[Submitted via press release]
BBC KNOWLEDGE (channel 180 on DStv)
JULY 2012 highlights
Louis Theroux: America’s Most Dangerous Pets PREMIERE – (1 Episode)Thursday 5 July at 21:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)
Louis Theroux travels to America to meet the people who own some of the world’s most dangerous animals, and asks them what drives them to keep these wild – and potentially lethal – animals as pets.
Joe is an exotic animal park owner whose collection of 180 lions and tigers appears to be spiralling out of control. Louis tries to understand the logic behind the park’s breeding programme, which produces animals that will eventually be of very little value living in cages at a very great cost.
Louis also meets Connie, a single woman in her 60s who shares her home with 20 chimpanzees. The chimps spend their lives behind bars since they might attack and mutilate her if they’re let out.
America’s Most Dangerous Pets highlights the morality behind keeping a ‘wild’ pet, and asks whether these animals can be happy with a life in captivity. And lastly, why people own and care for an animal whose natural instinct is to kill them?
Fatal Attractions PREMIERE – Season 1 - (3 Episodes)From Thursday 12 July at 22:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)Series continues every Thursday at 22:00
Some animals are best left in the wild …
What dangerous mix of obsession, loneliness and desire drives people to live with pets that have the potential to kill?
This gripping three-part series examines the most extraordinary pet attacks of recent years. Each episode focuses on a different group of animals – reptiles, primates and big cats – and reveals why people bring them into their homes, how the relationships develop, and why, ultimately, these pets turn on their owners.
Through these stories, bigger questions about human-animal relationships are uncovered. Are these attacks an expression of the animals' true nature or the result of the artificial environment and relationships created by humans? Can man and animal ever live together without the threat of violence hanging over them?
What the press say about Fatal Attractions:
“An irresistible mix of horror-show sensationalism and smart analysis. It leaves you both sad for the obviously disturbed folks whose stories are told and terrified about what that neighbour you never talk to might have in his living room.” New York Times
True Stories PREMIERE – Season 3 - (5 Episodes)From Thursday 12 July at 21:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)Series continues every Thursday at 21:00
From thrillers to horror stories, spy movies and conspiracies, films captivate and entertain. But where does the inspiration come from?
True Stories looks behind the gloss and glamour of cinematic legends to discover the truth behind some of the world's most famous films.
This third season reveals how a series of shark attacks in New Jersey in 1916 influenced the Peter Benchley blockbuster Jaws. At the heart of the story is a mystery: is the great white shark a real serial killer?
True Stories also looks at how the adventures of real pirates 300 years ago inspired Pirates of the Caribbean, the science, events and people behind Jurassic Park, and how much of the love story between Rose and Jack in Titanic is actually true.
Each episode takes a different movie in turn and unravels fact from fiction to expose the real heroes and villains.
Hammond Meets Moss PREMIERE – (1 Episode)Friday 13 July at 22:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond and motor-racing legend Sir Stirling Moss have something in common; they both suffered devastating, life-changing accidents behind the wheel.
Physically, Hammond and Moss recovered quickly, but what about the emotional and psychological impact their crashes had on them? Why does the mind take so much longer to heal than flesh and bone? This insightful documentary looks at how the brain effectively “re-boots” itself after a trauma as Richard and Sterling exchange their experiences.
Full of engaging and intimate conversations, medical insight and archive footage of their accidents, Hammond Meets Moss marries science with sport and celebrity.
Margaret: The Long Walk to Finchley PREMIERE – (1 Episode)Sunday 15 July at 21:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)Margaret Thatcher is one of the world’s most well known public figures. But how much do we really know about her?
It took Margaret Thatcher 10 years to become a Conservative member of parliament. Beginning on the night she met her husband-to-be Denis, the film tells of the young Margaret’s steely determination to get selected to a ‘winnable’ Tory seat.
Finding herself up against her own party, the Conservatives – the most traditional and male of all institutions – she faced considerable opposition, not least from Sir John Crowder, a man determined not to be succeeded by a woman. But Margaret’s ambition is unstinting – from campaigning on doorsteps to serving drinks behind the bar of a working men’s club – she’ll stop at nothing in her fight for power.
From early rejection in Dartford where Margaret meets Edward Heath for the first time, through to successive rejections from a further four home county seats, this drama follows the highs and lows of Margaret’s campaign – a woman who proved that you may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
Lost: The Mystery of Flight 447 PREMIERE – (1 Episode)Friday 27 July at 22:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)How could one of the most advanced passenger jets in the world vanish in mid-flight?
The disappearance of Air France’s Flight 447 is one of aviation’s biggest mysteries which raises vital questions about air safety. How could an airliner disappear in the age of radar and surveillance? How much control does a pilot really have over their aircraft? And is it time to replace the traditional black box with something more high-tech?
Lost: The Mystery of Flight 447 reveals the aviation experts, pilots and former air-crash investigators who are trying to answer these important questions, and exposes the experiments that are going on at some of America’s leading research laboratories - as well as cutting edge CGI and archive information - to find out exactly what happened to Flight 447.
The Toughest Place to Be PREMIERE – Seasons 1 & 2 - (6 Episodes)From Tuesday 31 July at 21:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)Series continues every Tuesday at 21:00The Toughest Place to Be takes qualified and experienced professionals and places them in the same job in some of the most challenging conditions on the planet. Armed only with their skills, they live and work a ‘normal’ life with a mentor to see how different their jobs are abroad.
In series one, paramedic Angie Dymott gives up her job in Cardiff, Wales, to take up a position in Guatemala, where she is shocked to find her ‘ambulance’ is a cramped minibus and she must deal with more killings and bloodshed than she has ever seen in her life. Also featured are London bus driver Josh West, who gets behind the wheel of a colourfully adapted jeep in the Philippines capital of Manila, and Suzanne Saunders-Blundell who faces the horrifying reality of childbirth in Liberia, West Africa.
Series two features a bin man from London who is plunged into the world of waste management in sprawling mega-city Jakarta; a fisherman from rural Devon who must tackle the depleted waters of Sierra Leone, and a train driver transported from the orderly commuter lines of the Home Counties to a huge freight train in the high Andes.
The Toughest Place to be is an eye-opening journey into the everyday heroism shown by people trying to get on with their lives in these incredibly harsh conditions.
Bad Guys Dead Ahead PREMIERE – (5 Episodes)From Tuesday 31 July at 22:00 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv)Series continues every Tuesday at 22:00Bad Guys Dead Ahead follows the Royal Navy warship HMS Manchester on her final deployment as she is sent on a tough seven-month tour to the Caribbean.
Her mission is to hunt down and capture some of the world’s most ruthless and determined drug smugglers. With the help of intelligence from undercover agents and circling spy planes, the ship’s crew must search the immense Caribbean Sea’s many hiding places for modern-day smugglers and their illicit cargo.
After an extensive search for smuggling activity off the coast of Montserrat, the aging destroyer suffers breakdowns with her water supply, engines and propeller shaft – and morale on the ship is at an all-time low when there isn’t a drugs bust for several weeks. However, an American surveillance aircraft brings fresh intel, and the 5000 tone warship covertly stalks the suspicious fishermen in the dead of night. Could this be the big bust they’ve been waiting for?
After months of chasing smugglers, September brings the hurricane season – and a change in duty for HMS Manchester. The crew are now on urgent storm alert, and the ship must visit as many of the Caribbean islands as she can, reassuring their inhabitants that help is at hand should a hurricane strike – which is exactly what happens...