TV programs worth watching
Sun October 10 — Sat October 16

Near the beginning of the four-part series In Search Of 
Shakespeare (ABC 2.00pm Sundays), Michael Wood observes that 
the gaps in our knowledge of Shakespeare's life have given rise 
to all manner of "conspiracy theories" to the effect that other 
people wrote all his plays and poems.

Ironically, the ABC is even going to include one of these 
"conspiracy theories" — Much Ado About Something — in 
its TV Arts Shakespeare Season, along with William Shakespeare's 
Twelfth Night and The Tragedy of Hamlet.

Wood, I am pleased to say, is not bothered with such theories. 
Elizabethan and Shakespearean scholarship has advanced beyond 
these puny efforts to attribute the works of England's greatest 
writer — arguably the world's greatest writer — to a member of 
the aristocracy or at least to someone who went to university.

His series is an historical detective story, that uses 
fascinating new evidence from spies' reports, village archives 
and even a coded prison diary to fill in the blanks in our 
knowledge of Shakespeare's life and times.

The times are important in Wood's presentation, for as he shows, 
the life of Shakespeare was inextricably linked to the history of 
his time. But, for all his historical approach, Wood is no 
Marxist, and the history of the Tudor and Elizabethan period is 
not for him a time of the consolidation of a central monarchy as 
a key element in the development of the new system of capitalism.

For him it is "a bitter battle of religion, played out in blood, 
bodies and minds". And, of course, that is partially true, but it 
is only part of the historical picture.

Nevertheless, In Search of Shakespeare is fascinating. 
Episode One explores Shakespeare's life in the early years of 
Elizabeth's reign.

With his father holding the high-ranking position of Alderman and 
Mayor of the small town of Stratford, William is one of the 
privileged few, brought up in a nice house with lots of money, 
servants and a good education. But his father's money comes from 
black market trading in wool and money-lending, and Will's world 
is turned upside down when his father's business collapses.

The family loses its fortune and William is forced to leave 
school to find work.

The series is directed by David Wallace and makes excellent use 
of historic locations and especially the historical records of 
the Elizabethan authorities, whose multitude of informers kept 
tabs on seemingly everybody.

The nation of Tuvalu is a cluster of eight coral islands around 
the rim of an ancient undersea volcano in the middle of the 
Pacific Ocean. Their average height above seal level is a scant 
two metres.

As Professor Of Geography and Climatologist Blair Fitzharris 
points out in Paradise Drowned: Tuvalu The Disappearing Nation 
(ABC 9.30pm Wednesday), sea levels are set to rise by almost 
a metre (0.88 of a metre to be exact) by the end of this century 
(2100) — thanks to global warming.

Already many parts of Tuvalu are flooded during king tides; the 
water table is so near the surface that frequently the country's 
only airfield is awash with groundwater; and in many places the 
white sandy beaches are only a memory. Water for drinking has to 
be boiled or even imported.

But worse is to come: Professor Fitzharris notes that if the 
Greenland ice cap continues to melt and the Western Antarctic ice 
sheet collapses, as has been predicted, then the sea level could 
rise a staggering six metres. At low tide the tops of Tuvalu's 
trees would be barely visible.

As the Prime Minister of this nation of 10,000 people notes, his 
country has contributed nothing to global warming. The 
industrialised countries that have caused it should take steps to 
reverse it and to compensate those who are suffering because of 
it.

The United States, which produces 36 percent of the world's 
greenhouse gasses, has refused to sign the agreement. Even the 
residents of those countries that have signed are unlikely to 
change their lifestyles and economies because a tiny Polynesian 
nation is about to be drowned.

A three-metre rise, of course, would have a dramatic effect on 
the environs of Port Jackson and Port Phillip Bay. It will be a 
bit late to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions then, 
however.

This is a well-made pogram (from the New Zealand Natural History 
Unit) which really brings home an awareness of what will be lost, 
and what a personal tragedy it will be for the Tuvaluans if they 
do have to relocate to New Zealand or Australia, as many are 
already preparing to do.

It is marred only by a curious insistence on giving "both sides" 
of the picture, which in this case entails constant intercutting 
of comments by someone identified as "Dr Vincent Grey, Climate 
Scientist", who denies the veracity of evidence for global 
warming, rejects claims that sea levels are rising, pooh-poohs 
data showing greatly increased cyclone activity, and culminates 
his extraordinary reactionary running diatribe with the 
pronouncement that the Kyoto Agreement is "a fraud".

For the rest of us, one intriguing question is why this program, 
which was made in 2001, has only just reached our screens.

A quick word about a couple of other programs that are worth 
watching this week: Troubled Minds: The Lithium Revolution 
(SBS 8.30pm Thursday) tells the story of Australian doctor 
John Cade, who led the "lithium revolution".

In the 1940s, when Freudian psychoanalysis, electric shock and 
lobotomy were the dominant methods used to treat mental illness, 
Dr Cade was the first person to successfully treat a bi-polar 
condition (or manic-depression, as it was known then) with the 
simple salt lithium.

His wartime experiences had convinced Dr Cade that nutrition and 
body chemistry were determining factors in mental health, but it 
would take 20 years of struggle before lithium was finally 
accepted as a treatment. Drug companies remained uninterested in 
lithium because it was a naturally occurring element that could 
not be exploited commercially.

Indian Royalty: Beyond The Veil (SBS 7.30pm Friday) is 
about two filthy rich former Indian princes who are seeking to 
turn their gilded palaces into swanky hotels to attract the 
tourist dollar.

SBS is promoting the program as "providing a glimpse behind the 
allure of centuries' old dynasties to juxtapose two different men 
from similar privileged pasts, each of whom are trying to carve 
out a sustainable future for themselves and their families 
without abandoning their illustrious familial legacies".

The people whose labour created these "illustrious familial 
legacies" for our two princes, live in utter poverty outside the 
gates of the palaces they are not allowed to enter. That former 
royalty is allowed to continue to enjoy a life of wealth and 
privilege amidst such abject poverty is shameful, even 
disgusting.