Sunday 2nd June 2013
| Coronation Year In Colour |
A fascinating look back at life in the early 1950s as the nation prepared for the Coronation of a new monarch 60 years ago. Using rare colour footage including some previously unseen home movies, the film explores how the nation lived, worked and shopped between 1952 and the actual day of the Coronation in June 1953. It includes memories and contributions from many who were involved in the organisation of the Coronation, as well as those who witnessed it on the streets. Winston Churchill's tailor recalls the experience as well as some of the Queen's maids of honour. It reveals how this pivotal event shaped our modern lives as a nation gathered around their new television sets on the big day.
Peter Jones Meets...
BBC 2, 7.00pm - 8.00pm
Peter meets former market trader Chris Dawson who set up discount chain The Range. Chris now has 70 stores, earning him a multi-million pound personal fortune. Peter also calls on Mark and Mo Constantine, who run Lush, which last year sold £360 million pounds worth of soap, shampoo and scents.
Chris, who is proud of his Del Boy background, says his business strategy is to 'get as much as you can, for as long as you can', while Mark and Mo pride themselves on being ethically conscious but still enjoy the sweet smell of success. Mark says that 'too much timidity is part of the reason for business failures'.
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Monday 3rd June 2013
Britain On Film
BBC 4, 8.00pm - 8.30pm
In 1959 Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. During the 1960s - a decade that witnessed profound shifts across Britain's political, economic and cultural landscapes - many felt anxiety about the dizzying pace of change.
Look at Life reflected the increasing social and moral unease in films that tackled subjects ranging from contraception to immigration; from increasing stress at work to the preservation of the Sabbath; and from the environmental implications of waste management to the threat of nuclear weapons. Through these films, we can glimpse many of the seismic societal transformations of the Sixties developments that polarised the nation and changed life in Britain forever.
This episode delves into the fast-changing world of childhood, a life-stage that was being transformed by sweeping changes to the British educational system including the introduction of radical technologies and teaching methods in schools and the emergence of new organised leisure activities that gave a generation of children the freedom to enjoy play as never before.
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Wednesday 5th June 2013
The Iraq War
BBC 2, 9.00pm - 10.00pm
In After the Fall, part two of this three-part series, key insiders describe the chaotic aftermath of the defeat of Saddam Hussein. Dick Cheney and Colin Powell come to blows over America's role as occupying power. General David Petraeus recalls the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi army. The representative of Grand Ayatollah Sistani - Iraq's most senior Shia cleric - tells how Sistani forced the Americans into agreeing to elections in Iraq. One of the greatest challenges came from Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi army. America and the new Iraqi government were able to defeat Sadr militarily, but it set the stage for sectarian war.
The producers in charge of the series were Norma Percy, Brian Lapping and Paul Mitchell, the team at Brook Lapping Productions who were behind the multi-award-winning documentaries Iran & the West, Putin, Russia and the West, The Death of Yugoslavia etc.
Unreliable Evidence
Radio 4, 8.00pm - 8.45pm
Clive Anderson and guests ask if the fundamental tenet of our legal system - that justice should be seen to be done - is coming increasingly under threat.
New Government legislation is just coming into force, widening the scope of secret courts in what are known as Closed Material Procedures. The move is defended by the Government as necessary to allow sensitive intelligence to be heard in court without compromising national security. But the move has been criticised by many senior lawyers as "unfair, unnecessary and unbalanced".
And the country's highest court, the Supreme Court, which normally conducts its business in front of television cameras, has recently held its first secret session to hear evidence about a Tehran bank accused of participating in Iran's nuclear weapons programme. The court's president said the decision to sit in private had been taken with great reluctance.
Many other courts regularly conduct much, if not all, of their business in secret - such as the Special Immigration Appeals Commission and the Court of Protection, which settles the affairs of people who are incapable of making their own decisions. It has also just emerged that a 50 year old woman was recently jailed in secret by the Court of Protection, for trying to remove her father from a care home.
Clive's guests also discuss concerns that the granting of anonymity orders for defendants, witnesses or victims in rape and other sex offence cases, can result in injustices and criticisms of various restrictions on Press access to - and reporting of - the courts.
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Thursday 6th June 2013
| Who'd Be A Teacher?: Tonight |
