91Èȱ¬ FOUR - Autumn highlights 2005
The Lost Decade Season
Little
Kinsey
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Little Kinsey lifts the lid on the nation's first-ever
sex survey, conducted by the Mass Observation project in 1949, following
the controversial Kinsey Report in the United States a year earlier.
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The findings of Little Kinsey were considered so outrageous
and shocking that they have been buried in an archive in the University
of Sussex. Until now.
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Thousands of people were asked about their sexual attitudes
and behaviour and most answered the intrusive, intimate questions.
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The results revealed a unique snapshot of the sexual
lives of the British population.
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One in four men admitted to having sex with prostitutes.
One in five women said they'd had an extra-marital affair. One in five
men said they'd had a homosexual experience, and women confessed to
widespread disappointment in sex with their husbands.
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A Testimony Films production.
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FP
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Our
Hidden Lives
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Sarah Parish, Richard Briers,
Ian McDiarmid and Lesley Sharp star
in the adaptation of award-winning writer Simon Garfield's best-selling
book, in which he skilfully wove the diaries of ordinary people, converting
the uncertain years following the Second World War into a wonderful
and evocative patchwork.
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Four main stories emerge - Maggie Joy Blunt is a thoroughly
modern young woman, a post war 'Bridget Jones', and a would-be writer.
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B Charles is a gay antiques dealer who lives in Edinburgh,
an horrific snob who is terrified of being exposed.
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Herbert Brush is a retired engineer who tends his allotment
and writes appalling poetry, and Edie Rutherford is a Sheffield housewife,
a forthright socialist but with some startling prejudices.
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"I love these diaries. They are real stories, better
than any novel." Margaret Forster
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Our Hidden Lives has been adapted for 91Èȱ¬ FOUR by David
Eldridge and is directed by Michael Samuels.
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A Diverse production.
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FP
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Soho
Boho
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Much of London was quiet and subdued after the war.
Soho, in contrast, was a vibrant, buzzing magnet for artists, writers,
poets, prostitutes, philosophers, crooks and misfits - an oasis of colour
and energy in a drab and war-torn city.
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Soho life followed no pattern, the only governance being
the opening hours of the pubs, clubs and cafés, some of which - such
as The Colony Rooms and The French House - still exist today.
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The 'cast' - which included Dylan Thomas, Francis Bacon,
Quentin Crisp and Jeffrey Bernard - had the freedom to behave as they
saw fit.
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Bad behaviour was almost expected; people shared what
they had, and weren't judged for drunken or promiscuous behaviour.
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Soho Boho brings to life this moment in Soho's glorious
history, with testimonies from those who socialised there and rarely-seen
archive footage, audio clips and photographs.
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A 91Èȱ¬ production.
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KA
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91Èȱ¬ FOUR Autumn season
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Censored
At The Seaside: The Postcards of Donald McGill
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Donald McGill was a British institution whose saucy
postcards became an integral part of the British seaside holiday, and
at the height of his popularity were selling up to 16 million copies
a year.
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The bawdy humour came straight out of the music hall
and it's a British tradition that led on to the Carry On films, Benny
Hill and Les Dawson.
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McGill's humour was thought to be so representative
of the British character that it was championed by George Orwell in
a famous essay, and Dennis Potter named him the 'Picasso of the Pier'.
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Yet in the Fifties, with McGill almost in his eighties,
he was prosecuted for obscenity.
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He pleaded guilty to avoid being imprisoned and continued
to work for another eight years, but the demise of the saucy seaside
postcard had begun.
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Censored At The Seaside:The Postcards of Donald McGill
includes interviews with McGill enthusiasts Roy Hudd, Roy Hattersley
and Michael Winner.
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A Firefly production.
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FP
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The Improbable Mr
Attlee
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Professor David Reynolds takes a fresh
look at the dramatic achievements and failures of Clement Attlee's post-war
Labour Government.
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The Second World War had bankrupted Britain, yet Attlee
and his colleagues were not deterred.
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They took a huge gamble and pressed on with one of the
most far-reaching reform programmes in British history - which included
creating a National Health Service and nationalising major industries
- but they were unable to lift rationing and stumbled from one economic
crisis to another.
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At the heart of this remarkable story was a man caught
between socialism, patriotism and Cabinet colleagues who craved his
job.
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Labour's unlikely leader was terse and uncharismatic
but very effective - the improbable Mr Attlee.
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A Blakeway production.
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KA
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When
Britain went Bananas
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The humble banana stars in a story of false dawns, crude
Government control, spies, rebellion and law-abiding citizens turned
criminal.
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After a five-year absence, during which the banana
achieved an almost mythical status, the first shipment of bananas arrived
in Britain in December 1945.
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It was the ideal Government propaganda tool, a convenient
token of a brighter future.
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With bananas restricted to children and pregnant women,
the nation, oppressed under the controls of the State and desperate
to taste that forbidden fruit, was all too willing to break the law.
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As the Ministry fought hard to retain control with increasingly
absurd measures, those flouting the law became more determined.
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Housewives took to the streets and a cycle of oppression
and rebellion ensued, threatening to tip over into popular revolt.
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At the heart of When Britain went Bananas is a comical
fruit that perfectly captures the spirit of a post-war nation.
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A Firefly production.
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FP
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The Bad Food Guide
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The Second World War didn't only devastate the lives
and homes of the British people - it was also a culinary disaster for
Britain.
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There was strict rationing and the Government limited
people to spending up to five shillings per meal.
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The Ministry of Food looked for cheap proteins, and
meats like snoek and whale were served in the restaurants.
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The caterers weren't honest with their customers about
the meat and the service was generally poor.
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Raymond Postgate, left-wing historian and author, was
frustrated. He wrote articles criticising the caterers and set up the
Good Food Club where anyone could write in with suggestions of good
food places.
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In 1951, he published the first Good Food Guide with
more than 500 recommendations - which marked a new era for British catering.
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The Bad Food Guide features archive material, menus,
and interviews including Sir Clement Freud, who opened
his own restaurant after the war; Elizabeth Ray, one
of the first Good Food Guide inspectors, and Oliver Postgate.
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A 91Èȱ¬ production.
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NR
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91Èȱ¬ FOUR Autumn season
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The
Third Programme: High Culture for All
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With war ending, 1945 was a triumph for the arts. Book
sales boomed; audiences flocked to exhibitions, the theatre, opera and
ballet.
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Culture was to be part of the reconstruction of Britain
after six years of war.
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The Arts Council; the Institute of Contemporary Arts;
the Aldeburgh Festival; the Cheltenham Festival; and the Edinburgh Festival
were all created within a few years of the war.
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91Èȱ¬ Radio's Third Programme started in 1946 and captured
the post-war mood in Britain. It was accessible to all and broadcast
only the very best of elite culture.
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Yet within a few years, the Third Programme was in crisis.
What happened to it reflected the profound changes in British society.
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The Third Programme: High Culture for All charts the
rise and fall of an idea: that high culture was good for everyone.
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A 91Èȱ¬ production.
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NR
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A Very British Olympics
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As London looks forward to hosting the 2012 Olympics,
the extraordinary spirit of the 1948 Olympics is captured with unique
archive footage and interviews.
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Athletes were housed in army camps. Rationing meant
packed lunches and every nation was asked to bring its own food.
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The Paralympics were created so that the war-injured
could compete.
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Hungarian Karoly Takacs learned to use his left hand
after his right was shattered by a grenade - and won gold in pistol
shooting. Emil Zatopek, a former Czech Army Colonel, trained in his
army boots to win the 10,000 metres.
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Crowds of 80,000 watched at Wembley and the event was
televised for the first time by the 91Èȱ¬.
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A record number of athletes (4,500) and nations (59)
participated but neither Germany nor Japan were invited to take part
and Stalin forbade Soviet athletes to compete for fear they'd be beaten
by the United States.
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The very existence of the 1948 London Games became
an immense symbol of hope for the future.
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A 91Èȱ¬ production.
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FP
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91Èȱ¬ FOUR Autumn season
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The
Jitterbug Years
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Extraordinary 91Èȱ¬ archive footage, highlighting some
of the most important events from the post-war years of 1945 to 1953,
is set to the music of the time - heralding an era of enormous social
and cultural change that would eventually explode into rock and roll
and teenage rebellion.
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This unique footage shows how the Brits enjoyed themselves
in the aftermath of the war, despite rationing, deprivation and the
big freeze of 1947.
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Events include the birth of the NHS; the baby boom
and soaring divorce rate; the influence of American music and dance;
the Empire dissolving; Britain entering the jet and atomic age; Attlee's
socialist Government taking over major industries; Churchill's second
term as PM; the Festival of Britain; the discovery of DNA; and the Queen's
Coronation.
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The evocative soundtrack includes How Lucky You Are
from Vera Lynn; Isn't Life Wonderful by Alma Cogan and Les Howard; GI
Jive by Tony Bennett; Jezebel by Frankie Laine; and I've Got My Love
To Keep Me Warm from Les Brown and his orchestra.
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A 91Èȱ¬ production.
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FP
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91Èȱ¬ FOUR Autumn season
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John
Wyndham: The Invisible Man of British Science Fiction
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John Wyndham hated the term 'science
fiction', yet the author of The Day of The Triffids and The Midwich
Cuckoos remains one of Britain's most influential sci-fi writers.
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In the Fifties his books dominated the bestseller lists
and, decades later, they are all still in print and still seem just
as relevant.
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This dramatised documentary, starring Chris
Langham, explores the science behind his fiction and uncovers
for the first time the strange private life of this unique writer.
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Drawing on the painstaking research of Wyndham's biographer,
Dr David Ketterer, it includes interviews with personal
friends including sci-fi writers Brian Aldiss and
Sam Youd, and scientists Steve Jones and Armand
Le Roi.
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Wyndham's private photo album - and the only television
interview he ever gave - feature alongside clips from the movie and
TV adaptations of The Day of The Triffids.
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A 91Èȱ¬ production.
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KA
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Ronald
Searle
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Haunted by the success of his most famous creation -
the girls of St Trinian's and the boys of St Custard's (notably Molesworth)
- but also haunted by his own wartime experiences as a Japanese prisoner
of war, Ronald Searle left his wife, his family and
his country in 1961.
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Searle has since lived and worked from his home in
the South of France and this is the first film for 30 years to consider
his life and work.
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Extensive examples, drawn specially for the programme
by Times and Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson, explore
what constitutes the unmistakable 'Searle line' and how his work developed
in the crucial years immediately following the end of the Second World
War - moving from the merely decorative and amusing to the penetrating
and disturbing.
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Contributions include specially-commissioned portraits
from Gerald Scarfe, Posy Simmonds, Steve Bell and
Michael Heath, as well as Alan Coren and Russell
Davies.
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A Lion TV (Scotland) production.
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FP
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Dennis
Wheatley: A Letter To Posterity
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Dennis Wheatley wrote more than 70 books,
selling an incredible 50 million copies.
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Labelled the 'Prince of Thriller Writers' by critics,
he served his country with distinction in both wars and sold fine wines
to the crowned heads of Europe, but he counted a con-man and a murderer
among his closest friends and was a keen student of the occult and black
arts.
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Less than 30 years since his death, this once hugely
popular writer is now rather forgotten. Here, he is summoned back to
life and his legacy re-examined.
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With previously unseen archive footage, the documentary
features interviews with his friends, including actor Christopher
Lee, and experts including his biographer Phil Baker
and leading authority on British popular fiction Clive Bloom.
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Unearthing the contents of an extraordinary letter addressed
to 'Posterity', written by Wheatley in 1947 and buried in a subsequently
recovered time capsule, the film reveals his fears for the future and
his contempt for the present.
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It seeks to discover just how representative Wheatley
was of a slice of British society which found post-war austerity and
Labour government reforms almost as bad as the war itself; and what
he would make of the world today if he really were to return.
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A Lion TV (Scotland) production.
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FP
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