The Multimedia Business: BBC1, Sunday, November 26, 10.45am. Schools and local education authorities across the country are plugging into electronic mail, and this programme promises to reveal “the joys of e-mail“as well as the way that business is being conducted on the Internet.
Soviet Echoes Rewards and Punishments: Channel 4, Sunday, November 26, 8.00pm. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the opening up of state archives, thousands of hours of previously unseen film was discovered showing the life and work of the Soviet musical elite. Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Stravinsky are seen and heard, with film of the premires of their work.
The Last Europeans Crossed Channels: Channel 4, Sunday, November 26, 9. 00pm. This series explores the background to Britain’s uncertain relationship with Europe. It looks at the growth of European post-war co-operation, from the Franco-German trade agreements in 1950 to the development of the European Union.
War and Peace: Radio 2, Tuesday, November 28, 9.00pm. This hour-long documentary presents a portrait of life in Britain in the immediate post-war era, with shortages of fuel and food, continued rationing, lack of housing and family relationships strained by wartime separation.
Hands Up: Channel 4, Thursday, November 30, 8.00pm. This week’s edition includes an interview with Gillian Shephard, Secretary for Education and Employment, about her view of the priorities for the education system. In particular, presenter Jon Snow will be asking why Britain’s teachers sometimes have to work in schools that are underfunded and understaffed compared to many of their Western European counterparts.
A Taste of Africa: Channel 4, Friday, December 1, 8.30pm. Mali, a land-locked country irrigated by the Niger, is the subject of this geographical documentary. The people, culture and agriculture are explored, showing how nearly every patch of cultivatable land has been farmed, making the country almost self-sufficient in food. The programme also adds the did-you-know-detail that Mali means hippopotamus.
Ran: BBC1, Friday, December 1, 11.50pm. Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese film adaptation of King Lear is a regular choice for comparing and contrasting the treatment of texts. The film, screened as part of the BBC’s best 100 films of the century, tells the story of an aged ruler’s handing over of power to his heirs - in Kurosawa’s version three sons rather than Shakespeare’s three daughters.
