North & South is a splendid, four-hour adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 19th century novel about an unlikely, and somewhat star-crossed, love between a...... more

North & South is a splendid, four-hour adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 19th century novel about an unlikely, and somewhat star-crossed, love between a middle-class young woman from England's cultivated south and an intemperate if misunderstood industrialist in a northern city. Daniela Denby-Ashe plays Margaret Hale, forthright and strong-willed daughter of a former vicar (Tim Pigott-Smith) who relocates his family from a pastoral village outside London to unforgiving, largely illiterate Milton, a factory town where John Thornton (Richard Armitage) and his mother (Sinead Cusack), survivors of poverty, rule their cotton mill with an iron hand. Thornton befriends Margaret's father but incurs her wrath for his severity with his workers. What she doesn't notice is Thornton's core sense of responsibility for his employees' welfare. On the other hand, he misinterprets some of Margaret's own actions and intentions. Equally stubborn, the two drag out their obvious attraction over many painful months and events. North & South's two leads are both very good, though Armitage's brooding, penetrating performance may very well be considered a classic one day. There are other wonders in the cast: Cusack and Pigott-Smith are superb, and Brendan Coyle is memorable as a firebrand union organizer who ultimately becomes an ally to a softening Thornton. The miniseries script by Sandy Welch is a persuasive mix of historical context and character study. Brian Percival's direction is full of moments that linger in the imagination, such as the winter-dream look of a busy cotton mill, with thousands of snowy fibers floating in the air.--Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

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North & South is a splendid, four-hour adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 19th century novel about an unlikely, and somewhat star-crossed, love between a...... more

North & South is a splendid, four-hour adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 19th century novel about an unlikely, and somewhat star-crossed, love between a middle-class young woman from England's cultivated south and an intemperate if misunderstood industrialist in a northern city. Daniela Denby-Ashe plays Margaret Hale, forthright and strong-willed daughter of a former vicar (Tim Pigott-Smith) who relocates his family from a pastoral village outside London to unforgiving, largely illiterate Milton, a factory town where John Thornton (Richard Armitage) and his mother (Sinead Cusack), survivors of poverty, rule their cotton mill with an iron hand. Thornton befriends Margaret's father but incurs her wrath for his severity with his workers. What she doesn't notice is Thornton's core sense of responsibility for his employees' welfare. On the other hand, he misinterprets some of Margaret's own actions and intentions. Equally stubborn, the two drag out their obvious attraction over many painful months and events. North & South's two leads are both very good, though Armitage's brooding, penetrating performance may very well be considered a classic one day. There are other wonders in the cast: Cusack and Pigott-Smith are superb, and Brendan Coyle is memorable as a firebrand union organizer who ultimately becomes an ally to a softening Thornton. The miniseries script by Sandy Welch is a persuasive mix of historical context and character study. Brian Percival's direction is full of moments that linger in the imagination, such as the winter-dream look of a busy cotton mill, with thousands of snowy fibers floating in the air.--Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

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Using rare news footage and interviews from the BBC, British Pathé and other news services, this extraordinary series provides a unique year by year...... more

Using rare news footage and interviews from the BBC, British Pathé and other news services, this extraordinary series provides a unique year by year look at what was making the news in that most colourful of decades - The 1980s. With a whole hour long show on each year, the result is an amazing insight into the decade of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan, Yuppies, big hair, New Romantics, Perestroika and designer everything! The decade was a time of huge contrasts for the United Kingdom. The unabated rise of capitalist culture in the ideal of a share and property-owning democracy was in stark contrast to the privations of the year-long miner s strike and record unemployment - contributing factors to the ever widening North-South divide. Against the backdrop of the ongoing cold war, British troops were at war with Argentina over the Falklands Islands and, closer to home, civil unrest in Northern Ireland continued to claim lives. Riots in Brixton and Toxteth brought anarchy to British city centres. The whole world was shocked by the Chernobyl disaster, the Challenger explosion and people across the globe mourned the murder of John Lennon. This collection also covers such memorable events as the great storm of 1987, the Royal Wedding, the first London Marathon, the introduction of the pound coin and a streaker at Twickenham. Relive all these events and many, many more with A Year To Remember The 1980s . TOTAL RUNNING TIME - 9 hours, 50 Mins (3 disc set).

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Harry Ferguson's system of farm mechanisation is brought to life here by some 25 implements filmed at work. Beginning with early summer cultivations and potato...... more

Harry Ferguson's system of farm mechanisation is brought to life here by some 25 implements filmed at work. Beginning with early summer cultivations and potato planting, the programme covers weed control in potatoes and kale, hay and silage-making, hedge-trimming and general farm tasks such as post-hole boring and milk-churn transport. It concludes with potato lifting, disc ploughing, earth-moving and work with the Ferguson reversible plough, leaving a companion programme to look at other winter and spring activities. The majority of the implements are from Harold Beer's working collection in North Devon and many were bought new. A range of Fergies provide the power, one of them still at work on the family farm where it was first used in 1949. The programme has a full commentary scripted by Stuart Gibbard, author of The Ferguson Tractor Story. The narrator is BBC broadcaster and tractor enthusiast David Holt.

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The subtitle of Wild New World, a BBC publication that accompanies the television series, is Recreating Ice-Age North America. It tells the...... more

The subtitle of Wild New World, a BBC publication that accompanies the television series, is Recreating Ice-Age North America. It tells the remarkable story of the changing environments and life of North America during the last gasp of the Quaternary Ice Ages and beautifully illustrates it with plenty of wonderful images. Some 20,000 years ago the continent was in the grips of the last great Ice Age with most of Canada covered by a huge ice sheet--even Florida was on the decidedly cool side. The only advantage of the deep-freeze was that animals could wander from Asia into North America without getting their feet wet. So much ocean water was locked up in ice that sea level fell drastically and opened the Bering "highway" from Siberia to Alaska. Without this connection life would have been very different in the Americas. It might also have been very different if humans had not also managed to make the crossing just before sea levels rose again and cut the continent off. Recreating Ice-Age North America is authored by the Wild New World team of BBC producers Miles Barton, Nigel Bean, Stephen Dunleavy, Ian Gray and Adam White, all of whom are science graduates and know their stuff. How the vast continent of North America came to be the equivalent of an Ice Age game park is a wonderful story. It's full of impressive beasts--huge herds of mammoth, bison, caribou, horse and the top carnivores that predated upon them, the big cats and then humans. The major players are given their own profiles and vital statistics. All are illustrated with computer-graphic reconstructions set in real landscapes that look a lot better in the book's still photos than as the slightly stilted moving images on TV. The big question in the history of North America's big game is did they fall because of changing climate and environments at the end of the Ice Age or were they pushed by the hand of man? With Wild New World: Recreating Ice-Age North America, a more accurate picture the wildlife and landscape of North America as it would have looked over 13,000 years ago will be revealed. --Douglas Palmer

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Using rare news footage and interviews from the BBC, British Pathé and other news services, this extraordinary series provides a unique year by year...... more

Using rare news footage and interviews from the BBC, British Pathé and other news services, this extraordinary series provides a unique year by year look at what was making the news in that most colourful of decades - The 1980s. With a whole hour long show on each year, the result is an amazing insight into the decade of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan, Yuppies, big hair, New Romantics, Perestroika and designer everything! The decade was a time of huge contrasts for the United Kingdom. The unabated rise of capitalist culture in the ideal of a share and property-owning democracy was in stark contrast to the privations of the year-long miner s strike and record unemployment - contributing factors to the ever widening North-South divide. Against the backdrop of the ongoing cold war, British troops were at war with Argentina over the Falklands Islands and, closer to home, civil unrest in Northern Ireland continued to claim lives. Riots in Brixton and Toxteth brought anarchy to British city centres. The whole world was shocked by the Chernobyl disaster, the Challenger explosion and people across the globe mourned the murder of John Lennon. This collection also covers such memorable events as the great storm of 1987, the Royal Wedding, the first London Marathon, the introduction of the pound coin and a streaker at Twickenham. Relive all these events and many, many more with A Year To Remember The 1980s . TOTAL RUNNING TIME - 9 hours, 50 Mins (3 disc set).

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Following the runaway success of the multi-award-winning first BBC4 series of 'Art Safari', documentary-maker Ben Lewis, returns with another survey of...... more

Following the runaway success of the multi-award-winning first BBC4 series of 'Art Safari', documentary-maker Ben Lewis, returns with another survey of the world?s most interesting, imaginative, intelligent and insane contemporary artists. WIM DELVOYE is the world's rudest artist. Cloaca is a work of art and a machine which reproduces the human digestive system. You put food in one end and faeces comes out the other. But is this s**t for real? SOPHIE CALLE is the Grand Dame of French contemporary art. Her art often involves following a set of rules or executing a task devised by someone else. She wants Ben to come up with an artistic idea for her to do... TAKASHI MURAKAMI is Japan's most successful contemporary artist. He makes super-sized cartoons and toys inspired by Japanese Manga comics. His art may look superficial and commercialised, but behind it lies a theory about the history of postwar Japan. SANTIAGO SIERRA is Spain's anti-capitalist artist and one of the world's most radical artists. Ben travels with him to the heavily militarised border between North and South Korea, and then to globalisation hub of Dubai - but there's friction between artist and TV presenter... "Fresh and informative.... One of the funniest 30 minutes of TV this week" The Guardian "Lewis is cleverer than he at first appears" Prospect "The Louis Theroux of the art world" Sunday Times Comes with a 12-page Bonus Booklet, with essays on each artist/episode by Ben Lewis DVD Aspect ratio 16:9 Stereo Duration 4 x 30 min Language: English Release Date: 2009 © 2005

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Haynes The Camping Manual Increasing numbers of people are discovering that camping is an economical and attractive holiday option. Here is a great hardback...... more

Haynes The Camping Manual Increasing numbers of people are discovering that camping is an economical and attractive holiday option. Here is a great hardback book that will tell you all you need to know about planning the perfect family camping trip. Whether it is a weekend in North Wales or two weeks in the Costa Brava, this attractively presented, all-colour manual will take you through choosing, buying and looking after tents, trailer tents and many other accessories and equipment. The pages and detail are a combination of colour & black and white. The BBC has reported that more and more Britons are packing their tents and heading for the countryside. Market researchers recently Mintel reported a surge in short-break camping holidays while membership of the Camping and Caravanning Club has increased by 10% in three years. So why, what, how and where should we go camping . . . Whether you plan a weekend in North Wales or a fortnight in the Costa Brava, camping is an economical and attractive holiday option and an increasingly popular one too. However, to enjoy camping you need to know what you are doing what equipment to buy, how and where to pitch your tent and what to do about water, electricity, gas and toilets. In addition, you will want to know some great destinations for camping holidays. Newly published, The Camping Manual is an essential campers guide. Compiled by Peter Frost, who has camped in more than 30 countries from Iceland to South Africa, The Camping Manual is published by Haynes renowned worldwide for its car and motorcycle manuals. Peter begins by detailing the sorts of tents available and how to erect them. Numerous illustrations and clear diagrams in The Camping Manual explain how each sort of tent is erected and theres important information on tent repairs. Everything else you could possibly need is covered in detail from sleeping bags to wellies and lanterns to gizmos. Frosts experience is reflected in his many use

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Steenbergs Organic Curry Leaves are a great alternative to fresh curry leaves that are truly hard work to find. Organic curry leaves, when fresh, have a...... more

Steenbergs Organic Curry Leaves are a great alternative to fresh curry leaves that are truly hard work to find. Organic curry leaves, when fresh, have a heavenly, citrus aroma as well as a mouth-watering acrid quality that stimulates the tastebuds. The flavour of the organic curry leaves is similarly lemony but without the sharpness of lemons or limes. Dried organic curry leaves have less obvious citrus notes, but they are still definitely there and if you cannot fresh easily, then these are a great addition. Curry leaves are extensively used in Southern Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine, much as coriander leaves are used in the North. At Steenbergs, we love curry leaves in fish curries (try using Steenbergs favourite fish curry mix - organic malay masala), especially if we're using coconut milk in the sauce. For example, a mainstay of the Steenbergs family kitchen is our Keralan Fish Curry, which can be whizzed up in a matter of minutes and you can use fish that's frozen. If you are looking for fresh leaves in Asian stores, curry leaves may be labelled limdo, meetha neem or kari patta. For more inspiration on using curry leaves, try Steenbergs' Recipes Section or BBC Recipes. Cury leaves come from the leaves of a deciduous tropical tree, Murraya koenigii. M. koenigii grows to 4m tall (13ft), has a slender trunk that supports a series of thin stems with drooping leaves. Curry leaves vary in size from 3-7cm long (1-3 inches) and 1-2cm in width (0.5 - 0.75 inches). While it is deciduous, because of the fecund tropical climate, curry leaves tend to be available all year around. Fresh curry leaves are distinctly citrus in aroma and flavour with a delicious acrid note that stimulates your taste buds. Sourced and packed by Steenbergs, the family run artisan spice (and dried herbs) merchants from rural North Yorkshire. Specialists in organic.

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So you think you know BBC television's Esther Rantzen? The familiar, forthright tone of Esther: the Autobiography, easily matches the author's TV...... more

So you think you know BBC television's Esther Rantzen? The familiar, forthright tone of Esther: the Autobiography, easily matches the author's TV persona...but you can be sure there are also surprises in store. Born and raised in North London, Esther led a typical middle-class existence for most of her younger life. Her sphere of experience, although small and often blinkered by lifelong good fortune, is actually very revealing. The real interest here lies perhaps less with the author and more with her candid acceptance of the social systems she has lived through. Certainly, on one level at least, this autobiography functions well as a sociological text--looking at the institutionalised class system within higher education and the BBC (perhaps remarkable, since the book is published by the BBC itself). Rantzen's tales of collegiate life are peppered with the names of student chums who rode the conveyor belt from Oxbridge straight to top jobs in broadcasting ("Peter Snow was always lovely", and "I slept in Melvyn Bragg's bed"--indeed.) Once inside Broadcasting House, Rantzen regularly questioned the patriarchal atmosphere within--but then had no qualms about giving jobs to the "old" boys instead. Of course there is also a more human element here. Its subject comes across as well intentioned and, although perhaps not a great visionary, she seems blessed with a confident talent to communicate and promote herself and her ideas. It was this "let's do it!" no-nonsense bulldozer effect that helped Esther Rantzen host 21 years of the TV show That's Life! and go on to work benevolently with Childline and various other good causes. There was--as in most lives--a certain amount of scandal to contend with. Esther married her late husband Desmond Wilcox (who died in September 2000, just before this autobiography was completed) after beginning her relationship with him as the mistress to a married man--here she neither shirks blame nor responsibility. It is the throwaway lines--an admission of an affair with the late Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn, for example, which really elicit some sharp intakes of breath. Away from her TV persona, the final passages of "Esther: the Autobiography" are the work of someone who has been touched by great pain and is trying--with difficulty--to come out the other side. Until this point, perhaps, this was the autobiography of a high-achieving woman. Wilcox's death transforms it instead into the work of a real woman--who has achieved.--Helen Lamont

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It's grim up North for the cops in The Cops, the BBC's answer to ITV's long-running police drama series The Bill. Bolton, Lancashire doubles for...... more

It's grim up North for the cops in The Cops, the BBC's answer to ITV's long-running police drama series The Bill. Bolton, Lancashire doubles for the fictional Northern town of Stanton; Bolton's not such a bad place in reality, but in this show it looks like war-torn Beirut. Unlike their soft Southern counterparts, the cops in Stanton swear copiously, get involved in fistfights and generally behave badly. Little wonder when you contemplate the grim reality of their daily round amongst all the "dirty, thieving, lying scumbags" they have to deal with (both criminals and their police colleagues). This is soap opera masquerading as documentary, shot in subjective fly-on-the-wall fashion and with semi-improvised dialogue that enhances the documentary feel. There's no hummable theme-tune and every episode leaps without preamble in media res into the thick of the action. The result is a show with all the character-driven tension of a soap allied to the voyeurism and unpredictability of docudrama. It's an original combination that makes for compulsive viewing. --Mark WalkerFrom the back cover: Episode 1: Probationary policewoman Mel Draper, seriously hung-over and worse for wear following a night out with her mates, is called to investigate a suspicious death following complaints from a neigbour who notices a foul stench coming from the flat above. Episode 2: Giffen attempts to reason with a suicidal man on the roof of a department store. Danny, after rescuing a damsel in distress, finds himself engaging in a bizarre sex game, brought on by the excitement provoked by his policeman's uniform.

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Jock's Juke Joint is an exciting and varied collection of original contemporary Scottish blues music. The first volume of the series was released on the Lewis...... more

Jock's Juke Joint is an exciting and varied collection of original contemporary Scottish blues music. The first volume of the series was released on the Lewis Hamilton Music label in September 2012. It included such notable acts as Gerry Jablonski & The Electric Band, Stevey Hay, The Jensen Interceptors, the Bare Bones Boogie Band, The Dana Dixon Band, Lewis Hamilton & Albany Down. The release garnered a high level of interest in the international blues scene. Paul Jones from BBC Radio 2 aired the opening track, saying he was "eagerly looking forward to receiving this very significant album". The album then went viral on internet radio, particularly on blues radio shows and podcasts and Scottish radio stations with airplay on thirty UK radio stations, and a range of other countries, including the USA, France, Australia and the Netherlands. Volume 1 was quickly followed by Volume 2, which includes acts such as Blues N Trouble, Alan Nimmo, Baby Isaac, Wang Dang Delta, Cythia Gentle & The True Tones and the Binsness Bluesboys. The launch party for the event saw broadcasters travel across the UK to attend the show which featured acts from throughout Scotland. Since the release of the second volume, a range of praising reviews have been published, online through websites including Blues Magazine (Holland), Blues Revue (USA), Wasser Prawda (Germany), Blues In The North West, Keys & Chords Magazine (Belgium) and Tonemonkey, while printed reviews have appeared in Blues Matters magazine, Blues In Britain and several newspapers. A keen indicator of the level of interest in the series was shown through a review of the second volume on the Blues Revue website which received 20,000 hits and 1,000 shares/Tweets and likes, within the first week! Press and broadcasting requests have been received from as far apart as Canada, Greece and Brazil. Festival organisers have expressed a high level of interest in the CD, with the featured artists under review.

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