REEP - What's On - TV & Radio Listings

Sunday 4 January

Big Ideas that Changed the World

4:35am

Consumerism. Documentary strand that explores some of the most influential theories and movements in the history of civilisation. This programme sees Jonathon Porritt, co-founder of the Green Party and former chairman of Friends of the Earth, examine consumerism. Porritt argues that consumerism, a subject never far from the news headlines today, has a dark and destructive side and is in danger of destroying the planet.

Something Understood

6:05am

Is This the Way? Mark Tully considers many people's new-found reliance on 'sat nav' and wonders what else we lose when we lose the ability to find our way through a landscape.

Natural World

4:40pm

Great White Shark - A Living Legend. Wildlife film. South African naturalist Mike Rutzen is crazy about great white sharks. He never saw Jaws, so he doesn't share the terror that has made these sharks the world's most feared predator. For ten years Mike has been swimming with great whites, without the protection of a cage. He has spent so much time in their company that he has learnt to read their body language and to think like a shark - it's this knowledge that keeps him safe. Mike's quest to understand them better now takes him into the heart of a seal ambush site where he hopes to witness their hunting behaviour from underwater.

Monday 5 January

The Essay

11:00pm

The Utopian Dream - and its Disappointments. 1. The Moment of Hope: Drawing on her own experiences of having grown up in the Great Hospital, Norwich, and living at New College, Oxford, where she teaches history and religion, Jane Shaw explores the viability of utopian communities.

Tuesday 6 January

Home Planet

3:00pm

Richard Daniel and the team discuss listeners' questions about the environment and the natural world.

The Essay

11:00pm

The Utopian Dream - and its Disappointments. 2. The Dream of Harmony: Jane Shaw, lecturer in history and religion at New College, Oxford, explores the pursuit of harmony by political regimes and religious communities, and their attempts to impose uniformity.

Wednesday 7 January

The Essay

11:00pm

The Utopian Dream - and its Disappointments. 3. Making Perfect Humans: The Rev Canon Dr Jane Shaw of Oxford University explores the uses of eugenics and genetics in the quest for perfection.

Thursday 8 January

Costing the Earth

1:30pm

Better Living Through Chemistry? Tom Heap investigates how being exposed to a cocktail of pesticides could potentially damage our health. A recent High Court ruling found in favour of a woman who claimed that prolonged exposure to pesticides sprayed in the fields surrounding her home had made her ill. In the light of this, the EU has proposed that several pesticides be banned, but how might crop yields and food prices be affected should a ban be implemented?

Open Country

3:00pm

Countryside magazine. Matt Baker visits Northumberland to find out what the new year might bring for the fledgling red kite population.

The Essay

11:00pm

The Utopian Dream - and its Disappointments. 4. Art as the Site of Hope: The Rev Canon Dr Jane Shaw of Oxford University explores artists' attempts to create utopian communities.

Friday 9 January

Natural World

8:00pm

Cuckoo. Behind the magical call of the cuckoo is a bird that is a cheat, a thief and a killer. Just how does the cuckoo trick other birds into accepting its eggs and raising its young? And why do they work so relentlessly to feed a demanding chick that looks nothing like them and will soon dwarf them? New photography is combined with archive footage and the latest scientific findings to solve a puzzle which, as narrator David Attenborough explains, has perplexed nature-watchers for thousands of years.

The Essay

11:00pm

The Utopian Dream - and its Disappointments. 5. Realistic Utopias: The Rev Canon Dr Jane Shaw of Oxford University explores utopias that work.