Secrets of the Superbrands: Technology

Alex Reid takes a closer look at some of the most powerful technology brands in the world - including Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Nokia, Facebook, and Google - how have they become so central to our lives and how do they plan to stay ahead of the game? He finds out why Microsoft now have to spend billions of dollars every year on development to score a hit product and why games console companies are willing to lose billions to get their product in your living room. He discovers how technology format wars are being determined with the help of the porn industry and how Apple has literally become a new religion.

Tuesday 17th May 2011 - BBC3 - 60 minutes

This Green and Pleasant Land: The Story of British Landscape Painting

400 years of art history in 90 minutes? This film takes an eclectic group of people from all walks of life, including artists, critics and academics, out into the countryside to take a look at how we have depicted our landscape in art, discovering how the genre carried British painting to its highest eminence and won a place in the nation's heart.

From Flemish beginnings in the court of Charles I to the digital thumbstrokes of David Hockney's iPad, the paintings reveal as much about the nation's past as they do the patrons and artists who created them. Famous names sit alongside lesser-known works, covering everything from the refined sensibilities of 18th-century Classicism to the abstract forms of the war-torn 20th century with a bit of love, loss, rivalry and rioting thrown in.

Contributions come from a cast as diverse as the works themselves, including filmmaker Nic Roeg, historian Dan Snow and novelist Will Self, who offer a refreshingly wide range of perspectives on a genre of art which we have made very much our own.

Tuesday 17th May 2011 - BBC4 - 90 Minutes

Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections: Formula One

 Richard Hammond reveals the surprising engineering connections behind the Formula 1 car. The stars of the most glamorous, and expensive sport on earth wouldn't even cross the starting line without inspiration drawn from a revolutionary 19th-century cannon, ancient sailing boats, jet engine fan blades, body armour and a technique practised by blacksmiths for thousands of years.
 

Eight hundred horsepower purebreds, F1 cars cost millions of pounds to design and build. They require hundreds of people to ensure they just start, but they have a simple purpose: to go as fast as possible around a track for about two hours on a Sunday. Attaining huge speeds requires a precision-built engine, which maximises its power thanks to a revolutionary cannon, (which is like an open-ended engine cylinder). Richard fires his own home-made cannon to show how minimising what gunners called 'windage', the gap between the cannon ball (or piston) and the barrel (or cylinder) increases the power of the shot (or engine). With so much power F1 cars can hit easily 200mph - faster than a Jumbo Jet at take-off - and they too could become airborne. But those same wings that lift a Jumbo into the air can also press an F1 car into the ground. Richard takes his modified car to a wind tunnel and adds a ton of weight to it using wind alone, all thanks to a shape derived from the sails of ancient dhows.

Carbon fibre was pioneered by Rolls Royce as a new material for fan blades in jet engines. It is light but still stronger than stee, the sort of claim Richard can't resist testing and proving. F1 cars carry 200 litres of petrol in a tank that sits between the driver and a hot engine. To contain the fuel the engineers need a strong, light, puncture-proof tank. The answer is Kevlar, the same material used in body armour such as bullet-proof vests, which Richard tests with flaming arrows. Finally, Richard visits modern blacksmiths to see how the ancient technique of forging makes stronger swords - and F1 wheels.

BBC2 - Monday 16th May 2011 - 50 minutes

Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections: Burj Al Arab

Richard Hammond checks out the world's tallest and most distinctively shaped hotel, the 320-metre-high Burj Al Arab, or Arabian Tower. Rising from its own custom-built island, 300 metres off-shore, the sail-shaped building has already become one of the world's most recognisable buildings, and an icon for Dubai.
 

Constructing the island was the first engineering challenge. Protecting it from two-metre-high waves called for strong sea defences. Richard demonstrates the power of quite small waves by explosively releasing a ton of water just two metres above a coffee table. His second coffee table relies on a furniture protection system inspired by the Burj's sea defences. Tyres lashed together create spaces that absorb the destructive energy of the 'wave'.
 

Building in the extreme heat of the desert posed construction challenges due to steel expansion. The 85-metre steel trusses forming the hotel's exoskeleton were fitted together thanks to an ingenious solution inspired by an engine cam, a rotating mechanism which presses down on valves by moving eccentrically or off-centre. Clever rotating fixings were used, which allowed builders to move the fixing pin off-centre until the two holes married.
 

The Burj Al Arab is a high-tech palace: remote controls operate lights, doors, curtains, and climate control. Richard creates his own luxury hotel room, with a sophisticated lighting system, and watches it all go up in flames simply because of what dimmers do to the electrical current. The solution lies in a capacitor - the electrical component used to fire a camera flash.
 

Finally Richard reveals how the secret of the Burj's extraordinary and unnaturally glassy water fountains - achieved thanks to laminar flow - and a revolutionary fire hose.

BBC2 - Monday 9th May 2011 - 50 minutes

 

Rolf On Welsh Art

The exuberant Rolf Harris goes in search of some of the greatest artists to be inspired by Wales in a new series Rolf on Welsh Art (Wednesday 16 February, BBC One Wales).

In the series Rolf, whose own family hail from Merthyr Tydfil, looks at the landscapes and the people who inspired the late great Sir Kyffin Williams, Graham Sutherland, Josef Herman and Shani Rhys James - like Rolf, an Australian who has long lived in Britain.

And in each of the four episodes, Rolf tackles a tricky challenge - trying to paint a picture in the style of each of the artists.

BBC1 Wales. 16 February-9 March 2011. 4x30 Minutes

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY: A YEAR WITH THE ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET

Exclusive behind-the-scenes series which follows English National ballet on their 60th anniversary and reveals the complexities of staging world class ballet.

The ballet world is traditionally one of poise, serenity and calm, but this raw and enlightening series follows the company over one of its toughest and most dramatic years to date - from the extravagant production of Swan Lake and the battles of Romeo and Juliet to the turbulent creation of a brand new Christmas Nutcracker. Every production must be an artistic and commercial success and the dancers and staff are under increasing pressure to deliver in the present financial climate.

Told through the eyes of the very people who make this physically challenging art form beautiful, this is the revealing truth of the dancers' lives - from injury and exhaustion to accolades and elation. All in the pursuit of perfection.

From the rehearsal room to the boardroom to the magical big night performances - the fruition of months of hard work that make it all worthwhile - it follows the main players within English National Ballet over an industry-defining year. From the dancers to the artistic director via the choreographers and the management behind the scenes, it goes deep inside a modern arts institution.

8-22 March 2011 - BBC4 - 3 x 60 minutes

Michel Roux's Service 7-8

Decision time is looming and Michel brings his trainees back to London, to test their developing skills on some very special guests. Bespoke private dining is a growing phenomenon where wealthy diners pay for the restaurant experience to be tailor-made for them.

Gok Wan, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Diarmuid Gavin have been personally chosen by Michel for their love of eating out and for their very different menu requests. Split into three teams, each catering for their very own VIP, Michel wants his trainees to go head-to-head. But charged with planning every aspect of their guests' evenings, from table decorating through to choosing the menu and matching, the trainees will be under the spotlight like never before.

To prepare them for their intimidating dinner parties and the intensity of intimate service, Michel takes his trainees to one of the biggest days in the polo calendar, the Royal Windsor Cup.

When the evening of the bespoke dinner parties arrives, some of the trainees struggle to cope with the added responsibility demanded of them. On his own monitor in the kitchen, Michel sees enough to know that some of his trainees are ruling themselves out of the running.

 

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After eight weeks of intensive tuition, Michel's trainees reach their final hurdle. For their last challenge, he wants them to take over service at his own two Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Gavroche. Established over 40 years ago by Michel's father and uncle, Le Gavroche is famed as the restaurant that kickstarted the British food revolution.

Booked in for the special lunch are 50 leading restaurant professionals, some of whom have helped train Michel's charges over the previous two months. With the input of these expert judges, Michel will finally make his decision: which two of his trainees have the most potential and should be awarded the life-changing scholarships that will launch their careers in high-end service.

To prepare his trainees, Michel sends them to work with the man whose judgement he respects more than anyone else's in the industry: his father Albert Roux, currently guest chef at the Gatsby Club. Gatsby goers will pay up to 3,000 pounds for lunch and the trainees must serve these guests under the watchful eye of Albert and his old lieutenant, Silvano Garaldin, maitre d'hotel at Le Gavroche for 30 years and known as the godfather of British service. Back at le Gavroche, the trainees prepare for their last lunch service as a team.

BBC2 * 2-3 February 2011 * 2 x 60 minutes

 

Michel Roux's Service 5-6

Michel Roux is on a personal mission: to take eight young people who have never considered a career as front-of-house restaurant staff, and prove to them that it is an industry that can change their lives. In just two months, he wants to take his trainees from the high street to the high end - learning skills that will enable them to take over service at his own two Michelin-starred restaurant. Ultimately Michel will choose the best two trainees and award them life-changing scholarships.

To test his trainees, Michel sets up their very own pop-up restaurant in the exclusive surroundings of the Kensington Roof Gardens in London's West End. He designs a special menu that will demand that they learn new skills; beef and lamb will be carved at table. Dover sole must be filleted. And dessert consists of crepe suzette that must be flambéed in front of the guests. The 60 guests who are booked for lunch are no strangers to fine dining. Food bloggers, restaurant critics and industry professionals, they will provide a robust test of the trainees' new skills.

To prepare them for the challenges ahead, Michel takes his charges to some of the most established restaurants in London. Under the guidance of head carver Gerry Rae, they are taught to carve and fillet cuts of meat at Simpsons on the Strand. Working with Simon Girling, restaurant manager at the Ritz, Michel's charges are taught the speed, judgement and finesse that goes into preparing crepe suzette. With a pan and burner, the trainees learn the correct proportion of brandy, orange juice, zest and sugar that go into making this iconic dessert. The Ritz standard demands that a crepe take no longer than four minutes to prepare. Any more and one guest will have finished their dessert whilst another is still waiting.

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With the trainees nearing the final straight, Michel decides they are ready to take on the spiritual home of fine dining - Paris. With less than six weeks' training behind them, he wants his seven protégés to run service at a two Michelin-starred restaurant that has become a Parisian institution: Laserre. Without any help from the expert resident waiters, Michel's team will take over lunch service for some very special customers.

To prepare his trainees for this massive step up, Michel takes them on a detour to Reims, the capital of the Champagne region. After learning with master sommelier Ronan Sayburn, the trainees must try to show who has the best nose, the best understanding of how the wines are produced, and who can recommend the right champagne to go with the right canapé. Not only is Michel looking to see who to choose as his sommeliers in Paris, he is ultimately looking for one of the two Academy of Food and wine scholarships on offer to go to a trainee sommelier.

In Paris, the trainees work with regular mentor Fred Sirieix at a top hospitality college. Meanwhile, Ronan Sayburn gives Michel's chosen sommeliers a crammer course on some of the wines the restaurant will be serving.

BBC2 * 26-27 January 2011 * 2 x 60 minutes

Men of Rock

Deep Time

Iain Stewart follows in the footsteps of the founding father of geology, James Hutton. This Scottish rogue was a profound and original thinker who, 250 years ago, overturned ancient beliefs about how and when the world was formed. His ideas clashed with those of the most eminent scientist of his day. Lord Kelvin was determined to prove Hutton wrong.

 

Moving Mountains

Iain finds out how gung-ho geologist Edward Bailey discovered Scotland was once home to super volcanoes. And how unsung hero Arthur Holmes solved the mystery of what makes continents move across the surface of the globe.

 

The Big Freeze

In the final episode, Iain finds out about daredevil scientist Louis Agassiz, who first imagined the world had been gripped by an ice age. Plus, the story of humble janitor James Croll, who used the planets to work out the natural rhythms of the earth's climate.

 

BBC2 * 13-27 January 2011 * 3 x 60 minutes

Michel Roux's Service 3-4

Michel Roux is on a personal mission; to take eight young people who have never considered a career in restaurant front of house, and prove to them that it is an industry that can change their lives. In just two months he wants to take his trainees from the high street to the high end - learning skills that will enable them to take over service at his own 2 Michelin starred restaurant. Ultimately Michel will choose the best two trainees and award them life-changing scholarships.

This time Michel wants his trainees to understand the importance of serving people at life's special occasions. They travel to the affluent Cheshire countryside, home of some very wealthy diners and some equally exclusive restaurants. Their destination is a top-notch brasserie, the regulars of which include premiership footballers and their wives. Here regular diners come to celebrate their birthdays or anniversaries. Michel wants to see how his charges instinctively cope with the intimate, attentive service demanded at the brasserie. So his trainees are immediately immersed in the task of serving a private lunch for a party of women who regularly meet up there. The trainees need to learn fast, as in two days time Michel wants them to run service for the whole brasserie during a busy evening service. Michel arranges for the trainees to serve at one couple's very special day, their wedding, and they have only one chance to show the standard of care and attention to detail that Michel demands.

Back at the brassierie, over 100 diners are booked in to the restaurant's two floors. With some very demanding customers, it's a night that will test attention to detail, attentiveness and efficiency. With a complex menu of specials, and a long wine list, the trainees' knowledge will be put under severe scrutiny.
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Now nearly half-way through their training, Michel takes his trainees out of the restaurant, and into the world of five-star hotel service. Over a busy bank holiday weekend, the trainees' challenge is to serve the high-paying guests at an exclusive country house hotel in the heart of Dartmoor, where the motto is 'the guests can have what they want, whenever they want it'.

Some of the trainees, like Ashley and Brooke, are eager to show Michel how much they want one of the two scholarships he will be ultimately awarding. They throw themselves into meeting and greeting the high-paying guests, the 24-hour room service and the challenges of formal dining.

But for other trainees the demanding guests and the opulent surroundings make them question whether a career in high-end service can ever be for them. Single parent Nikitta feels out of place and ill at ease. Privately educated James bristles when asked to serve a family in the intimate setting of their own guest chalet; 'I feel like their servant'.

Michel wants his trainees to pull together and take over a very special evening service; the hotel guests all wish to dine al fresco. Out on the terrace every mistake will be amplified and there is nowhere for the trainees to hide.

 

BBC2 * 19-20 January 2011 * 2 x 60 minutes

Michel Roux's Service 1-2

Great service matters almost more to Michel Roux than great food. He believes waiters and sommeliers are the unsung stars of the restaurant world; their brilliance transforming an ordinary meal into an unforgettable experience.

In this new series, Michel is on a personal mission to train eight young people as front-of-house superstars, none of whom have previously considered this as a career. But this isn't just about transforming these young people into great waiters. Good service involves discipline, care for others and self confidence so, for Michel, learning to serve others will mean developing essential life skills.

They will receive the best training, learning the skills needed to run service in some of Europe's best restaurants. And Michel hopes they will discover that front of house service offers a brilliant career. Ultimately, he will select just two to take up life-changing scholarships with placements at leading hotels and restaurants.

Michel's trainees experience the brilliance of Michelin starred service before cutting their teeth in the busy world of the High Street restaurant. Serving over 100 customers on Saturday night, Michel gets to see just what his new recruits are made of.
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Michel wants his trainees to learn an essential quality for any top maitre D; how to keep customers returning again and again. Its not just Michelin starred restaurants that rely on repeat customers. Knowing that regulars are the life-blood of their business, the best family run cafés provide friendly, attentive service. So he takes his trainees to run the busy breakfast service at one of London's oldest greasy spoon cafés. The pace might be frenetic but the regular customers keep returning because the service is so friendly and efficient.

Then it is off to Birmingham, to an award winning curry house, where owner Raj Rana follows the old Indian mantra that the 'guest is god'. Serving over 60 of the restaurants regulars, can Michel's trainees provide the standard of service they have come to expect?

 

BBC2 * 12-13 January 2011 * 2 x 60 minutes

Human Planet 1-2

As an air-breathing animal, the human is not built to survive in water. But people have found ways to live an almost aquatic life so they can exploit the sea's riches. From a 'shark-whisperer' in the Pacific to Brazilian fishermen collaborating with dolphins to catch mullet, this journey into the blue reveals astonishing tales of ingenuity and bravery. Daredevil Galician barnacle-collectors defy death on the rocks for a catch worth 200 pounds per kilo. In Indonesia an epic whale-hunt, using traditional hand-made boats and harpoons, brings in a sperm whale. The Bajau 'sea gypsies' of the Sulu Sea spend so much time on water they get 'land sick' when they set foot on the land! We dive 40 metres down to the dangerous world of the Pa-aling fishermen, where dozens of young men, breathing air through a tangled web of pipes attached to a diesel engine, capture thousands of fish in a vast net. We see how surfing has its origins in the ancient beliefs of the ocean-loving Polynesians, and we join a Borneo free-diving spear-fisherman on a breath-taking journey 20 metres down in search of supper.
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We can survive for weeks without food, but only days without water: it is the essential element of life. Yet many millions of us live in parched deserts around the world. In the second episode of Human Planet, we discover how the eternal quest for water brings huge challenges - and ingenious solutions - in the driest places on Earth.

Battling through a sand storm in Mali, Mamadou must get his cows to a remote lake but desert elephants have arrived first. Can he find a safe way through the elephant blockade? Alone for weeks on end, Tubu women and children navigate the endless dunes of the Sahara. How does young Shede know where to find the last oasis, three days walk across the sea of sand? At the height of the drought we witness a spectacular frenzy: two thousand men rushing into Antogo Lake to catch the fish trapped by the evaporating water. When the rain finally arrives in the desert it's a time for flowering and jubilation - and love. The Wodaabe men of Niger put on make-up for an intoxicating courtship dance and beauty contest.

 

BBC1 * 13-20 January 2011 * 2 x 60 minutes

The Brain: A Secret History

In a compelling and at times disturbing series, Dr Michael Mosley explores the brutal history of experimental psychology.

To begin, Michael traces the sinister ways this science has been used to try to control our minds. He finds that the pursuit of mind control has led to some truly horrific experiments and left many casualties in its wake. Extraordinary archive captures what happened - scientists systematically change the behaviour of children; law abiding citizens give fatal electric shocks; a gay man has electrodes implanted in his head in an attempt to turn his sexuality.

Michael takes a hallucinogenic drug as part of a controlled experiment to try to understand how its mind-bending properties can change the brain.

This is a scientific journey goes to the very heart of what we hold most dear - our free will, and our ability to control our own destiny
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Dr Michael Mosley continues his exploration of the brutal history of experimental psychology. Experiments on the human mind have led to profound insights into how our brain works - but have also involved great cruelty and posed some terrible ethical dilemmas.

In this film, Michael investigates how scientists have struggled to understand that most irrational and deeply complex part of our minds - our emotions.

Michael meets survivors - both participants and scientists - of some of the key historical experiments. Many of these extraordinary research projects were captured on film - a baby boy is taught to fear random objects, baby monkeys are given mothers made from wire and cloth, and an adult is deliberately violent before a group of toddlers.

Michael takes part in modern day experiments to play his own small part in the quest to understand emotions.
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Dr Michael Mosley concludes his series exploring the brutal history of experimental psychology by looking at how experiments on abnormal brains have revealed the workings of the normal brain.

He meets remarkable individuals like Karen, who suffered from a rare condition - alien hand syndrome - which meant that one of her hands constantly attacked her. And Julia, who seems to have recovered from her stroke - until experiments reveal she is unable to recall the name of any object.

Michael explores the case of an amnesiac known for years only by his initials, HM, who became the most studied individual in the history of psychology and whose extraordinary case opened a window on how our memory works. He visits the multi-million dollar centre which has been set up since HM died to map his unique brain down to the level of an individual neuron

BBC4 * 7-21 January 2011 * 3 x 60 minutes

Shooting the Hollywood Stars

Rankin, the UK's leading fashion photographer, reveals the rich history of Hollywood photography and how its most influential and enduring images were created. From Hollywood's golden age, epitomised by gorgeous images of screen goddesses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to brooding shots of Marlon Brando; from the unparalleled allure of pictures of Marilyn Monroe to iconic black and white stills of Charlie Chaplin, Rankin immerses himself in the art of the Hollywood portrait and explores the vital role it has played in both the movie business and our continuing love affair with movie stars.

To understand how the image makers of Hollywood created these iconic photographs, Rankin recruits a cast of leading Hollywood actors to help him recreate some of the most important - including Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin); Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions), British actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, Dylan Thomas's biopic The Edge of Love); actor extraordinaire Michael Sheen (The Damned United, Frost/Nixon), and living Hollywood legend Jane Russell

BBC 2 * Saturday 8th January 2010 * 60 minutes