / radio shows that are on / due to be aired or just missed but can be found online to watch.

On right now Ch4+1 documentary on homosexuality in Africa, fucked up but interesting.

Dispatches: Africa's Last Taboo

Film-maker Sorious Samura investigates the increasing persecution faced by gay people in Africa, where two thirds of countries retain laws against homosexuality. He discovers shocking levels of prejudice driven by governments, religious organisations and communities, and finds out how Aids is spreading at an alarming rate due to a lack of sex education and healthcare

cut and paste...on soon

As mentioned in the last Cycle ...a new TV series will be broadcast later this month on BBC4 ...Britain By Bike ...with Clare Balding ...exploring the halcyon days of 50's-style cycle touring

Here's the book that accompanies the series...

http://tinyurl.com/3799o5r

...more about the prog

CALL OF THE WILD
Britain By Bike Ep 1/5
Wednesday 21 July
9.00-10.00pm BBC FOUR

Clare Balding embarks on a pedal-powered odyssey across Britain to rediscover the magical world of Fifties cycling.

Her journey follows in the wheeltracks of compulsive cyclist and author Harold Briercliffe, whose guidebooks – The Cycling Touring Guides – provide an evocative glimpse of by-passed Britain.

Pedalling Briercliffe's own bike, Clare begins her exploration in North Devon following his Cycling Touring Guide to the South West.

She visits Lynmouth, scene of Britain's worst flooding disaster in 1952; travels on the world's steepest railway up a 500ft cliff to the sister village of Lynton; and explores the unexpectedly mountainous delights of a Devon valley known to the Victorians as "Little Switzerland". It even boasts a population of mountain goats!

She then retraces Briercliffe's tracks through Woody Bay, where local publican David Orton reveals a hidden story of criminality, death and disgrace lying beneath the green tranquillity of this coastal beauty spot.

Then it's downhill to the Hunters Inn, a historic off-the-beaten track pub, before heading off to the secret silver mines of Combe Martin – whose riches were said to be a key factor in the historic English victories at Agincourt, Poitiers and Crecy – and on to the neat seaside town of Ilfracombe, once a more important port than Liverpool.

The town is now reinventing itself, attempting to harness the power of its natural environment through wind farms and the second largest tidal rise in the world.

Utilising the gifts of nature, or falling victim to them, has been a familiar story to this coast for centuries – and a constant theme of Clare's nostalgic cycle ride through this beautiful North Devon coastal landscape.

Britain By Bike is part of BBC Four's celebration of the outdoors – Call Of The Wild.

nice one, call yourself 't.v meister' (save us from searching the good stuff out)

Storyville-leaving the cult.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00szwgj/Storyville_20102011_Leaving_the_Cult/

Documentary which tells the story of three teenage boys who manage to escape a polygamist Mormon cult in Utah. As they struggle to come to terms with life in the real world, we learn about the extraordinary lives they used to live - in houses with many mothers, where their sisters may be married off at 14 and, surprisingly, where no-one can wear red in case it offends the Second Coming. Powerfully emotional and compelling, a fascinating insight to a community it's hard to believe exists.

Watched this the other night and it was a very good watch! I cant believe this still goes on in the U S of A.

The last irresistible TV I have seen was CRACKER, with Robbie Coltrane. I honestly have not seen anything else since then that has made me put off other endeavours. Unmissable in its day.

Its due a new airing, with all new episodes, ten years on. I wonder if Robbie will still have that edge. I doubt it, but we shall see.

EDIT:
Sorry if I broke the rules, as the original series is long past.

I've been trying to find the name of an Arena documentary for days, and now I've found it.

Wisconsin Death Trip.

Anyone seen it?

I saw it a few years ago and It's one of those bizarre films that stays with you.

I really loved it.

Here's a review:

"Surreal and dreamlike documentary about the strange and murderous goings-on in Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the 1890s. With music from sources as varied as Debussy and Blind Lemon Jefferson and shot in sepia and black and white for a turn of the nineteenth century experience, this is a bizarre experience."

See if you can find a copy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/

This link is in the 'Afghanistan unseen' thread, but it is the last film on Henrietta Lacks that looks most exciting and strange.

It's my viewing for tonight.

Rich Hall's Dirty South - amusing and informative

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t26zf/Rich_Halls_The_Dirty_South/

I saw that -fantastic!

there's a documentary about harpy eagles on the iplayer. good.

also diverting: penguin island. rolf. penguins. what's not to love?

Two and a half hours of programmes about bikes on BBC Four tonight from 8.30, including one about a fella building a custom bike and then the storyville doc about Tom Simpson. Probably available on iplayer also.

I found the new Sherlock Holmes series on BBC to be quite brilliant. Tight and funny script, good acting and pacing, and just an excellent and modern reinterpretation of an familiar formula.

Good doc about base jumping. And you thought doing one of them skidz with you leg over the bars took balls....

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-men-who-jump-off-buildings/4od

Watching a really good documentary about Gerry Durrell this moment, BBCFour... Don't know if it's on iPlayer, can't access iPlayer here in Ireland so it's a download...

Unmissable tv series for me at the moment is Entourage, I will stay in/ put things off to watch it but thanks to watching online there's no real need...

If you want something a bit serious but with a humourous slant you should watch some of the Vice travel guides, I've only seen the North Korea one, apparently the Liberia one is harrowing stuff, the kind of stuff that can't be unseen...

On Discovery Channel now there's Moonwalk One. It's great. Watch it.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalk_One[/ame]

http://www.moonwalkone.com/

Moonwalk One is a feature-length documentary film about the flight of Apollo 11, which landed the first earthlings on the moon. Besides portraying the massive technological achievement of that event, the film places it in some historical context, and tries to capture the mood and feel of the people on Earth at the time when man first walked on another world.

In 2007 a group of producers was researching film footage known to have originated with Moonwalk One for a film about the overall Apollo program called In the Shadow of the Moon. One of the producers Christopher Riley tracked down the director Theo Kamecke for help with his questions, only to find that Theo still had two large steel shipping boxes containing the only 35mm print of the original film, sitting under his desk. (The original printing elements for Moonwalk One had been lost or misplaced by Technicolor when they closed down their operation in the 1970s). Over the next two years a consortium was put together to digitally restore the 35mm print and to re-release this director's cut on DVD in time for the 40th anniversary of the first walk on the moon. The DVD includes a director’s commentary, the story of the making of the film and other features. Discovery Channel in the UK have acquired this version and will be transmitting it with additional material featuring producer Chris Riley, from Monday July 20th.

The new BBC Sherlock Holmes is surprisingly good. Not a bullshit revamp like you might expect, they've made it very true to the original even though it set in the present.

I've just watched the fist one of this. Well presented.

Our Drugs War

Documentary series examining the global story of drugs, from Afghanistan's poppy fields to the streets of New York and the estates of Edinburgh

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/our-drugs-war

Moonwalk One is on youtube and google vids: YouTube- Moonwalk One, ca. 1970

11th Hour, produced and narrated by Di Caprio.
Few years old now but I found the mix of narratives from well known scientists to tribesmen absolutely fascinating.
Made the missus watch it but it didn't strike a chord with her - I think its must see stuff though especially given the BP fiasco.

Today Excess Baggage at 10am Radio 4
Cycle path from London to paris

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v115q

Paxo meets russell Brand.. A very interesting 20mins watch..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9053238.stm

ruussell brand can not be interesting.

And indeed he wasn't

Paxman asks him why he thinks everyone wants to be a celebrity, Brand starts saying

"I suppose it's an idea that deeply permeates because it's omnipresent..."

Then went on to say similiarly wanky but ultimately empty sentences for the rest of the interview