³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO - Winter/Spring highlights 2006
Factual
Balderdash & Piffle
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Balderdash & Piffle is a major new series for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO about
words and phrases and where they come from.
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It explores the
hidden histories behind words and recruits the nation's help to
try to solve some of the most intriguing mysteries in the
English language.
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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The series is presented from locations in Oxford, home of the
Oxford English Dictionary, by Victoria Coren.
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A host of
language-lovers travel the world, each on the trail of a
different word.
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Ian Hislop examines the ever-baffling jargon that is
management-speak; Daniela Nardini gets her tongue
twisted round a delightful 99; and Jerry Hall twirls her swizzlestick as she contemplates the origin
of the word cocktail.
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Ever wondered about
ploughman's lunch, codswallop, bingo or boffin? The
series has the answers.
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The whole nation is also invited to join the
Wordhunt and dig for words and their origins. If
members of the public come forward with new
evidence about the 50 words and phrases on
the target list, their efforts will be
immortalised for ever in the Oxford English
Dictionary.
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To become involved, viewers can
visit bbc.co.uk/wordhunt.
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GM
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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Who Do You Think You Are?
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Julian Clary decides he's "common as
muck" and Jane Horrocks declares she's
"more Lancashire than hotpot".
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This second series offers six more well-known faces, including
Jeremy Paxman, Stephen Fry, Sheila Hancock and director
Gurinder Chadha the chance to delve into their families' past.
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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They uncover more than a few surprises, family secrets and
mysterious ancestors, sometimes with only the briefest of
evidence to go on.
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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In Stephen Fry's own words: "This was one of
the most extraordinary experiences of my life. On both sides
there were remarkable shocks. All in all, quite a journey."
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KA
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Francesco's Italy - Top To Toe
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Francesco da Mosto, the
charismatic Venetian presenter,
author and architect who
brought the story of Venice to
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO audiences, returns to
the channel, abandoning his
boat for an open-top car
journey through the art,
history and beauty of Italy.
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Francesco explores Italy's well-known
treasures as well as its
secret side: the landscape
gardens of Tuscany alongside
the prima donnas of La Scala;
the ruins of Pompeii
juxtaposed with Gracie Fields'
hideaway on Capri; Botticelli's
The Birth Of Venus; and Pisa's
Leaning Tower.
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Along the way, Francesco
reveals that he is half Sicilian,
and his journey leads him to
explore his father's roots in
the north and on to his
mother's family in the south.
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IC
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The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook
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Following a critically acclaimed and highly popular pilot
programme earlier this year, and a phenomenal public reaction,
the new year sees the arrival on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO of a highly unusual
documentary series presented by two warm, life-long foodies.
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Dave Myers and Si King are big, bearded bikers who met 17 years
ago working behind the scenes on the set of a Catherine
Cookson drama.
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Having discovered a mutual passionate love of food, travel and
adventure, they pack up their panniers, rev up their bikes and
head off in search of authentic culinary and cultural experiences
in all corners of the world.
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With their friendly disposition and
infectious enthusiasm, the lads are welcomed with open arms by
locals of all ages.
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Film crew in tow, Dave and Si are off on six
quests that take in Namibia, the Isle of Man and Ireland, Transylvania, Turkey, Vietnam and Mexico.
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Factual Publicity
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The Will To Walk
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Three people face a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity: the
chance to walk again…
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Mik is paraplegic and has been
a wheelchair user since
childhood. After a recent car
crash, doctors operated on
him and, suddenly, he could feel
his toes. He might even walk,
but it would mean more
operations and a lot of pain.
He must now decide if it's
worth it.
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This film also follows the
stories of Sue, who has
multiple sclerosis and stakes
everything on stem cell
treatment – it's her last
chance of recovery but
everything depends on
whether she can raise enough
money; and Judy, a successful
businesswoman until she broke
her neck in a fall. Doctors said
she'd never walk again but
she's determined to prove
them wrong.
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KA
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Facing The Truth
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In six gripping face-to-face
encounters, victims and
perpetrators from the
Northern Ireland conflict
meet for the first time in a
unique event.
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu oversees these meetings as
victims and perpetrators face
the truth and each other, in a
series presented by Fergal
Keane.
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Victims tell their
stories about the human costs
of what the perpetrators have
done; and perpetrators
acknowledge the pain and
suffering they have caused,
revealing crucial details about
their acts of violence.
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In these compelling
encounters, victims question
perpetrators directly as they
try to get to the truth.
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LK
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Accused!
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The Orkney child abuse case was one in a series of high-profile
scandals that rocked Britain in the late Eighties and early
Nineties.
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It illuminated a burgeoning child abuse "industry" that
seemed to be spinning out of control. In the Eighties, new
theories and techniques aimed at uncovering the existence of
child abuse had swept across the Atlantic and through the British
social work profession.
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In February 1991, the unsuspecting and remote Scottish island
was hit by co-ordinated dawn raids, police and social workers
swooping without warning on four Orkney families and taking
their nine children into care.
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Extraordinary allegations of Satanic
ritual abuse had been made and an extraordinary fight ensued to
have the children returned and the families' names cleared.
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In Accused!, the parents, children and social workers involved
describe their experience – some talking for the first time – of
how and why it happened: what drove the social workers to act
so drastically; the resulting campaign that galvanised the
community; and the children themselves reveal what really
happened in their all-important disclosure sessions with
the social workers.
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GM
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The Convent
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Following on from the success of
The Monastery, The Convent follows
four ordinary women as they give up
their everyday lifestyles to embark
upon a spiritual journey with a
community of nuns.
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Offering a remarkable glimpse into the inner workings of convent
life, the women will spend 40 days and 40 nights in a world
without material possessions and where the pressures of modern
life are left behind.
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Cut off from the outside world, they will share the daily routine
of prayers and work with the Sisters in an attempt to discover if
life has any greater meaning.
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This series explores whether the age-old values of the nuns hold
any relevance to modern women and whether or not this
experience will have the power to transform their lives.
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CR
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A Question of Selection
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With "selection" a taboo in
New Labour's education
policy, this series investigates
whether under-privileged
children in the Fifties and
Sixties had a better deal
under the 11+ system than
they do today.
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The first programme goes back to school with some
well-known people for whom
the chance to pass an exam
and attend a grammar school
took them out of the working
classes and transformed their
lives.
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The next part returns
with them to their schools today – to discover whether
children from the same
background have the same
opportunities and standard of
education.
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A Question Of
Selection also examines the "postcode lottery" which,
critics say, has replaced
selection by ability with
selection by postcode.
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NL
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The Private Life of an Easter Masterpiece
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Three great paintings encompassing traditional Easter themes –
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci; Salvador Dali's The Christ Of
St John Of The Cross; and Resurrection by Piero della Francesca –
are forensically examined and explained in these
special programmes.
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The Private Life Of An Easter Masterpiece goes beyond art theory
and fashionable artistic movements to present the biographies of
the paintings themselves, exploring how the paint has been
applied, how particular ideas are conveyed to viewers and how
each work is a unique reflection of its own life and times.
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CR/JC
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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Whose Britain Is It Anyway?
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Dynamic duo Peter and Dan
Snow lift the lid on how
few of Britain's 60 million
inhabitants own its 60 million
acres of land.
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They reveal that 90 per cent
live on about 10 per cent of
the land and that homes are
now a third smaller than
previous generations'.
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While the Forestry
Commission is still the
largest landowner, the Church
has sold off over a million
acres in recent times; and
Prince Charles earns £36k
a day from his Duchy of
Cornwall land holdings and
property portfolio.
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BR/LS
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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Jimmy's Farm II
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On the last visit to Jimmy's Farm at Christmas 2004, Essex boy Jimmy Doherty was ploughing ahead regardless of problems – determined to realise his dream of establishing a successful pig-farming business by returning to traditional agricultural methods.
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Now it's his third year and everything is getting bigger.
Ambitious as ever, Jimmy's recent additions include a bull, 100
rescued battery chickens and 800,000 bees.
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Other challenges
include creating a wildlife walk, managing the increasing
numbers of staff and controlling the new prize boar.
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Can
Jimmy rise above the obstacles or has he finally bitten off
more than he can chew?
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KC
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How To Have A Good Death
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It is an inevitable part of life but death is a taboo subject in
today's society.
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In How To Have
A Good Death, Esther Rantzen examines the reality of end-of-life
care in the UK and reveals
the findings of the largest
national survey ever held on
the way people deal with death and dying.
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Uncovering attitudes to, and
experiences of, the medical
care given to loved ones, the
programme asks whether
there is a need for change to
improve care for the dying.
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It
also features new training and
projects in British hospitals
which encourage staff to see
death and dying as having the
same significance and value
as any other stage in life, as
well as hearing from doctors
and nurses about the day-to-day
reality of coping with
dying patients.
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Learning is extending the
debate by involving ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Local
Radio and ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radios 2 and 4
in a week of discussion on the
subject of death and end-of-life
care.
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There will be a
website and printed support
material to accompany this season.
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KN
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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Elizabeth David: A Life in Recipes
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Post-war Britain's culinary
couture was limited, to say the
least.
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In the main, restaurants
served dull, tasteless food, and "home-cooked" fare usually
meant stewed to within an
inch of its life.
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Cookery writer Elizabeth
David was to change – at least
in part – the attitude of many
to cuisine.
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To this day she is
revered by many of the
country's acclaimed chefs,
including Gordon Ramsay and
Jamie Oliver.
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This fascinating
drama-documentary tells the
story of her pioneering battle
to change ingrained British attitudes to eating, and bring
the flavours of the
Mediterranean to the austerity
of Fifties Britain.
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EF
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Springwatch with Bill Oddie
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Springwatch 2005 renewed the nation's passion for British wildlife
with its live day-by-day coverage following the fortunes of several well-loved creatures.
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Off air, viewers joined the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Breathing
Space campaign in their thousands and pledged over 38 million
hours of action for wildlife.
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In 2006, Bill Oddie, Kate Humble and Simon King are back for
three weeks of live wildlife reports from around the country and
more news from the ongoing Springwatch survey.
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They'll also be
continuing the Breathing Space campaign by asking viewers to share their favourite spots for enjoying nature on their doorstep
and beyond.
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DC
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The House That Dick Built
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Inventor Dick Strawbridge and his family have a challenge: to
create a sustainable lifestyle in an eco-friendly house that
includes all mod cons – a "green dream" shared by many.
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Their project is the restoration of a derelict farmhouse, with no
plumbing or electricity, set in three wild acres.
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With hilarious results, they build a water wheel, wind turbines
and compost toilets.
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In their permaculture garden, battery farm
hens are liberated, pigs fattened and mulching is the buzz word
on their road to self-sufficiency.
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BR/LS
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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The Lost World of Friese-Greene
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The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and the British Film Institute (bfi) are hitting the
road together again. Following the success of their
collaboration on The Lost World Of Mitchell & Kenyon, the
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and the bfi are taking viewers on another magical
journey, showcasing a series of remarkable films that were
shot in pioneering early colour at a time when the world
was filmed in black and white.
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In the mid-Twenties, film-maker Claude Friese-Greene made a series of films during an intrepid drive from Land's
End to John O'Groats, in the early days of the motor car.
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These colour films have now been rescued from the
archive to delight and intrigue today's audiences.
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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In The Lost World Of Friese-Greene, presenter Dan
Cruickshank traces the original route in a vintage car,
tracking down relatives of the people who appear in
the films.
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Remarkably, Dan also shows footage to
people who actually appeared in the films as children
and are seeing themselves on film for the first time, 80 years later.
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This unique archive reveals many things in the UK
that have changed in 80 years, as well as, surprisingly,
what has remained the same.
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GM
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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The Romantics
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David Tennant, David Threlfall and Dudley Sutton feature in
the cast for this new series
written and presented by
acclaimed novelist and
biographer Peter Ackroyd.
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The English Romantic poets –
from Blake, through to
Coleridge, Wordsworth,
Shelley, Byron and Keats –
were at the forefront of a
movement between 1760 and
1830 which would redraw
the political map of Europe
and North America, expand
the limits of the human
imagination and radically
impact on the way people see
the world today.
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Following on from the success
of Peter Ackroyd's London, this
series tells the turbulent story
of the pioneers of the modern
imagination: their political
passions, personal dreams and
private pleasures.
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IC
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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The Wilson Conspiracy
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Harold Wilson's shock resignation in 1976 launched a host of
conspiracy theories – raising questions about whether Wilson
had been a victim of an MI5 "dirty trick"; whether he was a
Soviet spy; whether there had been some scandal involving his
political secretary Marcia Williams; or even that early signs of
Alzheimer's were beginning to affect his legendary
photographic memory.
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Scheduled to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the
resignation (March 2006), this programme uses contributions
from Wilson's inner circle, interviews and dramatic reconstruction of revealing, unpublished interviews with Wilson
to untangle the mysteries surrounding his career as Labour
leader and Prime Minister.
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PR
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Brick Lane
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This documentary explores
the unique history of the road
that became the destination of many first-generation
immigrants over the centuries,
from the Huguenots and the
Jews to the Bangladeshi
residents of today.
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This is the
story of people who made
extraordinary personal
journeys, moving continents
and overcoming prejudice in the hope of a brighter future
in England.
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NT
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Banglatown Banquet
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Viewers can immerse
themselves in the lives of a
group of mature Muslim
women in this thought-provoking drama.
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Dressed in
their hijabs, they leave the
familiarity of their Bangladeshi
community and set out on a
voyage of discovery.
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NT
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Marvels of the Modern Age
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One hundred years ago, a new
movement shocked culture to
its core. It began as the
aesthetic ideal of a few artists
and idealists but became a way
of life for millions of people.
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That movement was
Modernism and, today, it influences everything people
do – from queuing in IKEA to
pounding the treadmill at
the gym.
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This landmark series, written
and presented by Dan
Cruickshank, traces the roots
of Modernism and focuses on
the movement's leading lights,
such as Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, and the
century's most seismic political
events including the rise of
Nazi Germany.
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The series
coincides with a major
exhibition at London's Victoria
And Albert Museum and is
accompanied by programming on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ FOUR.
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IC
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TWO highlights Winter/Spring 2006
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The Apprentice
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Burning ambition meets the school of hard
knocks in the hotly anticipated second series of
The Apprentice – the show which sees 14 young
high-fliers battle it out through a gruelling
selection process for a year-long job with selfmade
tycoon and notoriously hard-to-please
boss Sir Alan Sugar.
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The 14 candidates face the biggest challenge of
their lives – a 12-week-long job interview.
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Each
week, their ambition, business flair and wit is
tested to the limit as they compete in business
tasks set by Sir Alan.
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Divided into teams, the
winners of the weekly assignment are rewarded,
while the losers report to the boardroom for a
showdown with Sir Alan and his two assistants,
Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer.
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After being grilled on their mistakes, one is then
singled out for the sack with the immortal
words from Sir Alan – "You're fired!"
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Over on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ THREE, viewers will be able to
catch up with the latest firing after each episode
of the series in The Apprentice – You're Fired.
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Tim's Story, a standalone documentary following
last year's winner Tim Campbell, precedes the
series while The Apprentice – You're Hired will talk
to the newly crowned winner after the final
episode of the series.
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RD
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