Ventura hat-trick

Hard on the heels of their networked film on Princess Diana's butler Paul Burrell, Midlands based Ventura has scooped three more high profile documentaries.
For the past few weeks cameras have been given unique access to the joy and ultimate tragedy surrounding the lives of 24-year-old Soheyla Zolfaghary and her partner Matthew Owens, parents to naturally conceived identical quadruplet boys.
Ventura's exclusive deal covers the final, anxious weeks of Soheyla's pregnancy and the mixture of joy and disbelief surrounding the successful multiple birth in the maternity unit at "Jimmy's", the world famous St James Hospital in Leeds.
As the babies fought for life in adjoining incubators the inevitable media feeding frenzy developed around the family. Sadly all too soon after the headlines proclaimed 'the little miracles', the smallest, Casper - who weighed in at just 14 ounces - lost his struggle to survive.
However, the bond of trust between documentary makers and parents is so strong that the couple, believing it can aid their grieving process, have asked for cameras to be present at his funeral on Thursday.
The surviving three boys are expected to stay in hospital for up to 12 weeks and Ventura's initial documentary will be available for transmission once the family return home.
Ventura is also planning a series of follow up programmes chronicling the first year in what looks set to be a hectic and highly disruptive time for their parents. High on the agenda is finding a new house to replace the two bedroom house where they live now.
These future programmes can run as monthly half hour updates or crafted as regular inserts into daytime television and will chart the way in which the trauma and shock of the birth turn into the relentless, nowhere-to-hide rollercoaster ride that is multiple birth parenthood. And, as both Soheyla and Matthew realise, their biggest challenge will come every time they look at their growing sons and see, mirrored in their faces, the identical face of Casper, the son they lost.
Rene Delorm is the one man who knows if Princess Diana accepted Dodi Fayed's hand in marriage before the lovers left for the ill-fated evening which led to their deaths in the depths of the Alma Tunnel in Paris.
Rumour, claim and counterclaim still rage over whether the deaths were accidental or the result of a complex, high powered plot to kill the Princess of Wales on that night almost eight years ago.
Although the French authorities conducted their own enquiries in 1999, Scotland Yard are now investigating the deaths of the couple as part of British Royal Coroner Michael Burgess's Inquest and are seeking to clarify the state of mind of the Princess and her lover prior to the fatal accident in Paris.
The documentary will be available for transmission later this year to coincide with the inquest and publication of Sir John Steven's findings.
As the world looks for new, non-polluting, alternative power sources there's one group of people who think old technology might provide one way forward.
Once upon a time it was cutting edge, it powered the Industrial Revolution -remember Stephenson's Rocket? But oh how the mighty are fallen. Today, for most people, it's simply the stuff that comes out of your electric kettle.
So who are these people who think steam has a future? None other than the team that helped Briton Richard Noble set a new land speed record in Thrust II in the 1980's and break through the sound barrier at the same time.
Reformed after almost 20 years, their latest car, Inspiration, has been designed and built to beat the existing land speed record for a steam car - 127 mph, set almost exactly 100 years ago. Planned to run in South Africa later this year the new car is expected to top 200mph.
Apart from breaking the record and developing an alternative fuel source, the project also aims to encourage a new generation of British engineers and designers to work towards cleaner and safer ways of transportation.
Like all similar projects this one will only break in a big way when the car finally crosses the line, the record broken. When newspaper headlines proclaim the achievement, it’s then that Ventura, with its long term coverage, will be in a position to provide exclusive television background to the full story.
(CD)