Q.E.D Season 7, Episode 3: Robots: Taking the Biscuit

1

Round Britain Whizz

Jump in an RAF Hawk and see the entire coast of England, Scotland and Wales in half an hour flat. An apparent flying speed five times that of Concorde! David Bellamy in the Wash solves the mystery of King John's baggage. Clay Jones in Cardigan Bay delves into an ancient kingdom engulfed by the sea. And Patrick Moore reveals what's buried beneath Beachy Head. While we whizz around our extraordinary coastline, 21 regional accents explain every twist and turn, in a first non-stop view of our proud and ever-changing shores.

2

Sight for Sara

It seemed like a perfectly normal birth: Mary and Gordon [text removed] never suspected anything was wrong with their first baby, Sara. The frequent rolling of her eyes was put down to wind; so it was three and a half months before they learned that Sara was blind, with cataracts in both eyes. Q.E.D.'s cameras followed the Bryces for four tense months as doctors and family struggled to rescue Sara from her world of darkness.

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Robots: Taking the Biscuit

4

Understanding Rape

Rape is one of the world's most serious and fast-growing crimes. A recent London survey found that one in six women had been raped at least once. In America it's one in four: that's one rape every 17 minutes. Tonight's Q.E.D. presents film of an experiment carried out at an American psychiatric hospital near Seattle. Four women victims were brought face to face with four convicted rapists. Psychiatrists at the Western State Hospital believe that rape is learned behaviour, which can be changed. They saw this face-to-face confrontation as one possible way of doing this. Q.E.D. took the film to Grendon Psychiatric Prison in Buckinghamshire to find out whether such an experiment could be of any value here ...

5

The Most Swirling, Swinging, Sliding, Spinning, Up-and-Down Ride of Your Life

Q.E.D. looks at the science behind the thrill machines. Discover the best seat on a roller-coaster, the fun of becoming five times heavier in as many seconds, the speed of a fall that's so fast there's no time to scream. Hold tight and prepare yourself: you'll be spinning upside-down, looping the loop while standing up and dropping so fast that you've no idea where your stomach is.

6

New Lives for Old

Swimming, motorcycling, basketball, tennis, sex; it's all available in Sun City, Arizona: as long as you're old enough! A chorus line of show-girls from 60-81 dances for retired judges and ex-industrial tycoons. Hell's Angels on a pension thunder past silverhaired policemen. Join in the laughter, the banter and the sheer zest for living as people deemed too old to work enthuse about running their very own city. Then wonder at the profligacy of a society that too often throws such a national resource on the scrap-heap.

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The Man Who Walks on Fire

One Saturday night last summer in London, scores of men and women paid M each to walk on fire. It was 15 feet long and an incredible 400 degrees centigrade. Hugh Bromiley , a master firewalker and British martial artist, claims anyone can learn to walk on fire. Q.E.D, accompanied by a team of prominent scientists, observed the mass firewalk. Could the whole dramatic event simply be a dangerous delusion? Or does everybody possess untapped powers of mind over matter

8

The Eleven-Minute Mile

Some doctors thought he might never even walk. Now he runs a mile every day and over the past year, 7-year-old Doran Scotson has been aiming for a time of 11 minutes. Not beyond many boys of his age: but Doran is different. Severe jaundice at birth damaged his brain leaving him horribly handicapped. Doran and his mother Linda have one singular ambition; by extraordinary effort to achieve ordinary progress. But there is nothing ordinary about one of the year's most moving stories of love, determination and courage.

9

The Meaning of Dreams

By the age of 75, each one us will have spent ten years in another world - seeing bizarre images, experiencing strange sensations and strong emotions. For everyone, whether they remember them or not, will have spent at least two hours a night dreaming. But do these dreams have any meaning? Bill Oddie agreed to submit himself to the scrutiny of psychoanalysts and the experiments of sleep researchers to find out just how much light science can shed on some of the commonest dream images.

10

A Wolf in Dog's Clothing

About once a month in America, pet dogs will kill - usually either a child or an old person. What makes man's best friend unleash the behaviour of his pack-hunting ancestors? Animal psychologists are trying to pin down what releases canine aggression. And now they even offer psychotherapy to cure the bad dog's hang-ups.

11

Mark, His Sister and the Scientists

Mark is anchored to a wheelchair by a crippling inherited disease, Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. His sister, Tracey, is not affected, but she could be a carrier - in danger of passing the disease on to any male babies she may have. The scientists, led by Kay Davies , are struggling to develop a test that will tell Tracey whether she is a carrier or whether she is lucky and can forget her fears.

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The Body Out of the Bog: Second Report

The murder victim's distorted remains reveal that he was first banged on the head, then garrotted, and finally his throat was cut. Lindow Man, alias Pete Marsh, created a national sensation when his body was dug out of a Cheshire peat bog. In this second report, Q.E.D.'s cameras continue eavesdropping on the detective team led by Dr Ian Stead as it pursues its enquiries into the death. Why was Lindow Man killed? Has the team got the date of his murder totally wrong? And can it reconstruct from his wizened corpse what he looked like when he lived and breathed?

13

The Invisible Killer

A farming community in a remote part of the UK has been hit by a series of deaths and horrifying deformities among their cattle in the last few years. In Ireland, another farmer faces financial ruin after similar deaths and abnormalities at his farm. In both cases the farmers believe they have found the cause of their troubles. But are they right? Q.E.D. investigates, and uncovers a problem which could be affecting the health of us all.