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| BBC ONE Sunday 17 August 2008 |
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The women's 100m final takes place this afternoon and the competition is wide open following World Champion Veronica Campbell's failure to qualify. Six British crews, meanwhile, are expected to be in action on the second day of finals at Shunyi and, in the cycling, the British World sprint champions Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy are in action and Bradley Wiggins leads the World Champion British team pursuit squad.
Comprehensive details of the BBC's Olympics 2008 coverage can be found in BBC Programme Information's separate Olympic section.
SB4
Andrew Marr goes on his
biggest adventure yet Andrew Marr experiences his biggest adventure yet, plummeting from an airplane in his first-ever sky-dive – all in the name of exploring the nation from above. During the course of his travels, Andrew discovers how some of the greenest, most natural-seeming landscapes across the country have actually been shaped by human hands.
This week's journey begins 10,000 feet above ground in East Anglia, where a familiar patchwork quilt of fields lies below. This is the breadbasket of the nation, producing over a quarter of the country's wheat and barley. But it's not as natural as it looks. Here, farmers are harnessing military technology to help them manage their farms. Spy planes, normally used to snap reconnaissance photos of Iraq or Afghanistan, have been converted to crop-cams. Using GPS, the computer-controlled crop-cam flies over farmland, recording images as it goes.
Flying over Savernake Forest near Swindon, experts are employing modern technology to see beneath the forest canopy and reveal the nation's ancient history below. A plane-mounted laser flies over the forest. This laser – known as LiDAR – scans the ground, firing 33,000 times each second. The recorded impulses produce a model of the ground beneath the trees, revealing a temple-complex dating back to the Iron Age.
Finally, Andrew explores the nation's National Parks, witnessing them as a host to wildlife, countless leisure activities and sheep. He sees their fight against destruction and their role as a testing ground for fast jet aircraft like the Eurofighter.
This programme is accompanied by Britain From Above – The Land on Sunday at 10pm.
FW
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| BBC TWO Sunday 17 August 2008 |
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After a month off, the MotoGP series resumes at Brno in the Czech Republic, introduced by Suzi Perry.
Italian Valentino Rossi ended Casey Stoner's four-race winning streak with victory in the last Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, in the USA, in July. It was a thrilling contest with Rossi and Stoner battling hard until the Australian defending champion was forced into the gravel with eight laps to go, allowing Rossi to extend his lead in the overall championship to 25 points.
Of the other riders, Dani Pedrosa looks to be the only man who has a chance of catching the leading two in the championship. Meanwhile, Britain's James Toseland is still looking for his first podium finish in his maiden season in MotoGP.
NA
BBC Two's Britain From Above companion series focuses on the battle for Britain's green and pleasant land this week.
Before the Second World War, East Anglia was a quiet, rural backwater which has since undergone an intense and dramatic revolution in farming and transport. It's a story that is common across much of the nation, told most eloquently from above.
In East Anglia, farms once grew a vast variety of crops – wheat, beet, potatoes, celery, lettuce – all farmed by hand. Yet such was their inefficiency that 90 per cent of Britain's grain was imported from Canada.
When war broke out, the government targeted over 300,000 of these unproductive farms and effectively commandeered them. Meanwhile, airstrips sprang up, virtually overnight, to accommodate planes heading off to Germany. But one in six planes was shot down and many limped home, diverted to a special airstrip with an extra-long runway for crash-landings – Stanstead.
Learning the lessons of war, between 1945 and 1975, government investment in farming rose ten-fold and, as a result, food production grew by 200 per cent. But these changes altered the landscape. As field sizes grew, hedgerows disappeared and crop biodiversity dissolved into a monoculture with just three covering the land – wheat, beans and rape seed.
And the changes don't stop there. Newly unemployed labourers needed to travel to find jobs, creating a commuter culture and the need for new infrastructures of travel and housing. And farming became a victim of its own success, resulting in mountains of grain, butter and milk giving rise to the precarious world of subsidies not to farm the land.
This programme accompanies Britain From Above – Man-made Britain at 9pm on BBC One.
FW
Ray Stubbs has all the action
from today's two Premier
League games Ray Stubbs presents highlights from today's two Barclays Premier League matches.
After ending last season without a trophy, Chelsea have recruited former Brazil and Portugal boss Luiz Felipe Scolari. "Big Phil" makes his competitive debut on the Blues bench as FA Cup-winners Portsmouth visit Stamford Bridge. Predecessor Avram Grant lost his job after finishing as runners-up in the title race, Champions League and League Cup, so Scolari knows he simply has to deliver silverware. It is over 50 years since Pompey last beat Chelsea but Harry Redknapp's side have come on leaps and bounds in recent times, with the little-and-large partnership of Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch being one of real promise.
At Old Trafford, champions Manchester United begin their campaign against Newcastle. The Red Devils thrashed the Magpies 6-0 in January, with Cristiano Ronaldo netting a hat-trick and Alan Smith seeing red. Kevin Keegan's side flirted with relegation last season before recovering to finish 12th. Newcastle last beat Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1972. There is also news of all the goals from yesterday's Premier League games and a look at the funnier side of football in 2Good 2Bad.
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| BBC THREE Sunday 17 August 2008 |
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In the wake of the nuclear attack on London, demand is high for radiation sickness medication and the thriving black market is awash with predominantly counterfeit pills, as the series allowing viewers to see the future of Spooks and get even closer to the world of conspiracy and espionage continues.
Jez and Kylie are undercover on the notorious Prospect Towers estate, the suspected base for a criminal gang led by the elusive "Zero", thought to be distributing fake drugs.
Jez and Kylie manage to gain the trust of the estate's residents via Dylan, an old friend of Jez's. But, once inside, they find a wall of silence protecting Zero. Most of the residents are happy with him running the estate – he supplies them with the radiation sickness drugs which they are convinced they need.
Back at HQ, Rob is struggling to avoid a ghost from his past when the police question him about the death of fellow medical student Julian Nelson at the time of the London bomb. Nelson's girlfriend, Emma, has also tracked him down and she, too, wants answers. Meanwhile, Rachel and Charlie's relationship goes from strength to strength as they work together to uncover the identity of the traitor within MI5.
Jez finally manages to set up a meeting with Zero, posing as a drug dealer. But his position of trust is compromised when Zero catches Kylie in his radiation drugs lab. He imprisons Jez, Kylie and Dylan and demands to know the truth. Jez admits to Dylan that they're undercover and assures him that his team will find a way to get them out. However, knowing the way Zero works, Dylan isn't quite so sure.
Jez is played by Heshima Thompson, Kylie by Georgia Moffett, Zero by Johann Myers, Dylan by Jody Latham, Rob by Andrew Knott,
Rachel by Ruta Gedmintas and Charlie by Liam Boyle.
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