BBC Four

Wine

Wine: Episode 3: The Future

Episode 3

Episode 3: The Future

The Future

BBC Four - Wine, The Future

A look at the wine industry's importance to South Africa's identity and future.

Documentary series about the wine industry looks at its importance to South Africa's identity and future via two remarkable wine producers, Oupa Rangaka and Mark Solms.

Documentary series about wine looks at the importance of the industry to South Africa's future and why, despite a history that stretches back to the 17th century, it still hasn't decided what its identity should be. 

Oupa Rangaka and Mark Solms are two unlikely wine producers. Six years ago, Oupa, a retired philosophy professor, didn't even drink wine, let alone make it. Today he and his family, including three-year-old grandson Kwena, are the only black people to own a vineyard in South Africa. Its survival depends on their ongoing relationship with Marks and Spencer and convincing the judges at London's International Wine Challenge that their pinotage passes muster. 

Mark is a world-renowned neuroscientist who inherited the family business, and is struggling to reconcile his idealistic plans for the farm with the practical realities of post-apartheid South Africa. 

Via the struggles of these two remarkable men, wine becomes a prism through which to view the current state of the Rainbow Nation.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Documentary series going behind the scenes in the wine industry

Following two South African wine producers as they try to convince buyers in the UK that their product is up to standard. Last in series.

Sissinghurst

Sissinghurst: Episode 5

Episode 5

BBC Four - Sissinghurst, Episode 5

Progress on the farm project is slow and Adam is growing impatient.

Series about the attempts to update the historic Sissinghurst estate. Progress on the farm project is slow and Adam's impatience is causing unease among some of the employees.

Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.

Progress on the farm project is slow and Adam's impatience is causing unease among some of the National Trust's employees. Peter Weeden, head chef at the Paternoster Chophouse in London, is brought in to help head chef Steve. Sarah is frustrated as one of her key ideas - growing edible flowers on the vegetable plot - gets the thumbs down. 

Adam continues to research his book and looks into his grandmother's famous liaison with the writer Virginia Woolf. He visits Virginia's grand-niece at her old home, Rodmell in Sussex. Adam questions the Trust as to why there is no reference to Vita's gay world in the Sissinghurst museum. 

The springtime garden is full of Chelsea visitors and head gardener Alexis is trying to control the crowds. Relations between Adam and Sarah and staff on the ground are not good and Adam can't wait for it all to be over.

Series about the attempts to bring farming back into the heart of the Sissinghurst estate

Series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent

New. 5/8. Sarah feels deflated when her idea to grow edible flowers on the vegetable plot gets rejected.  
8.30 New. 6/8. Adam realises he must reassure the staff on the estate, in order to ease tensions. See panel.

Sissinghurst: Episode 6

Episode 6

BBC Four - Sissinghurst, Episode 6

The National Trust has appointed a farmer and there is good news from the vegetable plot.

Series about the attempts to update the historic Sissinghurst estate in Kent. The National Trust has appointed a farmer and there is good news from the vegetable plot.

Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.

It's May and Adam's quest to breathe new life into the Sissinghurst estate is gathering pace. The National Trust has appointed a farmer and there is good news from the vegetable plot as the first delivery of produce is ready for the restaurant. But Adam realises he has got to talk to the staff to try to ease rising tensions. He discovers he is not the only one to have a sense of belonging at Sissinghurst and begins to realise the impact the project will have on the staff on the ground. He changes his tune and starts to wonder whether he himself is becoming National Trust-ified. 

Adam and Sarah take their bridge-building efforts a stage further as they lend a hand in the restaurant. Sarah's not sure about being sworn at by Steve the head chef, though.

Adam's research for his book takes him a step further in fathoming Vita and Harold's unusual relationship - in which both of them had numerous gay affairs and yet despite it all remained devoted to each other. 

As mid-June and the glory of high summer arrives, it is time for the garden's star attraction to take centre stage: the White Garden comes into full bloom. This tiny garden area is now a design icon of international significance. Adam's sister Juliet reveals that there are now no fewer than 20 such White Gardens in Connecticut alone.

The Maharajas' Motor Car: The Story of Rolls-Royce in India

08/03/2009

BBC Four - The Maharajas' Motor Car: The Story of Rolls-Royce in India

Documentary telling the story of Rolls-Royce in India through the lives of its princes.

Documentary which tells the story of Rolls-Royce in India by following the fortunes of India's princes from the zenith of British imperial power to the decline after independence.

Documentary telling the story of Rolls-Royce in India through the fortunes of India's princes. 

Combining newly shot high-definition sequences, archive film and photographs, this film follows the princes from the zenith of British imperial power in the early 1900s through to their decline in the aftermath of independence in 1947. 

Contributors include: HH Shriji Arvind Singh, the Maharana of Udaipur; Manvendra Barwani, Rana of Barwani; Pranlal Bhogilal, India's foremost Rolls-Royce collector, and Sharada Dwivedi, writer and cultural commentator.

The Maharajas' Car

New. The Joy of Motoring strand continues by charting the relationship between India's princes and Rolls-Royce cars from the early 1900s through to the country's independence in and beyond. See panel.

Ford's Dagenham Dream

04/03/2009

BBC Four - Ford's Dagenham Dream

How the British fell in love with the American dream cars made at Ford in Dagenham.

Documentary telling the story of the British love affair with the American dream cars made at Ford in Dagenham in the 1960s and 70s, such as the Zephyr, the Cortina and the Capri.

Documentary which tells the story of a dream of happy families on wheels that the Ford Motor Company brought from Detroit to Dagenham, then sold to Britain. 

From the 1950s onwards Ford revolutionised the cars we drove, producing dream cars for the average British family. In the 60s and 70s Ford sold dreams to boy racers too, but it came at a price. The mass production of motor cars required an army of assembly line workers who did jobs that were infamous for their soul-destroying monotony. 

At its peak Dagenham was producing more than 3,000 cars every day and its most popular dream car, the Cortina, sold around five million in Britain alone. But the assembly line workers had a love-hate relationship with the cars they made and for some the dream became a nightmare. 

Illustrated with powerful first person testimony and rare archive, this is the story of the rise and fall of Ford's Dagenham dream.

Documentary recalling British drivers' enthusiasm for the US-designed cars that were manufactured at Ford's 
Dagenham factory, including the Zephyr and Capri models.

Mondovino

28/10/2006

BBC Four - Mondovino

Documentary on the wine business, focusing on American corporations taking over vineyards.

Documentary about the wine business, focusing on American corporations that are taking over vineyards across Europe and the French wine lovers who oppose them.

Jonathan Nossiter 's documentary explores the efforts of a Californian wine corporation to impose its methods and standards on the ancient wine-making regions of Europe. Review p47. Director Jonathan Nossiter (2004, PG)

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