Television Comes To London was first shown on the opening night of the BBC Television Service. Shot by Bill Barbrook, the film shows the activity behind the scenes in the year running up to the launch of the service. It was edited down to 15 minutes, set to an excerpt from Dvorak's New World Symphony, and transmitted through a telecine machine.
Just off the West End the small cafe bars of Soho provide a meeting-place for artists, musicians, buskers, show people, and exiles from the Continent. They are usually kept by industrious Italians or Swiss, and provide meals at unconventional times, as well as warmth and relaxation for the price of a cup of coffee. This documentary presentation by Mary Adams and Andrew Miller Jones brings to the studio the people who gather at Cafe Cosella.
Highlights of the films shown on BBC Television since it reopened in June after a seven-year gap caused by World War II. The BBC's television service had stopped transmitting on 1 September 1939, and did not resume until 7 June 1946 - the day before the first anniversary of Victory in Europe. The resumption of programming was introduced by Jasmine Bligh: "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh? Well here we are after a lapse of nearly seven years ready to start again and of course we are all terribly excited and thrilled."
At present many young men and women want to be doctors - far more than the medical schools can take. This programme shows what happens to the student who does gain admittance, and attempts to outline the tradition of medical teaching describing the legacy of knowledge that is handed from generation to generation. Only a few of the many great names can be remembered. Among them are Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, Edward Jenner, John Hunter, Laennec, Ambroise Pare, Vesalius, Galen, and Hippocrates. A documentary programme for television.Written and produced by Michael Barry. Among those taking part are - Basil Dawson, Milton Rosmer, Andrew Osborn, Jeannette Tregarthen, Una Venning, H. G. Stoker, Ronald Long, Stafford Byrne, Richard Shayne, Paul Martin, Morris Sweden, John Warner, Norman Webb, Merelina Watts, Richard Pearson, Marguerite Young, John Gatrell, Adrian Waller, Victor Platt, Hugh Paddick, Frederick Davies, Sheila Raynor, and Stuart Latham. The narrator is Andre van Gyseghem. Acknowledgments are due to: Dr. Douglas Guthrie, f.e. c.s.Ed... f.r.s.e.; Dr. Ronald MacKeith. D.M., Oxford, M.R.C.P., and the Scientific Film Society; the Dean of the Medical College and the Governors and Staff of St. Bartholomew's Hospital; and the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, for help and guidance in the preparation of this programme.
A television documentary arranged by John Grierson. The story of the vast task of United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation known as UNESCO in bringing aid to the war-damaged and backward countries of the world. The programme also covers the great scheme for the reclaiming of the unexplored Amazon basin. The story told by John Grierson, Ritchie Calder, Jacquetta Hawkes, and Dr. Carneiro. Introduced by J. B. Priestley.
One of the series of brilliant documentaries made by British film makers during the war. It tells the story of a patrol by a British submarine off the coast of Norway, and shows vividly the hours of great danger which often followed a successful action. The Cast: Officers and men of the Royal Navy
A documentary film report by Robert Barr on the recovery of Western Germany under Anglo-American control. This is a reconstruction of a personal tour of Western Germany and Berlin at a critical moment in the history of a defeated nation The film used in this programme was specially shot by German cameramen working in association with G. del Strother
Written and produced by Robert Barr. A television documentary film made in Western Germany and Berlin during the present crisis. The day-to-day scenes in Germany, the effect of currency reform, and the airlift into Berlin filmed by German cameramen working in association with G. del Strother.
This historic film documents the restoration of the House of Commons which was severely damaged by a bombing raid in May 1941. It also commemorates the secret location, in nearby Church House Annexe, where MPs met following the destruction of the Commons chamber. The film features Sir Winston Churchill giving a light-hearted commemorative speech to mark the occasion. There is also rare footage of King George VI speaking from inside the restored House of Commons - he is the only monarch to have done so since Charles I. Many of the skills employed to restore the chamber to its original condition are also featured in sequences showing the craftsmen at work.
In 1954, Richard Dimbleby and a BBC film crew visited the Isle of Skye to record an episode of the early British television series About Britain. In this programme he gives viewers across the United Kingdom an insight into life on the island, meeting local characters and gaining an understanding of the lifestyle and culture of islanders, as well as spending some time with the Skye Mountain Rescue team and with Dame Flora Macleod at Dunvegan Castle.
First transmitted in 1955, We Live by the River is an atmospheric journey across London which follows two boys as they leave their homes in the East End to visit famous landmarks. Although there is no dialogue, the film captures many of the sights and sounds of post-war London.
First transmitted in 1956, each week 500 girls leave their provincial homes and arrive in London either to take up jobs or look for work. But flaring headlines in Sunday papers about what has occasionally happened to some youngsters causes parents to worry. Are they right to be worried? Robert Reid sets out to find out what really brings the girls to London, what happens when they get there, how they live, what sort of digs they find and what sort of people they are meeting and palling up with. This Special Enquiry seeks to identify the true reality of what awaits these young women upon arriving in the bustling capital.
First transmitted in 1957, this episode of Eye to Eye spans the Atlantic. The result is a wryly observed and evocative portrait of London, "a great place to live in but a hell of a place to visit", and New York which "is a great place to visit but a hell of a place to live in."Harmonica player Larry Adler's specially written soundtrack interprets scenes from the two great cities with piano accompaniment from Tom McCall.
Documentary looking at holidaymakers who take the 'Big Gamble' every summer - those who are willing to risk their savings on a stay at a British seaside resort, which could very well be ruined by bad weather. Filmed at Broadstairs beach.
First transmitted in 1958, Mr and Mrs Findlater take a light-hearted look at the daily routines of three other married couples. They follow the wives as they carry out domestic duties and the husbands at work, described as 'a club, no women admitted', a view reinforced by their lunches! Each shares their feelings about their roles and marriage. Young Mrs Coppard jokes about escaping abroad, while older Mrs Gyle-Thompson reflects on the changes she has undergone. Mr Clark, the husband with the lowest income, describes why he's content and wouldn't swap his wife for anyone. Some interesting interviews are also captured in the pub one Sunday.
Casting real doctors instead of actors, this film uses scripted scenarios and interviews to see the National Health Service through their eyes. The documentary also shows that there is still division among doctors as to whether the NHS was a sound idea in the first place.
Denis Mitchell's 1959 documentary is full of evocative images of a Liverpool still recovering from the post-war gloom.
After the Battle - 1. London - Ed Murrow Reports First transmitted in 1959, American reporter Ed Murrow returns to London where, during the war years, he had broadcast vivid descriptions of Britain during her "finest and darkest hours, trying to report the suffering, the sacrifice and the steadiness of her people" to a listening world.This film features dramatic reports of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, which gave rise to his celebrated closing phrase “Good night and good luck.” Murrow returned to London to examine "what Britain has done with her years of victory." He reports from London’s East End which still bore the scars of the wartime raids, the London docks where dockers claim that taxing them for working on Sundays is "the greatest liberty that's been took by a worker in his life", and asks London's younger generation what kind of world they would like to live in. "This is London..." on the brink of the 1960s, from where Murrow argues that post-war hopes for better health, better education, better housing and full employment are falling short of expectations.
After a brief tutelage with innovative BBC documentary producer Denis Mitchell, Dennis Potter teamed with producer Anthony de Lotbiniere to film a documentary (later described by David Niven as "absolutely wonderful"). Returning to the Berry Hill roots of his childhood, Potter used interviews with locals (including his parents) to show changes in the working-class traditions of the Forest of Dean, where "the green forest has a deep black heart beneath its sudden hills, pushing up slag heaps and grey little villages clustering around the coal."
First transmitted in 1960, this film was written and directed by Ken Russell for the BBC. It follows the bohemian lifestyles of the tenants of an old London house in Bayswater and its housekeeper, Mrs Collings. The blend of documentary style filming, colourful anecdotes and stylised sequences produces a highly evocative and entertaining film as well as an early example of Ken Russell’s distinctive approach to film making.
Richard Burton narrates this stunning film of two Polish soldiers struggling to make a living from a derelict farm in Carmarthenshire. Eugenius Okolowicz and Vlodek Bulaj, soldiers exiled after serving in the Second World War, sought shelter in Wales. They came upon a desolate hillside farm which had lain unoccupied and decaying for 20 years. Neither of the Poles had farmed before, but the land was cheap because it was unwanted. This film tells the story of the men's 12th year living at Penygaer. But it is more the tragic story of the price they have paid for poor independence and of their unending struggle, in loneliness and hardship, to be themselves. (1960)
This footage is all that remains of the programme that was first transmitted in 1960. Sgt George Brown demonstrates training exercises in a wooded area is known as the 'trainasium'. The aim is for the recruits to overcome a series of physical obstacles which encourage movements of daring and agility. They are also set team challenges aimed at encouraging initiative.
Every year in May several thousand 'Lords of Little Egypt' meet for festivities in the Camargue. Mai Zetterling stays with the gypsies and reports on how they live their lives.
David Attenborough travels to Meru National Park in Kenya to meet Elsa the lioness and her cubs shortly before Elsa's death. In the late 1950s, game warden George Adamson and his wife Joy became the carers of three orphaned cubs - Elsa, Big One and Lustica - after George had been forced to kill their mother. Big One and Lustica were eventually sent to Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands, but Elsa remained with the Adamsons. Joy's quest to train Elsa to survive in the wild and Elsa's subsequent independence became the basis for the book and film Born Free.
A contemporary of Henry Moore, Yorkshire-born Barbara Hepworth has made Cornwall her home. This film by John Read examines how the Cornish landscapes have influenced Hepworth's work, and the artist takes us through the planning stages in the creation of her sculptures. (1961)
First transmitted in 1962, John Betjeman presents a documentary exploring the impact of the removal of steam locomotives from British railway services on the railway men who have maintained the system since the days of the Great Western Railway. The introduction of diesel engines meant a real departure from usual operational practices for the railway men who had dedicated their entire working lives to operating the iconic steam locomotive.
Originally produced for the BBC Model Railway Society, a short film marking the demise of the Glasgow trams after ninety years of service - the last trams to run outside of Blackpool to run in any British town or city until 1992.
Alan Whicker interviews billionaire J. Paul Getty, who discusses reports of his meanness, his unsuccessful marriages, why he keeps working and what he's had to sacrifice to become the world's richest man. Alan Whicker wrote of the interview: "In search of this elusive character who had never revealed himself or his secret and impassive thoughts, I stayed at his new home in Surrey, a Tudor mansion which belonged to Henry VIII. A gracious, somewhat absent-minded host, he lives comfortably in quiet splendour; many less rich men live much grander lives." "Producer Jack Gold and I found Paul Getty the classic anti-interviewer; reluctant, modest, shy, set in his conversational ways, and (as a man who always issues orders) unused to questions - for who would dare question the richest man in the world?) We did - at length. And Paul Getty talked of his money, and how he made it; his attitude towards ordinary folk and the public reaction to him; why he chose to live in England, yet requires Alsatian dogs and bodyguards... he dodged nothing. He was honest and self-searching."
John Betjeman looks at the Evercreech Junction to Burnham-on-Sea railway line in Somerset. Betjeman provides a unique profile of a working steam branch line railway as he travels along the original part of the Somerset Central Railway. Examining towns and stations along the way, Betjeman laments the tragic decline of steam railways. The journey culminates with a stroll around Highbridge Wharf, sentimentally narrated with a poem that sums up Betjeman's despair; 'Highbridge Wharf, your hopes have died...'.
Early 1960s documentary in which naturalist Peter Scott looks at the behaviour and habits of the brown hare. This is a rare, classic and important documentary from British TV's first wildlife series - Look (1956-69). The series established the BBC's Natural History Unit's impregnable position as the world's leading wildlife production facility, and the BBC's reputation as innovators of this type of programme.
Politically passionate and one of the first working class reporters at the BBC, Jack Ashley wanted to show the suffering caused by high unemployment in Hartlepool. With no work, no prospects, and little money, Ashley asked how the unemployed reacted to their situation in an increasingly affluent society. The documentary caused a storm when it was first shown in 1963, bringing Hartlepool’s problems to the attention of a national audience. After the programme aired parcels were sent to the contributors containing food, clothing, presents for the children and even an abundance of Christmas turkeys from people all over the UK. (1963)
It arrived suddenly on December 22... Tonight Cliff Michelmore, Derek Hart, Kenneth Allsop recall one of the worst cold spells of this century.
First transmitted in 1964, this film charts how London has grown in size and spread into the surrounding country. Written and narrated by architectural critic Reyner Banham, A City Crowned with Green describes the unique character of London as a capital city. Banham looks at how it has, from the time of Elizabeth I, defied the efforts of the planners to curb its growth but he is alarmed by the urban sprawl. Is to too late to get back closer to the heart and make London a city crowned with green?
This informational programme follows the British Army in Aden (Yemen) during the state of emergency in 1964. Aden is one of the last outposts of the British Empire and a strategic part of the Arabian Gulf guarding access to the trade routes that flow through the Suez Canal. The British colony has become a hotbed of insurgency, and the film follows British troops as they try to keep order in an increasingly violent mountainous region from where the insurgents regularly attack the Port area.
Peter Watkins' documentary portrays the 1746 Battle of Culloden that resulted in the British Army's destruction of the Jacobite uprising and, in the words of the narrator, "tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands". Described in its opening credits as "an account of one of the most mishandled and brutal battles ever fought in Britain", Culloden was hailed as a breakthrough for its cinematography as well as its use of non-professional actors and its presentation of an historical event in the style of modern TV war reporting. The film was based on John Prebble's study of the battle.
First transmitted in 1964, this programme follows the lives of a group of British soldiers from 40 Commando Royal Marines, as they set up camp and patrol the North Borneo jungle, in search of elusive groups of Indonesian border terrorists.
A railwayman from St. Kitts, a bus conductor from Jamaica, a family of singers from Trinidad and a nurse from Barbados ... Philip Donnellan's Birmingham-based film gives a voice to West Indian immigrants who movingly describe their experiences of trying to integrate into a surprisingly unwelcoming ‘mother country’. Shot in 1964 the film provides an important snapshot of Britain in the early stages of momentous social change and first-generation Afro-Caribbean immigration. (1964)
A documentary record of the tumultuous career of Yugoslavia's leader and of the emergence of present-day Yugoslavia, incorporating the personal comments and opinions of Marshal Tito in conversation with Fitzroy Maclean. Film archive material from Belgrade, Vienna, Paris, New York, and the Imperial War Museum, London Made in co-operation with the television services of the United Nations, Yugoslavia, and Sweden
The award-winning documentary film about Covent Garden. Midnight - and large heavily-laden lorries converge on the narrow streets. Through the night-the furious activity of unloading and setting up stalls. Early morning - sees the arrival of the big buyers. Noon - the flower-sellers come to search for their bargains, and twelve hours have passed in the life of famous Covent Garden
First transmitted in 1964, students, professionals and married couples demonstrate the public's changing attitudes towards sex and marriage. What is the best reason for marriage? Is sexual experience an issue? How do men regard pregnancy and newborn babies? Is there a seven year itch? An insightful programme with frank discussions.
Playwright Charles Wood's view of the English seaside holiday. Last summer BBC film cameras visited Blackpool, Pwllheli Holiday Camp, Brighton, Eastbourne, Margate, Southsea, and the Isle of Wight. Commentary written and narrated by Charles Wood
Bermondsey, Camberwell, Deptford, and Southwark lie in the great bend of the river Thames opposite the Tower of London, an area which was extensively damaged during World War II. It has now been virtually rebuilt and is changed out of all recognition. This programme examines the response of a huge working community to changes as profound and disturbing to old ways as any that have taken place elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Therese Denny's documentary looks at the changes which have taken place in Bermondsey, Camberwell, Deptford and Southwark - areas that were extensively damaged in World War II. A variety of South Londoners, from old age pensioners to young bikers, talk about their daily lives and consider how South London - and by extension society as a whole - is changing. Are all of these changes for the better, or is something being lost?
The legendary 1965 BBC film on the pioneering recording by Sir Georg Solti of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen". Filmed during the recording of "Götterdämmerung" in the Sofiensäle with the Vienna Philharmonic, it features performances by the great Wagner singers Birgit Nilsson, Wlofgang Windgassen, Gottlob Frick and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
On the 50th anniversary of the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, a chance to see the BBC's full coverage of the day's events with this archive broadcast of the original live transmission from 30 January 1965. Introduced by the grandson of Winston Churchill, Sir Nicholas Soames.
Four young people huddle in the cold and discomfort of an old van as they travel, maybe hundreds of miles, to a singing engagement in a folk club, and back again to their home town of Hull. They are a group called the Watersons - Michael, Norma and Elaine Waterson, brother and two sisters, and their cousin John Harrison. The three Watersons were orphaned in early life and brought up by a fiercely matriarchal grandmother who said they had to stick together. Even today the closeness of the family unit is maintained. Despite the fact that two of them have married, they all live together in a single, scruffy terrace house, whose centre is a common kitchen, always full of friends and noise. This close, cosy home life is in total contrast to their professional life. In the last two years the Watersons have become one of the most popular folk singing groups in the country, yet they are far removed from the fashionable exhibitionist folk singers. This film is about the Watersons' world. It is about their lives - down to earth, vibrant, receptive, and haunted by all kind of influences from the past: their Irish tinker and farming ancestry, their grandmother's second-hand shop where a love of tradition grew up among horse brasses and sing-songs, the rich historical and trading association of the port of Hull. Above all it is about exciting old music, its source and its meaning today. In this film, the Watersons are played against the broader picture of the folk revival
First transmitted in 1966, Malcolm Muggeridge talks to the novelist John le Carre, who at the age of 34 had written the best-seller The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Although their conversation covers much about the author's influences and ambitions - with the notable exception of any mention of his time as a spy - much of the interview looks at the modern phenomenon of the secret service agent as a hero. In a revealing insight, le Carre explains that his dislike of James Bond stems from the fact that Bond doesn't exist in a political context, making him more of an "international gangster" than a spy. Although Malcolm Muggeridge talks about his own, very brief, period of spying, John le Carre remains close-lipped about his (much more extensive) career in espionage. Le Carre (real name David Cornwell) began working for MI5 in 1952 and transferred to MI6 in 1960. There he remained until 1964, when a combination of Kim Philby's defection, which exposed many British agents, and his own growing success as a novelist caused him to leave the secret service. Le Carre remained secretive about his former career for many decades.
Francis Bacon's paintings have been called sick and corrupt. He has also been hailed as the greatest British painter since Turner. This film study - Bacon's first appearance on BBC Television - shows his work and its sources, and critically assesses his paintings. (1966)
A behind the scenes experience of the the famous 1966 VFL Grandfinal between St Kilda and Collingwood.
Choice reports on a unique British institution - the holiday camp. There are 100 of them, all over the country, and this summer nearly two million Britons will be joining in the fun. Derek Hart asks what kind of value holidaymakers will be getting for their money.
First transmitted in 1966, Going to Work looks at some of the many sides of the hectic fashion industry in the 60s. The programme features interviews with fashion designers Mary Quant and James Wedge, catwalk shows of the 60s, and follows the process of turning wool into finished cloth.
First transmitted in 1967, this documentary asks whether London really was 'swinging' during the 1960s.The film follows arts reporter Robert Hughes, writer Lewis Nkosi and journalist Olivier Todd to gather an Australian, African and French perspective on whether London really deserved its reputation as being a 'swinging, switched on' city. They begin their journey in Carnaby Street, the Mecca of swinging London.
A 45-minute trippy documentary of late 1960's London and is a fascinating time capsule of the remnants of a bygone age before Londons's extensive redevelopment in the late 1960's.
How robotics could shape human society. Your future is being created now - for better or for worse? How close are we to constructing the robot of the future? Will there be one in every house? How human will It look? These are some of the questions this programme tries to answer. Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer and prophet of the robot age, introduces the programme and predicts a future in which man and robots form a combined culture. A culture in which, to use his own words, 'mankind may want robots not only as helpers and servants but also as friends, as something with which they can identify'. Towards Tomorrow explores laboratories in England and America to discover how near scientists and engineers are to turning Asimov's science fiction into science fact.
The story of last seventy years of the Habsburg Empire centring on Emperor Franz Joseph who, at the age of eighteen, came to the throne in 1848.
BBC farewell concert from The Seekers, in London, England, on July 7, 1968.
On 1 May 1928, LNER locomotive 4472 'Flying Scotsman' made the inaugural run of a non-stop service from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. Now, exactly forty years later on 1 May 1968, Alan Pegler, owner of the locomotive Flying Scotsman since British Railways sold her in 1963, attempts to recreate the run. Various passengers, including Rev W Awdry, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, talk about their memories of the locomotive.
First transmitted in 1968, this documentary shows life in the British Army of the Rhine as seen through the eyes of one of its regiments, the 17th/21st Lancers, as they complete a tour of duty. It reveals how they manage their routine whilst guarding the Cold War East German front and how they try to live a normal life with their families in a foreign and sometimes alien environment.
This program shows the newfound popularity of Professor Tolkien. Interviews show not only fans' opinions, but also feature interviews with Tolkien himself
First transmitted in 1968, Black, Coloured and Asian South Africans are interviewed in this eye-opening documentary about their views on apartheid. Included with the many dissenting views on apartheid are opinions on why different racial groups should live separately. Film footage that often shows the shocking racial exploitation allowed by apartheid accompanies the interviews. This documentary shows a protest by Church leaders against the Group Areas Act and features an interview with Desmond Tutu.
First transmitted in 1969, this documentary follows the construction of the world’s most advanced underground system. Macdonald Hastings narrates the story of one of the most complex tunnel engineering feats of its time. He reveals the isolation felt by the miners who spent six years burrowing deep beneath the streets of London, shows what they did beneath one of London's most famous department stores and explains why the ground at Tottenham Court Road had to be frozen during the hottest weeks of 1966. The result is a brave new world of transport with automated trains, two way mirrors, automatic fare collection and closed-circuit television, all choreographed by a computer programme played out by an updated version of a pianola located in a control room somewhere near Euston station.
This personal plea from Margaret Drabble is a lament for the death of the city, which questions whether 'civic redevelopment' is tearing the heart out of our cities. Are tower blocks, giant supermarkets and an ever expanding suburbia the way forward? Margaret Drabble thinks not and argues that a successful city combines areas where residents and office workers share a space and a multiplicity of shops serve their needs. She also challenges the myth that streets are traffic arteries and unsavoury places to be in, especially for children, arguing that it's traffic that's the problem, not kids. The documentary was based on Jane Jacobs' work "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" (1961), an influential book on urban planning in the 20th Century.
With Angels and Skins neck and neck in the contemporary Folk Devil stakes, presenter Harold Williamson decides to meet and talk with members of each group and, crucially, to speak to their parents, in order to find out what they’re really like.
This film looks at a handful of the 280,000 railwaymen who work in Britain, especially the men who worked on the former Midland and Great Central routes, as they reflect on their changing industry. Inside Sheffield Railway Men's Club former steam locomotive crew discuss the transition from steam to electric and diesel engines, and heatedly debate their respective merits. Meanwhile, on the Manchester-Sheffield line a former steam locomotive driver remembers what it was like to go through the Woodhead Tunnel, where driver and fireman had to crouch down to avoid the fumes and get breathable air. Signalman Michael Gatonby reveals life inside the signal box, one of the loneliest and busiest jobs on the railway line.
In just four months, the world's first jumbo jet goes into regular service over the Atlantic. Already 200 have been ordered by the world's airlines. Each is designed to carry nearly 500 passengers. The jumbo has been called a 'pilot's dream.' But will it also be an airport's nightmare? By next year, half a dozen of the giants may be queuing at peak hours to disgorge their passengers at London Airport. Round the world, airports face their biggest jam in history. Jumbo jets will revolutionise airport design. But they may also speed up other travel developments, with far-reaching effects on the design and peace, of our cities.
For the Safety of All. There are seventy-two manned lighthouses around the Scottish coast and it takes a vast and complex organisation to administer them. The isolated rock stations are serviced by four ships. These ships are crewed by seamen who know every rock in the gullies which are the hazardous landing places. This documentary is a story of storm and danger-and a story of lonely living. The Northern Lights followed the Pole Star, a Northern Lighthouse Board relief vessel and her crew as she serviced some of Scotland's most remote and inaccessible lighthouses. Although the Northern Lighthouse Board had begun the process of automation by then, several manned lighthouses remained and the crew of the Pole Star had the crucial role of taking relief crews and supplies to these lighthouses. In this programme, the Pole Star visits the Sule Skerry and North Ronaldsay Lighthouses in Orkney as well as the mysterious Flannan Isles Lighthouse where three lighthouse keepers disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1900. Narrated by Tom Fleming
Pop Go The 60s! was a one-off, 75-minute TV special originally broadcast in colour on 31 December 1969,to celebrate the major pop hits of the 1960s.[3] The show was a co-production between the United Kingdom's BBC and West Germany's ZDF broadcasters. It was shown on both stations on the same day, with other European stations broadcasting the programme either the same day or later. Although a co-production, it was primarily produced by the BBC and recorded at the BBC's Television Centre in London, in late 1969, featuring largely only British pop acts and hits. History The show (which went out at 10:35pm) was presented by Jimmy Savile and Elfi von Kalckreuth. The two presenters introduced each act (with the exception of Cliff Richard), but neither was present in the studio recording with the artists, their links being added later. Savile spoke English, whereas Elfi von Kalckreuth speaks in German throughout. The BBC's Johnnie Stewart produced the show, while Stanley Dorfman directed. Both men were involved with the regular production of BBC music show Top Of The Pops and this show had a very similar look and production style. The artists performed on rostra, surrounded by a standing audience who danced along with the music. Klaus Weiding was the co-producer for the German station. The end titles are in both English and German. Some of the artists present in the studio performed live, singing with an orchestra directed by Johnny Harris but many mimed to their original studio recordings. The Ascot Dancers appeared with a large number of the performers. Although a British-West German co-production, only one West German artist appears and that is on a pre-recorded film insert. The only song performed in German is by Sandie Shaw, who performed incomplete versions of two songs. The participating artists were (in order of appearance):[4] The Who - I Can See For Miles Adam Faith - What Do You Want?[5] & Someone Else's Baby The Tremeloes - Silence Is Golden
James Cameron documentary relating to the cultural impact of the Apollo programme.
Original footage of the Apollo 11 full moon walk and commentary transmitted by the BBC on 20th and 21st June 1969.
Intimate portrait of the daily life of the British Royal Family drawn from 18 months of filming within Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral.
The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated. (John Ruskin) How good a parent are you? Do you know the laws - old and new - governing you and your child? How far are you answerable, and how far is the State, for his health, safety, education, behaviour, hours of work? Cliff Michelmore and Magnus Magnusson give you the chance to check your knowledge of the rights and duties of parents; and of facts about children, from toddlers to teenagers. Keep your score and compare it with the three studio teams: Four Parents, Four Children and Four Experts - a paediatrician, a headmistress, a child psychotherapist, and a children's officer.
Marty Feldman, for many years a successful comedy writer before turning to performing, explores humour through the people who create it, comparing their traditions, motivations and anxieties with his own. Among the people Marty talks to are Peter Sellers, Eric Morecambe, Peter Brough and Archie Andrews, Dudley Moore and Barry Took.
First broadcast in 1969. In his 70th year, Alfred Hitchcock came to the National Film Theatre in London to talk to fellow director Bryan Forbes and to answer questions from an audience of film enthusiasts. With scenes from Blackmail (1929), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Torn Curtain (1966).
The story of the men and women who in just 10 post-war years produced a series of film comedies that were so original and funny that the name of the quiet residential London borough where they were made became world famous - they put Ealing on the map. Featuring excerpts from: Hue & Cry, Passport To Pimlico, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Whisky Galore, A Run For Your Money, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man In The White Suit and The Ladykillers. (1970)
Ignorant of democracy but hungry for the West they cannot visit, the 17 million East Germans are a force that could decide the fate of Russia's European Empire. For most of the past decade they have been isolated by the Berlin Wall and a fortified border over 600 miles (965 km) long. Cold War attitudes have been slowest to melt in East Germany but this summer for the first time the German Democratic Republic opened its borders for three weeks to let in a BBC film crew. Tonight we see the first full-length report by a British television team on the life of the Germans who live 'Beyond the Wall.'
Gale Parsons was loving, intelligent and - according to everyone who knew her - had much to offer; everything to live for. But, aged just 19 and a drug addict, she was found dead in the basement of a derelict house in Chelsea. Harold Williamson and the Man Alive team first met Gale when making a programme about people who had been brought up in children's homes. What was apparent, even then, was her total loss of hope, her disbelief in any future. Now, the people who were in her life and who cared for her in and out of various institutions ask: need she have died? One of the first documentaries to draw attention to young homeless and drug addicted people, Gale is Dead was nominated for a BAFTA in 1971. Its director, Jenny Barraclough, received an OBE in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to Documentary Film Making and Charity. (1970)
First transmitted in 1971, Daphne du Maurier, author of 'Rebecca' and 'Jamaica Inn', talks to writer Wilfred De'Ath about her life from her Cornish cliff-top home. In her first television interview, the cameras follow du Maurier as she walks through her house and its grounds, recalling key events from her life and revealing memorabilia from her famous theatrical family.She also reflects on the inspirations and influences that shaped her writing and shares archived manuscripts of some of her famous works.
Featuring contributions from Eleanor Bone, Cecil Williamson, Alex & Maxine Sanders [above], Doreen Valiente et al. Very much of its time and with some very rare footage, also includes reference to the famously unsolved murder of Charles Walton on Meon Hill.
Magnus Magnusson's guide to the Egyptian king Tutankahmun's celebrated visit to a London museum in 1972.
Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles is a fascinating 1972 documentary about Los Angeles, in which architectural historian Reyner Banham is our guide. He argues that Los Angeles is a great city, praising both the city’s freeway network and its walkable nature. He says that “Los Angeles simply works” and “the building history of Los Angeles and London is very similar. The famous Georgian squares are the true prototype for Los Angeles.” Enjoy over fifty minutes of dubious L.A. celebration.
A moving film about people who live below the poverty line and their struggle to keep afloat. In the London Borough of Southwark the tenants of Chaucer House, a decrepit half-way house for homeless families, reach breaking point. Angry that once more Southwark had failed to deliver on their promise to tear down the flat block and provide adequate alternative accommodation they stage a demonstration and wait for the officials next move. At the heart of their demonstration is a plea for better housing, better treatment, more understanding and above all a better future. This highly acclaimed documentary examines the way the officials deal, not only with the tenants of Chaucer, but with those living on or below the poverty line - people subjected daily to interrogation, investigation - those who seem to have been rejected by society. Following the release of the documentary Chaucer House was demolished a year later.
Britain's first armed urban guerrilla group emerged in the early 1970s and came to prominence with the discovery of a bomb at the high security Paddington Green Police Station. Based on the book by the script writer, the film tells the story of the group's rise and fall through interviews with police and group members.
John Betjeman's meditation on the residential suburbs which grew up alongside the Metropolitan Line, the first steam underground in the world.
A documentary detailing the production of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" LP featuring footage from the recording session in France, interviews, and concert footage.
BBC documentary following a UK chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
Two of Britain's leading film directors - John Schlesinger and Gerald Thomas - share the anxiety, hopes and risks experienced by those involved with the movie industry. The Big Screen follows the production of four British films: the eighth James Bond film Live and Let Die, The Optimists of Nine Elms, science fiction-thriller The Final Programme and The 14. Actors Peter Sellers, David Hemmings, Jon Finch, Roger Moore and Jenny Runacre are among those seen at work
Cliff Michelmore gives you the chance to check up on your driving knowledge, and to check your score against two studio teams: Good Drivers The Lorry-Driver of the Year, The Woman Driver of the Year, The Most Promising Rally-Driver of the Year v Bad Drivers (the ones who got caught) Bernard Manning, Barbara Murray, Stirling Mos
A documentary about bomb disposal teams, their training, and the problems of maintaining a family life in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. It follows three Ammunition Technical Officers in the British Army.
A 1974 documentary in which Dave Allen meets a variety of eccentrics, including a man who lives in a box on wheels and a man who pretends to fly a Lancaster bomber in his garage.
First transmitted in 1974, Sir John Betjeman, poet laureate, visits and explains the architecture of various churches in the Diocese of Norwich. Among the churches he visits are Sandringham church on the Queen's private estate, the Holy House of Our Lady of Walsingham and Norwich Cathedral
Dan Farson, the great nephew of Bram Stoker, travels to Transylvania to investigate the facts, the legend and the business interests which surround Dracula.
This film looks at their success in New York now and how it all began 15 years ago with Beyond the Fringe. There are many examples of their most famous sketches from Not Only ... But Also.
The Simpson family love travelling to remote parts of the world on holiday. Last summer they undertook a 200-mile expedition in canoes and on foot across West Greenland.
Some 7,000 men, women and children die in accidents in the home every year. Most of these accidents could have been anticipated and avoided. It's up to us to spot the dangers in our own home. Can you deal with a pan fire? A scald? Can you spot the extra hazards that threaten children or old people? Take our test and find out how safe you are at home. Cliff Michelmore asks the questions and gives the answers. Compare your score with our studio contestants: Delia Smith, television cookery demonstrator; Mary Miller, Daily Mirror 'Mrs Britain'; Stan Ward, group safety officer, Building Industry. They will take the test in the studio. The prizes can be high. A correct decision or keen observation in your home could save the life of one of your family.
Robin Day meets the new leader of Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher, after 100 days in the job.
The story of the artist siblings Augustus and Gwen John, following their childhood in Wales, their days at art school in London, their love affairs and their painting careers. "As an artist, you've got to get excited before you can do anything, and beauty is a great excitant. Certainly, I have an interest in women. If it's beauty, it's love, in my case.' (1975)
Reporter Angela Rippon tells the story of CEEFAX - the BBC's latest form of broadcasting. She visits Kingswood Warren where BBC Research Department 'boffins' developed it; and looks at some of its uses: News, weather, travel, sports results, farm prices and business information. A look-behind-the-scenes at a television development that could be in everyone's home in just a few years' time.
This film includes a personal view of London's Bloomsbury area from actor Kenneth Williams, a visit to Brentford's Piano Museum, now known as the Musical Museum, before moving on for a spot of village cricket. Barry Norman covers the story as teams from Langleybury and Isleham battle it out in the Haig Village Cricket Championships to get to the final which will be played at Lords, "the Mecca of all cricketers everywhere."
n Railways The World About Us First transmitted in 1975, the 150th anniversary of global rail transportation is marked by a visit to India to survey one of the world’s most impressive railway networks. For rail enthusiasts India’s railway system, which has continued to utilize steam locomotives, represents one of the most spectacular systems the world has to offer.The World About Us team join forces with Michael Satow, who in 1970 took up the post of honorary adviser to the Rail Transport Museum in New Delhi, Asia’s first railway museum.As they set out to explore the Indian subcontinent in search of railway memorabilia, ranging from minute objects to full scale steam locomotives, the spectacular beauty of India’s railway system is revealed in all its glory.
'Knowledge is of two kinds, we know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it.' DR JOHNSON Can you really say what you think? Do you have a right to privacy? What about the neighbours? What right have they to interfere with our lives-or we with theirs? When do you have the right to say NO? Try our test and see how well you know your rights. Cliff Michelmore asks the questions and gives the answers. Compare your score with the two teams in the studio : Clement Freud MP for the Isle of Ely Willie Hamilton MP for Fife Central Norman St John-Stevas MP for Chelmsford will compete against Alfred Hinds four times champion of his rights Anna Raeburn of Woman magazine Jimmy Reid Trade Union official
Ghosts abound in Britain. Thousands of people have seen and heard what they believe to be phantom footsteps, abnormal phenomena, and ghosts of all shapes and sizes, sometimes even moving above ground level. In tonight's documentary Hugh Burnett visits some of the people who have tried to track them down, or heard and seen things they cannot explain. The film ranges from a haunted house, a â haunted inn, even a theatre haunted by a butterfly - to Borley Church where many strange occurrences have been recorded.
A special 60th anniversary programme in which Leo McKern walks the fields of Picardy and retells the story of this heroic and tragic battle. With the letters, diaries, and memories of men who took part. 1 July 1916 - the first day of the Battle of the Somme -was the worst day in British military history. In less than 24 hours 60,000 British soldiers became casualties; and nearly 20,000 of them died. The battle dragged on for another four-and-a-half months. It turned a gracious part of northern France into a landscape like the moon's. It produced anger and cynicism, but also incredible gallantry and courage. During it 1,200,000 British, French and Germans were killed or wounded. By the end of it the armies of Britain and her Empire had advanced about seven miles.
First transmitted in 1976, to celebrate the Poet Laureate's 70th birthday, Sir John Betjeman recalls in vivid detail the agonies and the delights of growing up, set against the background of his Highgate and Chelsea homes, holidays in Cornwall, boarding school and Oxford. The commentary is taken entirely from Betjeman's autobiographical poem, Summoned By Bells, first published in 1960.
Part of the BBC's 50th Anniversary celebrations, this documentary chronicles the history of BBC television.
Sea in the Blood Thalassaemia - meaning ' sea in the blood ' - is the name given to a once mysterious disease which was found in Mediterranean countries. More recently it was shown to be one of the most common genetic diseases in the world. Today, as a result of the applica-, tion of the most advanced methods of biology, more is known about this form of anaemia than any other disease. But this knowledge will not simply affect the sufferers; there is no doubt that its consequences for genetics are widespread and will affect us all. In less than a generation it is likely that many people will face difficult, many think dangerous, choices as a result of the new biology. Robert Reid looks at the work, how it affects people in underdeveloped countries, how it is 'already affecting people in Britain ', and what its wider effects might be.
Raymond Baxter, a former fighter pilot himself, talks to some of the men who built and flew the plane that played a key part in preventing the invasion of Britain in 1940. We learn how the Spitfire narrowly escaped being called the Shrew and find out about the significance of the elliptical wings. Douglas Bader explains the flying tactics Spitfire pilots used against Messerschmitts and Gordon Mitchell recalls his father Reginald, who designed the plane but died before it went into full-scale production. Called up in 1941, Raymond Baxter flew his first Spitfire when he joined No 65 Squadron in August 1942. He was mentioned in dispatches for his dive-bombing of V2 sites in 1944. After the war, in 1949, he joined the BBC and went on to have an illustrious career as a reporter, covering events such as the funeral of King George VI (1952) and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (1953). He was also a presenter on major science series including Eye on Research and Tomorrow's World.
The Search for Life in Outer Space. Documentary presented by James Burke to coincide with the arrival of Viking 1 on Mars in July 1976.
Can you marry your first cousin? Whom did the God of Love, love? Is that famous Lover John Barrymore or Rudolph Valentino? Who are the Romantic Runaways of 1953? Grab a pencil and see if you know more about Love than the studio teams. Ladies: Marjorie Proops, Daily Mirror columnist; Elizabeth Jane Howard, novelist; Gemma Craven, actress Gentlemen: Kingsley Amis, author; Bryan Forbes, film producer; Patrick Mower, actor Cliff Michelmore asks the questions and gives the answers. Christopher Cazenove and his wife Angharad Rees express the language of Love, but do you know who wrote it?
This documentary follows three months in the life of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets (also known as the Black Mafia) as they move from their Dover barracks for a tour of duty at the Tower of London. The Royal Green Jackets are light infantry, trained to move fast. Above all they are riflemen and take pride in their reputation of being thinking fighting soldiers.
This programme tells the story of the private steam railway company the Strathspey Railway, which was engineered and run by a group of rail enthusiasts in Scotland.Through the use of restored locomotives the company was started purely to preserve steam passenger trains, as their fading presence across British rail networks, due to the introduction of diesel engines, was keenly felt among steam enthusiasts.
Joan Bakewell visits Haworth in Yorkshire, home of the Brontes, to see the setting in which the novelists worked.
This programme shows Her Majesty the Queen reviewing the British Army of the Rhine on her silver jubilee. It was the biggest gathering of British military troops and equipment since World War Two with over 500 vehicles and aircraft present.
Hugh Burnett interviews UFO witnesses, and people involved in UFO mythology.
A classic documentary from 1977, introduced by Melvyn Bragg, which explores the ideas and attitudes which have characterised one of the most popular shows on British television.
Insightful documentary, comparing the contrasting styles of Radio 1 Breakfast Show presenter Noel Edmonds, and Radio 4 Announcer John Snagge.
A profile of English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, who is famed as a deeply reserved and secretive man that put his most private feelings into his poems, This programme features a look at the poetry he wrote after the death of his first wife, Emma.
This programme with Dudley Moore in the role of the layman investigates the physical and philosophical theories of time, including the variability of human estimation of time, the meaninglessness of concept of absolute time, the relativity twin paradox, time travel, the birth in detail and an envisioned death of the universe. Those explaining these concepts to him include Isaac Asimov, and actors in dramatizations, together with graphics and simulations.
TV special featuring footage filmed throughout Wings' tour of 1975/1976, following the band in England, Australia and America. It contains live concert performances featuring fifteen of Wings' greatest songs and home movies of Paul McCartney and his family, providing a fascinating profile of the McCartneys' life off-stage. The tour itself was a major triumph for Wings - the first time the group had appeared in Australia and America, and Paul's first performance in the States for ten years. Three million people saw the shows and a then-world record attendance for an indoor concert of 67,053 was set at the Kingdome, Seattle. Starting with Paul and Linda in Scotland, the special features the gradual build-up of the band and follows Wings on tour with hit songs such as Jet, Maybe I'm Amazed, Yesterday, Silly Love Songs and Band on the Run. The Wings line-up for the tour was Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English.
This highly informative and educational two hour BBC program was written and conceived by Nigel Calder, author of several books on science, including Einstein’s Universe, upon which this program is based. It is hosted by Peter Ustinov, who serves both as our guide to understanding Einstein’s theories and speaks Einstein’s words to make his presence felt throughout the program. Ustinov becomes educated in Einstein’s theories by many of the best minds in science, who provide demonstrations to illustrate his teachings. These include experiments to help understand gravity, warped space, how light responds to gravity, the “Doppler effect” and how radio waves, as used in police radar, are an unbeatable way of measuring speed. From these simpler experiments much larger concepts are drawn, such as the discovery of a Binary Pulsar, the nature of black holes and how they are created, and the ultimate theory of how the universe was formed. Other demonstrations measure the speed of light, how time passes more slowly for people traveling in an airplane, the incredible accuracy of the Atomic Clock in Washington, DC and how time itself would appear to stop at the surface of a black hole. The conclusion of the program portrays Einstein as a great humanitarian. Although known as the “father of the Atomic Bomb”, his greatest concern was for the potentially devastating effects splitting the atom could have on the future of mankind. His famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt warned that although the splitting of the atom to detonate an atomic bomb could be used to end World War II, it could also potentially be used for far more deadly ends. This last thought is the subject of another Nigel Calder book, Nuclear Nightmares, and a second BBC program to explore this subject in more depth.
Michael Rodd surveys the use of synthesisers,computer & multi-track recording techniques to create the new sounds of electronic music.
James Burke looks back on the Apollo Moon landings. Now that ten years have passed, the full story of how and why America sent men to the Moon ' for all mankind ' can be told. In this first programme, based on exclusive interviews with seven former Apollo astronauts and illustrated by the beautiful film they shot in space, the dramatic real-life adventure story of the Moon landings is told more frankly than ever before. Among other things, it is revealed that the first landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ten years ago tonight was far closer to disaster than was admitted at the time.
James Burke looks back on the Apollo Moon landings, following the astronauts' version of Apollo earlier this evening, this second programme goes right behind the scenes to examine the political imperatives that first fostered, then disowned Project Apollo. Born out of J.F.K Kennedy's frustration at Soviet success killed because of the cost of the Vietnam war, Apollo was a political football - as the top NASA managers reveal in exclusive interviews. Lunar scientists, too, have a story to tell. What, after ten years-analysis of moon rocks, did they get out of the $24-billion adventure? What, come to that, was in it for the rest of us?
This programme looks at the Rainhill Locomotive Trials in Rainhill, Lancashire (now Merseyside) in 1829, a competition to find the best passenger steam locomotive in Britain.On the 150th anniversary of the trials, replicas of its famous winner - Stephenson's 'Rocket' - and two of its competitors are rebuilt by modern day designers, and the trials are reconstructed in Hyde Park.
There is an explosion in naturist holidays. It is estimated that 15 million people spent their holidays with nothing on last summer - four times as many as ten years ago. One tour operator predicts that naturist holidays will soon be as popular as ski-ing. At Cap d'Agde in the south of France a gigantic naturist town is being built. Already it has accommodation for 20,000. Soon it will be twice the size. And its supermarkets, banks, cafes and restaurants are full of naked people English families explain why they choose to go naked - many preferring the less commercial, back-to-nature resorts; few approving of the Mr and Miss Nude Admerica pageants staged every year by a Californian entrepreneur ' to bring nudism out of the closet and into the public eye '. JOHN PITMAN traces the growth of the naturist movement this century, from its small-time beginnings in a park in north Germany, to the multi-million-pound business it is today - especially for France and Yugoslavia.
Cardinal Tomas O' Fiaich, tracing the journeys of Columbanus and the early medieval Irish missionaries.
Until 1978, Fred Dibnah was a steeplejack working locally to his own area of Lancashire. Whilst working on the Town Hall in Bolton, the local BBC TV filmed a short news item about him. As a result of this, Fred was approached by a television producer with a view to making 1 half-hour film as part of a series about people with unusual occupations. After several months of filming, the final article was an hour long documentary, screened in his own right. This won two awards for the producer.
A trade information film about an exciting modern extra for TV.
In 1979 filmmaker John Samson went on the road with a 22-year-old Eric Bristow, one of the rising stars of British darts. This film from the archives depicts Bristow between major competitions as he travels around the pubs and working men's clubs of Britain, challenging the local heroes and playing exhibition matches. Bristow takes on all-comers and breezily faces down a belligerent local radio host. (bbc)
At the beginning of the war hundreds of British civilians were recruited for an intelligence operation which has remained a closely-guarded secret. They were called VI's and they worked alone in garden-sheds and back-rooms. Their only contact was a mysterious Post Office Box Number. Tonight their story is told by Rene Cutforth.
Introduced by Penelope Keith As midnight approaches and brings with it the beginning of the 1980s, the final programme of the 1970s brings back memories of some of the BBC television programmes which achieved popularity, esteem or even notoriety during the decade. Among the well-known faces who have created an impact on our television screens over the past ten years: John Cleese, Michael Parkinson, Rod Hull and Emu, The Goodies, Elton John, Angela Rippon, Penelope Keith, Richard Briers, Felicity Kendall, Paul Eddington, Michael Crawford, David Frost, Larry Grayson, Morecambe and Wise, Esther Rantzen, Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Keith Michell, Ian Holm, Tom Conti, Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Alan Dobie, Alan Bates, Anne Stallybrass, Susan Littler, John Duttine, Joanna David, Jeremy Brett, Anna Massey, Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, Clare Francis, John Curry, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Mary Peters, Virginia Wade, Monty Python, Alistair Cooke, Dr Jacob Bronowski, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, and The Wilkins Family of Reading.
How much do we in Britain know about Europe? Do they pay more tax than us? Do they have fewer strikes? Does an evening out cost more? What's the Duty Free allowance these days? Try this test and see how much, or how little, you know. Cliff Michelmore and Magnus Magnusson ask the questions and give the answers.
ABBA star in their first European TV special, recorded on location in the Swiss Alps. Also featuring special guests Kate Bush and Roxy Music.
Anthony Burton travels from York through Leeds and Harrogate to discover more about Britain's industrial past and the role of railway companies in the 19th Century. Along the way, he finds out about the dark and dangerous work of tunnelling, the different classes of passenger coaches and the grandeur of railway hotels.
'When I look at a film without the music it's like lively death.' So says Steven Spielberg , director of Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941, all with scores by the American composer John Williams. Williams now has the composer credit for some 45 feature films, among them How to Steal a Million, Jane Eyre , Towering Inferno, Superman, Star Wars. Many directors will admit that music is crucial to a film's success, yet the composer's name is rarely known to the general public. This film looks at the craft and the pressures of film music through the work of JOHN WILIAMS , with extracts from several films, and sees him at work on his latest, the second of the Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, which has its London premiere on 20 May.
Brian Redhead reports from the 'Rocket 150' event held at Rainhill, Lancashire to mark the 150th anniversary of the world's first inter-city railway and the Stephensons' legendary Rocket locomotive. On display are 'celebrity' engines from across the country, including the 'Green Arrow', the 'Flying Scotsman' and the record-breaking Mallard-class train that bore its designer's name, 'Sir Nigel Gresley', as well as the king of the modern electric railway, the Advanced Passenger Train (APT).
An episode of Change of Direction featuring Buzz Aldrin
The fifth of six programmes from the Bristol Arts Unit investigates some of the mysteries of rock 'n' roll. XTC is a four-man rock group from Swindon, who spent a weekend in August at The Manor - a manor house near Oxford now established as a 'living-in' recording studio - making their new single "Towers of London". Shadowed by television cameras and microphones, the members of XTC - Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, Terry Chambers, Dave Gregory - and their producer Steve Lilliwhite expound and demonstrate the complexities of multi-track recording.
"Make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, but above all, make 'em wait". the classic formula for soap opera, and it still fascinates us, 50 years after American soap manufacturers used it to capture audiences for their commercials. Angela visits the Crossroads Motel, meets J.R. and Sue Ellen (separately), and becomes Nelson's girl-friend in The Archers, in her search for the roots of the popularity and profitability of soap.
Are we facing in Britain an imminent tidal wave of crime? Certainly the way we are bombarded with crime stories in the press, on television and radio, we might be forgiven for a sense of unease. The prospect of being overwhelmed by crime clearly is disturbing. But has it fostered our fears unfairly and unnecessarily. Do we ironically face another different but hidden danger not so much from our lawbreakers but from our law enforcers? Will that prospect drastically change tne lives of each and every one of us? Tonight's documentary follows the police at work in the streets and the public's response to them. we observe the experience of victims and criminals alike, and reveay a view of the War on Crime. Narrator DEREK COOPER
A film profile of HRH The Prince of Wales Prince Charles has been described as self-conscious, vulnerable, ambitious and incurably romantic. In this documentary he talks about his life and loves. Historic news-reel film shows him growing up in a changing world under the influence of older members of his family. His schoolfriends recall the shy boy coming out of his shell. Prince Charles wants to succeed in everything he does, and his polo coach and helicopter instructor tell how he pushes himself to the limit. Hugh Scully follows the royal progress, including the Prince's recent visit to Australia and America, and looks at the woman who will have more influence on him than anyone else - Lady Diana Spencer
In ten days' time an estimated 1,000 million people will be tuning in to BBCtv and radio for the Royal Wedding of the decade. But how much do we really know? Cliff Michelmore and Magnus Magnusson invite you to join in this informal but informative quiz. See how you score against the teams. Michael Jayston , Angela Pleasence Anne Stallybrass and Vera Lynn Robert Lacey , Malcolm Williamson Michael Wood reports from Caernarvon Castle and Fred Housego takes a romantic look at royal marriages in history.
This is a documentary on the reign of the last Shahanshah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was overthrown by Khomeini’s Islamic ‘revolution' in 1979.
Aubrey Beardsley was a phenomenon, as his contemporaries recognised. Between 1893 and 1898 (when he died from tuberculosis aged just 25) he developed into one of the world's most exciting graphic artists, and turned out hundreds of black and white drawings, which retain their power to fascinate, to amuse and to shock. In this film Brian Reade, Brigid Brophy, Ralph Steadman and a psychiatrist, discuss Beardsley's work and recall the story of his short life. The film has been made almost exclusively from Beardsley's original drawings. (1982)
Broadcast the week he died, this short documentary about Alex Harvey covers his background and his life as a musician and includes footage from performances and interviews with Alex.
A decrepit bus with nine entertainers on board leaves Inverness in a desperate bid to persuade the corpse of the variety road show to sit up. Through the Highlands to the island of Skye, the cast hump their ' props' from village to village playing up to three shows a night. Conditions are hard, complaints are many; jokes are cracked about the ' escape committee' until, finally, they form one ... The second of three programmes written and narrated by Ian Wooldridge
The effects of a one megaton nuclear bomb being exploded over London
In this film B. A. Robertson examines the Scottish contribution to rock and pop. The programme contains some rare and atmospheric film of Scottish stars in performance and in the recording studio. B.A. meets them and discusses their involvement with the pop scene.
Barry Norman looks at the attitudes towards success and failure among the famous and not quite so famous figures of Hollywood.
On March 1932, the baby son of American aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from his home near Hopewell, New Jersey. Four years later a German immigrant carpenter, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was convicted of the murder of the baby and died in the electric chair. The Lindbergh Kidnapping was at the time the ‘Trial of the Century’, a worldwide sensation that inspired many films and books over the years, including Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. But doubts have existed from the beginning about the guilt of Hauptmann. In 1982, with new evidence, his 83-year-old widow reopened the case and sued the State of New Jersey for the wrongful execution of her husband, but her claim was dismissed. Ludovic Kennedy looks at the evidence only recently made public and shows that doubts are now more than ever justified.
Barry Norman tells the story of a famous training establishment for would-be stars in the 1940s and 50s. The Rank Organisation called it 'The Company of Youth' but the press quickly dubbed it 'The Charm School', where youngsters from varied backgrounds and with little or no acting experience, were put under contract at £10 a week and trained at a church hall next door to Rank's Highbury Studios. Taking part are former charm school students Diana Dors, Pete Murray, Christopher Lee, Barbara Murray, Peggy Evans, Susan Beaumont and the Viscountess Rothermere, publicity executive Theo Cowan, Rank's Director of Artists Olive Dodds, and producer Betty Box.
Millions of Americans are determined to live through what they foresee as an inevitable nuclear war. Others are heading for camps in the remote back-country to escape the chaos of an impending political or economic cataclysm. They sing hymns, chant psalms of war, preach the survival of the fittest and arm themselves to the teeth. They are the Survivalists.... This film talks to women training with machine guns, to undergraduates taking courses in How to Stay Alive, to retired generals who run schools for mercenary killers, and to self-appointed clergy who say their native America has 'gone soft on the Devil and the Reds' and has become a 'Disneyland for Dummies'.
James Hunter traces the history of the crofter's struggle to gain security of tenure on the land they occupied from the beginning of the 1880s.
A documentary on the remaking, over ten years, of the A9 between Perth and Inverness - the highest trunk road in Britain. Work involved the diversion of a river and the building of many bridges.
Presented by Cliff Michelmore and Dr Miriam Stoppard With the competing couples: Terry Wogan and Helen Wogan Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson Sharron Davies and Neil Adams During the festivities most of us have eaten and drunk too much and feel rather disgusted with ourselves-but just how much harm did it do and what resolutions should we make to improve our health for the New Year? Use the score sheet on page five to take part in this quiz and see how you get on against the three studio teams. Also featuring: Barry Cryer with DAWN PERLLMAN and CHUBBY OATES Film director LAURENCE REES
It is now two decades since the start of That Was the Week That Was-the programme that changed the Saturday-night viewing habits of a nation with its unique blend of satire and showbiz. Tonight Ned Sherrin , That Was the Week That Was creator and producer, offers the audience of 1982 a chance to share the team's original view of 1962
Documentary telling the story of Richard Noble's various attempts on the land speed record, including his successful record-breaking run on Nevada's Black Rock Desert on October 4th 1983.
Thirty years ago this week Elizabeth II was crowned. This programme celebrates and assesses the Queen's changing role and conveys something of the nature of the job itself. It shows the Queen in London and on her recent American tour as well as key events of the reign. Special permission was given to film the Queen holding an investiture at Buckingham Palace, with her family and President Kaunda during the recent state visit, and on the Royal Yacht with Prime Minister Trudeau and President Reagan. There are comments from some of the people who have worked with the Queen or observed her -Sir Harold Wilson , Edward Heath , James Callaghan , Sir Shridath Ramphal , Enoch Powell , President Kaunda, Sir Nicholas and Lady Henderson, William Deedes , Rich. ard Ingrams, Susan Crosland and one-time critic of the monarchy John Grigg (Lord Altrincham). From the royal tour comes a rich variety of comment and behind-the-scenes activity at a time when the British monarchy is arousing worldwide interest. Written and narrated by Ludovic Kennedy
Highlights of the team's expedition to Morocco begin this celebration of Blue Peter's 25th birthday year. In 1968 Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves set off on an epic journey by Land Rover. Their safari began at the BBC's Television Centre in London and ended in M'Hamid on the edge of the Sahara desert where the temperature was 135°F
Documentary in which the survivors of the eleven members of a Belfast schoolboy football team in 1969, talk about their experience of the troubles in Ireland and about two others members of the team UVF member Michael Atcheson, now in prison, and IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Interpretations of Bosch's paintings have been varied and extreme: heresy, alchemy, drugs, witchcraft and, the most popular, that he was a member of a secret sect which practised orgies. Nicholas Baum , who has been fascinated by these haunting paintings for many years, began his investigation in the belief that we would never know their full meaning. After a journey which took him to Holland, Spain. and Portugal, he is convinced that he has found the key.
In 1953 the BBC produced a short black and white film of a train journey from London to Brighton in four minutes. The journey was repeated in 1983. Here are the two films side by side in wide screen. (c) 2008 on end of film.
Ian Holm narrates this documentary, originally broadcast in 1983, about Hollywood star Bette Davis. Spanning her life and career from the 1920s to the 1980s, on stage and on screen, the programme includes an interview with the actress herself.
Rene Cutforth introduces Dylan Thomas's friends, relatives and fellow broadcasters, who give an account of the person he really was.
Barbara Woodhouse, in conversation with Joan Bakewell, reveals some of the highlights of her life.
Billy Kay talks life, and music with Scottish Singer-Songwriter Dick Gaughan.
By the time of the partial collapse of the 23-storey Ronan Point tower block due to a natural gas explosion in 1968, local authorities were waking up to the scale of the deficencies and the cost of making safe the 750,000 flats built during the ten year boom. It then emerged that up to 6 million people were living in poorly constructed or dangerous system-built housing erected in the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s and beyond. Ironically, many of the proposed expensive remedial systems were found to be similarly untried, untested and unfit for purpose, and in some cases offered by the same construction industry chiefs previously vending the very inadequate building systems that now needed remedying. Fans of Adam Curtis's work should note that, as an early Curtis production, this solid investigative documentary lacks the narrative thread and unique voice that characterises his later work, but favourite themes are present, such as the collusion of the powerful and opportune, and the inability to learn from past lessons.
Narrator Kenneth Williams A special tribute to one of television's best-loved characters, Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko , featuring some classic moments from the series. Phil Silvers , star of the show, remembers the making of Bilko and the personalities involved. 'Regulars' and 'recruits' appear include Col John 'Melonhead' Hall PFC Duane Doberman Alan Alda and Bing Crosby.
BBC 2 looks back at its ill-fated launch night in 1964, through the memories of some of the main players in the Story, as recounted by Ludovic Kennedy.
Fly on the wall Documentary made in 1984 by the BBC's Paul Anderson
In 1949, at the height of the Cold War, the British and American Governments decided to fight back at the growing Soviet Empire with a secret plan of subversion. MI6 and the CIA would try to bring down the smallest and most vulnerable of the new Soviet-controlled regimes - Albania. In this film, for the first time, many of the agents involved tell their extraordinary story. It includes moonlit landings on deserted beaches, poison capsules, mysterious deaths in New York hotel rooms, and the crack bodyguard of King Zog. For some of the spies it was exhilarating fun and part of a great game. For the Albanians involved it was to mean death, for in the midst of the operation was a traitor.
The War Game is a 1965 television film on nuclear war. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play strand, its depiction of the impact of Soviet nuclear attack on Britain caused dismay within the BBC and in government. It was scheduled for broadcast on 6 August 1965 (the twentieth anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing) but was cancelled, the corporation publicly stating that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting". It remained unseen on British television until 1985.
To the World's End follows the No. 31 London bus from Camden Town to World's End, Chelsea, meeting characters who live and work along the route.
Anthony Summer's BBC documentary focuses on the last few days in the life of Marilyn Monroe, and her connection with the Kennedy brothers, John and Robert.
''On The Eighth Day'' is chilling, a result entirely consistent with its aim. The one-hour documentary explores the possible ecological and atmospheric consequences of nuclear war, particularly as they would be expressed in a ''nuclear winter.'' Darkness would shroud the Northern Hemisphere; temperatures would fall. The planet would survive, but not as a hospitable place.
Billie Holiday's tragic story, from her traumatic childhood ' in Baltimore to her premature death in a New i York hospital at the age of 44, is told in the words of her closest friends and colleagues - but mostly through the songs themselves. Arena has assembled an unprecedented number of her filmed performances.
'Don't tell Richard Avedon, Scavullo, Cartier-Bresson or the dear departed spirit of Cecil Beaton, Harry, but you are my favourite photographer.' (TRUMAN CAPOTE). From his first job on the Hamilton Advertiser via the Daily Sketch and the Express, Benson has now reached the pinnacle of photojournalism, the prestigious magazine, Life. In this film he is interviewed at his Manhattan apartment by the Scottish novelist, William Mcllvanney , and seen on assignment in New York.
Richard Cooke is a photographer with a passion for air-to-air pictures. He is obsessed by a single aerial photograph: 'the RAF Aerobatic Team,'the 'Red Arrows', trailing smoke, flying straight at his camera. They say it is impossible and too dangerous. But that doesn't stop Richard. He gets a first and last chance to capture the £20 million snapshot.
George Stevens's remarkable film is acclaimed by historians as the most important colour footage taken during the war. Milestones covered include the liberation of Paris, the link-up between the Russian and American armies on the River Elbe and the Allied capture of the Dachau concentration camp.
Portrait of a community in the heart of South Wales almost one year into the miners' strike. This film does not involve actors, but portrays the lives and experiences of the people.
The documentary focuses on three traders, each located in New York, London, and Hong Kong. The traders are followed throughout a typical day in order to demonstrate the challenges and dedication of each trader.
Robert Symes investigates the background to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. Was her idea for creating human life based on fact? And who was the original Frankenstein?
'Joseph is coming out of a long sleep, like a hedgehog that's been in hibernation'. This time last year, 5-year-old Joseph Horsley had been virtually written-off by his doctors. He was probably blind. He couldn't sit, talk or do anything for himself. Joseph is a spastic quadriplegic. His parents were told to have another baby if they wanted to enjoy the pleasures of parenthood. Now his doctors say he will walk and eventually talk. But they are not the same doctors. This remarkable transformation has taken place not in England, but behind the Iron Curtain - in Hungary - by a method known as Conductive Education. It is a system beyond the reach of Britain's 10,000 cerebral palsied.This documentary film tells the story of the Horsley family's flight to Hungary, and their appeal to the Peto Institute to accept their son for treatment.
Ray Alan, Ken Dodd, Alan Freeman, Sir Charles Groves, Stuart Hall, Sooty, The Spinners, Harry Worth and Godfrey Talbot all help Tom O'Connor to mark 64 BBC years that began when receivers had 'cat's whiskers'.
England's winter of discontent showed yet again the absolute world supremacy of West Indian cricket. Top sports writer Ian Wooldridge goes to its Caribbean roots to discover why. Viv Richards , Gary Sobers , Clive Walcott , Everton Weekes and others tell their stories ... In Barbados and Antigua, Wooldridge looks for the youngsters who will succeed them. He asks how these tiny islands can produce such a stream of talent, and he concludes that 'the Windies' will be on top for at least another generation.
Documentary about the British on the ski slopes of Europe.
A BBC documentary from 1987 tracing the history of Britan's famous Hammer studio. Interestingly, the title implies that the BBC was not immune from the common confusion between Hammer and Amicus; The House That Dripped Bood was an Amicus production.
Documentary about the iconic London Underground map and Harry Beck, the man who designed it.
In this instalment of the "Actor's Take on Movie Making" series, British film star Michael Caine (Alfie, The Cider House Rules, The Quiet American) offers advice to aspiring actors to help them succeed in a competitive business. Caine shares valuable trade secrets about character development; script preparation; voice, sound and movement; working with directors; and the sometimes brutal politics of movie-making.
Fifty years ago Professor John Morrison dreamed of rediscovering the secrets of the Greek Trireme. The design of this legendary warship - powered by 170 oarsmen and with a deadly battering ram - had long been forgotten. But the triremes had once given the Greeks supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and allowed their culture to flourish. This year, after a lifetime of detective work among the art and literature of the ancient world, this gentle Cambridge scholar saw his dream come true. A replica, based on his findings, was built - and a trireme put to sea in the Aegean again for the first time in 2,000 years.
There is one crime on the record of Edward Earl Johnson, a 26-year-old African-American man from Mississippi - murder. He was convicted on the sole evidence of signing a confession he had not written. Johnson always denied the killing and appealed against his death sentence for eight years in the US courts. Fourteen Days in May is a countdown to an execution, revealing the effect on prison staff and other death-row inmates as time runs out for one young man.
This year's animal drama from wildlife film-makers John and Simon King features a female hedgehog called Priddy, who lives on the Mendip Hills. All the adventures that happen to Priddy in this film have been experienced by one hedgehog or another in real life. Narrated by John King Film edited by PETER SNOW Directed and photographed by SIMON KING Produced by JOHN KING BBC Pebble Mill
On four nights in the summer of 1985 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band filled to capacity the Los Angeles Coliseum, home of the 1984 Olympics. It was the culmination of a 16-month world tour, during which Bom in the USA became the CBS label's biggest-selling album of all time. In this world-exclusive interview, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band talk to David Hepworth , with extracts from 14 previously unseen performances including 'Sandy' from Springsteen's English debut performance at the Hammersmith Odeon concert in 1975.
'There's no literary phenomenon quite like it - it's an accidental social history of England.' Every spring as the daffodils fade, another splash of yellow arrives; Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. It's as much a part of the new cricket season as the smell of bat oil and newly-mown grass. For 123 years Wisden, alone, has recorded the minutiae of this essentially English game. Reporter James Hogg , together with John Arlott , Benny Green and many other dedicated followers of the summer sport pay tribute to a unique sporting institution.
With humourist Spike Milligan. Spike starts in the town to which his parents emigrated in 1953. Spike thought they were mad - until he came and fell in love with the place - and its quirky Australian soul.
In a studio setting, Stephen Hawking, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan (who joins them via satellite) discuss the Big Bang theory, God, our existence as well as the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
Michael Wood tells a story of how a small Midland town rescued one of the largest castles of medieval England. Yesterday, Stafford Castle was reopened to the public after a ten-year dig in which archaeologists have filled gaps in the castle's 900-year history and in which Stafford has learnt that the past can be an asset.
A personal inquiry by Richard Taylor. Thirty-six years ago documentary film-maker Richard Taylor was serving as a military police subaltern in Korea. Near to his tent they were interrogating prisoners - and sometimes they tortured them. That was the start of a lifelong concern about torture. Is it simply something which happens under military dictatorships and communist regimes - or is it closer to ourselves than we like to think? This investigation is not a catalogue of horrors. It asks in a more profound sense what torture does to its victims, and what turns ordinary human beings into torturers. Prompted by a disturbing encounter with a former interrogator from El Salvador 's notorious Treasury Police, he follows a trail that leads to a hard, new world where terrorism, counter-insurgency and torture meet.
In the setting of the Crown Hotel in Harrogate, with its leisure breaks and conference facilities, Alan Bennett reflects on the subject of class.
How did Hitler win the support of the German people? Having fallen prey to his "fatal attraction," they were ready to support him in his road to war, genocide and an imperial German Reich that his propaganda machine claimed would reign for a 1,000-years.
The program features interviews with Costello, plus solo-acoustic performances of “God’s Comic,” “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror,” “Let Him Dangle,” “Pads, Paws and Claws,” “Baby Plays Around,” “Any King’s Shilling” and “Tramp the Dirt Down,” all from Spike, plus “Having It All,” written for the film “Absolute Beginners,” but not used (and eventually included on the reissue of 1986′s King of America).
John Davidson, a 15-year-old from Galashiels in Scotland, who had severe Tourette syndrome. John's life was explored in terms of his family and the close-knit community around him, and how they all coped with a misunderstood condition. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist, offers observations on aspects of John's behaviour. The documentary was narrated by the actress Eleanor Bron.
The world's most famous small car celebrates its 30th birthday. Mini enthusiasts around the world, including Spike Milligan and Tony Benn, explain the little car's unique character.
First transmitted in 1989, this frank and candid pair of films provides a thought-provoking record of life in the Army - here for the 1st Battalion, Light Infantry in Berlin - and highlights the very different perspectives of the squaddies and officers who made them.
A rock review of the decade with highlights from the most outstanding performances on BBC television over the past ten years. Featuring everyone from Soft Cell to Simple Minds, Human League to Housemartins, Bauhaus to Black Box , the Police to Public Enemy, Adam and the Ants to the Art of Noise as they appeared on programmes as diverse as Whistle Test, Crackerjack, Top of the Pops, Wogan and The Late Show.
In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy's challenge of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to earth. No-one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Breathtaking both in the scope of its vision and the exhilaration of the human emotions it captures, Al Reinert's classic 1989 documentary is the story of 24 men who travelled to the moon, told in their words, in their voices and using the images of their experiences.
In a rare television interview, Doris Day looks back over her successful acting and singing career, and recalls happy memories of working with Rock Hudson, James Cagney, Clark Gable and James Garner.
In this one-hour documentary produced by the BBC in 1990 and broadcast on BBC2, Douglas falls asleep in front of a television and dreams about future time when he may be allowed to play a more active role in the information he chooses to digest. A software agent, Tom (played by Tom Baker), guides Douglas around a multimedia information landscape, examining (then) cuttting-edge research by the SF Multimedia Lab and NASA Ames research center, and encountering hypermedia visionaries such as Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson.
It lives in Britain, but few people have heard of it. It is adorable, but it is a pest. The Romans used to feast on them and some people still do. Diana Rigg narrates a programme on the edible dormouse - an animal that looks like a cross between a squirrel and a hamster, has invaded houses in the Home Counties, destroyed electrics and killed trees... but is protected by law.
This was one of two documentaries intended to mark 20 years of the Monty Python team in 1989 but broadcast the following year after the death of team member Graham Chapman.
Alexander Frater's 1991 film follows the arrival of monsoon the length of India, from the South coast, north to the "wettest place on earth".
Unreliable, dirty, expensive and outdated - the familiar complaints of commuters on British Rail. Andrew Harvey reports on how Network South East measures up and examines lessons that could be learnt from its European counterparts.
Looks at the simple patterns that underlie the myriad diversity of form in plants and flowers. Despite apparent complexity most leaf patterns and flowers are variations on three basic patterns, which are seen in vegetative and flowering primordia. Professor Paul Green of Stanford University explains how he thinks these pattern-generating mechanisms are controlled. Professor Brian Goodwin then uses time-lapse photography and computer animation to show how his mathematical model of pattern formation reproduces the patterns observed in the growth of a giant algae.
Elton John introduces this special programme celebrating the life and work of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of rock band Queen, who died yesterday. The great showman is remembered by friends and colleagues, and featured in concert footage, including Queen's Live Aid appearance.
Part of BBC2's August Bank Holiday 1991 celebration of Lime Grove Studios and it's illustrious history in Film and Television.
In the 5th century BC, a war broke out in the eastern Mediterranean between two powerful states. It lasted 27 years and destroyed an empire. As it began, Thucydides, an exiled general, started writing the story of what he believed would be the greatest war yet known. He has been called the world's first historian and war reporter, his book a classic account of political power, the mistakes that cause war and the tragedy of defeat. The War That Never Ends presents a timeless classic to throw a light on today's crisis in the Gulf.
Join the BBC cameras as they go behind the glitter of Buckingham Palace and the pomp of Windsor Castle for a close-up look at the minutia of the monarchy. Culled from a year of unprecedented access to Queen Elizabeth II, the documentary trails the queen as she interacts one-on-one with her family, her staff, her public, and international heads of state. Go behind closed doors for Christmas with the royal family, eavesdrop on cocktail chatter with Ron and Nancy Reagan, and catch unguarded moments when the queen pilots her own jeep or romps with her dogs. Elizabeth R. is a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse into the everyday life of a queen.
This program tells the story of the final thunderous battle of the Napoleonic era featuring stunning excerpts from major feature films, specially filmed authentic reconstruction and re-enactment footage, plus dramatized 'eye-witness' accounts of the battle, it provides a unique record of one of the turning points in world history
Two men can rightly claim to have invented calculus, one of the most basic and fundamental tools in modern mathematics -- Isaac Newton and Godfrey Wilheim Leibniz. This presentation discusses the similarities and differences in the two men's findings published in the late 1680's.
The story of Granada, the company responsible for Britain's most enduring soap opera Coronation Street, the current affairs series World in Action, and highly praised drama from Brideshead Revisited to Prime Suspect. With contributions from Jeremy Isaacs, Gus Macdonald, David Plowright, Michael Parkinson, Gerry Robinson and Sir Denis Forman.
A celebration of the cultural heritage of the mythical land filled with pigeons, whippets and endless cups of tea. It draws on such Granada classics as Coronation Street, A Family at War and Nearest and Dearest to expose some of the myths about the north of England.
Ever since 1955 when Dickie Valentine stormed the charts with A Christmas Alphabet, the season of goodwill has been a bonanza for the record industry. There is scarcely a pop singer who has not made a Christmas record; from Cliff Richard to Bruce Springsteen , from Paul McCartney to Giant Haystacks. This programme plunders the best, and the worst, from the Yuletide pop archive, and combines them with some classic comedy.
What do the Beatles, Chernobyl and the Wombles have in common? Rock nostalgia, news footage and comedy archive have been rolled into one for a green Rock 'n Roll Years special which charts the growing concern for the state of our planet over the last 25 years
Those wonderful sunny family holidays in Portrush during the late 50s are recaptured on mainly amateur film.
HRH the Prince of Wales talks to Radio 1 DJ Simon Mayo in this special documentary to mark the second anniversary of the Prince's Trust Volunteers. The film follows the progress over three months of two teams on the scheme.
The last of the fascist dictators, General Franco outlived Hitler and Mussolini to rule Spain for 40 years. As modern Spain prepares to host the Olympic Games, the truth about Franco is a story it doesn't want to hear. Was he the saviour of Spain or a cruel tyrant? With unique access to Franco's family, including his only daughter Carmen, his confessor and key aides, and using previously hidden archives, including Franco's own home movies, Jonathan Dimbleby probes behind the veil of secrecy and amnesia which has obscured the true face of the man. Producer Anthony Geffen is acknowledged for his hard-hitting documentaries on world leaders such as Hirohito, Arafat and Ceausescu.
Advice for women on personal safety. The Home Office estimates that 180,000 rapes and sexual assaults take place every year in England and Wales. American research suggests that women double their chances of avoiding rape if they fight back. Some women who did share their views. Presented by Lynsey de Paul.
A documentary about Thomas Hardy's Dorset with Sir Michael Hordern.
Annie Lennox - Diva features an in-depth interview with the ex-Eurythmics singer as well as an extensive selection of archive footage.
A documentary about Shak, one of several cubs born to an ageing and partially blind vixen.
A documentary about Ava Gardner , the daughter of a sharecropper who became one of Hollywood's hottest stars. Her hugely successful career spanned 44 years, but she had a troubled personal life. Following divorces from Artie Shaw and Micky Rooney , her marriage to Frank Sinatra also ended, in 1953. By the time of her death three years ago, she had made more than 50 films including Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Documentary presented by Jeremy Bowen (BBC) from 1993. It is filmed in and around Mostar at the height of the Bosniak-Croat conflict during the Bosnian War. Bowen himself recent appeared a war crimes trial at The Hague, to respond to accusations that he was biased by Croats, where the documentary had featured as evidence. This program tells of the destruction of Mostar and the Serb, Croat and Muslim soldiers who are fighting together in the Bosnian Army for the right to live together as they did before the war.
A year in the life of the "Hard Living" gang in Cape Town South Africa, led by the notorious Staggie twins, who capture a hostage from the rival "Mongrel" gang. Then one of the twins murders a leader of the "American" gang. The ANC tries to avert a full-scale gang war. Part of the BBC Beloved Country season.
The long-time editor of Blue Peter talks to Sarah Dunant about children, animals and the Blue Peter badge.
A specially extended video edition of the documentary filmed to mark the 30th anniversary of the long-running BBC Science Fiction serial, "Doctor Who". Linked by specially filmed footage featuring members of the cast from the series and various old foes & monsters, the show is explored in depth and there are interviews with members of the cast & production team plus input from experts, critics and fans, as well as plenty of (often rarely seen) archive footage and clips from the series.
A week of diverse programmes examining the Margaret Thatcher legacy begins with this chronicle of her "rock'n'roll years". The music of her decade in power forms the soundtrack to a rich seam of archive film that includes landmark events in the news, sport, television and cinema - the Kings Cross fire, the end of the Cold War, the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the storms of 1987, the falling of the Berlin Wall, and the famine in Ethiopia which spawned Live Aid and 'Feed the World'. Clips of the Prime Minister in action include some previously unseen on television, and chart her rise, her rule and her fall.
Queen Elizabeth II's coronation was one of the biggest ceremonial occasions ever. Broadcast live, the events of 2 June 1953 were a defining moment of the 20th century, not least for television, as cameras brought the new medium into millions of British homes for the first time. It was the most ambitious and technically difficult broadcast the BBC had ever tackled.
Jonathan Meades explores the architecture of Nazi Germany, from its holiday camps to its concentration camps.
Documentary about Japanese comic books (Manga) and the Anime films inspired by them.
A revealing and often ribald look at the seaside resort where people can let their hair down, whether in the sedate atmosphere of the Tower Ballroom or on the world's biggest and fastest rollercoaster. Actor David Thewlis returns to his home town, a place where beer is drunk and dreams are played out against the backdrop of a thoroughly British fantasy.
A visit to three Blackpool hairdressing salons, where an elderly community carries on its daily life oblivious to the hordes of tourists on its doorstep.
Since the discovery of the body of children's nanny Sandra Rivett on 7 November 1974, Lord Lucan has been the prime suspect for her murder. This documentary sheds new light on the accepted theory of what happened that fateful November night in Belgravia.
With the cult of the Carpenters continuing to rival that of those other 70s stars Abba, here is another chance to see the Carpenters' debut BBC concert, recorded on their first British tour in September 1971. Hits include Close to You, Superstar and We've Only Just Begun, together with the odd Beatles tune and a Bacharach/David medley. Karen's drumming and Richard's keyboards are supported by their five-piece touring band and an orchestra under Johnny Pearson.
Earlier this year comedian Paul Merton achieved a life-long ambition when he topped the bill for a season at the London Palladium. Tonight viewers have an opportunity to watch the show which ran the comedy gamut from the sardonic wit for which Merton is famous to his hilarious salute to the ice skaters Torvill and Dean, not forgetting a comic version of the pantomime Aladdin, as never seen before. Featuring Lee Simpson and Richard Vranch.
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition. On 2 December 1805 (20 November Old Style, 11 Frimaire An XIV, in the French Republican Calendar), a French army, commanded by Emperor Napoleon I, decisively defeated a Russo-Austrian army, commanded by Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, after nearly nine hours of difficult fighting. The battle took place near Austerlitz (Slavkov u Brna) about 10 Km (6 mi) south-east of Brno in Moravia, at that time in the Austrian Empire (present day Czech Republic). The battle is often regarded as a tactical masterpiece. The French victory at Austerlitz effectively brought the Third Coalition to an end. On 26 December 1805, Austria and France signed the Treaty of Pressburg, which took Austria out of the war, reinforced the earlier treaties of Campo Formio and Lunéville, made Austria cede land to Napoleon's German allies, and imposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the defeated Habsburgs. Russian troops were allowed to head back to home soil. Victory at Austerlitz also permitted the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of German states intended as a buffer zone between France and central Europe. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist when Holy Roman Emperor Francis II kept Francis I of Austria as his only official title. These achievements, however, did not establish a lasting peace on the continent. Prussian worries about growing French influence in Central Europe sparked the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806.
The story of Project Apollo, the US space programme, from the early days of the space race with the Soviet Union to the first moon landing 25 years ago in 1969. Featuring interviews with astronauts and ground staff, plus spectacular and rarely seen archive film. Introduced by Neil Armstrong , the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon.
Writers Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert claim that the 4,500 year old pyramid is an instrument of worship in the stellar cult of the fourth Egyptian dynasty. Emma Freud talks to experts who have studied the pyramids.
Part of a celebration of Top of the Pops 30th anniversary, with a documentary looking at dance troupe Pan's People who appeared weekly on UK pop music show from 1970-1976.
Joanna Lumley agrees to spend nine days on an uninhabited desert island off the coast of Madagascar with just a basic survival kit and a film crew.
There may seem to be limitless patterns on wallpaper but mathematically speaking there are only seventeen.
A documentary exploring the life and work of the great Italian composer.
This Oscar winning feature documentary is the first and, to this day, the only truly comprehensive eye-witness account of the life and legacy of the iconic child diarist, Anne Frank. Combining surprising and often emotional interview, photographs, previously undiscovered family letters, rare archive footage (including the only known moving footage of Anne herself) with evocative contemporary film, and this haunting documentary was halied as a masterpiece in the British and American press when it was first released in 1995. By peeking away the onion skin layers of mythology and concentrating closely on the details of Anne's brief life, rather than her famous Diary the film makes real, as never before, the story of this one child and her family, and those who lived and died with her.
This World AIDS Day episode looks back at the public attitude towards gay men afflicted with AIDS before effective treatment regimes were available.
The BBC's award winning documentary looking at the impact the death of Ayrton Senna had upon the world of motor racing. Featuring interviews with key people from Senna's life in motor sport
A tribute to the humorist and musician Viv Stanshall , best known as a member of the 60s group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who died last month. The programme features a summary of his career and another showing of his last major work, Crank, first broadcast in 1991 on The Late Show. An autobiographical playlet, it combines monologue with six original songs and explores Stanshall's relationship with his father. Introduced by John Peel.
Hugh Doherty has spent a lifetime building tunnels. But now he is facing his biggest challenge yet - building London Underground's new Jubilee Line extension
In this special one-off chat show Bob Monkhouse talks to Ben Elton about his techniques, styles, working methods and influences. As well as being recognised as one of the country's leading comic talents, Ben Elton is also a scriptwriter, successful novelist and playwright.
Many writers are associated with one particular location, but the poet John Betjeman is linked with a number of places in Britain, including north Cornwall, Highgate in London, Oxford, the Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire, and Norfolk. This programme traces Betjeman's steps around many of the places he enjoyed and the words he used to celebrate them
Pop band Pulp have been making music since the early eighties, but they had to wait until 1995 before achieving idol status with their hit single Common People. Tonight's documentary follows the band on tour around Britain over a period of three weeks, culminating in their triumphant homecoming to Sheffield City Hall, and shows them dealing with stardom with a mixture of bewilderment and style.
The first of a two-part documentary on the role of the British Board of Film Classification in shaping British film-making and film-going.
The second of a two-part documentary about the history of British film censorship looks at the films that have faced problems since the 1970s, a decade in which there were storms over "A Clockwork Orange," "Last Tango in Paris" and "The Exorcist." Film-makers including Bernardo Bertolucci, Oliver Stone and Steve Woolley talk about their battles with the censors over sex and violence. Plus an examination of the video-nasty panic of the mid-eighties, which brought statutory censorship to Britain for the first time, and a look to the future in the age of the Internet.
A profile of the maverick pop icon of the 60s - hailed now more than ever as one of the greatest songwriters Britain has ever produced. In a unique and revealing interview, he talks about his career, breakdowns, songwriting and sexuality.
The first woman to hold major cabinet positions in the male-dominated world of politics, Barbara Castle, talks candidly about her life in Michael Cockerell's intimate film portrait. Branded by the Conservatives as Red Barbara, she also enraged her own party, Labour, by seeking to reform the trades unions. Her passionate approach to politics was mirrored by her private life. She tells of her first sexual encounters and of her love affairs. She also meets Tony Blair for the first time and delivers her verdict.
Whips pride themselves on their secrecy and discretion. Reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers their shadowy world and reveals how they operate. How close to reality is the fictional Chief Whip Francis Urquhart, in the drama series House of Cards? Government Whips can make or break ministers and ensure they know all the secrets of the private lives of their fellow MPs. One Tory MP claims that the Whips are a gestapo, but another says they are democracy's unsung heroes - as necessary for Parliament as sewers are for civilisation
BBC obituary documentary written and presented by Anthony Howard. Broadcast on the day of the death of Harold Wilson, May 24th 1995
Enoch Powell was regarded as the most controversial Tory of his time. Notorious for his "rivers of blood" speech on immigration, some saw him as a political hero, others as a racist bigot. Powell talks candidly to reporter Michael Cockerell, who reveals the private man behind the public figure.
Six stories of love and family life that illustrate how things changed irrevocably for those who returned home following the end of the Second World War as well as for those who welcomed back their loved ones.
Earlier this summer, British yachtswoman Lisa Clayton completed a record-breaking solo circumnavigation in her boat the Spirit of Birmingham. She documented her journey using on-board video cameras. This is the story of her remarkable and exciting nine-month journey around the world.
Profile of architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Scottish comedian Billy Connolly thought Glasgow was cold, until he encountered the Arctic Circle. Armed only with the most basic survival techniques and his banjo, Billy spends 10 days there, recording his experiences and emotions on a videocamera. Billy often jokes about his early days in Glasgow, but it left him tough, adaptable and used to the cold which should stand him in good stead when facing hunger and temperatures of minus 40 degrees Centigrade. But even this Scot will need expert guidance to survive Baffin Island in High Arctic Canada. An Eskimo ranger gives him a crash course in some of the tricks of the trade: how to build and repair an igloo, how to make water, how to catch and cook fish, how to spot crevasses and the wrong kind of snow, how to prevent sunblindness, how to ski pulling a pulk (sledge), how to walk on snowshoes, skidooing, kayaking, how to spot the onset of frostbite and how to deal with polar bears. An SAS Army expert is also on hand to give Billy basic survival tips, especially the rules of keeping warm. With great good humour, Billy fortifies himself for the real challenge which is to come: two days completely on his own. Only his self-operated video camera holds the secret of his hours of solitude long, lonely evenings and nights with no crew and no one to call on the phone. Hours during which he is contemplative, melancholy, miserable, witty and plain freezing cold. There are some beautiful shots of the majestic frozen scenery, some useful tips on keeping warm in the cold, and some entertaining moments, but the really fascinating thing about this programme are the insights into Billy's complex personality.
Documentary covering the history of the American television science fiction series STAR TREK, founded by Gene Roddenberry in 1966, with interviews including actors Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, Patrick Stewart and Nichelle Nichols. The programme considers STAR TREK's founding during the height of the Cold War, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, with its multicultural crew working together on the `Enterprise', and considers its cultural impact over 30 years and into the future.
This rare and revealing documentary from 1996 about artist Sarah Lucas is being shown to coincide with Lucas's retrospective at London's Whitechapel Gallery. Made by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle, the film shadows Lucas over four months as she makes her witty and provocative sculptures, often using everyday objects. With candid and often hilarious contributions from Angus Fairhurst, Gary Hume, Damien Hirst and Barbara Gladstone.
A 30-minute documentary broadcast on BBC2 in 1995, Ian Hislop delves into the story of the little known Roman satirist Juvenal, a man of whom his quotations are much more widely known than is anything about the man himself. Presented by Ian Hislop, starring Stephen Fry as Juvenal with comments from Auberon Waugh.
It’s 221 BC, and the veil of history is lifted to reveal life in the Qin Dynasty, under China’s first emperor, Shihuangdi. Noted historians, archaeologists, and other experts extrapolate from discoveries made in the ruler’s tomb, as they examine the political, intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and religious structure of Chinese society of the first dynasty. Sophisticated computer animation re-creates both the outer and inner structure of Shihuangdi’s tomb, complete with rivers rippling with mercury; decorative period artifacts; food larders; mummified concubines awaiting their master’s pleasure; and the now-famous 8,000-man terra-cotta army of statues standing guard to protect the dead emperor from his enemies in the afterlife.
Docudrama about the matrimonial disaster that took place 200 years ago between George, Prince of Wales and his wife Caroline of Brunswick.
The scientists on an expedition into the feared depths of the Bermuda Triangle, a region of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Miami (Florida) and Puerto Rico where a number of aircraft, ships and surface vessels are reported to have mysteriously disappeared. Laden with sonar’s and satellite surveys, the divers attempt to investigate the Bermuda Triangle from the bottom up, and they make some startling discoveries along the way.
Dusty Springfield narrates a documentary profile of the songwriter who won an Oscar for the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid score, enjoyed stage success with Promises, Promises and whose classic songs continue to influence modern music. Featuring interviews with Dionne Warwick, Noel Gallager, Hal David, Herb Alpert, Elvis Costello, Cilla Black, Richard Carpenter, Carol Bayer Sager and Gillian Lynne.
Special documentary made after opening of the Second Severn Crossing in 1996, replacing the old suspension bridge as the primary link between England and Wales The program focuses on the design and construction techniques required to build the UK's longest bridge across an estuary with the second highest tidal range in the world.
Ever since the starship Enterprise first whisked across television screens in 1966, Star Trek has inspired audiences with its portrayal of a future, space-faring humanity boldly going where no one has gone before. Science: The Final Frontier takes a look at the science featured in the Star Trek shows and films and discusses whether any of it is possible. Part of Star Trek Night on BBC Two. Featuring Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, Lawrence Krauss (author of The Physics of Star Trek) and Andre Bormanis (science adviser to Star Trek).
An investigation into the unearthing of the supposedly lost lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt- which was regarded as the seventh wonder of the ancient world. The 1995 expedition was led by the archaeologist Jean-Yves Empereur.
African American writer and poet Maya Angelou visits Burns Country in Scotland, where she enjoys performances of Burns's songs and poems as well as reading one of her own works.
Alexander, a student of the brilliant philosopher Aristotle, worshiped the god Amun which he believed to be his father. He suffered from epilepsy and was gay, when his partner died he sacrificed all 5,000 inhabitants of a village for him. Alexander's legacy was that a man could be a god, by he has many peoples, cultures and beliefs influenced his vast empire. Alexander the Great had a vision: one civilized world with him as absolute leader! An ambition which had all districts with enormous bloodshed as a result. His craving for power was so great that in our modern world has no equal! While his influence is still noticeable, we know still very little about him. Greek and English archaeologists searching for years for one of the world's greatest mysteries:. the last resting place of Alexander the Great and his golden sarcophagus Alexander The God King is a fascinating journey through time and separate the truth from the legends. The ambition of one man, the course changed our history!
Michael Cockerell's candid profile of Roy Jenkins, author, politician and socialite, claimed by some to be the best prime minister Britain never had.
It begins with cheers but almost always ends in tears. Yet, as the election looms, competition forthetopjob grows ever more intense. Why? The hours are terrible, money so-so, job security non-existent. On the plus side, there's free accommodation in central London and probably more power overyour country than any other leader in the western world. With the help of the present and previous incumbents,
For all those bored by the general election, this programme reveals the truth behind election night television coverage and reports on the mistakes, the wobbly sets, the internal battles and the fierce rivalry between the BBC and ITN. Some of the most famous faces on TV can be seen floundering in front of the cameras. In a tale of changing times, the viewers have seen the illegible charts of the fifties give way to the slick graphics of the nineties.
One-hour BBC documentary on avant-garde rock musician Captain Beefheart introduced and narrated by John Peel.
Singer David Essex narrates a behind-the-scenes history of the nation's favourite radio station, from its 1967 launch by DJ Tony Blackburn to the present day.
Documentary about Black Wednesday, which looks at the events leading up to the GBP collapse and why it happened.
Documentary charting the effect that Kung Fu had on the British public's consciousness after the release of ENTER THE DRAGON.
Did a meteor wipe out the dinosaurs?
The sasquatch has pervaded American imaginations for generations. Many have dedicated their lives to searching for it. Go with a world-class photographer and group of bigfoot experts on the hunt, and find out what it's like to search for the sasquatch.
The 300th anniversary of the birth of artist and satirist William Hogarth is marked by this film, which ties in with a major exhibition at London's Tate Gallery. The engraver of The Rake's Progress might well have recognised 1997 general election issues such as Euroscepticism and sleaze allegations. Andrew Graham-Dixon, chief art critic of The Independent, explores the fascinating world of Hogarth and visits London sites associated with him, including the Painted Hall of Greenwich's Royal Naval College, Smithfield meat market, Soho and Bloomsbury.
The story of the cigar - from the tobacco fields west of the Cuban capital of Havana into the factories where poetry and daily newspapers are read aloud to the workers, to Hollywood cigar bars and the gentlemen's haunts of St James's, London. With the worldwide cigar market growing, smoking cigars is perceived as glamorous and yet this is occurring at a time when it is nearly impossible to smoke a cigarette in any public place in the United States. Cigar clubs are opening up in America despite the fact that Cuban cigars are banned. The film looks at the rituals and traditions of cigar smoking, the history of cigars and famous cigar smokers from all walks of life. With Lord Grade, Kenneth Clarke, James Belushi, George Wendt and Peter Weller.
Almost everyone who experienced Britain's devastating "great storm" of 1987 has a story to tell. Ten years on, this programme features reconstructions of extraordinary escapes, as well as amateur video and news footage of the millions of pounds' worth of damage caused across the South. Among the stories is that of an elderly couple who survived the destruction of their caravan (some of their neighbours' vehicles were blown five miles away); a boy who describes a supernatural experience worthy of The X Files; and the pregnant woman who couldn't get to hospital in time. However, the prize for the most extraordinary tale goes to the hotel guest who was found lying in bed exposed to the night sky, having slept through the entire roof being ripped off.
In tonight's special one-off documentary Alan Hansen and Gary Lineker present a tribute to one of the most popular events in world sport-the FA Cup final. On the eve of the Middlesbrough and Chelsea clash, Sir Stanley Matthews , Ian Rush , Sir Bobby Charlton , JimmyGreaves,lan Wright and Paul Gascoigne are just some of the football personalities who recall their own experiences of the big day.
A celebration of artists who have enjoyed a top-ten hit and then disappeared without trace. Featuring archive footage, interviews and performances by the likes of Renee and Renato, Joe Dolce, and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Producer Daniel Abineri Executive producer Tony Moss
The grand themes of Albert Camus' work and life are documented in three chapters: the Absurd, Revolt, and Happiness. His novels The Stranger, The Plague, The Rebel, The Fall and The First Man are all discussed, as well as his childhood in French Algeria, sometimes difficult friendships, role in The Resistance during WWII, 1957 Nobel Prize, his issues with Communism, living in exile in the '50s, and his accidental death at 47. His life is spoken about by the narrator, his sister-in-law, his son, his daughter, friends, critics, scholars and mistresses. The impression is of Camus as a charismatic, flawed, and yet principled man when it came to the task of confronting human existence without conforming.
Homosexuality and genes
Actress Joanna Lumley embarks on a oersonal adventure, as she retraces ajourney made by her grandparents in 1931 - through the mysterious kingdom of Bhutan in central Asia, one of the most isolated countries in the world.
Documentary from 1997 following the band as they discussed their recent career, revisited their old neighbourhood in Manchester and performed songs from their album Be Here Now.
A feast of old chestnuts from the glory days of Christmases past with this look at the rise and demise of the Christmas light-entertainment spectacular. This programme takes a look back at Christmas light entertainment shows from yesteryear, with highlights such as Val Doonican stuffing away until he can 'hang loose', Perry Como trying hard not to look awkward around Leo Sayer, and Petula Clark in a crinoline.
In 1947, the Assisted Passage Scheme began, devised by the Australian government to bring in white British settlers. For just £10, they could start a new life in a sun-drenched land of opportunity, and over the next 25 years, more than a million people took up the offer. The scheme's pioneers tell their story.
A revealing location documentary following actor-director Kenneth Branagh and a distinguished cast and crew as they film the first complete text cinema version of Shakespeare's tragedy.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown prepares to unveil his first budget, Michael Cockerell presents a guide to howto carry out one of the toughestjobs in government. The programme includes reminiscences from seven former chancellors, and archive film on the secrets and stories behind past budgets.
His friends describe him as the nicest prime minister Britain never had. His critics might remember him as an old romantic who, in 1983, led the Labour Party to its worst election defeat for 50 years. Michael Cockerell 's intimate portrait of Michael Foot reveals a man of many paradoxes - a passionate socialist with unlikely Tory heroes, atub-thumpingorator, and a literary scholar. Featuring contributions from Foot's wife Jill, relatives, colleagues, and close friends (including Spike Milligan ), as well as from Foot himself, who talks openly about his relationship with Tony Blair.
Documentary celebrating the 21st anniversary of Grange Hill, the children's drama set in a comprehensive school. Stars of EastEnders Todd Carty, Susan Tully , Michelle Gayle and Sean Maguire were among those who appeared in it. In this programme, cast members past and present reveal the backstage dramas behind the series.
Documentary about the making of former Beatles' producer George Martin 's final album In My Life, featuring Beatles' songs performed by a host of actors, comics and musicians. Tracks include: Come Together - Robin Williams & Bobby McFerrin, A Hard Day's Night - Goldie Hawn, A Day In The Life - Jeff Beck, Here There & Everywhere - Celine Dion, Because - Vanessa Mae, I Am The Walrus - Jim Carrey, Here Comes The Sun - John Williams, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite - Billy Connolly, The Pepperland Suite - George Martin, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, the End - Phil Collins, Friends And Lovers - George Martin, In My Life - Sean Connery
Documentary details the life and career of writer Dennis Potter.
Documentary focusing on the Japanese Godzilla, featuring interviews with such people as Director Jun Fukuda, the wide of the late Ishiro Honda and Alex Cox. This documentary incorporates footage from rare shows like "Ultra Q" and films like "King Kong Escapes".
Arena explores the rise of the legendary crooner Frank Sinatra from his early family background to overwhelming showbusiness success. Interviews with friends, family and associates reveal a star-studded career in music and film alongside a fascinating private life of four marriages, liaison with the Kennedy family, Las Vegas business interests and an alleged association with the Mafia.
Melvyn Bragg and a panel of international experts debate what Darwin’s theory of evolution tells us about ourselves and human society. Filmed at the Linnean Society - the world’s oldest biological society - in Piccadilly, London. Panel: Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at MIT Meredith Small, Cornell professor of anthropology Steve Jones, biologist and a professor of genetics and head of the biology department at University College London Sir Jonathan Miller, theatre and opera director, neurologist, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor
A personal portrait of Birmingham - home of Balti, ELO, heavy metal, conferences, 'Crossroads' and Cadbury's - from its architecture and canals to the Brummie accent and humour.
The story of Blue Peter's fondly remembered canines. The programme follows Bonnie through a normal studio day, uncovers the scandal of the dog who died and had to be replaced, and why John Noakes and the BBC fell out over Shep's future.
For the first time in Blue Peter's history, this documentary reveals the true character of those working behind and in front of the camera on Britain's longest continuously running children's programme. It charts Blue Peter's evolution from a hobbies show about dolls and trains to the BBC's flagship children's programme and discovers how Blue Peter was very nearly taken off air. Presenters of every Blue Peter generation give candid accounts of what it was like to work on the programme, and the editors past and present fight back at critics who say the show was too middle class. Narrated by Juliet Stevenson, Blue Peter Confidential questions whether Blue Peter still has a future in the multi-channel digital age and sets the record straight on the missing Blue Peter presenter who until now has been written out of the BBC archives.
Documentary film looking at the remarkable life of one of America's greatest black heroes. Paul Robeson was a national football star who became a successful stage and screen actor, and enjoyed international acclaim in films such as Show Boat. He used his formidable reputation as a weapon in the fight for human rights for black people in the thirties and forties, but fell foul of both the black and white establishments as a result of his support for communism. Robeson was denounced for un-American activities, trailed by the FBI, had his passport confiscated for eight years and finally died a depressed and reclusive man. In the centenary year of his birth he remains a shadowy and controversial figure in his native country. The programme uses eye-witness accounts and archive footage to construct this portrait of a complex man who sacrificed his career for the sake of social justice.
This tells the story of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, English writer, poet, philologist and author of many stories, including most famously The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It describes the importance of the rural English West Midlands, where Tolkien grew up, in shaping his literary imagination and how the ancient northern languages he studied and taught throughout his life influenced his writing. These factors stimulated him to provide a context in which his own, invented languages might be spoken: an imaginary land called Middle-earth. Accounts of the origins of The Hobbit and of The Lord of the Rings, and the phenomenal success that Tolkien somewhat reluctantly enjoyed when taken up by the counter-culture of the 1960s are included.
Bruce Springsteen reflects on his enduring career in an interview largely recorded in his New Jersey home.
A celebration of the UK's vibrant club scene hosted by DJ Pete Tong. Featuring interviews with Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and Massive Attack.
Palestinian writer Edward Said, now based in New York, embarks on a personal journey back to the country he and his family left in December 1947 - shortly before the state of Israel was declared the following year. As Israel celebrates its half-century, Said, who now suffers from leukaemia, revisits childhood haunts with his son and is shocked by the suffering of ordinary Palestinians and the sight of a group of Bedouin being forcibly displaced from their land. He also discusses Arab-Israeli relations with his close friend Daniel Barenboim, the pianist and conductor whose family migrated to Israel from Argentina in the early fifties.
Edward Heath was one of the most controversial prime ministers of the 20th century. He took Britain into Europe, but was brought down by the very trade unions he sought to tame. In an intimate portrait, Sir Edward talks about his life and career and of his stormy relationship with his successors.
The career of broadcaster and journalist Robin Day-who is 75 next Saturday- is celebrated in adocumentaryfeaturingDay's own reflections on his life. The film also includes clips from his encounters with political figures on programmes such as Panorama and Question Time
Michael Cockerell's series of how-to guides explaining the intricacies of top government jobs continues with a one-off programme revealing the tricks of a foreign secretary's trade. Present incumbent Robin Cook and six former occupants of the position talk candidly about the challenges of the job while Cockerell demonstrates how the demands and scope of the office have changed over the years. As Cook felt his way into the job, he admitted after his first fortnight that he "was not sure whether I had been kidnapped and was being held hostage
Ian Dury was unique ! A poet, a great songwriter with good band around him : Kilburn and the High Roads, the Blockheads ! Remember the Roadette song, What a waste, Hit me with your rythm stick... It's a really nice doc on his life, on his childhood,the polio, his music, his paintings, his battles! Ian Dury was always present in the doc and some guests were here : Humphrey Ocean, Baxter Dury, Chaz Jankel, John Turnbull...
The Greatest Wildlife Show on Earth is a month by month travelogue of the greatest sights of massed wildlife from all over the world. Each month focuses on just one such incredible show of wildlife. Specifically, the months are as follows: * January - Massed Monarch Butterflies in Mexico * February - Massive migration of Caribou in Newfoundland * March - Dancing of the Red-Crested Cranes in Japan * April - Red Garter Snakes in Canada returning to the surface after hibernating in the snow and having mass orgies. This footage may scare the youngsters. * May - 70000 gannets gathering together on one small rocky outcrop in Scotland * June - Grizzly Bears fishing for Salmon in Alaskan rivers * July - Flamingos feeding on a soda lake in Kenya * August - Emperor Penguins looking after their chicks during the dark winter in Antarctica * September - The incredible acrobatics of the Dusky Dolphins off New Zealand * October - Wildebeest Migration in East Africa. Once again this footage could scare younger viewers due to the presence of Crocodiles. * November - The incredible Red Crab migration on Christmas Island. * December - Coral spawning at Summer Solstice on the Great Barrier Reef.
Documentary charting the career of diva Dusty Springfield, who died in March, from Catholic schoolgirl to superstar. Springfield's trademark panda eyes and blonde beehive became famous around the world after hits such as You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and Son of a Preacher Man. Fellow musicians, including Elton John , Burt Bacharach, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, Lulu and Martha Reeves , join fans, friends and archive footage to paint a picture of the complex and vulnerable singer.
Father and Son was a short documentary at the home of John Peel, exploring his relationships with his father and with his eldest son William. This was shown on BBC2 during John Peel Night, which was broadcast on Sunday 29 August 1999, the night before John Peel's 60th birthday. He mentions that at some date in 2001 he will be older than his father ever was. Peel would subsequently apologise to William both privately and publicly for his comments about him in the programme.
Documentary about one of Britain's greatest and best-loved bands. Slade scored six number ones in the 70s, a feat rivalled only by Abba. Formed in Wolverhampton and led by Noddy Holder, Slade sold over 50 million records worldwide during a 20-year career which saw them re-invent themselves as skinhead yobs, then mirror-hatted platform-shoe-pioneering glam gods, before finally re-emerging as hard rock heroes. Their poorly-spelled, self-written selection of terrace anthems included Cum on Feel the Noize, Coz I Luv You, Take Me Bak Ome, Mama Weer All Crazee Now and, unforgettably, Merry Xmas Everybody. Apart from Noddy and his bandmates - Dave Hill, Jim Lea and Don Powell - the cast here also includes Noel Gallagher of Oasis (who covered Cum On Feel the Noize), Status Quo, Toyah Wilcox, Suzi Quatro and Ozzy Osbourne.
Donald Morrison was born in the town of Megantic Quebec to parents who had emigrated from Lewis in search of a better life. However, the life awaiting them was full of difficulty. When he came of age, Donald headed west and worked as a cowboy, sending money to his parents to pay off the debt on their homestead. Donald's life began to unravel when the owner of the debt claimed that the payments had never been made and evicted the family. This documentary tells Donald's story as he went on the run accused of murder and trying to clear his name.
A look at the history of children's television broadcasting on the BBC, with lots of clips from classic shows interspersed with soundbites from celebrities.
Ross camp at journeys through the Denali National park in Alaska. Home to Rich wildlife and mount Kinley North America's highest mountain.
Documentary telling the story of a Jewish family that has been scattered far and wide by religious and racial intolerance throughout the years. From as far afield as Japan, Norway, Africa and the USA, different branches of the Shealtiels have begun to rediscover each other, their tale illustrating the global dispersal of the Jew
In the last few months, significant strides have been made towards locating the human body clock. This documentary follows the quest forthe elusive element and explores the brain's stopwatch -the device allowing the measurement of the passage of time.
Documentary tracing the history of the talent show from its earliest days as a radio vehicle for Canadian comic Carroll Levis through to Opportunity Knocks and New Faces, which launched a whole host of household names.Su Pollard , Mickey Most , Tony Hatch , Patty Boulaye and Nina Myskow are among those who talk about their experiences.
A documentary that follows some of Britain's young fashion designers as they compete for a prize that is worth more than £200,000. The competition, launched last September with the help of BBC TV's Looking Good programme, attracted nearly 200 entrants; eight were selected and challenged to produce a collection for the catwalk.
The political folk singer Woody Guthrie died in 1967. A prolific composer until illness curtailed his work at the end of the forties, Guthrie has been a major influence on artists such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. In 1995 Guthrie's daughter Nora discovered hundreds of lyrics written by her father which had never become songs. She asked Essex troubadour Billy Bragg to compose a musical backing for them and, along with US country-rockers Wilco, he created the album Mermaid Avenue. This documentary charts Bragg's search around America for the man behind the myth, and the making of the album.
As a salute to Britain's longest-running medical drama which reached its 250th episode last month, Gaby Roslin presents this documentary which charts the success of the programme since its inception in 1986. Regular stars past and present reminisce about the drama as well as some familiar faces who just passed through.
Documentary in which four people share their emotional experiences of having a killer in their family. Among those taking part are John Sutcliffe , father of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe , and Betty Scott , the mother of multiple-killer Dennis Nilsen.
For over a decade after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic in 1927, the aviator was viewed as America's greatest hero. One of the most honoured private citizens on earth, in the air Lindbergh seemed to represent all that made America great. But back on the ground his stubborn prejudice and right-wing political views led many of those who had worshipped him to come to see him as a traitor. Archive footage and photographs contribute to this documentary portrait, which traces the aviator's meteoric rise to world celebrity, chronicles the tragic kidnapping of his son, and investigates racist and anti-Semitic attitudes which were revealed by Lindbergh's flirtation with Nazi Germany. Narrated by Stacy Keach.
A documentary offering an overview of the socio-historical context of Charles Dickens 's novel. There is comment from the cast and makers of Tony Marchant 's BBC dramatisation, who also talk about the filming of the classic.
Documentary recalling those times in United's history where their performances failed to live up to their fans' high expectations. In 1974, United suffered the indignity of relegation to Division Two - their fate sealed by a defeat at the hands of arch rivals Manchester City. Promotion back to the elite was secured the following season, but sustained success eluded United until the early eighties.
Thirty years after Neil Armstrong took that famous "giant leap for mankind", he introduces the inside story of Apollo 11. The programme looks at how the dedication and commitment of Nasa workers, from the astronauts' maid to the technicians, made the mission possible. Including an interview with the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin.
One-off documentary following dedicated shoppers on the first day of the winter sale at Harrods. The famous London store opens its doors to cameras for the first time, revealing the world of the obsessive bargain hunter.
This documentary goes behind the scenes of the lavish drama Aristocrats.. The programme talks to members of the cast and reveals how the 18th-century settings were created.
It is a year since the worst single act of the Troubles saw a car bomb kill 29 and injure a further 350 in the centre of Omagh,Northern Ireland. Liam Neeson narrates this poignant and powerful story of two children-16-year-old Claire Gallagher and ten-year-old Stephen Coyle - horrifically injured in the blast.
Documentary charting the sometimes stormy life and career of Hollywood actress Joan Crawford.
A fly-on-the-wall documentary following four top British athletes-m medallist John Maycock , modern pentathlete Stephanie Cook , rower James Cracknell and sprinter Joyce Maduaka as they start gruelling training sessions for the next Olympic games.Presented by Commonwealth gold medallist Iwan Thomas.
Gaby Roslin presents a documentary celebrating the 20th anniversary of BBC Children in Need on television. As well as reflecting on the achievements of a broadcast that has raised L255 million in its lifetime, tonight's programme also looks at the continuing reasons to raise money. Some viewers may find certain scenes distressing.
Every year thousands of premature babies are born in this country, and many die because they are too young to survive life outside the womb. This documentary, to mark the end of National Pregnancy Week, celebrates the lives of the survivors and reveals pioneering British research which will significantly reduce the numbers of premature births in the future.
When the Queen came to the throne in 1952, there were about 200 hundreth birthday telegrams to send out. This year, there are over 9,000 and the number is doubling every decade. In this documentary, contemporary centenarians reveal themselves to be busier and healthier than some much younger people, with passions as diverse as motorbikes, dancing, painting and religion.
Figures show a third of drugs given to children in hospitals have never been tested for use on them. In this documentary, parents of children who've died from drug errors tell their stories and doctors discuss the dilemmas of treating children with new drugs. Shelley Jofre and Steve Le Fevre report.
One-off documentary in which David, Shelby, Terri, Emma, and Natasha - five children between the ages of six and ten who live on the outskirts of Bristol - relate their views on the world around them. One boy's ideal day out would be to the Natural History Museum, another wants to grow up to be a tooth fairy, while another cannot distinguish between God and the prime minister.
One-off documentary in which advertising and marketing executives explain how they target products at children. With advertising infiltrating the classroom, British children are losing their innocence earlier than ever before. This film examines the techniques used to sell products to consumers as young as three.
A special documentary profiling the life and career of Scottish singing sensation Lulu, who first shot to fame at the tender age of 15 with the chart-topping single Shout.
Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis infamously shot her lover i David Blakely dead in April 1955. This one-off drama-documentary, presented by Kirsty Wark and containing interviews, archive footage and a violent opening scene, reveals evidence that could have prevented her from becoming the last British woman to be hanged.
A documentary charting a year in the life of the staff and owners of Sudely Castle in Gloucestershire. Narrated by Alan Titchmarsh.
A one-off documentary that sets out to debunk the image of the women who were employed as hostesses at the notorious Playboy Club. Former bunny girls who have gone on to become writers, doctors and entrepreneurs recall a time of innocence, glamour and independence.
Documentary examining the growing epidemic of crime against Britain's phone companies. The programme reveals how powerful computers are being used in the war against "phone hacking", and also how crime-fighting squads are having to deal with gangs of youngsters stealing from public telephones. Narrated by Jamie Theakston.
Feature-length documentary that blends music with newly restored archive film to provide a decade-by-decade journey through the 20th century. The programme includes the very first moving pictures - recorded at the Paris World Exhibition of 1900 - and features performances from a range of artists such as Frank Sinatra, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland and the Rolling Stones.
An affectionate tribute to Johnny Morris, the television presenter who died earlier this month.He is remembered for his animal voices, and the programme includes archive clips as well as recollections from his colleagues. Hosted by Bill Oddie.
A documentary hosted by Eddie Izzard about the History of Monty Python, from their early lives and careers through the Flying Circus and movies to Graham Chapman's death and the question of another reunion. Features interviews with David Frost, Frank Skinner, Robin Williams, Kevin Kline, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Part of Python Night.
Documentary examining Stalin's Gulag. Between the October Revolution and Stalin's death in 1953, millions of people died in the camps. The film explores the Gulag legacy, hearing from victims and perpetrators of the system.
Documentary which tells the remarkable story of a man whose visionary ideas about myth helped shape the whole Star Wars cycle of films. Joseph Campbell's writings are the missing link between ancient myths and modern movies, Homer and Hollywood 'high concept'. His ideas about the universal appeal of stories involving a 'hero's journey' have also influenced films as diverse as Mad Max and Babe. Campbell himself was a reluctant hero, who lived a scholarly life - he didn't own a television and rarely went to the cinema. Yet Campbell remains a force in Hollywood. With contributions from George Lucas, director George Miller, and writers Robert McKee and Richard Adams, among others.
Between 1974 and 1978 the Bay City Rollers were one of the most successful pop groups on the planet scoring 11 Top Ten hits in the UKand reaching number one in America. They sold in the region of 120-million records worldwide and their tartan image was copied by a generation of teenagers. But all the pressures of international touring took their toll and amid business rows over missing money the band split in 1979. The band members talk about their memories and how they have been recordingonce more. Also featuring interviews with celebrity fans including Jonathan King and Lowri Turner. Director Neil Dougan
Terry Wogan presents a compilation programme celebrating the unique talent of Arthur Lowe. Featuring interviews with those who knew him, and footage from both his classic comedy performances and his many straight roles.
In the latest how-to-do-it guide, Michael Cockerell films behind the scenes in the normally secretive Home Office. As well as crime, prisons and MI5, the Home Secretary is responsible for nudist beaches, mad dogs and massage parlours. Jack Straw and his predecessors talk candidly about the Cabinet's most dangerous and fascinating job.
The occasional series of documentaries lifting the lid on some of the top jobs in British politics offers a revealing insight into the life of the leader of the Opposition. Conservative leader William Hague talks about his often thankless task, while those who discuss the problems of life in opposition include Harold Wilson , Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair , Presented by Michael Cockerell.
The story of what happened to the leaders and members of the National Front, Britain's most successful far-right party, since their support collapsed in the 1979 General Election. Uncovered here, against a backdrop of street violence and vitriolic racism, is the "Massacre of Welling Library" in which the British National Party left 16 people in need of hospital treatment. Plus the influence of Italian neo-fascists on modern-day supporters.
Write about what you know, as creative writing students are always told. So Graham Greene did just that when he wove the story of his 13-year adulterous relationship with Catherine Walston into his 1951 novel The End Of The Affair. Son Oliver finds it all very fascinating, while daughter Anne is coldly disapproving of her mother's involvement with someone she regarded as selfish and demanding. Greene didn't help matters by naming his fictional cuckolded husband Henry; Walston Snr was called Harry.
An examination of NATO's intervention into Kosovo from a year on, and the divisions that arose between those involved.
First of a two-part examination of Tony Blair 's premiership. What Makes Tony Tick. Michael Cockerell draws on extensive interviews with the PM and behind-the-scenes footage to analyse what drives Blair, and asks how he has achieved such huge popularity among the electorate.
Victoria Wood presents the true story behind Britain's timeless comedy. Includes footage of the cast on location and incredible personal tales about the making of the series. Was Arthur Lowe really just like Captain Mainwaring? Why did the warden always end up in the water? And how did Corporal Jones find a bomb down his trousers? Find out why Dad's Army was the Queen Mother's favourite show.
Duran Duran came out of Birmingham and conquered the world during the 1980s. Originally a New Romantic band in full make-up and cossack pants, they rapidly became bedroom pin-ups for a generation of teenage girls. Led by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, Duran Duran dominated the British and American charts in the mid-1980s with classic singles such as Rio, Save a Prayer and Wild Boys. Pioneers of the MTV-style promo video - from the X-rated Girls on Film to Raiders of the Lost Ark spoof Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran were the 80s equivalent of the Beatles in America and outsold Spandau Ballet and Wham! in their pomp. 60 million records later, Le Bon and Rhodes are seen touring America with their Pop Trash project from the early 2000s. The documentary reflects on the heady heights of Duran Duran's career, the cracks in their make-up plus the effects of sex, drugs and fame on ordinary boys from working class backgrounds. Apart from the key Durannies - Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor - the programme also features celebrity interviews with Debbie Harry, Yasmin Le Bon, Duran Duran managers Paul and Michael Berrow, Claudia Schiffer, Nile Rodgers and Lou Reed.
A documentary looking at the increasing pressure on museums and galleries to return cultural treasures acquired during colonial times to their countries of origin.
John Le Carré reveals his secret life as a spy.
Despite his repeated protestations of innocence, in the eyes of many OJ Simpson was and remains a guilty man. OJ - The Untold Story reveals that clues that some believe pointed away from Simpson as the killer were dismissed or ignored and highlights two other leads which could shed new light on the case.
The Aztecs are regarded as the most bloodthirsty of the Central American peoples, but they were also one of the most sophisticated. DrTony Spawforth discovers how, on arriving in Mexico, they created a new and brutal mythology from the relics of an earlier civilisation.
A documentary following pop singer Robbie Williams as he embarks on his debut American tour. The programme reveals the highs and lows of being young, rich and famous, and features exclusive footage of his American shows plus work in progress from his new album.
Jeremy Paxman introduces a selection of highlights and horrors from two decades of BBC2's news flagship. Ex-Home Secretary Michael Howard relives his verbal pummelling by Paxman, and there's another chance to see what has been tagged the BBC's worst-ever outside broadcast.
Documentary charting an extraordinary year for pop star Fatboy Slim , alias Norman Cook. The film follows him across five continents, performing at huge festivals including Glastonbury, clocking up 4 million sales of his album and taking time off to get married to DJ and TV host Zoe Ball.
Documentary following Las Vegas tycoon Sheldon Adelson as he embarks on an ambitious quest to build the world's biggest casino hotel. Situated in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, the complex includes a$2.5 billion replica of Venice. But the project is fraught with difficulties.
A documentary profile of the Hollywood actor who, in 1954, was voted the world's most popular film star by Photoplay magazine. Featuring clips from This Gun for Hire, The Blue Dahlia, and Shane.
A documentary exposing the extent of the illegal trade in ivory, which is increasing as a result of rocketing demand for the commodity in the Far East. The investigation reveals the true scale of elephant deaths and the corruption behind this highly-organised business.
Documentary following Chief Inspector Martin Hemingway 's harrowing assignment to Kosovo last summer to collect evidence for the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. The programme provides a powerful testimony of a country's loss as Hemingway's team uncover an extraordinary story combining human savagery and courage.
Documentary following young British zoologist Dr Adam Britton on a quest through north-west Australia to uncover the mystery of the remarkable immune system of saltwater crocodiles. These wild beasts often lose limbs in attacks by other crocodiles, but their horrendous wounds rarely become infected, despite the filthy, bacteria-infested waters in which they live.
Nick Hancock reveals the lighter side of a usually serious subject as he charts 4,000 years of contraceptive history. His investigation uncovers unusual methods used by different societies to prevent unwanted pregnancy, while archive film gives an amusing insight into the reserved way in which the subject was often treated.
This one-off documentary looks at a year in the life of four students at the Italia Conti Theatre School. Ben wants to be on West End stages, Georgia's aiming for EastEnders, Kelli dreams of singing stardom and Tim just wants to act. Will they hit the big time?
To accompany BBC2's weekend of music from the festival, a documentary tribute to its founder, Michael Eavis , that follows him from August 1999 up to the eve of this year's event. In addition to the usual preparations, however, Eavis also had to cope with the death of his wife and festival partner, Jean. Featuring interviews with musicians plus previously unseen footage and Eavis's personal archive of the event.
In a one-off documentary actress Michelle Collins visits some of the disadvantaged communities of Brazil to highlight the importance of education
Documentary charting the Queen Mother's early life. Combining personal testimony with rare archive film, photographs and letters this film helps paint a portrait of an extraordinary woman.
Concluding a two-part examination of Tony Blair 's premiership. The Lady and the Lords. New Labour came to power pledging to abolish the 800-year-old right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. Michael Cockerell tells the story of the efforts made by Lady Jay, the first female Labour Leader of the Lords, to get the bill through Parliament.
John Eliot Gardner 's personal quest to bring Johann Sebastian Bach 's music to the modern public entailed performing all of the composer's cantatas in a single year. This documentary follows the top conductor as he tries to pull off his most ambitious coup to date.
A documentary following a group of female boxers during their preparations for the third annual US Women's Boxing championships, to be held in Midlands, Texas.
Terry Jones investigates the truth of the Roman Games, uncovering what it took to be a gladiator and looking at why, to the noble ladies of Rome, these brave men were the rock stars of their day. The programme also examines how the legacy of the games lives on in the great sports arenas of the 20th century and reveals why the Romans would be as shocked by our violent entertainments as we are by theirs.
Documentary which follows a unique encounter between the Masai and a group of four Aboriginal Australians who travel to East Africa. Both communities share a common grievance in their struggle for land rights and the two groups exchange stories and experiences as they struggle to maintain their existence in the modern world.
Ronan Keating narrates this documentary on one of the most successful songwriters in the world. With songs like How Do I Live and Don't Turn Around, Diane Warren has provided hits for numerous artists, including Celine Dion and LeAnn Rimes.
A documentary in which extremists in the animal rights movement explain what formerly drove them to carry out arson and bombing campaigns, while those involved in research using animals describe what it is like to live in fear.
Documentary following the progress of teenager Josie Russell, whose mother and sister were murdered in the Kent countryside in 1996. The film reveals how Josie and her father Shaun have coped, and travels with them to South Africa to visit their former home.
Mark Lawson looks at the making of the epic documentary series A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Documentary which follows the creative process involved in assembling a body of songs for the Beautiful South's new album Painting It Red, and profiles the band's leader, Paul Heaton , revealing his patriarchal relationship with his fellow group members.
Nine years after his death from an Aids-related illness, and a quarter of a century after Bohemian Rhapsody first topped the singles charts, friends and relatives of Queen's flamboyant front man Freddie Mercury recall their memories in a frank portrait of his life. Featuring contributions from the singer's mother and sister, his former lovers, members of Queen, Elton John and opera star Montserrat Caballe.
Follow-up to the documentary Eyes of a Child, shown in September last year, which revealed the shocking extent of poverty in modern Britain. This film revisits children in Sheffield, Leicester and Portsmouth to see if government measures to tackle poverty have had an effect on their lives.
Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson meets "Scary Spice" Mel B who invites him into her home and takes him to a family party in Leeds, where she talks candidly about her life before and after fame, the breakdown of her marriage and hopes for the future.
Janet Leigh , Peter Bogdanovich and Charlton Heston contribute to this documentary which tells the dramatic behind-the-scenes story of Orson Welles 's film Touch of Evil, the subsequent controversial re-editing undertaken by the studio, and the recent restoration work that has enabled audiences to see as much of Welles's intended version as possible.
A one-off documentary examining part of the Orphic myth. Metamorpheus. In ancient legend, the women of Thrace killed the poet Orpheus in a Dionysian frenzy and threw his head with his lyre into the river Hebrus. Still singing, the head made its way to the island of Lesbos where it was established as an oracle. Professor Oliver Taplin sets out to follow the journey of the poet's head through modern day Bulgaria to the Greek island accompanied by poet Tony Harrison.
A disturbing documentary examining how tyrannies are created by ordinary people. Using as examples ground-breaking psychological experiments, Sheena McDonald shows how each and every one of us is capable of committing terrible acts against our fellow human beings.
Burt Lancaster , Adolf Hitler and i Laurel and Hardy are among the subjects of this documentary, which examines how the nature of what was perceived as male sexiness developed over the last century.
Exploration of life in Britain in the first year of the 20th century, using film footage, photographs, music, illustrations and first-hand testimony.
Celebrating the golden age of public transport - when railway stations were cathedrals, journeys were to be enjoyed and inventors sought new ways of getting around.
Performances of Christmas hits by Glam Rock bands / singers Radio l's Mark Radcliffe argues that the seventies were the golden age of the Christmas single. This programme takes a tongue-in-cheek look at its development.
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition (Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Christian Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly, operating "in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North, Central, and South America." The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam. The regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave Spain. The Inquisition was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II, after a period of declining influence in the preceding century. The Spanish Inquisition is often stated in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. Modern historians have tended to question earlier accounts concerning the severity of the Inquisition. Henry Kamen asserts that the 'myth' of the all-powerful, torture-mad inquisition is largely an invention of nineteenth century Protestant authors with an agenda to discredit the Papacy. Although records are incomplete, about 150,000 persons were charged with crimes by the Inquisition and about 3,000 were executed.
In the late 1940s and 50s, Mark Rothko (1903-70) was one of the leading American artists who created wall-scale abstract paintings that filled the viewer's field of vision and became a form of environment. Rothko spoke of wanting the spectator to feel inside the pictorial space, enveloped in his canvases luminous colour and apparitional surfaces. Together with painters such as Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still, he wanted to express a sense of the sublime, an idea associated with religious awe, vastness and natural magnificence. Filmed on both sides of the Atlantic, this documentary, chronicling Rothko's life and charting the development of his work, fills the screen with his softly defined, rectangular clouds of colour stacked symmetrically on top of one another: a visual language conceived to evoke elemental emotions with maximum poignancy. There are penetrating contributions from his daughter, Kate, and his son, Christopher, and comments from a wide range of friends, artists, art historians, collectors and curators. The focus is on Rothko's demands for the perfect setting for the showing of his work, an ideal he pursued throughout his creative life, typified by the story of his iconic Seagram murals, nine of which now hang in a dedicated room at London's Tate Modern. One of the murals commissioners, architect Philip Johnson, is among those who explain why Rothko refused to allow these works to hang in their intended venue, the exclusive Four Seasons restaurant in New York.
The day the loyal servant bit back. Sir Geoffrey Howe savaged Margaret Thatcher's leadership and her policies in his resignation speech to the Commons on 13 November 1990. The impact was sensational and immediate. Nine days later, Mrs Thatcher was forced to resign. Sir Geoffrey revisits his words and the emotions they engendered.
Michael Palin explores the lives and paintings of four Scottish artists known as the Colourists: John Duncan Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter, Samuel John Peploe and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell. Their works hang in 10 Downing Street, but in their own lifetimes their vibrant vision shocked the critics.
As New Labour enters its third year in office, Michael Cockerell examines the work of its news machine under Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's controversial press secretary. Shot over the last three months, tonight's film includes a unique glimpse of the media strategies developed to deal with controversies surrounding the London Mayoral election, the birth of Leo Blair, the visit of Russia's President Putin, and the PM's ill-conceived speech to the Women's Institute.
Jamie Theakston presents the history of Britain's best-loved music show, spanning four decades of great music and including archive footage of classic performances and backstage antics. As well as interviews with former presenters, such as Jimmy Savile and John Peel, there are also contributions from artists who have appeared on the show, including Pan's People, Robin Gibb, Noddy Holder, Blondie, Holly Johnson, Suggs, Noel Gallagher, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams.
Documentary on Marilyn's life told by herself from the taped interviews she gave to Life magazine and French Marie Claire less than a month before she died accompanied by rare and previously unseen footage.
Feature-length documentary recounting the making of Cleopatra, which starred Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. The 20th Century Fox's 1963 epic film has been called the most expensive film of all time, the biggest ever flop and the film that nearly bankrupted a Hollywood studio, while the scandal of the on-set romance between its two stars caused a media storm. Featuring rare footage, the film's original uncut trailer and interviews with those involved. A Prometheus Entertainment production.
Filmed over two years in India and the USA, Mark Kidel's award-winning documentary brings together archive footage spanning seven decades of Ravi Shankar's performing life, and provides a definitive account of the late sitar maestro's unique musical career.
Documentary looking at the events leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union with interviews from the people who were involved, some speaking for the first time.
Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Visage, Marilyn, Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, ABC... At the dawn of the 80s, a whole host of strangely dressed men in make-up burst forth onto the music scene brandishing synthesisers and kicking against the visual ugliness of punk. They came mainly from the London club scene, led by gender-bending host Steve Strange and pioneering electronic DJ Rusty Egan, and conquered the charts with classic tracks such as Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, To Cut a Long Story Short, Kings of the Wild Frontier, Planet Earth, Fade to Grey, Calling Your Name and Poison Arrow. Magenta Devine narrates this gay and colourful behind-the-scene documentary of sex & drugs & frocks & hair-rollers, which includes interviews with Boy George, Gary Kemp, Adam Ant, Nick Rhodes, Steve Strange, Rusty Egan, Marilyn, Jonathan Ross, Caryn Franklin, Fiona Bruce and Robert Elms.
Jonathan Meades explores the architectural legacy of Queen Victoria's reign.
Coinciding with the parole hearing of James Bulger's killers, this program offers a personal account of the murder from the perspective of Albert Kirby, the senior investigating officer. He returns to the crime scene, talks with James' mother Denise, visits a secure unit and talks about the wisdom of releasing the murderers.
A look at the expedition leading to the location of the sunken warship HMS Hood. One of the greatest sea battles of World War II ended in the destruction of two of the world's mighty warships and the loss of almost 3500 lives. Sixty years later, an expedition was launched to find Great Britain's HMS Hood and Germany's Bismarck. The Bismarck was discovered on July 9, 2001, 150 miles west of Brest in northern France, and ten days later, the Hood was located in the Denmark Strait in the North Atlantic.
Documentary tracing the development of Surrealism, the origins of which Meades believes lie in the human impulse to express the content of dreams.
A documentary chronicling the extremely demanding voyage of yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur who, at the age of only 24, became the fastest woman ever to singlehandedly circumnavigate the world.
This feature-length documentary follows men and women in their daily lives aged from their early 60s to over 90. Those featured include active friends Connie and Joy and Chelsea Pensioner Archie.
United Nations statistics show that there are at least 60-70 ! million landmines around the world, and that 25,000 people are killed or maimed by mines every year. This documentary follows the making and trials of a radar-equipped airship which, its makers hope, will revolutionise the international fight against this scourge, and shows how its crew go about their work. Narrated by Robert Lindsay.
This documentary looks back on the golden era of the sport's heavyweight division, which at the dawn of global television broadcasts was dominated by Muhammad Ali. It recalls how Ali's charisma won over the British public, hears from his challengers, and-with Lennox Lewis 's first fight as world heavyweight champion going out live on BBC1 early on Sunday morning- shows how British boxing has developed since his reign.
Alan Hansen reveals how Britain's most talented footballers are discovered and groomed for a career that promises instant wealth and fame for the lucky few who succeed.
Four regular Casualty cast members assume their TV roles for real in this one-off programme which sees Ian - Kelsey (Patrick), Sandra Huggett (Holly), Catherine Shipton (Duffy), and Ian Bleasdale (Josh) thrown in at the deep end of the Royal London hospital's A&E department.
The' Secret History of Tinseltown under the Scalpel. The myth behind Hollywood glamour, including interviews with those who were responsible for the surgical makeovers of movie stars including Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne.
Documentary account of the colourful career of the London-born Scottish pop singer, with contributions from family, colleagues and admirers.
Documentary following Anne Robinson 's progress as she goes from BBC Watchdog presenter to quiz show host on The Weakest Link, a programme which has also taken America by storm. Exclusive backstage access reveals how Anne Robinson became part of the Hollywood system.
Documentary following Brigadier Alex "Birtie" Birtwhistle, a few days away from retirement, as he embarks on one last mission - to sort out the chaos of the foot and mouth crisis in the country's worst affected area, Cumbria.
On the eve of Liverpool's bid to win a major European trophy for the first time in 17 years, this documentary looks back - on the period during the seventies and eighties when the Reds were arguably Europe's top club side.
It was the worst domestic terrorist attack in US history - a bomb in Oklahoma six years ago that killed 168 people and injured 500 more. Timothy McVeigh , found guilty of planting the device, was due to be executed earlier today. Donal Maclntyre introduces this documentary about a tragedy that - literally and emotionally - ripped a city apart.
A documentary about Welshman Mark Davies who works in some of the most inhospitable and dangerous places on earth -the volcanos of Montserrat and Nevada Del Ruiz.
Donald Campbell died when his boat crashed at 300mph on Lake Coniston, Cumbria. For 34 years the crash remained shrouded in mystery, as the wreck of Bluebird lay submerged in the depths of the lake. This documentary follows diver Bill Smith 's four-year quest to find the remains.
With almost one billion messages sent each month in Britain, this documentary explores both the amusing and serious sides of the text phenomenon.
A nostalgic look back at tennis in the seventies, a period many see as the sport's golden age when Borg, McEnroe, Chris Evert and Billie Jean King lit up Wimbledon with their bewitching brand of showmanship, spirit and sex appeal.
As Madonna's first world tour since 1993 arrives in London tonight, this film examines her love affair with Great Britain. Friends and contemporaries, including Jean Paul Gaultier , Mel C , Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and Hearsay, discuss her influence on British art, fashion and gender politics.
The phenomenon of stalking is tackled in this one-off documentary, which records the meeting between one young mother and the man she says is pursuing her. It also follows other stalking cases, observing how victims attempt unsuccessfully to shrug off their tormentors.
A one-off documentary celebrating summer-themed pop records from the past 40 years. Contributors include the Beach Boys, Alice Cooper , Martha Reeves , Hank Marvin , John Sebastian and John Peel.
Following on from the acclaimed Through the Eyes of the Old, director/cameraman Christopher Terrill now turns his attention to the 18-30s who are tackling the world head on. Some are excited, anxious or frightened, but most are determined and still convinced they are immortal. This documentary helps to provide new perspectives on music, sport, drugs, education, love and cyberspace.
Disasters in sport, in space, at sea and in everyday life illustrate that even the briefest moments of madness can have far-reaching, and potentially disastrous, consequences. Paul Merton narrates this wry compendium of tales of human error.
Huntingdon's disease is the commonest inherited brain disease. Left untreated symptoms involve losing control of mind and body. This documentary follows the fate of two people who volunteer to undergo a brain operation which for the first time offers the chance of a cure.
Documentary following gardening makeover expert Charlie Dimmock as she swaps water features for the circus ring to transform herself into a flying trapeze artist for a night. But with only a matter of months to learn her new skills from scratch, and a sell-out performance in front of family and friends looming, will Charlie cut the mustard?
A one-off documentary in which survival expert Ray Mears offers actor Ewan McGregor the chance to go on a trek of a lifetime. The star of Trainspotting and Moulin Rouge rises to the challenge and joins Mears on a trip deep into the Honduran jungle, accompanied also by explorer Dr Chris Begley of the University of Kentucky. After just a few basic lessons in survival, the team set off in search of a lost civilisation. How will McGregor cope with all that the Central American rainforest throws at him?
One-off documentary in which Britain's best-known magician tries to hit the big time in the United States. Beginning in Illinois, Daniels must rely on the skills acquired during 30 years of performing to build a new career in just four weeks.
A one-off special documentary following the cubs of a pride of lions on the African plains. Using "bouldercam" - a remote camera disguised as a rock - the film follows the cubs as they make their journey from infancy to adulthood. Narrated by David Attenborough.
In November 1983. at odds of 104 billion to one, Janet and Graham Walton gave birth to the only surviving all-girl ' sextuplets in the world. As Hannah, Lucy, Ruth, Sarah, Kate and Jenny approach their 18th birthday, they talk about their hopes for the future and their memories of the past.
A one-off documentary featuring one summer in the lives of three large families. Featured are the Langleys, who already had ten children and needed a vasectomy reversal for number 11. In the Wells household Grace is expecting her 12th babay, while the third family are juggle to put six of their nine children through private school.
From petty criminals serving heavy sentences to convicts who have hardened at a tender age, this documentary on children in prison around the world examines their lives and whether they are likely to benefit from their incarceration.
The EastEnders actress and dolphin-lover trades Walford for the sunnier climes of the Bahamas and Florida in this documentary where she comes face to face with the mammals in the wild.
With the help of candid interviews, this documentary helps shed light on the shady world of marriages based on deceit and duplicity, including the case of a bigamous union that lasted for decades.
The human genome contains the secret of human life, recording our evolution and holding the key to our future. In this one-off documentary, Robert Winston shows how the genome demonstrates how to build and run a person, thereby offering us the potential to interfere with fate.
In a documentary exploring the bond between a child and its pony, eight children talk about their feelings for their equine pets.
Documentary recalling the events of 28 January 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded soon after its launch killing the crew of seven outright. The programme includes expert opinion and interviews with Nasa's senior manager at the time, Jud Lovingood , engineer Roger Boisjoly , and Grace Corrigan , mother of school teacher turned-astronaut Christa McAuliffe.
Documentary tribute to the singer-songwriter who died in a freak boating accident last year. The daughter of choreographer Jean Newlove and folk singer Ewan MacColl , she will be best remembered as the foil to a drunken Shane MacGowan on the Pogues Christmas hit Fairytale of New York. Contributions come from her partner James Knight , her mother and brother, and a host of music industry stars, including Bono, Billy Bragg , Johnny Marr and Janice Long.
A documentary following a small but growing band of would-be parents who, in their pursuit of the child they desire, refuse to be bound by their country's laws, rendering fertility an international business. Alan and Louise Masterton hope to use a controversial technique which can predetermine the sex of a child after losing their young daughter in an accident, while sixtysomething Jenny is seeking help abroad to become pregnant after being refused fertility treatment in the UK.
There is a new generation of pre-teen girls who possess the confidence, sense of style, and to some degree, the emotional complexities of a teenager, but who are aged between 7 and 11 years old. The marketing industry, who has recognised their spending power, coined the term "tweenagers" to describe them. This documentary follows three sets of best friends of this age group, from diverging backgrounds, through an average day.
There are now more new cases of HIV infection among heterosexuals each year than among homosexual men, and most of the 10,000 HIV-positive heterosexuals in Britain are women. In this moving documentary, three infected women talk openly about their experience of, and ways of living with, the virus.
A profile of one of the most exciting players that the game of snooker has ever produced, recalling the career of the twice world champion and crowd favourite and examining his turbulent life off the table.
A documentary which shows that arcane wizardry is not just the preserve of horror films and Harry Potter novels. For accounts assistant Andrew Stockall , it is a serious pursuit. Over the years he has taught a band of magicians for whom casting spells, conjuring up demons and putting curses on people are all part and parcel of everyday life.
Fifty years ago this weekend, a heroic last stand was fought against the Chinese Army by British troops serving with the UN in Korea. Veterans of the Battle of the Imjin river recall the event and the cruel aftermath in PoW camps.
As the biggest British film of the year opens in London, this documentary recalls the shocking wartime events that inspired the original novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. On the Greek island of Cephalonia, 90-year-oid Amos Pampaloni , who like the fictional Captain Corelli survived the worst military massacre of the Second World War, recalls how German reprisals left 9,000 of his fellow Italians dead. He also talks candidly about his relationship with a young Greek girl. The programme includes contributions from the novel's author, Louis de Bernieres , and the film's director John Madden. Narrated by Sean Pertwee.
A profile of celebrated film-maker Ken Burns, showing as a prelude to the first episode of his epic musical series "Jazz". At his home in the New Hampshire town of Walpole, the man who has been hailed as America's greatest documentary maker talks about his formative influences, his fascination with history and his previous award-winning series, "Baseball" and "The Civil War".
A documentary in which some of Britain's older citizens recall the circumstances of their childhoods early last century in a series of moving stories accompanied by rare archive film, stills and dramatic reconstructions.
Documentary following several British pilgrims astheyjoin three million Muslims from around the world to perform the Hajj -the annual pilgrimage to the sacred shrine at Mecca. The Islamic faith decrees that every Muslim who has the means should make this epic journey at least once in their lifetime and, this year, more than 20,000 travelled from various parts of Britain to Saudi Arabia for the event.
For the first time a British mosque - Birmingham Central - has opened its doors to cameras. The result is a documentary that offers a unique insight into the life of Britain's Islamic community and reveals the increasing struggles of women for reform.
Documentary on the hackers who wrote a programme capable of hijacking million computers.
As an antidote to England's 2001 Ashes defeat, a celebration of the 20th anniversary of cricketing all-rounder Ian Botham 's triumph in the 1981 Third Ashes Test. It offers a profile of one of Britain's most entertaining and best-loved sporting stars, but also reveals how his volatile personality ensured that he was rarely out of the public eye.
Documentary charting the fascinating life and work of Lee Miller , a model for Vogue in 1920s New York who became the only female photojournalist to cover the Second World War. Having given up photography in later life and virtually disowned her own work, Miller's extraordinary archive of 40,000 negatives was only rediscovered after her death. George Melly , David Hare , friends, colleagues and her only son, Tony Penrose , trace the story of her unconventional life through her own remarkable pictures and photographs, as well as rarely seen archive footage.
Ken Burns 's documentary on the visionary American architect. The film examines Wright's legacy, as well as the problems he faced reconciling his creative genius with more mundane matters such as his finances and his family.
The murder of Gianni Versace in July 1997 on the steps of his Miami mansion sent shockwaves around the fashion world. Versace's name had become associated with the best in designer fashion, and he was the couturier of choice for celebrities including Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna and Elton John. This film, from the documentary strand Storyville, tells the strange story of his life and death.
In July 2000 a Concorde crash in France killed many people, bringing its unparalleled safety record in civil - aviation to a shocking end. This documentary tells the story of British Airways' flagship aircraft, showing how it gained its reputation as the last word in luxury air travel, and examines both the human tragedy of the crash and the war of words between the English and French as the accident's causes began to emerge.
A documentary follows Baz Luhrmann , the director of Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet, as he travels round the world on a six-month promotional tour for his new film, which opens here tomorrow. A colourful reinvention of the film musical, Moulin Rouge stars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman , contributors to this travelogue which culminates in the opening weekend in America.
A one-off documentary, showing as a companion to the series The Blue Planet, assessing the state of the world's oceans and the impact that humans have had on them. Presented by marine biologist Martha Holmes.
A revealing one-off documentary that provides an inside view of how Tony Blair and former prime ministers - including Harold Wilson , Margaret Thatcher and John Major - have run their cabinet, the highest decision-making body in the land. Through candid interviews, rare archive footage and filming inside No 10, presenter Michael Cockerell opens the door to the Government's own chamber of secrets as he seeks the answer to the question: is the notion of cabinet government an obsolete concept?
Nearly 20 years on from his series Police, criminologist and film-maker Roger Graef pays a return visit to Thames Valley Police to see how the service has evolved against the backdrop of social change. New problems have emerged over the years but, as this documentary shows, the service has responded with initiatives of its own to tackle them.
The men on whom Band of Brothers was based recall the reality of conflict in the Second World War. With Richard Winters , Fred "Moose" Heyliger, JB Stokes , Darrell "Shifty" Powers, Edward "Babe" Heffron, William "Wild Bill" Guarnere, Carwood Lipton , Robert "Popeye" Lynn, Lester "Leo" Hashey, Robert Strayer , Antonio Garcia and Donald Malarkey.
Drug addiction takes many forms and is shrouded in misinformation. This documentary explodes many of the myths, and reveals radical new measures to prevent smoking and cocaine addiction.
Jonathan Meades investigates the life of the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, and the writing of his largest work, The Buildings of England.
Leo Regan follows his friend, photographer Lanre Fehintola, as he tries to go cold turkey (detox) from heroin in his council flat and without medication.
Tom Cruise narrates a penetrating documentary, which explores the many sides to Stanley Kubrick - film director, producer, writer, photographer, husband and father.
In this documentary, originally screened on BBC Knowledge, author Philip Pullman explores Oxford, where he was a student in the 1960s. The city provided the inspiration for the fictional Jordan College in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The writer explains how his childhood and student days have fed into the imagined worlds of his books. Critics and literary experts also contribute, sharing their own insights into Pullman's work, including I Was a Rat! and the Sally Lockhart adventures.
Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals a fascinating history of the nation's love affair with the bottle as George Cruikshank 's forgotten masterpiece The Worship of Bacchus goes on show in the Tate Modern. Cruikshank's little known work depicts Victorian society's ambivalent relationship with the "demon drink" and still hits a nerve in contemporary Britain because it pinpoints the moment in our nation's history when going out to become intentionally drunk became the British leisure activity of choice.
Film revealing the inside story of William Hague 's doomed attempt to engineer a recovery after the Tories' landslide defeat four years ago. Nick Robinson asks whether Hague's successor, lain Duncan Smith , can fare any better, and if Thatcherism will always loom large over the Conservative Party.
Intimate and moving stories of loss and remembrance are told by friends and relatives of those killed in some of the major conflicts of the 20th century, from the First World War to the Falklands.
Great Natural Wonders of the World focuses on natural landscapes rather than wildlife. This show spends an hour highlighting some of the greatest visions of the world ever seen. It is arranged by continent and specifically covers the following: * North America - Deserts, canyonlands, Death Valley, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mesas, the Grand Canyon and Limestone Caves * South America - Amazon River, Angel Falls, the Andes and glaciers * Pacific Ocean - Hawaiian volcanos & Coral Atolls * Asia - Mt Fuji, Guilin & the Himalayas * Europe - Alps, Rivers, Ice Caves, the Northern Lights * Africa - Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorogoro, Rift Valley & the Negev Desert * Australasia - Olgas, Uluru, Deserts, 12 Apostles (before one fell over recently), Kimberleys, Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand's mountains and fjords * Antarctica
Dramatised documentary describing how the Great Pyramid of Giza - the only one of the Seven Ancient Wonders to survive to the present day - was built.
A documentary about Tourettes sufferer John Davidson. This is a follow-up to the 1989 TV documentary John's Not Mad focusing on his present circumstances as an adult with Tourettes and the impact the earlier documentary had on his life. The film also follows an 8 year old who has been diagnosed with Tourettes.
Michael Palin presents a profile of the television career of David Attenborough, from controller of BBC Two to his wildlife programmes such as Life on Earth and The Blue Planet.
Actress Anna Chancellor, a distant relative of Jane Austen, discovers the woman behind the acclaimed novels through readings and reconstructions. Location shots of her homes in Steventon and Chawton and extracts from adaptations of her work are also featured.
A documentary film examining the reasons behind artist Michael Landy's decision to systematically destroy all of his possessions.
The documentary examines the life of Michel Houellebecq, Europe's controversial and dangerous writer, who offends people with his razor sharp attacks on modern life and is adored as a genius and a visionary.
With more than 100 television documentaries and over a thousand radio documentaries, Ray Gosling's name - and his reputation - were known to millions. But five years ago Gosling's face no longer fitted. Then when his partner Bryn became ill and later died, Ray's life fell apart. With mounting unpaid bills and debts, he found himself facing bankruptcy. In a moving and humorous portrait, Bankrupt: Ray Gosling follows Ray as he battles to save his home against mounting pressure from the VAT man and the Inland Revenue.
A documentary looking at the backgrounds of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, and the production of the former's film "The Great Dictator".
Frida Kahlo is now the most successful Latin American artist that the world has ever seen. However, when she died in 1954 she was almost unknown. Tim Niel's film explores the life and afterlife of the iconic painter and includes interviews with Frida's friends and family, Tracey Emin and Salma Hayek, who plays Kalho in a new feature film.
Jimmy Page, Brad Pitt and Chrissie Hynde are among the contributors to this one-off documentary that looks at the talented singer and songwriter Jeff Buckley who drowned five years ago aged 30. The film explores what shaped Jeff Buckley, what he might have become and his personal and musical legacy.
Critic William Feaver explores the complex civilisation of the Aztecs.
A documentary, narrated by the late Richard Harris, exploring the roots of Arthurian legend. Historian Geoffrey Ashe is interviewed about the legend and the historical events that inspired it,while Harris (who played Arthur on stage and screen) narrates on location.
David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party and Sinn Fein's Tom Hartley explore the issue of war and memory as they walk the WWI killing fields of Northern France and Flanders.
The date is 1959. The place is Le Mans racing circuit, France. A little known Texan racing driver, Carrol Shelby, wins the most prestigious event in motor racing at his first attempt and is universally acclaimed as one of the best drivers in the world. But Shelby had a secret that was to prevent him ever driving again. This is the comeback story of a man driven by the desire to beat the world on the race track, and specifically to beat the might of motor racing, Ferrari. From his base in California with only a team of hot rodders for support, in three years Shelby put together a car that would take on the world and win. The Shelby Cobra, as it was known, is still an automotive icon today.
Nick Knowles explores the facts and the fiction behind the legendary Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot.
Recognised as a hugely influential prophet in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Moses outlined a basis for morality which has lasted over 3,000 years. Using the latest scientific evidence and dramatic reconstruction, Jeremy Bowen chronicles the life of the great spiritual leader, finds explanations for some of the miraculous events that were recorded, and assesses his legacy.
Earlier this year 20,000 members of the public cast their vote on what they saw as the locations everyone should visit at least once. The result is a definitive wishlist of global hotspots. In addition to the top 50, four viewers file a report from their favourite place.
Historian John Brewer explores the rich culture of 18th-century London, and traces the birth of Georgian society.
How the contents of an enigmatic book unearthed in an Italian monastery in 1912 has confounded scientists and code-breakers.
30 years ago Britain's longest political trial ended at the Old Bailey with 10 year jail sentences for four young revolutionary anarchists. They were members of the Angry Brigade; a clandestine urban guerrilla group who, for a few short years in the early 1970s, went on a bombing spree that brought terror to the heart of the British political establishment. Targets included senior Government ministers, captains of industry and top ranking policeman. The Angry Brigade is a dramatised documentary which reconstructs the key moments and events of the time told through the eyes of one of the main members of the group. The programme explores how these largely middle class students made the journey from hippie idealists to urban terrorists and the police investigation that finally cracked them.
With the possible exception of the pyramids, Pompeii is arguably the foremost archaeological site in the consciousness of a European television audience. So how would you make a new programme about this Roman city that could be termed truly innovative without compromising the integrity of the archaeology? The Private Lives of Pompeii concentrated on the people that lived and worked in Pompeii at the time of its destruction, as depicted in the archaeology of their houses, their tombs and the surviving documents that relate to them. Rather than use a presenter, the programme uses three story-lines plaited together to form a clever multi vocal commentary. A female narrator (voice over) introduces us to the themes and ideas that lie behind the structure of the Roman society of Pompeii, themes which are then played out by actors illustrating the private lives of four key characters. A third commentary endorses what the viewer has seen and heard by relaying evidence through interviews with historians and archaeologists. The drama unfolds in the years between the earthquake of AD62 an the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, a time, we are told, of uncertainty and change. An intense atmosphere is created through the re-enactments which are staged in the surviving streets and houses of Pompeii itself; thus curiosity about the private individuals elegantly leads us at the same time to the structure of Pompeian society and to many of the town's most important buildings. The digital effects only make their presence fully felt near the end of the programme when they are used to illustrate the work of the Pompeii Forum Project. Digital enhancement is used throughout the programme and is now extremely subtle: for archaeological viewers a clear distinction between the virtual and the real is likely to become an increasingly important issue. This was a complex and intelligent programme which stretched the medium and chivvied the televisually slothful viewer to keep up, while stri
Peter Snow presents highlights from today's three deep-sea dives around the world. In 2002 BBC organized three concurrent dives , first in Monterey Bay where unmanned submersible is lowered into underwater canyon which is over mile deep. Second dive is in Grand Cayman where submersible Atlantis will explore life at the spectacular Cayman Wall , Kate Humble reports . During the dive, the crew used bait to attract a deep-water giant, the six-gill shark. Third dive takes place in middle of the Atlantic 1200 miles west of Portugal, which is also deepest of the three dives, divers will descent in Russian submersible Mir from research vessel Keldish and the Mir will dive in the bottom of the ocean in 2300 metres .
News 24's coverage of 11 September.
In the Spring of 1980 heavily armed terrorists force their way into the Iranian Embassy in London. They demand the release of their comrades in Iran or they will kill all the hostages. After one of the hostages is executed by the terrorists, Margaret Thatcher ordered the SAS, Britain's elite counter terrorist unit to storm the building. Millions watched stunned, as live on air, the assault took place.
"A Very English Genius" is a documentary telling the story of how Michael Ventris became obsessed with the quest of cracking the earliest known writing system, Linear B, which originated in Greece. The documentary begins with his introduction to the ancient script, on a school trip to a museam, continues through his endeavours to crack the language, and ends with his unexplained death, providing various theories to what exactly caused his final demise.
Danny Baker and Danny Kelly take a nostalgic look back at some dramatic encounters between footballing Davids and Goliaths, focusing on those FA Cup matches in which, confounding all the odds, the underdogs prevailed.
John Beattie presents a profile of legendary rugby commentator Bill McLarem as he retires from the BBC.
While Joseph Mallord William Turner is considered by many to be Britain's greatest landscape painter, his private life reveals a man of extremes and contradictions. This docudrama explores the extraordinary story of a brilliant self-made man.
In the past the green iguanas of Central America have been used in movies to depict dinosaurs. This film explores how the social lives of these modern lizards may hold the clue to the behaviour of dinosaurs. Narrated by David Attenborough
On 1 July 1952, a 30-year-old architect called Michael Ventris made a BBC radio broadcast which was to secure his place in archaeological and history books forever. He announced that he'd deciphered Linear B, Europe's earliest known, and previously incomprehensible, writing system. His discovery was to revolutionise our understanding of Western civilisation. It was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Ventris was no more than an amateur enthusiast, a man passionately and often tortuously determined to crack the linguistic code which had puzzled experts, archaeologists and academics for three decades.
"Henry Kissinger is a war criminal," says firebrand journalist Christopher Hitchens. "He's a liar. And he's personally responsible for murder, for kidnapping, for torture." What is Hitchens on about? He could be talking about the lawsuit currently under way in Washington DC, in which Kissinger is charged with having authorised the assassination of a Chilean general in 1970. Or he could be referring to the secret bombing of Cambodia which, arguably, Kissinger engineered without the knowledge of the US Congress in 1969. Or perhaps Kissinger's involvement in the sale of U.S. weapons to Indonesian President Suharto for use in the massacre of 1/3 of the population of East Timor in 1975. These and several other recent charges have cast a haunting shadow on the reputation of a man long seen as the most famous diplomat of his age, the Nobel Laureate who secured peace in Vietnam, who secretly opened relations between the US and China, and who now, more than a quarter-century out of office, remains a central player on the world stage, only recently voted the number one public intellectual of the 20th century. Featuring previously unseen footage, newly declassified US government documents, and revealing interviews with key insiders to the events in question, The Trials of Henry Kissinger examines the charges facing him, shedding light on a career long shrouded in secrecy. In part, it explores how a young boy who fled Nazi Germany grew up to become one of the most powerful men in US history and now, in the autumn of his life, one of its most disputed figures.
Conductor Charles Hazlewood explores the life of composer Antonio Vivaldi, examining the development of his music and his most famous work, The Four Seasons. Having mastered the violin and been hailed a child prodigy, the ordained priest and teacher went on to court scandal by embarking on a passionate affair with a much younger woman, and ended his life penniless and far from home.
Brian Hanrahan reminisces about his experiences while covering the Falklands War in 1982.
In 1987, the BBC commissioned a play to mark the fifth anniversary of the Falklands conflict. But the play was not shown until 2002. This documentary examines the political furore surrounding the decision not to show it and talks to the main players in the drama.
In the face of war, Dan Cruickshank explores the wonders of a once-great civilisation, discovering monuments to rival the pyramids, treasure that outshines Tutankhamun's and even magical ancient sculptures of naked cavorting women, heroically hidden from the Taliban. Afghanistan stands at the crossroads of western and eastern civilisation, but its brilliance has been clouded by centuries of conflict - from the conquering armies of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan to occupation by the British and the Russians and finally the rise of the Taliban. Travelling the most land-mined country in the world, dodging rival warlords and gangs of gunmen, Dan reveals for the first time the cultural tragedy of Afghanistan. But as he climbs the terribly scarred cliff face of the destroyed giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, he glimpses symbols of great hope for a lost civilisation.
A nostalgic look back at the heroes and villains that helped snooker become the UK's number one televised sport of the 1980s. (2002)
Film exploring what really happened on Omaha Beach, where over 2,000 men lost their lives during D-Day, and how it could have been very different.
Documentary on Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historic ascent of Everest in 1953. Including previously unseen material filmed on the expedition, and interviews with surviving members of the team and members of the rival Swiss team.
Step back in time and visit the "vanished city" on its last day, as the mighty volcano Vesuvius explodes in a 24-hour reign of terror. On August 24th, AD79, Pompeii's citizens witness day turning into night as 4 billion tons of pumice, rock, and ash burst forth from Vesuvius. Pompeii: The Last Day uses archaeological evidence, including the writings of one survivor, to unravel the mystery of those final hours. Lavish special effects reconstruct each stage of Vesuvius's cataclysmic eruption and its impact on soldiers, slaves, families, and lovers as they struggle with the unfolding tragedy. One of the greatest natural disasters - and most fateful days - comes to vivid life in this critically acclaimed dramatization.
The Colosseum in Rome is one of the world's most amazing buildings. This immense oval stadium was home to the most violent and deadly spectator sport in history, gladiatorial combat. The Roman gladiator whose story is told here is Verus, one of two victors in the only gladiatorial battle that was ever described in detail (by the Roman poet Martial in 80 A.D.). Using this factual record as its basis, Colosseum follows Verus as he is recruited from slavery, trained in gladiator's school, rises to favor among wealthy Romans, and ultimately battles his best friend, Priscus, to a crowd-pleasing draw in the inaugural games of glorious, brand-new Colosseum, the construction of which is shown in fascinating detail. Combining authoritative narration with diary-like voiceovers from Verus's perspective, this riveting 50-minute BBC production is simultaneously intimate and epic in scale, employing the latest in digital compositing techniques to achieve its unparalleled visual splendor. With well-cast actors speaking authentic Latin, this sumptuous production is both dramatically involving and exacting in every detail.
A documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, responsible for creating some of the most memorable television and radio music in British popular culture, including "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Doctor Who" (1963).
This documentary reveals a very different Isaac Newton from that of popular myth – a much more fascinating and complex man than the powder-wigged puritan of the history books.
The United States and Britain are preparing to wage war on Iraq, for its undisclosed weapons of mass destruction. Israel's nuclear, biological and chemical capabilities have remained un-inspected. Meanwhile Mordechai Vanunu has been imprisoned for 16 years for exposing Israel's secret nuclear bomb factory to the world. Vanunu is seen as a traitor in his own country. He has been abandoned by most of his family and has spent 11 years in solitary confinement. Today only an American couple, who have legally adopted him, are among the few visitors he is permitted. This film is the story of the bomb, Vanunu and Israel's wall of silence. Part of the BBC Correspondent Series
Nicolae Ceausescu created a unique personality cult in the 1970s and 1980s, transforming communist Romania into one of the strangest regimes Europe has ever seen. Newspapers had to mention his name 40 times on every page, factory workers spent months rehearsing dance routines dressed as soldiers and gymnasts for huge shows at which thousands of citizens were lined up to form the words Nicolae Ceausescu with their bodies. When the Romanian economy and living standards plummeted in the 1980s, the line between theatre and life blurred completely. Ceausescu went on working visits to the countryside where he inspected displays of meat and fruit made out of polystyrene, and closer to home began work on what would have been the largest palace in the world. At the final parade in 1989, workers walked past their leader to the sound of taped chants and applause. Using Ceausescu's own archive of 35mm propaganda films, King of Communism offers a surprising and chilling view of the absurd world of the Romanian dictator's regime. "This is a real-life communist version of Springtime for Hitler," says director Ben Lewis. "It's an all-singing, all-dancing unmasking of the illusions of communism, but it's also a serious study of the experience, effects and legacy of the twentieth century's most destructive political system."
The Victoria Cross: For Valour is a 2003 BBC television historical documentary presented by Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson examines the history of the Victoria Cross, and follows the story of one of the 1,354 men who were awarded it - Major Robert Henry Cain. The main part of the programme was to describe how in September 1944, Major Cain won what was described as the "finest Victoria Cross of the whole war" (Second World War) by his commanding officer Lt Col Derek Mcnally. It’s only at the end of the programme that it is revealed that Clarkson is married to the Major’s daughter who had no idea that her father was a VC winner until after his death in 1974.
This hour long documentary from BBC Three follows the award-winning reporter-sleuth Greg Palast on the trail of the Bush family, from Florida election finagling, to the Saudi connection, to the Bush team's spiking the FBI investigation of the bin Laden family and the secret State Department plans for post-war Iraq. These are the hard-hitting reports that have been seen in films like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, broadcast internationally on BBC Newsnight television, and are found in Palast's international bestselling book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
Towering Ambitions: Dan Cruickshank at Ground Zero is a documentary film in which, 2-years on from the 9/11 attacks, Dan Cruickshank examines plans for the World Trade Center site.
The extraordinary story of how the 19-year-old Mary Shelley created Frankenstein, one of the world's most terrifying monsters. Daughter of Mary Woolstencraft, wife of Percy Byshe Shelley and close friend to Lord Byron, Mary Shelley's life was every bit as extraordinary as her most famous work. Dramatising the adventures, love affairs and tragedies of her young life, the film shows how her monstrous creation reflected her own extraordinary experiences.
When US police investigated a double murder in the 1980s, they had no idea they were about to uncover the most daring trail of forgery and deception America had ever seen. Mark Hofmann dared to forge on a level previously undreamt of as he manufactured historic documents at the core of the American constitution and history. And he fooled everyone - the FBI, the CIA, the Library of Congress, even the best forensic experts in the world and his own wife. Hofmann's story begins in Salt Lake City and a growing hatred of the Mormon church - a hatred which would lead him to his first criminal acts designed to dupe a society only too willing to believe tall tales. And it's a perfect training ground for his ultimate goal - to make a fortune and fool America itself. Ultimately however, his ambition turns to murder.
Forty years ago autism was a highly obscure disorder which was thought to affect only four to five children in every 10,000, but now some British teachers are claiming to see it in one in every 86 children. Is there an epidemic of autism, and what's causing it? The documentary looks at the history of the condition, and current research into cause and treatment. It includes interviews with some of the world's leading experts on autism.
Profile of the Italian fashion designer who has provided outfits for everyone from Jacqui O to Mick J and, as a long-time movie-buff, dressed the stars of countless films.
On the 300th anniversary of the founding of St Petersburg, historian and author Orlando Figes explores the life of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky who was commissioned by the Tsar to document his vast realm on film; and presents a striking visual portrait, both of Russia on the eve of revolution and St Petersburg today.
To coincide with the 50th anniversary of his death, this documentary presents an intimate portrait of one of the greatest monsters of the 20th century, including fresh evidence about his relationships with women, his family and his inner circle.
St Paul - for BBC1 in June 2003, this one hour documentary, presented by Jonathan Edwards, looked at the story of St Paul, and aimed to reveal the background to the story of Paul. The programme used dramatised reconstruction, computer graphics and location filming.
My Family and Autism is a documentary with an upbeat look at the daily life of the Jackson family. Jacqui Jackson has four sons and three daughters, and all her boys are on the autistic spectrum. 14-year-old Luke guides us through their family life. Luke tells us what he thought about the BBC filming his family, we find out about the spectacles with colored lenses that he and his brother Joe tried out during filming, there are details of the diet that the boys are on to alleviate some of their symptoms and Joe is given a camera to capture the family at home.
The ruined Roman fort at Richborough in Kent contains a vast and mysterious slab of concrete, 30ft deep, which resembles a mausoleum or a strong room. In a fascinating programme based on informed detective work, the chief executive of English Heritage, Simon Thurley, shows how it was the foundation of a monumental arch built between AD80 and AD90. The arch, a symbolic gateway between land and sea, was covered in 400 tonnes of marble and surmounted by an emperor cast in bronze. The bulk and splendour would have reminded everyone for miles around what it meant to belong to the Roman Empire.
With 1984 having recently been revealed to be the book that people are most likely to have lied about having read it is worth remembering the man who wrote it, George Orwell. He remains perhaps the single most important literary voice of the 20th century. Unlike his contemporary left-wing writers Orwell actually became one of the dispossessed for whom he strove throughout his life and, consequently, was able to challenge ivory-tower intellectual leftism from a position of strength and knowledge. When the people of Spain rose up against fascism he did not write pamphlets in their support but picked up a rifle and went to fight. He combined a desire for revolution (which he believed to be the only way to improve the lot of the poor) with a fiery patriotism which celebrated the best things about the country and derided the worst. He was an idealist who was prepared to accept pragmatic realities. All this comes across with great force in George Orwell: A Life in Pictures. Made by or for BBC4 in 2003 A Life in Pictures is a fascinating film which straddles the boundary between cinema and documentary. Orwell died in 1950 after the completion of his magnum opus 1984. Despite having lived in a time in which motion picture cameras and audio recording equipment were generally available there is no film of him and not one single recording of his voice survives anywhere. The film is an attempt to create a visual record of George Orwell's life. Orwell himself is played by Chris Langham who does a masterful job of bringing the author to life and not only that but looks so like him that in many photographs it is sometimes impossible to tell whether you are looking at the actor or the original. The point is made early on that while the pictures are invented the words are not and everything that Langham (as Orwell) says during the film is something that Orwell wrote. It is a testament to Orwell's writing that it can be spoken by an actor and sound convincingly like the answer
A detailed account of the IRA’s attempt to blow up Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet.
Profile of the great British contralto Kathleen Ferrier. Contributors include Janet Baker, George Christie, Evelyn Barbirolli and Ian Jack.
A one-off documentary in which ex-drug user Carl John turned a camera on his own world and film his crack-addicted friends. With the co-operation of three prostitutes he'd known since children, he told the stories of Tanya, Nicky and Virginia
Dolly Parton is one of the world's great superstars, feted for her figure as much as for her music. Platinum Blonde goes inside her world to discover the woman under the wigs as she returned to the concert stage in the UK in 2002 after an absence of 20 years. Born into grinding poverty in rural Tennessee, Dolly has risen to the top of her tree in music, films and as a businesswoman who owns her own theme park. Friends, family and colleagues - including Lily Tomlin, Kenny Rogers, Billy Connolly, Dabney Coleman and Alison Krauss - help tell her story, along with the full and frank views of Dolly herself. With cameo appearances from Sinead O'Connor, Norah Jones, Jonathan Ross and Terry Wogan.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11th 1973, two jets launched a deadly attack on the Presidential Palace of La Moneda in the heart of Santiago, Chile. The result was fire, the suicide of President Salvador Allende and ultimately the death or disappearance of over three thousand people. "Chile: The Other 9/11" pieces together the dramatic hour-by-hour events of the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power and marked a turning point in the Cold War.
Andrew Graham-Dixon considers the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the painter and poet who reinvented the Victorian ideal of female beauty... and who dug up his wife's coffin to retrieve poems he had buried with her. (2003)
In this 2003 BBC4 programme Francine Stock does a quick recap of Noam Chomsky's career as a pre-eminent figure in the field of linguistics and outspoken controversial political activist. But the main interview explores his critiques of western imperialist amp; corporate power and how he views it as being maintained through the media as well as advocating the use of popular world opinion as a potent counterforce in opposing the powerful elites and their servants.
How an obscure Soviet camera conceived at the height of the Cold War inspired a huge following.
Are sharks robotic killing machines or intelligent animals, capable of complex behaviour? Roboshark, an animatronic shark with a camera is used to film the behaviour of sharks.
The extraordinary yet true account of a secret US government-backed attempt to build a spaceship the size of an ocean liner and send it to Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, propelled by thousands of miniature nuclear bombs. Beginning in 1958 Project Orion ran until 1965, employing some of the best scientists in the world, including the brilliant British mathematician and physicist Freeman Dyson. "Freeman Dyson is one of the few authentic geniuses I've ever met", says Arthur C. Clarke. "Orion isn't crazy. It would work. The question isn't whether we could do it, but whether we should do it".
Gil Scott-Heron was one of the most influential musicians and poets of the last 50 years. In Don Letts's documentary, Gil tells his own story for the first time - from being one of the first black children to integrate an all-white Southern state school to becoming the Godfather of Rap. There are contributions from Chuck D, Mos Def, Richie Havens and the Last Poets, among others. Filmed in October 2003, Gil performs live and recites poetry out on the streets of Harlem, which have inspired so much of his music.
How did Hitler, Franco and Mussolini manipulate the beautiful game? Gary Lineker and Real Madrid's Alfredo Di Stefano are among the contributors.
Dramatised documentary which analyses the catastrophe and national tragedy that could happen to Britain if its already over-burdened transport systems reached breaking point. Set in the future on 19 December 2003 and presented as if it were a retrospective documentary made subsequently, complete with mock archive footage and hindsight interviews.
There have been many twists and turns in the journey of the controversial Eurofighter Typhoon. Conceived at the height of the Cold War by the UK, Germany, Italy and France to combat the superiority of the Soviet Union's air force, the aircraft's in-service delivery date of 30 June is ten years late and -- at a cost of more than £50 billion -- it's become the most expensive European defence project ever. The work of an unprecedented number of nations, the aircraft's troubled genesis has seen out the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bosnia, 9/11 and two Gulf wars. France dropped out in 1985 in favour of building a rival plane, the Rafale, and each change of strategy and political environment has left a legacy of compromise, escalating costs, manufacturing blunders, loose management and delays. The documentary exposes several crises where the project nearly came to a halt because of national self-interest and stubbornness and covers the calamitous events of 2002, the year when the first aircraft was due to be handed over to the Air Forces for training purposes. First the delivery date was postponed yet again and then the Spanish prototype, the DA-6, crash-landed near Madrid at a cost of £30 million prompting the governments of the four nations to delay the delivery date to June 2003. This 50 minutes documentary, produced by The Open University for BBC FOUR, talks to many key players involved in the drama of building a cutting-edge combat aircraft. Test pilots think the Eurofighter is "a deadly machine" and military experts point out that its ability to switch role by voice command, enabling it to fight air-to-air as well as air-to-surface battles, in all weathers, makes it the most sophisticated fighter-bomber of its age. But some, like defence analyst Susan Willett, think the plane is outdated and an embarrassment for the RAF. There are interviews with the test pilots, with Malcolm Rifkind (UK Defence Secretary 1992-95) and with Andr
This documentary was made by the BBC to celebrate the 40th anniversary of "Doctor Who". It features extensive interviews with the four remaining Doctors, interviews with various other members of the cast and crew, and many clips from the series showing the best of the dangerous and exotic monsters that did battle with 'The Doctor' over the previous four decades. It was introduced by Jon Culshaw, who impersonated the Fourth Doctor.
Professor Richard Dawkins spearheaded the biggest intellectual revolution of the past 20 years - but are his views still valid?
Documentary recalling the revolution in British advertising during the 60s and three men who were instrumental in bringing it about. David Puttnam, Alan Parker and Charles Saatchi, who all worked for the same agency, were among the first to recognise the social changes, with the emphasis on individualism, which were taking place, and the style of advertising needed to appeal to the new breed of customer.
Last December's "Cheriegate" affair did little to abate the rampant public cynicism reserved for politicians - a mistrust evidenced in the turnout at the 2001 general election, which was the lowest for more than 80 years. In this documentary, Michael Cockerell talks to figures including Edwina Currie , Max Clifford , Geoffrey Robinson and Neil Hamilton in an effort to see if spin, sleaze and ministerial failure is to blame, or whether the media's sneering political coverage is most at fault
Cyrille Regis, Ian Wright , John Barnes and John Fashanu celebrate the contribution by black players to British football
Michael Palin uncovers the tale of two wealthy American sisters, Etta and Claribel Cone, who, as patrons of Picasso and personal friends of Henri Matisse, amassed one of the world's finest collections of modern French art. The story takes him to Florence, Paris, Nice and the sisters' Baltimore apartment gallery.
Most of Thomas Hardy 's personal papers were destroyed at his request when he died, but one seminal notebook survived the flames. Its pages offer unique insight into Hardy's methods of research, showing how the writer took snippets from local newspapers and, using the immense power of his imagination, transformed them into some of the greatest literature ever written in the English language.
Tetris is a computer game, but it behaves like a virus. Whoever comes into contact with it is gripped by its simplicity. Yet this simplicity belies a complex psychological power that prompted a global battle for financial rights every bit as gripping as the game itself. This film charts the birth of this most original of puzzles, from the hands of a computer programmer at Moscow's Academy of Science to its position as a multi-billion-dollar game. This is a story of communists playing at capitalism in a game that involved Robert Maxwell and intimidation from the heart of the Soviet state.
Documentary profiling the life of legendary country music star Johnny Cash, who died in 2003 shortly after completing the retrospective Unearthed, a five-CD set of the acoustic performances with which he resurrected his career in the last decade of his life, and after losing his wife, June Carter Cash. This first major retrospective of Cash's life, times and music features contributions from his daughter Rosanne Cash and son John Carter Cash, his longtime manager Lou Robin and fellow musicians including Little Richard, Cowboy Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Elvis Costello. Cash was the son of a poor sharecropper from Kingsland, Arkansas, who sang folk, spiritual and country songs to himself while picking cotton in the fields. In the 50s he signed to Sam Phillips' Sun Records, scored his first hits and was part of the 'Million Dollar Quartet' with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. In the 60s, he created his famous 'Man in Black' persona, and became a huge country star with hits like Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line and A Boy Named Sue, while torn between drug dependency, hellraising and a powerful spirituality. Cash had long since established himself as a man of the people with his prison concerts beginning with an incendiary performance at San Quentin in 1958. He ended the decade by finally marrying June Carter - a member of hugely influential US country dynasty the Carter Family - launching his own national TV series from Nashville, befriending the Native American movement and opposing the war in Vietnam while playing concerts for the soldiers in the field. After tough times in the 80s, Cash reignited his career with a new young audience in the 90s when he recorded with rap-rock producer Rick Rubin.
It's part of everyone's childhood and one of the greatest myths of all but did it really happen? This programme puts some extraordinary claims about Noah, his Ark and the Great Flood to the test, using CGI to build a clear picture of the historical Noah and the dramatic events that inspired the story of the Ark and the Flood. New archaeological discoveries suggest that the biblical story was based on a real event: there was indeed a massive flood in Mesopotamia in 3000BC. Noah himself, though, was far from the man the Bible says he was.
After seeing this film, stepping onto a beach may never be the same again. Until his untimely death, playwright, beachcomber and lobsterman Nick Darke lived on Cornwall's rugged and beautiful north coast. He came from a long line of seafarers and he still practised the right of 'wrecking', an ancient pastime that intriguingly put him in touch, through phone calls and the internet, with fishermen and oceanographers round the world. This haunting film, photographed by Nick's artist wife Jane, which uses atmospheric and evocative archive shot by his father, captures a unique portrait of his daily work as he combed the wild seashore for the wonderful hardwoods, exotic sea beans, fishing paraphernalia and fascinating artefacts deposited on Cornwall's beaches by the ocean's long haul drift. It's an uplifting tribute to a remarkable man whose house, garden and whole existence are full of the wonderful things he found and whose data and observations feed into important global ocean research and investigations.
On 12 August 1969, the disaffected Catholic and Nationalist population in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, took to the streets to confront the Royal Ulster Constabulary, in the wake of the annual protestant Apprentice Boys parade in the City. The riots, which came to be known as the ‘Battle of the Bogside’, continued for almost 3 days and saw over 1,000 people injured. The ‘Battle’ ended when, in an unprecedented step, British troops were deployed into Derry. This decision, by the British Government at Westminster, was to shape the future of Northern Ireland for over thirty years. Through the use of previously unseen archive footage, ‘Battle of the Bogside’ takes us behind the barricades, into Stormont and Westminster, to reveal the inside stories surrounding the Battle and the political response to it. Interviews with key figures from within the Bogside, the RUC and the Northern Irish and British Governments recreate the drama as events unfold. Many of the contributors are speaking for the first time about those 3 days in August 1969.
The late, great and supremely enthusiastic Fred Dibnah's passion for Britain's industrial past continues apace as he sets about digging a 100-foot deep mineshaft in his back garden. In the programme the ex-steeplejack has reached a depth of 25ft in his bid to construct an authentic coal mine in his back garden, and visits some real working mines to pick up tips as he unveils his plans for a winding engine and railway.
A tribute to the late Fred Dibnah, steeplejack.
During the Six-Day War, Israel attacked and nearly sank the USS Liberty belonging to its closest ally, the USA. Thirty-four American servicemen were killed in the two-hour assault by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats. Israel claimed that the whole affair had been a tragic accident based on mistaken identification of the ship. The American government accepted the explanation. For more than 30 years many people have disbelieved the official explanation but have been unable to rebut it convincingly. Now, Dead in the Water uses startling new evidence to reveal the truth behind the seemingly inexplicable attack. The film combines dramatic reconstruction of the events, with new access to former officers in the US and Israeli armed forces and intelligence services who have decided to give their own version of events. Interviews include President Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, former head of the Israeli navy Admiral Shlomo Errell and members of the USS Liberty crew.
The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square is the competition in the art world that everyone is talking about. How do you choose between a car covered in pigeon droppings, wooden cruise missiles and a disabled pregnant nude? Ben Lewis interviews the artists including Sarah Lucas and Marc Quinn, critic Brian Sewell and the art world mandarins who are running it to try and answer the questions that are troubling him. The programme was originally shown in 2004.
Paul Morley investigates the lasting appeal of art's very own Pop Idol. From failed Abstract Expressionist to pioneering Pop Art hero, Roy Lichtenstein revolutionised the art world with his big, bold, brash cartoon images of American culture. Even before Andy Warhol had picked up his can of Campbell's soup, Lichtenstein was making merchandise into art and cultivating his own durable brand, turning out work that was highly consumable and tirelessly reproduced. (2004)
Documentary about Sean O'Callaghan, a self-confessed IRA bomb-maker, murderer and doubnle agent. He was jailed for 539 years in 1988 but pardoned and released 8 years later.
A look at what the consequences could be if George W Bush is returned in the 2004 election and his Attorney General, John Ashcroft, decides to prosecute his vaunted war on pornography.
In Peter Hall's 1974 film Akenfield, the director used the residents of East Anglian villages to act in stories of rural life. Thirty years after the release of this unusual film, a new documentary sees the original producer/editor Rex Pyke gather together crew including Sir Peter Hall, author Ronald Blythe and members of the local 'cast' to see how life has changed for those featured and to recall the making of the production.
The remarkable story of Abdul Haq, warrior, peacemaker, visionary and martyr, whose fight to bring Afghanistan freedom and peace brought about his death.
Observational documentary about Natty, a 19 year old from Birmingham, who has just been released from prison, where he was sent for violent crime. Will financial and peer pressure lead Natty back into gang crime?
In 1968 Basil D'Oliveira, a brilliant South African-born cricketer who had made his home in England, became the centre of a row that rocked the political and sporting establishment. Immediately after scoring a superb 158 in the final test against Australia he was excluded from the England team picked to tour apartheid South Africa - apparently because of his race. This is the untold story of the English establishment's betrayal of Basil D'Oliveira and includes exclusive interviews with D'Oliveira himself.
From his log cabin in Montana, Rich Hall writes to his friend Mike Wilmot to come and join him in a lively, face-to-face debate, far from the distractions of modern technology. Together, the pair aim to form a small, free-thinking society, discuss the upcoming election, and "drink a shitload of bourbon". With Mike being Canadian, he has little or no knowledge of American politics, so Rich takes the opportunity to introduce him to how the whole system works; of course it may just descend into a series of drunken rants...
Telling the story of one of the defining genres in American contemporary music culture, including interviews with Beyonce Knowles, Mary J Blige, Wyclef Jean and Chaka Khan.
Twenty-five years ago the renowned art critic Robert Hughes made The Shock of the New, a landmark television series that examined the key cultural movement of the 20th Century. Now he's back to look at more recent work and to question whether modern art can still be shocking in its originality and understanding. In an age of media saturation it's perhaps even harder to tell what is good art and what is bad; but Hughes cuts through the marketing and the hype to reveal the art that is vital and will last; the art which defines the times in which we live. In a film which features interviews with David Hockney, Paula Rego, Jeff Koons and Sean Scully, Robert Hughes makes the case that painting, drawing, and the search for beauty matter more than ever before.
The Bhopal disaster is one of the world's worst industrial disasters in the history of mankind. The explosion at Union Carbide plant located at the heart of the city of Bhopal caused a release of toxic gas rolled along the ground through the surrounding streets killing thousands of people. The gases also injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 people. Six safety measures designed to prevent a gas leak had either malfunctioned, were turned off or were otherwise inadequate. In addition, the safety siren, intended to alert the community should an incident occur at the plant, was turned off.
A 30 minute documentary on the life and writings of the greatest of all ghost story writers — Montague Rhodes James. This documentary was shown to launch a series of repeats of the classic BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas adaptations of his work.
Professor Bruce Denardo attempts to prove whether there is any truth behind the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, where many ships and planes have disappeared in mysterious circumstances. New investigation techniques reveal the truth behind the infamous disappearance of Flight 19. Graham Hawkes is also able to reveal, by using a state-of-the-art submarine, how five wrecks mysteriously wound up 730 feet down in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle.
Perhaps the only time Roni Size Delia Smith and John Humphries will appear on the same programme? Introduced by Jo Whiley. Interviewees include Phil Jupitus, Bejamin Zephaniah, Delia Smith, Roni Size, Nick Cave, Johnny Marr, Alan Hansen, John Humphries, Annie Nightingale,
Explores whether geniuses are born or made.
In 1956, Britain embarked on an unpopular war against Egypt, sparking public outrage and political crisis, and tarnishing the reputation of once-popular prime minister Anthony Eden. Egyptian politicians, soldiers and civilians tell their side of the story in a timely reminder of the dangers of failing to learn the lessons of history.
t's been 50 years since local motoring legend Paddy Hopkirk and his co-driver Henry Liddon won one of the biggest events in the sporting calendar, the Monte Carlo Rally. Paddy and former Top Gear presenter Jason Barlow retrace the original route at the wheel of a modern Mini Cooper. The film blends contemporary footage of their eight day journey with nostalgic archive clips, harking back to the heady days when the Mini was a cultural icon, owned by the rich and stylish.
Jorgen Leth's film focuses on the 1976 Paris-Roubaix single day bike race over the cobbled farm tracks of northern France, normally reserved for cattle. Leth covers the race with twenty cameras and a helicopter and captures the drama as some of the sport's greats, including Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Maertens and Moser, battle it out through the dirt and dust clouds.
A semi-documentary about the life of Verus, a captive from the Rome's Balkan province of Moesia, who is pressed into the harsh life of a slave in Italian rock quarry. He sees no long term future there, so when the owner of a gladiatorial school comes there to recruit prospective fighters for his school, he purposely picks a fight with another slave to attract attention. Both he and Priscus, the Celtic slave, join the school, become friends, and build careers as renowned gladiators, adored by the crowds in the arena and desired by women of the aristocratic class. The Emporer Titus completes his father Vespasian's pet project, the Colosseum, and wants the inaugural games worthy of his memory, so he specifically selects Verus to fight in them.
An investigation into a collection of photographs owned by murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley that police claimed may have led to the identification of the sites of their victims' graves.
Midge Ure looks back at the story of the Band Aid famine relief single he co-wrote and produced, featuring contributions from the pop stars who took part.
Drama-documentary depicting the life and times of the most flamboyant and colourful Renaissance artist of all.
Documentary exploring complaints levelled against singer Michael Jackson in 1993 by a 13-year-old boy, Jordan Chandler, whose allegations never came to court. The programme, in which it is claimed that a multimillion-dollar settlement was involved, talks to the boy's uncle, Jackson's former head of security and journalists who worked on the story.
On 19 August 1987, a 27-year-old loner and gun fanatic called Michael Ryan became one of Britain's most notorious mass murderers when, armed with a shocking arsenal of guns, he embarked on a killing spree in a quiet English town. Eyewitness testimony and reconstructions provide a chilling account of the bloodbath, while the one-off film also recalls how gun laws and police communication systems changed after the slaughter.
A light-hearted critique of the values of the 1960s.
On the edge of the Arctic Circle some of the biggest names in art and architecture - including Zaha Hadid, Anish Kapoor, Yoko Ono, Tatsuo Mihijima and Future Systems - recently gathered to produce an extraordinary collection of artworks made of ice and snow. See ice harvested by chainsaw, flaming vodka coursing through Hadid's ziggurat (and threatening to melt it) and Anish Kapoor get cross as his 'Red Solid' begins to look more like a pink slush puppy. Charlie Luxton investigates
David Attenborough narrates a documentary about different species of bear. Spy-cams blend into the environment to capture unprecedented footage of wild pandas, grizzly and polar bears, and also the only South American species - spectacled bear cubs. Underwater, we follow grizzlies diving for salmon and, in the woods of Minnesota, we spy on black bears and their tree-climbing cubs.
Contains very strong and offensive language In recent years the British National Party has denied that it's a fundamentally racist organisation and touts itself as a legitimate political party. But in a BBC documentary - The Secret Agent - a BBC reporter went undercover to infiltrate the BNP in the north west of England. What he captured on camera in secret filming is simply shocking: BNP activists fantasising about attacking mosques with rockets and Muslims with guns; members of the party admitting to campaigns of violence and intimidation against minority groups and a speech from the current BNP Leader Nick Griffin in which he boasts that his words could lead to seven years in prison if made public.
Author and journalist Steven Poole examines the creative explosion occurring in video games and the impact this major new form of entertainment is having on contemporary culture. Contributors include Lord Puttnam, Julian Opie, Professor Susan Greenfield and games impresario Peter Molyneux.
First transmitted in 2004 to commemorate the channel's 40th birthday, stars and programme makers come together to look back at the story of BBC Two.
For the first time ever the full story behind the nation's best-loved song, featuring a return to Rockfield Studios by Brian May and Roger Taylor where they rerecord the guitar and drum parts and tell the story of how the song came together. Narrated by Richard E Grant, the documentary includes exclusive rare recordings of Freddie Mercury performing the song in studio, Queen's first ever TV performance, and the making of the video, as well as interviews with Mercury's friends and family, The Darkness and Bjorn Ulvaeus from Abba.
Dramatised documentary, based on the experiences of the soldiers who invaded France in the D-Day Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944 which were instrumental in ending World War II.
BBC FOUR presents a profile of Vivian Stanshall - "The late, majestic Vivian Stanshall, one of the most talented, profligate, bizarre, infuriating, unfathomable and magnificent Englishmen ever to have drawn breath" - Stephen Fry. A veteran of the common law marriage between Sixties art school and rock 'n' roll, Stanshall was co-founder, lead singer and co-writer of cult Sixties sensation The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, the missing link between satire and psychedelia, pop and performance art, pastiche and Python. Stanshall was a dapper Zappa, perfecting what he called "ballet for the vulgar". Like Peter Cook, he burnt himself out tragically early, virtually drinking himself to death before dying in a fire at his house in 1995. He was, as the title of his last ever broadcast put it, a Renaissance man: writer, composer, performer and painter. This film tells Viv's life story from mum and dad to Dada and Mummery. It follows his progress from an 'odd boy' Southend seaside childhood, through art school, his intro to and outro from the Bonzo Dog Band and subsequent spectacular resurfacings as solo artist with his Peel Show monologue about Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (later a book and a film starring Trevor Howard), his comic opera Stinkfoot performed on board the Bristol Showboat and at London's Bloomsbury Theatre and his final appearances with Rawlinson DogEnds. Tracing Viv's musical journey from its Bonzo beginnings to Rawlinson End and beyond, this expedition into the archival canyons of his mind is peppered with contributions from colleagues, close friends and comic descendants. But at its centre is a portrait of the man who made his life and art into what he called "a sur-Ealing comedy", drawing on a wealth of largely BBC audio and video. It combines interviews with his collaborators from the Bonzos and beyond, including band members Neil Innes, Legs Larry Smith, Rodney Slater and manager Gerry Bron, plus later associates like J
Even people who have never seen it claim that television in the Sixties was better than it is now, perhaps the best there has ever been. For three decades, commentators have hailed Civilisation, Cathy Come Home, Dad's Army and The Wednesday Play as prime examples of a 'golden age' of television. Far less time is spent recalling the ratings success of Miss World and The Black and White Minstrel Show. As part of BBC FOUR's mind-expanding trip back to the Sixties, writer and broadcaster Mark Lawson takes a fresh look at 1960s television and explodes some long-cherished myths about the era.
In a unique event, satellite link-ups bring together guests from five continents to debate some age-old questions on religion, and consider its place in the modern world. Does belief in a god make the world a better place? Which god should we worship? When is it right to wage war in their name? Jeremy Vine hosts the programme from London, and reveals the results of a unique poll in which 10,000 people from ten countries across the globe gave their opinions on religion and belief today.
It is five times hotter than the sun and turns sand to glass in an instant. It can shoot 80 kilometres up above storm clouds. And it may even have provided the original spark that created life itself. This pacy, stylish documentary reveals the full power of lightning, why it is so dangerous, and what scientists are doing to protect us. Statistically, you are most likely to be struck in Florida, playing golf on a Sunday in July. Hear victims tell touching stories of the real experience, and why they feel it has changed them forever. View cockpit footage of NASA pilots flying through active lightning storms and find out why some scientists think the pollution in big cities could be 'baiting' lightning on an incredible scale. The more we learn about this maverick force of nature, it seems, the more we have to fear...
Paul Morley investigates the lasting appeal of art's very own Pop Idol. From failed Abstract Expressionist to pioneering Pop Art hero, Roy Lichtenstein revolutionised the art world with his big, bold, brash cartoon images of American culture. Even before Andy Warhol had picked up his can of Campbell's soup, Lichtenstein was making merchandise into art and cultivating his own durable brand, turning out work that was highly consumable and tirelessly reproduced.
Professor Bruce Denardo attempts to prove whether there is any truth behind the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, where many ships and planes have disappeared in mysterious circumstances. New investigation techniques reveal the truth behind the infamous disappearance of Flight 19. Graham Hawkes is also able to reveal, by using a state-of-the-art submarine, how five wrecks mysteriously wound up 730 feet down in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle.
Harry Carpenter, Martin Peters , David Attenborough, Anne Jones, Brian Cowgill, Alec Weeks, Anita Lonsbrough, Tony Lewis , Jimmy Hill, David Vine, Henry Cooper and David Hemery recall how sport itself was transformed by a revolution in broadcasting
From Winston Churchill to Tony Blair , reporter Michael Cockerell reveals how the medical profession has colluded with Downing Street spin doctors to cover up the true state of British prime ministers' health.
Documentary from 2004 about Luciano Pavarotti, hailed as one of the greatest tenors of all time. The film chronicles his background and upbringing and follows him as he performs to sell-out audiences on three continents, culminating with his valedictory performances of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Backstage in LA, the tenor greets celebrity admirers, including Michael Caine and Dustin Hoffman. In Berlin, he is reunited with Three Tenors group members Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. And in his Italian hometown of Modena, the maestro gathers top names in rock and pop, such as Bono, Queen, Ricky Martin and Andrea Bocelli, to raise money for the children of Iraq.
Presented by Robert Winston, How to Sleep Better is a practical guide to the world of sleep. The programme explores the common problems, dangers and the mysteries that have puzzled scientists for years. One in five motorway accidents are attributed to a lack of sleep, which was also a contributory factor in disasters such as Chernobyl and the Challenger shuttle explosion. This programme looks at the dangers of poor sleep, how people perceive their sleep and provides real solutions. Viewers can find out about practical tools to help them get a good night's sleep rather than resorting to over the counter drugs. Most people have suffered the torment of a sleepless night at some point in their lives - for some it's an ongoing misery. How to Sleep Better follows a group of self-professed poor sleepers as they take part in a 'sleep lab' to pinpoint what is keeping them awake.
Ben Lewis (The King of Communism, Art Safari), traces the strange history of French atomic tests in the South Pacific from the 1960s to the 90s - a story of liberty, equality and radioactivity. Thousands of Polynesian islanders were transformed from fishermen into nuclear technicians and Greenpeace activists sailed a tiny yacht into the test zone to end atmospheric testing. The film also shows how a tiny group of Tahitian radicals set up the world's only anti-nuclear resistance cell and how some former test workers from France and Tahiti now suffer from cancers that many believe are linked to fall-out from the tests.
One hundred years ago, on the Island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, a syphilitic and alcoholic Frenchman called Paul Gauguin died of a heart attack. At that point nobody realised the incredible impact Gauguin's work was to have on modern art. Art critic and broadcaster, Waldemar Januszczak has written and directed this examination of a man who was not only a great painter but sculptor, wood carver, musician, print maker, journalist and ceramicist. As well as telling the remarkable story of Gauguin's life, Januszczak also celebrates Gauguin's achievements and examines the various accusations of sexual misconduct, familial neglect and racism that are frequently made against him.
In World War II, there were mounting fears that Hitler was building an atomic bomb. Such a prospect depended on two of the world's top nuclear scientists; brilliant German physicist Werner Heisenberg, and his Danish mentor, Niels Bohr. In 1941, Heisenberg travelled 200 miles in secret to Copenhagen to meet Bohr. The meeting put both men at immense risk, and had a cataclysmic effect on their relationship. This film was made with access to their personal correspondence and newly released documents kept secret for half a century.
It was the defining moment of the 20th Century - the scientific, technological, military, and political gamble of the world's first atomic attack. This drama-documentary attempts to do what no other film has done before - to show what it is like to live through a nuclear explosion, millisecond by millisecond.
In August 1995 Blur and Oasis were engaged in a head-to-head chart battle which divided music fans and led to a wider argument about British pop music. John Harris, journalist and author of The Last Party - the definitive study of the entwinement of music and politics in the 1990s - presents a documentary charting the rise of Britpop, its brief romance with New Labour and the emergence of 'new lad' culture. Finally, as Britpop declines, he asks what legacy it has left.
Powerful myths and misconceptions have shaped our understanding of the moment which changed the course of WW2 - the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940. But what really happened at Dunkirk and in the crisis before the days of the evacuation? This documentary takes a European look at the crisis and asks new questions from a French and German perspective as well as from a British point of view. Featuring interviews with veterans and historians from all three key protagonists, providing revealing insights into the events of May and June 1940.
In 1162 deep in the heart of Asia, a child was born. He was clutching a bloodclot: a sign from heaven that he was destined to be a great warrior, whose life was to become a legend. His name: Genghis Khan.
The massive fluctuations that El Nino causes in the world's weather systems have changed the course of history. Unusually cold winters and the resulting poor crops helped forment the French Revolution. Hitler's march across Russia was halted by one of the harshest winters on record. Severe drought in India in 1877 killed millions while a drop in sea temperatures, leading to dwindling food stocks, precipitated the fall of the mighty Aztecs. Would these events have happened without the impact of El Nino?
Film about the drawings of Michelangelo and the way that they illuminate this life, his artistic development, his religion and his inner torments. The film is presented Neil MacGregor Director of the British Museum and is filmed on location in Florence and in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's drawings are some of the greatest of all time.
The Selfish Green was the opening event of Wildscreen 2004, a landmark debate on the future of conservation led by Jonathan Dimbleby with Sir David Attenborough, Professor Richard Dawkins, Dr Jane Goodall and Dr Richard Leakey.
In this 90-minute documentary, Rageh Omaar uncovers the hidden story of Europe's Islamic past and looks back to a golden age when European civilisation was enriched by Islamic learning. Rageh travels across medieval Muslim Europe to reveal the vibrant civilisation that Muslims brought to the West. This evocative film brings to life a time when emirs and caliphs dominated Spain and Sicily and Islamic scholarship swept into the major cities of Europe. His journey reveals the debt owed to Islam for its vital contribution to the European Renaissance.
This is the tragic story of Stuart Sutcliffe, the talented young artist who died at the age of 21 from a brain haemorrhage. Not only was he a painter whose work showed massive potential, he was also one one of the biggest influences on the Beatles, providing them with both their style and their name during his brief time as their bassist. With contributions from Stuart's fiancee, Astrid Kirschherr, and his sister Pauline.
A celebration of the toys which have survived across the decades, presented by a man who still plays with them. When James May was three, his father gave him a toy car for Christmas, and a life behind the wheel and under a bonnet became his destiny. Forty-two-year-old James takes us on a tour of his childhood mind as he rifles through his boy toy favourites which include Meccano, Lego, Scalectrix, Airfix and, his all time number one toy, the train set. His love of engineering and building things has shaped the ingredients of his entire toy cupboard. There's not a microchip in sight. He still plays with his toys - still loves building things with his various sets. Each toy prompts a story - a history told via archive, anecdote and obsessive collector.
Documentary telling the story of the day that music rocked the world. Bob Geldof recalls how, after 12 weeks of manic preparation, the big day finally arrived. But would it work, would the punters watch, and more importantly would they part with their cash?
Documentary which traces the story of Live Aid from its humble beginnings, a pop tune cobbled together in the back seat of a taxi, to the eve of the biggest televised event ever staged on both sides of the Atlantic.
The inside story of the Beach Boys from their formation in 1961 to the present day (2005).
All eight members of the Pogues return to the studio where their biggest hit - and one of the nation's favourite Christmas songs - was recorded. Fairytale of New York's producer Steve Lillywhite strips the song down to the basics, and video director Peter Dougherty reveals the tricks behind the making of the video - including how a cameo from Hollywood star Matt Dillon stopped the Pogues from almost being arrested.
Novelist Ian Rankin discusses the relationship between crime fiction and real life cases with authors including PD James, James Ellroy and Minette Walters. Show in relation to Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's documentary 'Death on the Staircase' aka The STAIRCASE.
A follow up to Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's acclaimed documentary series, The Staircase, this documentary reports on what happened to the film's leading protagonist, author Michael Peterson, since he was found guilty of murder. In an interview from prison, Peterson speaks on camera for the first time since his trial. Defending attorney, David Rudolf and prosecutor, Jim Hardin offer their thoughts on the trial as well as on the director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade.
They were the glamour girls on James Bond's arm, the vestal virgins in Up Pompeii, and the girls-next-door in Man About The House. They were the vampire victims dispatched in the first reel of Hammer Horrors. And they were the Carry On dolly birds, guaranteed to elicit a 'Phwooar' from Sid James. They were Crumpet! And this is their story. Tony Livesey sets out to rescue Crumpet from the condescension of history. Recalling his own childhood, growing up in front of the TV in a Burnley terrace, Tony takes us on a trip through three decades of popular culture. How did our thirty year fascination with Crumpet come about - and why did it end? What does it say about the unique British sense of humour - and about our changing attitude to sex? With contributions from Honor Blackman, Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith, Hill's Angel Sue Upton, Leslie Philips and Wendy Richards, and with cultural commentators like Dylan Jones, Germaine Greer and Ned Sherrin, Tony gets to the bottom of this uniquely British phenomenon.
A documentary charting the rise and fall of the spiv (dodgy dealer) in post-war Britain.
Drama documentary on the life of author John Wyndham. With contributions from writer Brian Aldiss, Keith Roberts (plant biologist), Amanda Rees (science historian), Keith Budge (headmaster, Bedales), Steve Jones (geneticist), Sam Youd (writer), David Ketterer (Wyndham's biographer), Sister Bede (family friend), Dan Rebellato (dramatist), Armand Leroi (geneticist), Maire McQueeney (literary guide), Nick Davies (zoologist), Matthew Smith (parapsychologist), Gerald Hodgett (Penn Club resident), Linda Partridge (biologist), and Tom Kirkwood (gerontologist).
This documentary focuses on Marilyn's health problems, including endometriosis and depression, and her addiction to prescribed drugs.
Based on David Maraniss's book They Marched into Sunlight, a documentary telling the story of two seemingly unconnected events in October 1967 that changed the course of the Vietnam War. Whilst a US battalion unwittingly marched into a Viet Cong ambush which killed 61 young men, half a world away angry students at the University of Wisconsin were protesting the presence of Dow Chemical recruiters on campus.
A look at the history of the ghost story, from tradition and folklore via the Gothic novel to the present, offering insights into the work of some of the genre's greatest writers.
Michael Cockerell describes the low politics of the 1975 European Referendum, complementing his 1970s documentary on the same subject. Thirty years on, both sides were more willing to discuss the referendum openly. The original political debacle made strange bedfellows: Enoch Powell, Harold Wilson and Tony Benn opposed continued membership, whilst Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Margaret Thatcher supported staying in the Common Market, as the EU then was.
A profile of one of England's truly unique and underrated bands, The Fall. One of the most enigmatic, idiosyncratic and chaotic garage bands of the last 30 years, The Fall are led by the belligerent and poetic Mark E Smith and grew out of the fringe of the Manchester punk scene. By 2005, they had released in excess of three dozen albums, toured relentlessly, inspired two successful stage plays, recorded 24 Peel Sessions, and performed with contemporary ballet dancer Michael Clark along with various spoken word events. All this has happened under the guidance of Smith with various line-ups totalling over 40 different members. They have never conformed to fashion or musical trends and when asked why they were his favourite band, John Peel replied 'they are always different, they are always the same'. This is the first time that Mark E Smith has agreed to the story being told on television and he along with many of the major players take us through this unique English rock 'n' roll story. It is told alongside footage of their most recent and sadly now last Peel Session recorded in August 2004 at the BBC Maida Vale studios, and there is also film of John playing out the session at Peel Acres a week later. Contributors include past and present band members such as Marc Riley, Una Baines, Steve Hanley, Ben Pritchard and Eleni Smith, plus thoughts from key fans/critics including Paul Morley, Tony Wilson, Stewart Lee, promoter Alan Wise, original Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon, and Franz Ferdinand.
Short documentary about a pair of roe deer who have made a Scottish cemetery their home. Surrounded on all sides by a sprawling metropolis, these normally shy creatures are a magical addition to the city's urban population.
Documentary on the life of legendary composer/bandleader Sun Ra (born Herman Poole Blount).
They say that blood is thicker than water and this documentary puts that to the test by examining the brothers who have formed and fronted rock bands. From the Everlys to the Gallaghers via the Kinks and Spandau Ballet, it tells the stories of the bands of brothers who went from their bedrooms to become household names - often with a price to pay. With contributions from Martin Kemp, Matt Goss, Dave Davies, Phil Everly, David Knopfler and the Campbell brothers of UB40.
The documentary Clear the Skies explains how in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, fighter pilots were sent into the sky to ground every plane that was in the air. There were nearly 5,000 aircraft in the air that needed to be brought back down to the ground. The film includes interviews with pilots and government officials.
A hundred years ago, three quarters of the Herero people of the German colony of Namibia were killed, many in concentration camps. Today, the descendants of the survivors are seeking reparations from the German government. This film tells for the first time this forgotten story and its links to German racial theories. This powerful documentary by David Adetayo Olusoga took a sensitive and uncompromising look at the tragic circumstances leading to the massacre of three quarters of the Namibia population in German concentration camps built in Africa. The program included graphic reconstructions and did not shirk from showing disturbing scenes which revealed the savagery of European colonial ideology put into practice. The documentary also showed the 2004 footage of Germany's ambassador to Namibia expressing regret for their killing of thousands of Namibia's Hereros during the colonial era. Unsurprisingly, the Germans refused to agree to the justifiable calls for reparations. The program also explored the current call for land reforms where most of Namibia's commercial land is still owned by European farmers who make up 6 percent of the country's population of 1.8 million. Throughout it included interviews and powerful testimony from African survivors, descendants and reparation movement representatives thus making this a compelling program which both educated the audience whilst treating the sensitive subject matter with the respect it deserved.
Terry Jones hosts this documentary on the number one. It looks at early evidence of counting, the use of numbers for simple arithmetic in Sumeria, the development of large numbers and their use for engineering in Egypt, the worship of numbers by Pythagoras and the theoretical mathematics of the Archimedes. It also looks at the use of numbers by the Romans, the development of Arabic numerals in India, the discovery of the number zero, the development of algebra in the Islamic world, the decline of Roman numerals in the west, and the development of the binary system.
Documentary charting the formation, instant rise and success of Californian pop group the Mamas and the Papas. Interviews with the band, coupled with performance and archive footage, show the group in their heyday, and the band give detailed accounts of the writing and recording of their hit songs, as well as their personal responses to (and problems with) instant fame and success.
To generations Arthur Ransome's books, including Swallows and Amazons, were an integral part of growing up. But was there a darker side to the author? In this drama-documentary, the enthusiastic Griff Rhys Jones follows a trail that begins in Russia, reveals close links with many leading Bolsheviks, an affair with Trotsky's secretary and previously unreleased KGB documents about Ransome. But was Ransome actually spying for the British secret service all along?
Seventy years ago, Scottish regiments fought a forgotten war in the malaria-infested jungles of the far east. This documentary remembers the men who fought at close range with the Japanese and witnessed some of the greatest events of the 20th century.
Drama documentary with Michael Portillo exploring the beliefs and passions that drove Horatio Nelson's life, as reconstructions illustrate his military genius, scandalous lifestyle and heroic death.
Using the latest research into the original Christian and Muslim ancient sources and the insight of leading experts from both east and west, this drama-documentary challenges the popular view of Richard the Lionheart and Saladin's epic clash for control of Jerusalem. Richard emerges as a man who earned the name Lionheart for his murderous brutality as much as his chivalry. Equally, Saladin was not demonised in Europe, but revered for his displays of mercy towards the crusaders. Filmed on location in the Middle East, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin: Warriors of God recreates the heroic encounter between these two great men. It traces their very different origins, their struggle to understand each other, and the mutual respect that emerged as they battled for the destiny of the world's most sacred city.
Documentary directed by Paul Merton which traces the history of the Soho club, which served as the birth place of alternative comedy in the 1980s. Talking heads include Jack Dee, Clive Anderson, Alexei Sayle and Keith Allen.
Alton Towers, the second most paid for tourist attraction in the UK, spent £12 million on the ride 'Oblivion' - the world's first vertical roller-coaster and the subject of this documentary.
1945 - The year of Winston Churchill's greatest victory and his most devastating defeat. Just weeks after VE Day, a General Election saw him and his government rejected and the Labour Party swept to power.
In 1945, Winston Churchill was cast out of office by the British electorate. It was a terrible blow for the man who had just led his country to victory in the Second World War. But he refused to accept defeat, fighting back to become Prime Minister once more and writing a monumental history of the war. Professor David Reynolds tells the moving story of Churchill's wilderness years, in which old age and illness could not overcome his undiminished ambition.
A look at the life of Ian Fleming from when he was in Naval Intelligence as a Commander until his death in 1964. This docudrama gives an insight into what Fleming was really like and how he wrote the Bond novels.
Short documentary taking a look at a devoted pair of little owls who set up home in an old orchard in rural Herefordshire. From spring blossom to autumn apples, it follows a year in the life of the parent birds, their baby owls and the old fruit trees.
Weapons of Mass destruction are seen as a singularly modern concern. But this film reveals the secret story of Britain's development of WMD after the second World War, half a century before Bush and Blair and 'the axis of evil'. During the decade following WWII, British scientists plan - not for peace - but for a war which will be fought with chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. This film exposes the dangerous, top secret tests, which were not just performed on British citizens, but actually put the British public at risk
Thirty years after the introduction of affirmative action, American universities have seen a new generation of black academics, including a brain drain from Britain. What are the implications on both sides of the Atlantic?
Drama-documentary recounting the events of the 1st July 1916 and the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front during the First World War. Told through the letters and journals of soldiers who were there.
Documentary exploring the lesser-known side of Arthur Conan Doyle, who solved real crimes as chilling and baffling as those investigated by his creation Sherlock Holmes. His two most infamous cases involved tracking down a madman who mutilated horses and brought terror to a quiet, leafy English village, and the brutal murder of a wealthy spinster which led Doyle to expose corruption at the heart of Britain's justice system. Driven by a deep sense of justice, Conan Doyle strove to prove the innocence of two wrongfully convicted men, so confirming the belief in minds of many that Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle were one and the same.
Professor David Reynolds tells the story of Labour's postwar government and examines the achievements of Clement Attlee, including the introduction of the NHS in Britain.
We Have Ways of Making You Talk is a documentary examining interrogation techniques and they’re consequences. Does water boarding work? What is the history behind that technique? These and other questions will be answered in this intriguing and sometimes disturbing documentary. Filmed in France, Israel, USA, Algeria, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa and the UK, this BBC documentary explores the history of modern interrogation techniques and the rise of modern torture using revealing interviews with state interrogators and state torturers. The legacy of this history continues to shapes our present, especially in the United States, and some of these techniques have now become routine in the war on terror – be it the use of dogs, water-boarding, or sexual humiliation. This long, unbroken line of inhuman cruelty connects Nazi Germany to Abu Ghraib, and is an essential issue in today’s political landscape.
A sardonic look at the dark secrets of the British Film Industry of the 1920s and 30s, where scandal and sordid behaviour was almost as rife as in Hollywood.
Ronnie Corbett. David Jason and Leslie Phillips are among those paying tribute to the much-loved comedy legend, who died in October. Including clips from The Two Ronnies, Open All Hours and Porridge. Narrated by Jonathan Ross.
Profiling Ronald Searle , one of Britain's greatest graphic artists and the creator of the St Trinian's cartoons who, after growing exasperated by the public's obsession with the fictional schoolgirls, left the country in 1961. But what effect did Searle's self-imposed exile and experiences in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp have on his work? Featuring contributions from fellow cartoonists Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell, Martin Rowson and Posy Simmonds.
Tracing the 150-year history of the spiritualist movement and revealing the unlikely and surprisingly close relationship between science and a faith that claims not only that there is life after death, but also that communication between the two worlds is possible.
Doris Day has often been dismissed as an actress and overlooked as a singer, despite career highs such as Calamity Jane and Pillow Talk. Covering her early years as a band singer, and her troubled private life, this documentary re-evaluates one of the screen's most enduring legends.
29 May 1985: riots ahead of the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus cause a wall to collapse in Belgium s Heysel Stadium. Thirty-nine fans die and many more are injured. Incredibly, the match goes ahead and is broadcast around the world, as the authorities claim postponement could incite further trouble - yet many remain haunted by the decisions taken. Bruce Grobbelaar is among the players returning to Heysel to tell their stories for the 20th anniversary; this powerful and moving documentary also has contributions from victims and officials, and harrowing footage of the tragedy.
His ground-breaking albums such as the politically charged What's Going On revolutionised American soul, yet Marvin Gaye's personal life was marred by failed relationships, drug addiction and an abusive father who eventually destroyed him. This bittersweet profile features interviews with the singer and those who knew him, including Martha Reeves, plus performances of Let's Get It On, I Heard It through the Grapevine, Sexual Healing and others.
As America struggles to find a get-out strategy in Iraq, this documentary looks at the humiliation of their withdrawal from Vietnam 30 years ago. Tim Pigott-Smith narrates the remarkable story of the events leading up to that chaotic day, captured in images of Americans scrambling aboard a helicopter on the roof of the CIA building in Saigon - a traumatic moment that was to shape the American psyche for over a generation. Contains disturbing scenes.
Bafta and the BBC join forces to celebrate one of Britain's best loved entertainers with a special gala event. Julie Walters, Lenny Henry, Richard E Grant and Jim Broadbent pay tribute to Victoria Wood, with contributions from Peter Kay and French and Saunders. Featuring a look back over her career with clips of her work. Wood will then be given the prestigious Bafta Special Award followed by a preview of Acorn Antiques - The Musical.
18 With A Bullet captures the reality of life for the young members of the 18th Street Gang in San Salvador, now one of the most dangerous cities in the world. During the civil war in San Salvador, thousands of families migrated to America. Most of these settled in Los Angeles where many joined the notorious 18th Street Gang. Since the end of the war most have been deported back to San Salvador, taking their gang structures back to their homeland with devastating effects. This series follows a group of gang members as they fight their mortal enemies and eke out a living on the streets by selling drugs and thieving.
Documentary about the wild rabbits which live on sea cliffs on the Pembrokeshire coast alongside seabirds like puffins and seagulls. They come in many shades, owing to their intriguing history, and each spring the island of Skomer itself is transformed by wild flowers, creating one of Britain's most beautiful natural spectacles. The green and brown island turns blue and pink for a couple of spectacular weeks under a carpet of bluebells and red campion.
End Day is a 2005 docu-drama produced by the BBC that depicts various doomsday scenarios. The documentary follows the fictional scientist Dr. Howell, played by Glenn Conroy, as he travels from his London hotel room to his laboratory in New York City, and shows how each scenario affects his journey as well as those around him, with various experts providing commentary on that specific disaster as it unfolds. The following descriptions of the program were released by the BBC: "Imagine waking up to the last day on Earth..." "Inspired by the predictions of scientists, End Day creates apocalyptic scenarios that go beyond reality. In a single hour, explore five different fictional disasters, from a giant tsunami hitting New York to a deadly meteorite strike on Berlin."
What is the complex but fruitful relationship between Jewish people and German music? This award-winning film focuses on a pianist who played over 100 times in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Ade Edmondson takes a humorous look at the possibilities and consequences of last-minute Christmas shopping.
With a passion for art that is rivalled only by travel, Michael Palin combines both in a European journey to discover more about Vilhelm Hammershoi, an enigmatic Danish artist that has fascinated him for years. Curious to see more of Hammershoi's paintings and discover what kind of life the artist lived, Michael searches for clues in London, Holland and Copenhagen.
Documentary about the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, featuring cast interviews, behind the scenes footage and a look at the Doctor’s past.
It is 200 years before the birth of Christ and Rome is the new superpower of the ancient world. She believes she is invincible - but one man is destined to change that. He is a man bound by oath to avenge the wrongs inflicted on his home and, in pursuit of revenge, he will stop at nothing. Hannibal explores the man behind the myth, revealing what drove the 26-year-old to mastermind one of the most audacious military moves in history. With 40,000 soldiers and 37 elephants, he marched 1,500 miles to challenge his enemies on their own soil. It was an act so daring that few people believed it possible. Hannibal combines drama, the latest historical research and state-of-the-art CGI to bring this spectacular story to life.
Insight into the recruitment for the RAF's elite formation flying team, as we follow nine eager pilots through the arduous selection procedure.
Dan Cruickshank presents a documentary revealing the story of the Dalai Lama, his secret Himalayan kingdom and the story of his exile, using eyewitness accounts from Tibetans including the Dalai Lama himself and colour archive footage of Tibet from the 1930s to 50s.
Based on diaries, records and eyewitness accounts, this is the story of the two Battles of the Somme from the perspective of British and German soldiers. It shows how the major lessons learned by the British Army leadership after the disastrous first attacks of July 1916 were turned into victory at the second attempt in September 1916, arguably the turning point for the First World War.
The famous digital divide is getting wider. A two-part documentary, "The Code Breakers," to be aired on BBC World starting 10 May 2006 examines whether free/ open source software (FOSS) might be the bridge? FOSS contains 'source code' that can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. It has been around for over 20 years but most PC owners are not aware that the Internet search engines and many computer applications run on FOSS. "It's not that FOSS has had a bad press, it has had no press because there is no company that 'owns' it," says executive producer Robert Lamb. "But we found that in the computer industry and among the afficionados, it is well known and its virtues well understood."
Fascinating documentary exploring the life and work of the 15th-century painter whose imaginative depiction of hell and earthly pleasures have made him one of the world's best-loved artists.
Stephen Fry explores the world of manic depression, a mental illness which affects up to 4 million people in the UK, including himself. He sets out to uncover more about a misunderstood condition which drives those who have it from extreme highs to crippling lows. Stephen describes the impact on his own life and meets up with ordinary people and celebrities such as Robbie Williams, Carrie Fisher, Tony Slattery and Rick Stein to discuss what triggers it and why it often takes years to diagnose.
In the second of two programmes, Stephen reveals in detail for the first time how this illness overwhelmed him in the 1990s and caused him to attempt suicide, and also why he disappeared from a West End play. Since then, he has had to figure out ways of living with it.
Documentary following 15-year-old Yukina as she leaves home and moves to Kyoto to embark on the arduous training needed to become a geisha. The profession has always been shrouded in controversy, with some believing geisha are little more than high-class prostitutes. At such a young age, does Yukina really understand what this ancient profession has in store for her?
The Story of Pulp's Common People takes a forensic look at the seminal track, and attempts to shed light on its inspiration, its lyrics, and the man who wrote them.Jarvis Cocker goes back to St Martin's College, where he met the girl who would inspire him to write a song that examines class, politics and Britain in the 90's. Pulp are reunited back at their old rehearsal rooms above a pottery shop to reminisce about the song's success and what the track means to them.
When London won the race to become the host venue for the 2012 Olympic Games, the immediate reaction was ecstatic. But staging the Greatest Show on Earth is always vastly expensive - and usually fraught with difficulties. This film looks back at the architectural statements made by Olympic host cities since the Berlin Olympics of 1936, and finds an alarming tendency for them to bungle the planning, build inappropriate venues, and saddle their populations with mountains of debt.
Eddie Mair explores the history of drink in British politics. Many of our leaders, from Winston Churchill to George Brown, acquired a reputation for fortifying themselves to cope with the demands of the job, and many of the best and worst episodes in the annals of the corridors of power have been carried out by people under the influence.
In December 1981, the Penlee lifeboat was called out to help a stricken coaster off the coast of Cornwall. In hurricane winds and sixty foot waves, the crew of the Solomon Browne made an heroic attempt to rescue those on board the ill-fated Union Star. Using actual radio footage, eyewitness testimony and memories of bereaved family members, this film tells the story of that tragic night.
A historical drama documentary depicting the eruption of Krakatoa volcano in 1883. The volcano was located in the Sunda strait in Indonesia and its eruption resulted in tsunami, rains of coals and ash, and ended with a very hot tsunami. The eruption killed more than 36,000 people and those survived were left with burns.
Dramatised documentary which explores the reasons behind the sudden resignation on 16 March 1976 of British prime minister Harold Wilson. It is based on secret discussions that he had at the time with two journalists in which he alleges that the British intelligence services had made his position as prime minister untenable and that Britain was on the brink of a military coup, with Lord Mountbatten, the Queen's cousin, lined up to head an interim government after Wilson had been deposed.
At the dawn of the 18th century, most British artists were seen as incompetent, destitute and disreputable. One hundred years later, they'd achieved wealth, status and glory. In this documentary, Andrew Graham-Dixon exposes the scandal, greed and rivalry lurking behind the canvases of Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Stubbs. He also tells the story of the arena in which this battle was fought: the Royal Academy of Arts.
The surprising story of how left-wing historian and crime writer, Raymond Postgate, rescued eating-out in post-war Britain.
It was the last battle on British soil but more than 250 years later Culloden remains one of the most controversial events in British history. This documentary takes a fresh look at the reputations of the Duke of Cumberland and Prince Charles and at the Jacobite struggle; exploring its legacy not just for those whose lives were changed by it, but also for the development of England and Scotland. The programme reveals how this monumental event signified a watershed between an older way of existence and a new era.
Richard Hammond embarks on a quest to find the truth about the most famous relic of all time - the Holy Grail. From the Aegean to the Atlantic, Hammond's journey takes him to some of the most beautiful and intriguing places in Europe. It's a route littered with some of the most extraordinary stories in history: ancient scrolls in the Vatican's secret archive; holy relics in Constantinople; medieval knights and hidden treasure in the South of France; Templars, Cathars and Nazis; conspiracy theories and false clues. Thought by many to be the very cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper, the Holy Grail has haunted public imagination for centuries, but left many unanswered questions. What is fact and what is fiction? Does the Grail exist or not, and what exactly is it?
Co-hosted by Professor Robert Winston and Dr Tanya Byron, this interactive special invites you to take part in a range of experiments to test your memory and receive practical help on how to improve it. Longleat House in Wiltshire is transformed into 'Memory Manor', a laboratory to explore how our brains work, what memory skills we're born with and which parts of our memory we can improve on.
The story of the rise and fall of a daring experiment into atomic energy. At a time when nuclear is firmly back on the agenda, this documentary meets the original Dounreay pioneers and charts the high and lows in the history of one of Britain's most ambitious scientific projects.
David Attenborough recounts his very personal experiences with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. Ever since they were discovered over a century ago, these remarkable creatures have been threatened by loss of habitat, poaching, disease and political instability. But despite all odds their numbers have increased. David tells the extraordinary tale of how conservationists like Dian Fossey have battled to save the mountain gorilla from the brink of extinction.
A documentary exploring Frank Lloyd Wright's visionary architectural works and relating the story of his turbulent personal life.
Jonathan Meades looks at the fate of modernist architects in the Soviet Union after Stalin mandate of populism and monumentality.
July 1969 saw one of mankind's greatest technological achievements - the first landing on the moon. Unearthing rare archival footage from the BBC, this two-hour documentary compiles the sights, sounds, and electrifying drama of humanity’s first footsteps on the moon. Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore and veteran newsmen cover events as they happened from the launchpad in Cape Kennedy, mission control in Houston, and the BBC desk in London. Follow Apollo 11 astronauts from their preflight breakfast on July 16, 1969, to their splashdown in the Pacific eight days later. Share the suspense of countdown, the thunder of blastoff, the epic 218,096-mile flight--and, of course, Neil Armstrong’s "one giant leap for mankind." Interspersed with this live coverage, BBC reporter James Burke provides helpful--and sometimes hilarious--demonstrations of spaceflight technology, including donning a space suit, touring the Apollo capsule, and experiencing zero gravity. Originally broadcasted as part of BBC4's 'Moon Night' on February 27, 2006.
Veterans who served on WW2 aircraft carrier The Ark Royal talk about her history, as the wreck is rediscovered a kilometre below the surface of the Mediterranean.
Gay men fantasising about passing on HIV may encourage some to set out to become infected with the virus, a BBC programme has found.
Ben Woolley tells the story of a neglected masterpiece: Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump. Until recently, Wright was dismissed by many art critics as a minor provincial but Wright was in fact a virtuoso painter whose scientific paintings give a unique insight into the Enlightenment in Britain. Ben Woolley's deconstruction of this epic painting takes him from Wright's birthplace in Derby to East Germany, where he witnesses a reconstruction of the famous Magdeburg hemispheres experiment. He visits London's Royal Society and uncovers the strange history of animal experimentation in the 18th century.
Mark Daly investigates the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and presents new evidence which fundamentally challenges the alibis of the five main suspects.
A chronicle of a formative era in British broadcasting following World War II. Hitherto, radio output had been genteel and sedate, in the music hall tradition. But after 1945, a new generation of producers, writers and performers emerged, making radical, sometimes anti-establishment comedies including The Goons and Hancock's Half Hour. Also at this time, the dominance of radio was challenged by the re-emergence of television and the BBC's TV monopoly ended with the arrival of ITV in 1955.
Richard Hammond embarks on a quest to find the truth about the most famous relic of all time - the Holy Grail. From the Aegean to the Atlantic, Hammond's journey takes him to some of the most beautiful and intriguing places in Europe. It's a route littered with some of the most extraordinary stories in history: ancient scrolls in the Vatican's secret archive; holy relics in Constantinople; medieval knights and hidden treasure in the South of France; Templars, Cathars and Nazis; conspiracy theories and false clues. Thought by many to be the very cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper, the Holy Grail has haunted public imagination for centuries, but left many unanswered questions. What is fact and what is fiction? Does the Grail exist or not, and what exactly is it?
Without the use of modern conveniences, a group of historians and archaeologists prepare a Tudor feast as it would have been over 400 years ago. They wear clothes from the period, source food from the land, and use recipes from the era. They turn the clock back to rediscover a way of life from an age gone by.
Casualty 1906 is an innovative hospital drama that plunges the viewer into the Receiving Room (today's A&E) of the London hospital deep in the teeming East End. The drama is shot with the pace and action of its modern day counterpart and namesake, Casualty, but every case and character is true. Focusing on cases, characters and events taken from the actual hospital records, nurse's Ward Diaries and intimate memoirs, 'Casualty 1906' is an unbroken experience of life with pioneering doctors and nurses a hundred years ago among the desperately poor.
Documentary about a group of female singers whose voices make you weep, sang songs of heartbreak and betrayal, had lives that seem to mirror their music and deaths that came too soon and made myths of them all. Yet their voices triumph over tragedy and they became icons of the 20th century. Edith Piaf, the Urchin Queen, stood small but strong and became the voice of her nation and of everyone who ever made mistakes. Billie Holiday, the Jazz Queen, her voice full of pain and yearning. Judy Garland, Showbiz Queen, raised in the film studio that fed her addiction to pills and to fame. Maria Callas, Drama Queen, whose voice brought out the heartache in opera and whose life echoed the roles she played. And Janis Joplin, Wild Queen, who offered up a 'piece of her heart' and died of drug abuse at just 27. With contributions from Mickey Rooney, Charles Aznavour, Country Joe McDonald, KT Tunstall, Katie Melua and Corinne Bailey-Rae.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the biblical find of the age - they contain the earliest versions of the Hebrew Bible, maps to hidden temple treasure, and insight into the mindsets of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the early Christians. But the scrolls were soon embroiled in controversy with allegations of conspiracy and cover-up, rumours that persist today thanks to The Da Vinci Code.
Stiff Records was founded by the visionary Jack Riviera and Dave Robinson. This documentary charts how the maverick label influenced the punk and new wave movements, championing such acts as Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Lene Lovich, Kirsty MacColl and the Damned.
Robbie Williams features as presenters and stars get misty-eyed reminiscing. Plus archive performances from the good, the bad and the ugly. Contributors include Sir Jimmy Savile, Pan's People, Robin Gibb, Noddy Holder, Blondie, Holly Johnson, Suggs, Noel Gallagher and Kylie Minogue.
Celebrities including Elaine Smith, Ford Kiernan and Tam Cowan recall their favourite moments as the comedy strip family celebrates its seventieth anniversary.
By Charles Miller BBC Money Programme Google's ad system earned the company $1.5bn during the July to September quarter of 2005, almost double what it made a year earlier. And ad income is the power behind Google's stock, whose apparently unstoppable rise makes the financial community's initial scepticism now look humiliatingly wrong. At the last count, Google was worth around $140bn, almost five times its value at flotation, and comfortably more than the likes of Coca-Cola and Time Warner. Google's canny founders are also all too aware that Silicon Valley has seen many high tech companies, from Netscape to Pets.com, which in their heyday appeared to be unbeatable, but are now all but forgotten.
Over the last five decades, the girl group formula has yielded hit after hit. But this classic pop template is also guaranteed to deliver high drama and backstage rows. This nostalgic documentary examines the phenomenon as it applies to six celebrated girl groups - the Supremes, the Three Degrees, Sister Sledge, Bananarama, the Bangles and the Spice Girls - with contributions from artists, managers and producers.
Drama-documentary telling the story of Samuel Johnson's creation of the first English dictionary, in an attic room just off Fleet Street in Georgian London. The depressive writer-for-hire with Tourette's syndrome did for the English language what Newton had done for the stars, classifying words, fixing their meaning and bringing order to the chaos of language. It took him nine years, but in the process an anonymous writer became a literary superstar.
A look back at the history of the hugely popular children's series, Jackanory, in which a well-known actor would read a book to camera alongside specially-commissioned illustrations. With contributions from readers, writers and producers including Alan Bennett, Patricia Routledge and Quentin Blake.
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the inspiration behind Ian Fleming 's first James Bond novel.
Documentary which follows four alcohol abusers - Vanda, aged 43; Mark, 29; Nigel, 49 and Toni, 26 - from the impoverished Medway towns of north Kent. Filmed over the course of a year, Paul Watson's camera follows them from Gillingham's Medway Maritime Hospital to their homes, resulting in a film that illustrates the troubles they face and the impact of their behaviour on those around them. The fact that two of the four died during filming is grim testimony to the illness of alcoholism.
This film tells the epic story of our love affair with the moon - what inspired it, how it faded away and how we are now falling in love all over again.
A revealing portrait of our closest star - the sun. Responsible for all life on Earth, the sun has always been worshipped. In the Stone Age, monuments were built to its constancy and predictability. New ways of observing the sun are revealing another side to it - a dark and violent side of turbulent storms and huge explosions. As scientists learn to understand the forces that drive it, they are also trying to control its power. If we could harness the sun's power output for a single second it would supply the world's demands for the next million years.
Nigel Planer recreates his spoof thespian Nicholas Craig for a look at the role of the actor in the 18th century, including tips on how to have a Georgian hissy fit, foppishness and acting with your bosoms.
Eddie Mair presents the story of how governments spin their way out of personnel crises, from John Profumo to Peter Mandelson and David Blunkett.
For the last nine months, Jamie Campbell and Joel Wilson have been on the trail of the fallen glam-rock star. Just what had he been doing in the years before his arrest in Vietnam?
Rick Stein celebrates John Betjeman's long love affair with the English seaside holiday and his deep affection for Cornwall. He travels around the area, speaking to people who remember the poet's visits, including Cliff Snell, who founded the Betjeman Centre. The programme culminates in a seafood feast cooked by Rick for guests including Betjeman's daughter, Candida.
A historical reconstruction of the discovery and nature of liquid crystals. Looks at how, nearly a hundred years after its discovery, British chemists found a way to exploit liquid crystals in the electronic display of technology. The programme also examines how some forms of liquid crystals have existed since the beginning of life on earth and how they are essential to the success of all life forms.
Examining the lighter side of being in a British science fiction television series, Nigel Planer plays classically-trained "actawr" Nicholas Craig in a one-hour special, How To Be Sci-Fi, which looks at the perils and pitfalls that lie ahead for anyone brave enough to grapple with that most demanding of mistresses – "outer-space acting".
Dramatised documentary about the tragedy which struck the Welsh mining village of Aberfan in 1966, when a mountain of coal slurry engulfed a school, claiming 144 lives, many of them children.
Examining the career of Leeds troubadour Jake Thackray, which saw him perform his unique style of satirical but hauntingly romantic music and poetry on television and radio, and live on stage, making appearances on The Frost Report, That's Life! and The Braden Beat.
Drawing on BBC archive footage, the beloved performer talks about his highs and lows.
BBC documentary about K-Dogg and his dream to become world "In The Groove" champion.
A documentary that explored the science and the story of five individuals in the Ulas family that walk with a previously unreported quadruped gait.
Former Atomic Kitten Jenny Frost faces up to her breast hang-ups and talks to other women about their experiences. Can Jenny learn to love her boobs?
This programme focuses on Britain's black community in the Georgian era, profiling the slave-turned-author Ignatius Sancho.
Writer Jacques Peretti grew up glued to darts: a gripping, beer-swilling sport with high scores and larger-than-life stars. In this documentary, he presents an eye-opening account of the sport's heady popularity in the 1970s and 1980s.
The story of James Cracknell and Ben Fogle's conquering of the Atlantic in a row boat. When celebrity rowers James Cracknell and Ben Fogle decided to compete in the Atlantic Rowing Race, they thought they knew what to expect. In reality they had no idea. Through Hell And High Water follows the incredible journey made by these two men. Rowing 2,930 miles, James and Ben recount their epic journey: a journey that sees them battle stormy weather, dehydration, life threatening conditions and colossal physical stress. At times, their remarkable voyage becomes a living hell, stretching their friendship to breaking point. Pushed physically, psychologically and emotionally to the limit, Ben and James often rowed naked to avoid serious chafing. They survived without water rations for 2 days, lost the few clothes they had in a freak wave, capsized, hallucinated, wept, fought, played games, grew beards and nursed blisters. Forty nine days later, they were the first pair to cross the finishing line, becoming the first ever British team to ever win the race. Included in the wealth of extras on the DVD are James and Ben’s heartfelt diaries.
My Small Breasts and I uncovers the complex, poignant, and sometimes amusing relationship women have with their tiny breasts. Talking candidly, three women reveal how they really feel about their own bodies and the lengths to which they'll go to change their situation. Sharon Tan is 28, and one of the three small-chested women featured on this film, seems the most well-adjusted. It isn’t clear whether this is because she’s naturally laid back or if her perspective was helped by having a boyfriend (Bronson) who’s clearly mad about her and happy to put up with no cuddles for 12 weeks while she stuffs her tits into a suction cup every night for 11 hours in an effort to swell them to a C cup. Kate Bailey, 22 is said to be too scared to go out because she thinks everyone is looking at her. When she gets the chance to visit a phototherapist in New York however, she somehow manages to drag herself out to buy some new clothes, and the flight to the Big Apple doesn’t seem to daunt her overmuch either. Laura Taylor has wanted a boob job since she was 14 but she can’t afford it. She’s discovered a website where men will help towards the cost in exchange for photos and emails from her. Armed with this potential source of income she visits a doctor to explore her implant options, and sits in on the surgery where a new-found friend is expanded to a D cup.
Drama-documentary telling the story of one of the last trials by battle to be fought in Europe, a tale of sex, brutality and political machination set in 14th century medieval France. A knight, Sir Jean de Carrouges, accuses his former best friend, Jacques Le Gris, of raping his wife Marguerite. Unable to obtain justice from his feudal overlord, Carrouges appeals to the king for the ancient right to fight a duel to the death to find out God's truth. There is much at stake. If Carrouges dies in the battle, Marguerite will also be burned to death as a liar. This tense story, told from records of the day, is set against the backdrop of the 100 years war between England and France, 14th century attitudes towards women, crime and punishment and the political intrigues of the feudal system.
Unfairly known as a one-hit wonder for his noirish novel The Thirty-Nine Steps, it tells the story of the real John Buchan, affording him the attention he has long deserved. Drawing on both his published works and his private correspondence and papers, with unique access provided by his latest biographer, is the first full television profile of an extraordinary man.
Alexander Waugh has been passionate about pianos ever since he was a small boy. Fuelled by an insatiable curiosity about the roots of his musical addiction, he sets out in search of other like-minded piano-obsessives to discover what it is about this instrument that has the power to turn seemingly rational people into compulsive lifelong piano junkies. Framed and punctuated by Alexander's effort to teach a novice to play the piano in a week, the film follows him on his quest around the concert halls and homes of classical and pop pianists like Paul Lewis, Jools Holland and Damon Albarn as well as a wide range of enthusiastic amateurs, including a child prodigy, a pilot and a national newspaper editor.
Castrati were the undisputed superstars of 18th-century musical culture, driving crowds wild with their intoxicatingly androgynous virtuoso voices. Nicholas Clapton, countertenor and castrato historian, analyses the anatomical mysteries of the castrato and the biological implications of castrato. He travels to Bologna, the adopted home of Farinelli, perhaps the most famous castrato. And for the first time in Britain, American male soprano Michael Maniaci, a young Baroque opera singer whose voice did not break at puberty, performs Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, a piece originally written for castrato Rauzzini.
The Moon - Ruler of the Night This exclusive BBC documentary tries to explain the ancient fascination of humans for the earthly satellite. Almost every night it stands on the sky, sometimes a small sickle, sometimes full and round. The full moon is a symbol of fertility and insanity, lust for murder and werewolves. But what influence does the moon really hold on our life? This movie shows the millenia old fascination for the earthly satellite - from the stone-circles of ancient moon-cults to the time of the cold war to new missions to the moon in the near future. Science has discovered the moon anew. After the race to space had been won by the Americans it quickly lost its magic/attraction. Already new and farther away targets were luring. The long awaited landing on the moon insofar turned out to be a disappointment as it only showed that the earth-satellite was exactly what had been observed in the sky: a cold, lifeless rock which only catches the attention of the eye because it reflects the light of the sun. This realization left no room for the century old myths and legends which surrounded the moon. Yet, while the public turned its attention to new discoveries, geologists just started with their examinations. The gathered moonstone told the story of the creation of the earth and its satellite from a new point of view. The moon itself emerged from the collision of the young earth and another planet some 4.5 billion years ago. Its rock hasn't changed much since and thus gives important clues to the history of the earth. Other celestial bodies like the Jupiter satellites Io and Europa and the Saturn-moon Titan turned out to be exciting worlds with gigantic volcanic eruptions, thick atmospheres and ice-covered oceans. Should our own moon too hold more than had been discovered until now? Indeed scientists found something of interest on the poles: a thin layer of ice which could provide humans with life-giving water. This discovery ignited the race to spa
A groundbreaking history of the British Enlightenment retraces the innovations in representative government, industrialization, religious tolerance, and individualism that made the eighteenth century so important in the history of England, and the world. Historian professor Roy Porter examines the contributions of 18th-century British scientists, philosophers, economists and industrialists to the era that shaped the destiny of modern Europe.
Jonathan Ross goes in search of his hero, Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man but virtually unknown to all but a handful of comic-book enthusiasts. In a one-off film for BBC Four, Ross, a noted comic-book enthusiast and obsessive Ditko fan, goes in search of the comic-book legend who lives his life as a recluse. Ditko should be a multi-millionaire. Many times he has been offered vast sums of cash in return for explaining why he left Marvel and, of course, Spider-Man, the character he co-created with Stan Lee back in 1961. Ditko and Lee worked together at Marvel for five years but, when Spider-Man was on the verge of becoming the best-sëlling comic book in the world, Ditko left the book and the company. While at Marvel, he had designed all of the characters, illustrated and inked each issue and provided Spider-Man with his unique look. He'd also plotted every story, leaving Lee to write the dialogue. In the years that followed he continued creating many new and wonderful characters for the biggest comic companies, as well as expressing his own political and personal views in independently published books. He has never explained why he left Spider-Man when he did, or why he has never returned to draw his most famous character again. It's a question that intrigues and perplexes comic fans all over the world. Meanwhile, Stan Lee's contribution to the Spider-Man phenomenon has left him well-known and wealthy. To discover what led to Ditko's unusual career path, and in an effort to ensure this reclusive genius receives the credit that he's due, Ross heads off in search of both the man and, hopefully, the truth. Ross's search takes him from the UK to Los Angeles. On his journey, he talks to those who have met and worked with Ditko, including Lee and another comic-book legend, Northampton-based Alan Moore.
Documentary about brother and sister duo The Carpenters, one of the biggest selling pop acts of the 1970s, but one with a destructive and complex secret that ended in tragedy with Karen Carpenter's untimely death at 32. Featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Richard Carpenter, family and friends.
Former General Motors high-flyer John DeLorean had a plan to build a stylish European sports car, at a price that would make it attractive to the American market. The site he chose for his state-of-the-art factory was on the outskirts of Belfast, a city best-known for sectarian violence and high levels of unemployment. The unexpected marriage of high-tech glamour with the gritty reality of 1970s Northern Ireland captured the public's imagination but this early optimism would end in failure. Although the cars looked great, the windows leaked and the engines seized; as his financial problems mounted the maverick DeLorean faced charges of drugs trafficking. Adrian Dunbar narrates the story.
HMS Coventry brought down more aircraft than any other ship during the Falklands War. As other British ships sank around them, Coventry believed they were invincible. But at the height of the conflict, HMS Coventry was sent on a risky mission to lure enemy bombers away from the troops landing in San Carlos Bay. The Argentineans duly obliged by sending waves of Skyhawks to take out the British Destroyer. By late afternoon on May 25th 1982, HMS Coventry had already survived two raids and shot down three enemy planes. But just as Captain Hart Dyke and his crew thought they had weathered the storm, the Argentineans launched one last attack. For the first time in 25 years the men of HMS Coventry tell their dramatic story.
Documentary looking at the music and mythology of a golden era in Californian culture, and telling the story of how Los Angeles changed from a kooky backwater in the early 1960s to become the artistic and industrial hub of the American music industry by the end of the 1970s. Alongside extensive and never before seen archive footage, the programme features comprehensive first-hand accounts of the key figures including musicians (David Crosby, Graham Nash, J. D. Souther, Bernie Leadon and Bonnie Raitt, music industry bosses (David Geffen, Jac Holzman, Ron Stone and Peter Asher) and legendary LA scenesters including Henry Diltz, Pamela Des Barres and Ned Doheny. The film explores how the socially-conscious folk rock of young hippies with acoustic guitars was transformed into the coked-out stadium excess of the late 1970s and the biggest selling album of all time.
Although believed to be gods by many ancient civilisations, who saw them as bringers of life or harbingers of doom, to Isaac Newton they were the key to unlocking the secrets of gravity. Hundreds of years later, a new breed of space mission can show what comets are really made of, where they come from, and their surprising influence on events on Earth.
Fifty years ago Sputnik was launched by the Russians, and the space age dawned. Starting with the jubilation, fear and panic that accompanied the launch of "The Red Moon", this documentary explores how satellites have now affected almost every aspect of our lives. Spy satellites and GPS (global positioning system) have transformed the military. Communications have been revolutionized, with Telstar, the first commercially-launch satellite, even becoming an international celebrity. Satellites have revolutionized our understanding of our climate, saving countless lives. Hubble, so nearly a disaster, went on to change the way we understand our universe. Thanks to satellites, the world is now a smaller, safer, and better understood place. The programme explores the technological milestones that have made all this possible but ends with a warning. Our civilization is now dependent on satellites, making us vulnerable were something to go wrong. Recent events in China have revealed just how vulnerable we might be, for they suggest we might be on the verge of another new age - of satellite terrorism.
This documentary speaks to some of the people who saw or met up with him in that last week. The woman who watched him lick his plate clean, and fail to sign a cheque, in his local restaurant; Duff Mckagan, former bass player of Guns n Roses, who sat next to him on the plane back to Seattle; his drug counsellor from rehab. There are also those who claim to have seen him in those last few days, to have touched the hem of his cloth. And there is Brant, who saw him in a dream the night before he died. It is a film about the generation of a myth. Of the deification of Cobain and the eery silence that fell over Seattle in the days following his death, when his ghost wandered the city.
The documentary is based around the Evel Knievel Days event in Butte, Montana. The presenter, Richard Hammond, spends four days with former motorcycle daredevil Evil Knievel. Knievel, by now 69 years old had become very ill, requiring an oxygen tank strapped up to him constantly to aid with breathing and 48 hours before the film crew arrived Knievel had a stroke.[2] At several points during filming, Knievel cuts the interview short and leaves before Hammond has finished asking questions.
In the days when Britain's car industry was the envy of the world, Rover epitomised everything to which the driver of taste aspired, but in 2005 it reached the end of the road. The film explores how Rover cars went from defining their eras to becoming victims of their times, telling the story behind the key models to the controversial joint ventures with Japanese and Indian manufacturers in later years.
When Luciano Pavarotti died in 2007, the world lost one of its finest voices. The 'King of the High Cs' was sought after by all the major opera houses in his early career. International superstardom came with his Three Tenors and Pavarotti and Friends concerts, and his version of Nessun Dorma was used for the BBC's coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. This portrait uses archive and the memories of his closest associates- including Jose Carreras, Dame Joan Sutherland and Juan Diego Florez.
Documentary telling the tragic story of the greatest loss of fathers in British history. When the nation was called to arms in the patriotic fervour of 1914 it was difficult to imagine that, four years later, half a million children would have lost their fathers in battle. The impact of their deaths was devastating and never forgotten by their sons and daughters. Now in their 90s, they go on an emotional journey to remember their lost fathers, culminating in a visit to their graves in France.
Robert Baden-Powell's handbook Scouting for Boys, written in 1908, may be largely forgotten today but it is one of the most influential and best-selling books of all time. In the 20th century, only the Bible, the Koran and the Thoughts of Chairman Mao sold more. But they had fewer jokes, no pictures and were useless at important stuff like tying knots. In this entertaining and affectionate film, Ian Hislop uncovers the story behind the book which kick-started the Scout Movement - a work which is very eccentric, very Edwardian and very British.
Capturing the beauty of the English Lake District, a documentary which traces the life of writer and artist Alfred Wainwright, the eccentric Lancastrian who created a series of iconic fell-walking books which he hand-wrote, illustrated and published himself in the 1950s. Celebrating the centenary of his birth, the film captures his passionate love affair with the Lakeland landscape and explores how his books have become guide-book classics for millions of fell-walkers.
Documentary charting the extinction of the dodo and the lessons that could be applied to modern life.
The novelist Dame Beryl Bainbridge thinks she's going to die at the age of 71, because everyone in her family died when they were that age, from her mother and father to her grandparents, aunts and uncles. Opening with her 71st birthday, this uniquely personal film, made by Beryl's eldest grandson Charlie Russell, follows Beryl as she lives out her 'last year', prepares for her death and tries to write her final novel.
Documentary about the Debbie Harry-fronted New York band Blondie, who crossed pop with punk, reggae and rap and had no 1's in all styles, from their Bowery beginnings at CBGBs in 1974 to their controversial induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. With exclusive backstage and performance footage from their 2006 UK tour, plus in-depth interviews with current and ex-band members and friends Iggy Pop, Shirley Manson, Tommy Ramone, and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads.
Graham Norton profiles the leading ladies of the disco era, including Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Madonna and 'honorary disco queen' Sylvester. Includes contributions from the queens themselves, plus Antonio 'Huggy Bear' Fargas, choreographer Arlene Phillips, songwriters Ashford and Simpson, disco artists Verdine White from Earth, Wind and Fire, Bonnie Pointer of the Pointer Sisters and Nile Rodgers of Chic.
Louis Theroux heads to Las Vegas, the fastest growing city in America, to take a look at the pastime that made it famous and meet the gamblers, the high rollers and the casino men who keep this town in the middle of the desert green with money. The Las Vegas Hilton is Louis's home over the course of one very memorable long weekend. Once the biggest hotel in the world, it is old school Vegas with a face-lift; this is the casino where Elvis played over eight hundred sold-out shows. We meet Richard Wilk, the Hilton's smooth-talking 'super host' who prides himself on his ability to say yes to his clients. Louis hangs out with Richard's high-rolling 'whales'. Whales like Allan, who flies in from Canada to party in a 25,000 dollar suite, ready to blow 200,000 dollars or more over the weekend. Louis makes his way past the dancing girls and flashing lights to find Martha, a glamorous septuagenarian who spends at least 1,000 dollars a day on the slots. She hasn't missed a day in ten years and has lost 4 million dollars. And there's John and Tim, Vegas regulars who take Louis under their wing as he nervously gambles his own money on one long night on the black jack table. They walk away at 5am - but are they winners?
Journalist Kate Silverton abandons the safety of her BBC studio to embark on an adrenalin-fuelled journey of discovery through Britain's fastest flowing rivers and most turbulent seas. Amid the pounding North Cornish surf, Kate's childhood fear of open water dramatically re-awakens. Now she must conquer not only strong currents, huge waves and white water, but also her own worst nightmares.
How the squalid streets of '70s New York gave birth to music that would go on to conquer the world - punk, disco and hip hop. In the 1970s the Big Apple was rotten to the core, yet out of the grime, grit and low rent space emerged new music unlike anything that had gone before.
Joseph Koerner explores the art, architecture and music of fin de siecle Vienna. Using one of Vienna's most famous sons, Sigmund Freud, as a key, Koerner attempts to unlock Vienna's psyche for clues as to why this unlikely city gave birth to modernism. Home to Klimt, Schoenberg and Hitler, he portrays an artistic and intellectual melting pot; a place where many of the great dreams, and nightmares, of the modern era were first imagined.
Documentary about the men who use sophisticated life-size dolls for sexual satisfaction and more - such as dates, affection and lifelong companionship. Featuring a young American man who gives his doll daily massages in the home he shares with his disapproving Mum and Dad; a British man who takes his doll out on day trips to the coast where she watches him hang- glide; and two Americans who live with multiple dolls, one of whom shares his eight synthetic lovers with his human girlfriend.
Dan Snow follows the making of the British Museum's biggest exhibition in a generation and tells the story of its subject, the First Emperor of China. Qin Shihuangdi is one of the most important but least well-known men in history. He founded the world's oldest political entity and created the spectacular Terracotta Army to guard his vast tomb. With exclusive access to the BM team for over a year, Dan follows the curator Jane Portal, and the design team, as they create a blockbuster exhibition in the historic Round Reading Room and he travels to China to see the original Great Wall, the sacred mountain Tai Shan, and the great necropolis at Xian with its thousands of warriors.
Documentary presented by Rageh Omaar which reveals the lives, hopes and fears of the young generation of Tehran, the most intriguing, talked about but least understood city in the world today.
Forty years after Britain's foremost 'underground' band released their debut album, 'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn', Pink Floyd remain one of the biggest brand names and best-loved bands in the world. This film features extended archive footage alongside original interviews with David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, and traces the journey of a band that has only ever had five members, three of whom have lead the band at different stages of its evolution.
Louis struggles to come to terms with the infamous family who picket the funerals of soldiers in protest against an America that tolerates homosexuality.
Fifty years ago, Britain suffered its worst nuclear accident. On the night of 10 October 1957, a fire began to spread throughout the core of the Windscale nuclear reactor, sending radioactive dust across Britain. Using the taped recordings of the inquiry into the fire - which have been kept secret ever since the disaster and are heard for the first time - and featuring interviews with the men who risked their lives to prevent a tragedy, this film reveals how political ambition fuelled the fire and then dictated that the heroes of Windscale be made the scapegoats. The Windscale nuclear reactor was a project on an unprecedented scale. Designed to produce materials first for Britain's A-bomb, and then for the H-bomb, it was a triumphant statement of British scientific and technological prowess. But, beneath its image, Windscale had been built in a hurry - with dire consequences. Radioactive leaks were found and the core of the reactor began dangerously overheating. Some scientists warned that radioactive materials inside could catch fire. But the leaks were hushed up and the warnings ignored. Instead, Windscale was ordered to achieve even greater increases in output to meet a political deadline to explode Britain's first H-bomb. The result was potential disaster - the core of the reactor caught fire and radioactive dust began spreading over the country. Windscale workers faced a terrible dilemma - if they tried to put the fire out with water they risked turning the reactor into a gigantic nuclear bomb, and if they let the fire burn, it could contaminate people across a huge area. Risking death from explosion and radioactive poisoning, the Windscale men averted a major tragedy. The inquiry revealed that the warnings about the risks had been hushed up or ignored. But the government kept its findings secret, and instead blamed the fire on an "error of judgement" by the very workers who had first warned of the potential problems and then battled so heroic
Survival Expert Ray Mears takes actor Ewan McGregor deep into the Honduran Jungle in search of a lost civilisation. Ray is no soft option travelling companion - he tests people to the utmost in the wild. After just a few basic lessons in survival they set off to face everything the jungle can throw at them.
This special hosted by the BBC is an hour-long documentary set in Haddon Hall, in Derbyshire. Haddon Hall, started in 1195, is one of the most spectacularly preserved manors in England. Although the castle/manor has been used in literature, TV shows and movies and is currently open to visitors during part of the year, the Tudor kitchen hadn’t been used in 300 years. The team of historians and archaeologists in this fascinating documentary recreate a Tudor feast using period ingredients, recipes, kitchenware, and methods. They have three days to prepare and cook the [feast] and they use every minute. The first thing the recreationists do is light the big ovens using flint and steel with a bit of linen to catch the flame. They gather water in wooden buckets from the stream for water. They grind up sugar blocks, spices, and knead dough for all the dishes, explaining the importance of each to the Tudor feast. We learn from the experts how a boar would have been hunted, how fish in the river would have been caught, how confections were made, and food was prepared. They explain most of the dishes, including the boar, the peacock that has been skinned and stuffed with meat delicacies, and the desert subtlety which was gilded with gold leaf applied with a feather. They even set the feast hall and the tables as they would have in the Tudor period, and explain some table manners. Finally, the feast is enjoyed by several guests in period garb, a nice conclusion to an interesting and informative journey into the culinary past.
David Malone looks at four brilliant mathematicians - Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing - whose genius has profoundly affected us, but which tragically drove them insane and eventually led to them all committing suicide. The film begins with Georg Cantor, the great mathematician whose work proved to be the foundation for much of the 20th-century mathematics. He believed he was God's messenger and was eventually driven insane trying to prove his theories of infinity.
A warm, amusing and moving profile of the famous jazz singer and critic as he reflects on his life and music and visits his old haunts in Soho, Barcelona and Wales. With contributions from Dr Jonathan Miller and Humphrey Littleton.
Rough Crossings, presented by Simon Schama, tells the story of Britain, the slave trade and the American War of Independence; and how the British government offered freedom to enslaved African Americans if they would fight for the king. It focuses on the little-known, heroic story of three incredible men: freed slaves Thomas Peters and David George and English Naval Officer John Clarkson.
Nicky Taylor hits the drinking circuits of Britain to investigate what's going on with women on their nights out, asking how big is the problem, is the binge drinking to blame and what the link is between alcohol and aggression.
Lonesome George is officially the loneliest animal on the planet. He is the last remaining Pinta Island Giant Tortoise in existence; when he dies, his race will be extinct. He has become an icon of his native Galapagos Islands and symbol of the battle to preserve their unique wildlife. The islands are at a critical point in their history - threatened by illegal fishing, the demands of a booming population and an ever-expanding tourism industry - yet the will within the islanders to protect Galapagos is strong. This is both the personal story of Lonesome George and of the local characters intent on turning around the fortunes of their unique tropical paradise.
Actor, writer, director and presenter Stephen Fry reveals the things he considers his guiltiest pleasures. These include darts, romantic novels by Georgette Heyer, the work of Richard Wagner and TV game show Countdown. With the help of entertaining clips and personal recollections, the programme provides an amusing insight into the mind of one of Britain's favourite comedy performers.
Documentary to celebrate the great man's 50th birthday, with interviews from colleagues such as Emma Thompson and Richard Curtis.
Two contrasting artists of the Edwardian era come under scrutiny: Walter Sickert of the Camden Town School, who painted low life, and the glamorous John Singer Sargent, who painted the rich and famous.
With cameras in the car of a boy racer, the programme sets him the ultimate challenge - can he change from reckless speed freak into a model motorist before he kills himself?
Rageh Omaar tells the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls and uncovers the truth behind the myth. The biblical find of the age, they contain the earliest versions of the Hebrew bible, maps to hidden temple treasure, and insight into the mindset of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the early Christians. But the scrolls were soon embroiled in controversy, with allegations of conspiracy and cover-up, rumours that persist today thanks to The Da Vinci Code.
David Baddiel travelled to Russia in 2004 to see the remnants of his grandfather's factory, stolen by the Nazis. It is estimated that $150 billion of Jewish businesses, houses, art collections and cash were taken from Jews during the Holocaust. David embarks on a new journey to New York, Berlin and Poland to discover how Jews have been fighting to get their money back. Along the way he is forced to confront his own discomfort about the issue of Holocaust restitution.
Tommy Cooper was a national comedy institution whose catchphrase still remains in the language today. This bumbling giant with outsized feet and hands, whose mere entrance on stage had audiences erupting with uncontrollable laughter, was born in Caerphilly in 1921. This programme looks at the life and art of the man in the fez whose clumsy, fumbling stage magic tricks hid a real talent as a magician. His private life was complicated and often difficult but as far as his audiences were concerned, he was first and foremost a clown whose confusion with the mechanisms of everyday life made for hilarious viewing. Contributors include Tom O'Connor and Barry Cryer.
Jeremy Paxman presents a docudrama about tragic First World War poet Wilfred Owen, telling the poignant tale of his life from a childhood in Shropshire and northern England to his travels in pre-war France. Paxman visits the sites of the battles in which he fought and died, and there are reconstructions from Owen's experience in the trenches and in hospital, when he was writing most intensely.
Darcey Bussell, who retired from the Royal Ballet in 2007, introduces and demonstrates some of her favourite ballet moments with dancers Roberto Bolle and Jonathan Cope. Featuring some of her own performances and archive highlights, with music ranging from Scott Joplin to Tchaikovsky. The ballets include Giselle, The Nutcracker and a classic performance by Margot Fonteyn in Swan Lake.
Why are we so attracted to the music of nature? In this documentary, David Rothenberg interviews leading birdsong scientists and musicians, including Jarvis Cocker and Beth Orton, to support his controversial idea that birds might actually be singing for the sheer joy of it. The film features a unique musical composition combining human music with birdsong, with contributions from Peter Gabriel, the Guillemots - and even an eider duck and a woodpecker:
Marcus du Sautoy presents the story of those who have tried to capture one of the greatest unsolved problems of mathematics, the pattern of prime numbers. Filmed on location in America, India, Greece, Germany and England, the film includes interviews with some of the world's leading mathematicians.
Documentary about the work of the world's most famous space telescope. Hubble celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2005 and has been used to look into the furthest regions of the universe.
At midnight on 31st December 2006, Britain finally paid off the last tranche of its multi-billion dollar debt to the Americans from the end of World War 2. Sir Christopher Meyer, controversial former ambassador to Washington during the Bush and Blair era and author of explosive memoirs DC Confidential, tells the dramatic story of how we came to be mortgaged to the Americans, and reveals what this cautionary tale really tells us about our so-called special relationship.
This film investigates the variety of stories surrounding the New Testament account of the crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, by interviewing historians, theologians and historical researchers. This exploration of the latest theories about what really happened to Jesus 2000 years ago uncovers some surprising possibilities. At the heart of the mystery is the suspicion that Jesus might not actually have died on the cross. The film concludes that it was perfectly possible to survive crucifixion in the 1st Century - there are records of people who did. But if Jesus survived, what happened to him afterwards? One of the most remarkable stories concerns the charismatic preacher Jus Asaf (Leader of the Healed) who arrived in Kashmir in around 30 AD. Just before he died at the age of 80, Jus Asaf claimed that he was in fact Jesus Christ and the programme shows his tomb, next to which are his carved footprints which bear the scars of crucifixion.
Griff Rhys Jones reveals how Dickens created the idea of a traditional family Christmas through one of his best-known books, A Christmas Carol. From the moment it was published in 1843, the story of miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge captured the imagination of Victorian Britain. Santa Claus, Christmas cards and crackers were invented around the same time, but it was Dickens's book that boosted the craze for Christmas, above all promoting the idea that Christmas is best celebrated with the family. Interviewees include former on-screen Scrooge, Patrick Stewart, and writer Lucinda Hawksley, great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens himself.
Climate change is being felt the world over and if global warming continues to increase the effects could be catastrophic. Some scientists and engineers are proposing radical, large-scale ideas that could save us from disaster. The first three proposed ideas, featured in the film, look at reducing the power of the sun; thereby cooling the planet. The other two men in the program want to tackle the problem of excess carbon dioxide; the cause of global warming. Most of the scientists are reluctant advocates of these ideas, and all believe we should be cutting down on our use of fossil fuels to heat our homes and drive our cars. But is time running out for planet earth? Although these ideas might have unknown side effects, some scientists believe we may soon have no choice but to put these radical and controversial plans into action.
The story of US soldier James Joseph Dresnok, who deserted his unit in 1962 while guarding the peace in South Korea. After walking the most heavily fortified area on earth, he defected to the Cold War enemy, finding fame as a film actor and being hailed as a coveted star of the North Korean propaganda machine. Forty-five years later, this film reveals the lives of Comrade Joe and other American defectors.
Edinburgh is often described as the 'Athens of the North' but its most famous detective Inspector Rebus views Scotland's capital in quite a different light - it is a crime scene waiting to happen. As his creator Ian Rankin prepares to write the last ever Rebus case, the award-winning author re-visits the key locations from the books. From the city's 'pubic triangle' and the home of Scotland's most infamous madam to a police station where he was interviewed about a real murder, Rankin explores the hidden Edinburgh into which tourists never venture.
To mark the 30th anniversary, this documentary tells of the undercover investigation that rewrote the rules of drug policing and changed the way the drug trade operated in the UK.
Documentary looking at how British teenagers are increasingly being tempted by the limitless porn available on the internet, with some becoming addicts. Three of them tell their stories of differing use of porn and their battles to overcome its lure, providing a unique insight into a part of growing up today.
Documentary about Belgium's greatest boy detective and his creator Herge, as related in a rare taped interview by journalist Numa Sadoul. Featuring groundbreaking animation in which footage of Herge is synchronised to fit the audio interview, plus an interview with Tintin expert, the late Harry Thompson.
'My Family and Other Animals' made Gerald Durrell a national celebrity, but it was his pioneering work at Jersey Zoo that changed the way we treat endangered species. With contributions from his closest colleagues and friends, including David Attenborough and Desmond Morris, and drawing on his extensive TV archive, this is a revealing and warming portrait of a man who made a lasting difference to his family of animals.
Crime writer Ian Rankin investigates The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's nightmare in September 1885, Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretches back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, hallucinatory drugs and prostitution all play their part in the disturbing account of Henry Jekyll's double-life, as Rankin's journey takes him into the yeasty draughts and unlit closes of the city that inspired the tale - Edinburgh.
John Ware relates the inside story of how the British and American governments invaded Iraq but had no plan for what happened next - how to bring peace and democracy to a country of 26 million with no history of either. With testimony from British and Americans who were there, he reveals how the drumbeat to war drowned out the repeated warnings from the British Embassy in Washington and some British generals and civil servants about the 'black hole' in American post-war planning.
John Ware relates the inside story of how the British and American governments invaded Iraq but had no plan for what happened next - how to bring peace and democracy to a country of 26 million with no history of either. One former British general who was part of the reconstruction team described the failure by Washington and London to plan properly for the peace as 'snatching defeat from the jaws of victory'.
Poor James May. As he was stuck between his older and younger sisters, Jane and Sarah, the only toys he played with were their hand-me-downs. Sifting through the family toy box prompts James to share his tale of woe. Jane and Sarah do get their say, but not before James blows up the tree house family, races in a converted 'silver cross' pram, makes over a 'Girl's World' head, projects a Spirograph on the side of the Royal Festival Hall and makes his own Fuzzy Felt animated film.
Julia Hartley-Brewer examines the role of Leader of the Opposition and asks what lessons David Cameron can learn from history as he plots his path to power. He has already abandoned his party's confrontational stance as he bids to recast the image of the Tories as the nasty party and rebrand it as modern, compassionate and caring. The programme looks at what he can learn from the tactics of previous opposition leaders, from Winston Churchill to Tony Blair.
Rageh Omaar embarks on a unique journey inside what he describes as one of the most misunderstood countries in the world, looking at the country through the eyes of people rarely heard - ordinary Iranians. Omaar visited Tehran - the region's capital - once before as a news reporter, filming the incendiary demonstrations and recording the uncompromising statements from officials since the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. But his experiences of being in the city never left him. Omaar's journey takes him under the skin of the city and he meets with local people who share with him their personal stories and feelings about the current state of affairs in Iran. There are stories of taxi drivers; wrestlers; business women; people working with drug addicts and the country's leading pop star and his manager – the Simon Cowell of Iran - who drove Omaar around Tehran in his Mercedes-Benz. Welcome to Tehran is told as a journey through Tehran, but also as a very personal essay by Omaar as he digs deeper into this complex and fascinating society.
Documentary which tells the story of a rock star and a quantum mechanic. Mark Oliver Everett, better known as E, is the lead singer of cult US band the Eels. What most of his fans don't know is that Mark's father, Hugh Everett III, was one of America's top quantum physicists. In 1957, Hugh Everett came up with a revolutionary theory that predicts the existence of parallel universes. The idea quickly seeped into popular culture but only recently has it been accepted by mainstream physicists. However, Mark was estranged from his father - Hugh died when Mark was just 19 - and knows little about his father's early life and virtually nothing about his controversial theory. With a soundtrack by the Eels, the film follows the wry and charismatic Mark as he travels across America to learn about the father he never knew. It is only by entering the paradoxical world of quantum mechanics that Mark can hope to understand why he was such a stranger to his own father.
As part of the Kidult season, this documentary tells the story of some of the brightest mathematical brains of a generation. Each year, exceptionally gifted teenagers from over 90 countries compete for medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad. The film follows a group of brilliant teenagers as they battle it out to become the chosen six selected to represent the UK. Many youngsters see maths as an ordeal, but for these teenagers it's a passion they are completely devoted to. We also hear how, for some, their extraordinary talent has left them ostracized at school. At just 15, Jonathan is the youngest contender in the group. A rocket-building enthusiast, he has already broken several UK distance records. However, Jonathan's academic gifts and scientific interests have led to him being bullied for being 'geeky'. Some members of the group are on the autistic spectrum, and find social and confidence issues affect their everyday lives. 17-year-old Daniel has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, but recognizes that 'it's good to be different'. Apart from mathematics, the most important thing in Daniel's life is his girlfriend Zhu Yan. The couple met when Daniel spent three months traveling around China, during which time he taught himself fluent Mandarin. He is desperate to win a medal at the Olympiad and we follow his progress as he gears up for the competition and brings Zhu Yan back from China to his family home in York with the intention of marrying her. As the competition day draws closer and minds and emotions are pushed to the limit, the film shows these young geniuses in their element, enjoying the subject they love and ultimately being celebrated as they deserve.
Documentary recalling the Hungarian uprising of autumn 1956, which, although it failed and was savagely repressed by the Soviets and their collaborators in Hungary, marked a crucial moment in the history of the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and the Cold War. It was in many ways the prelude to the events of Prague in 1968 and the Solidarity movement in Poland. The flowering of optimism that moved masses of Hungarians, inebriated by the idea of democratic government and the end of Soviet-backed tyranny, provided a source of inspiration for other dissenters throughout the Eastern bloc. There was something immensely heroic about Hungary's freedom-fighters, who fought a just war against overwhelming odds and something tragic about their inevitable defeat, once they realised that the West would not come to their rescue and that Khrushchev was determined to not give an inch. The images of men, women and children climbing on Soviet tanks disabled by skilfully thrown Molotov cocktails, or young 'freedom-fighters' stalking the Budapest streets with machine-guns slung over their shoulders was instantly iconic. 200,000 Hungarians fled to the West, of whom only 40,000 returned. Many people were sent to prison and at least 1,200 executed. The wounds inflicted in those bitter days still fester today. The film brings together the memories of a varied group of men and women who tell the story of 1956 from a personal point-of-view, evoking the inner and outer drama of the events - how they affected them as people and how they shaped the mood of the city as a whole. The resulting mix of reminiscences offers a powerful and often deeply emotional account of events, the highs as well as the lows, that have universal significance.
Russell Brand sets out across America's vast heartland in homage to one of his literary heroes, Jack Kerouac and his classic novel, On The Road, which has inspired countless hipsters and restless souls to hit the road. Russell read the book when he was 19 and was excited by the sense of magic and possibility it conjured up. Travelling with his friend Matt Morgan, he sets off on a coast-to-coast adventure that becomes a journey of self-discovery.
Andrew Lincoln narrates a revealing documentary about the sun and our relationship with it over the years, from the worship of the Stone Age to the latest scientific research into ways to harness its power.
Alan Bennett narrates a documentary about James Ravilious, one of the great unknowns of British photography. Son of the renowned water-colourist and engraver Eric Ravilious, he dedicated his art to a small area of north Devon, where over a period of two decades he took more than 80,000 photographs. This collection has become one of the most comprehensive and poignant archives in the country, documenting an English world and way of life most people had thought long gone.
Sanjayan Muttulingam was forced to flee Sierra Leone when civil war erupted. Now a biologist in the United States, Sanjayan returns to his native land to find out what has happened to the animals which inspired him and the people he left behind.
PJ O'Rourke considers the unique role of the California governor, a position held by colourful characters from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Ronald Reagan, and reflects on a trendsetting, democratic state that has been home to hippies, urban rioting and all manner of alternative thinking.
Lesley Joseph narrates a documentary about the unlikely pin-ups of the 1970s music scene, from Gilbert O'Sullivan and Barry White to Leo Sayer and Demis Roussos. These were men whose lyrics conjured up images of candle-lit dinners, red roses and cosy nights in with the man of your dreams. For millions of female fans their romantic music was the perfect soundtrack for dreams of escape from the day-to-day drudgery of life in 70s Britain
To mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, the album's engineer, Geoff Emerick, heads back to the studio with some of today's top artists to create new versions of the album's classic tracks. Will today's musicians succeed in recording their versions of the songs using the original studio equipment from 1967, and with only a day to record each song? The Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and Bryan Adams are among those taking up the challenge
Jo Brand narrates a profile which celebrates the life and times of the BBC's first flagship live music programme, The Old Grey Whistle Test, which ran from 1971 to 1987. It looks at the music, the presenters, the TV rivals, the sparse studio and the legacy, finds out why Bob Harris whispered, what Sid Vicious tried to do to him and what Camel did with a woodwind quartet and why. All these questions are answered and many more, followed by loving compilations of those early 70s years, the era that time forgot.
On a night out in Doncaster - once crowned HIV Capital of the North - Stephen chats to young people about current attitudes to HIV and risky sex. He also visits his first love from Cambridge who, having separated from Stephen, later found out he and his new partner were positive. And he meets an HIV-positive grandmother, and a 16-year-old girl who has lived with the virus all her life.
In this second part he explores the impact of modern treatments and visits Uganda to investigate why drugs are unavailable there. He also takes an HIV test himself, and wonders why so many others are reluctant to do the same. His conclusion is that, while things have improved medically, the situation seems worse than ever psychologically and socially.
Documentary about the UK record label Stiff Records
Stella Rimington (former MI5 Director General) on the UK's relationship with Russia over the last 150 years
Documentary which looks at the Irish folk revival of the last 20 or 30 years. 60 years ago virtually unheard abroad and largely unloved at home, Irish music has given the world a sense of Ireland and Ireland a sense of itself, as the country has risen from an impoverished post-colonial upstart to a modern European power. Contributors include Christy Moore, Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains, Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners, Liam Clancy of The Clancy Brothers and Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.
Documentary which looks back at Britain during the 18th century, a time of sexual excess and liberation, particularly in London. Vast amounts of erotic art and literature were produced – from the debauches of Fanny Hill, the orgies pictured by Thomas Rowlandson and accounts of the activities of the Hellfire Club. Presenter Matthew Sweet argues that the creators of this erotic enlightenment were not merely grubby pornographers, but that they conjured new ways of understanding human subjectivity.
Since its first foray onto the airwaves on Monday October 28 1957, the Today programme has been setting the nation's agenda. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, this film looks back at some of the most memorable moments in Today's history, drawing on some of the best audio from those 50 years, and remembering and talking to some of those who have been involved in and with the programme.
Britain's withdrawal from India in 1947 triggered one of the biggest migrations in history. 15 million were displaced and more than a million lost their lives. The story is told through the testimony of people who lived together for centuries, but were forced out of their homes as one of the largest and most ethnically diverse nations in the world was divided. Dramatised reconstructions evoke some of the mistrust, violence and upheaval that ensued.
Michael Rosen investigates the quietly subversive world of cartoonist William Heath Robinson, whose crazy contraptions send up the 20th century's blind faith in machines and technology. From his extraordinary cartoons of World War One which expose the absurdity of the technology of war to his mocking illustrations of middle class life-style and etiquette, Rosen reveals Heath Robinson as a suburban visionary.
Documentary about Belgium's greatest boy detective and his creator Herge, as related in a rare taped interview by journalist Numa Sadoul. Featuring groundbreaking animation in which footage of Herge is synchronised to fit the audio interview, plus an interview with Tintin expert, the late Harry Thompson.
Ewan McGregor celebrates the 70th birthday of Scotland's most famous icon.
Presented by David Attenborough. After millions of years evolving at sea, crabs have found new ways to breathe, move, avoid enemies and prevent themselves from baking alive. For every challenge land poses the crabs have found a solution, from digging wells to developing lungs. But the biggest shock is how far they have reached - the middle of the desert!
A celebration of the shows that have tickled our festive funnybones over the years, from the Morecambe and Wise and Mike Yarwood spectaculars of the 1960s and 70s, to the Only Fools and Horses specials of the 1990s. Plus more recent yuletide treats, such as The Royle Family and The Catherine Tate Show.
Highlights of TV coverage from the year that saw New Labour rise to power, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the birth of Dolly, the first cloned sheep.
Using archive editions of Newsnight, the Nine O'Clock News and Question Time, Brian Hanrahan traces the chronology of the Falklands war from invasion through to final victory, including: news coverage of the Task Force setting off from the UK; the re-capture of South Georgia; the sinking of the Belgrano; the attack on HMS Sheffield; and the battle of Goose Green. Presenters who feature in the original BBC coverage include Robin Day, Peter Snow, John Simpson and Donald McCormick.
Victoria Wood goes in search of the legacy of British dominion over much of the globe as she tours the empire of her illustrious namesake. The multi award-winning writer and comedian finds an enduring British influence in Calcutta and Darjeeling in India, before heading for Hong Kong and Borneo.
Documentary which goes in search of the colliding worlds of pop and kids' TV, including the embarrassing moments, strange kids and bizarre incidents that illuminated the many facets of the genre. With interviews from past programme makers, presenters, pop stars and record company executives, including Sarah Greene, Mike Read, Stephen Gately, Tommy Boyd, Searchers and Emma Forbes.
Documentary following the final archaeological exploration of the interior of the largest man-made mound in Europe - Silbury Hill, one of our most mysterious prehistoric landmarks. It also tells the story of the people who built Silbury, people whose beliefs drove them to sculpt the landscape of the Avebury area, leaving a legacy of great structures. Major discoveries help us to understand the monument, revealing that it was built when prehistoric Britain was on the brink of great change.
The story of Colin McRae, the first British driver to win the World Rally Championship, is told by those who knew him best - his co-drivers Derek Ringer and Nicky Grist, the team bosses at Subaru, Ford and Citroen and his father Jimmy, himself a five-time British rally champion.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Scouting movement, a celebrated roll call of former Guides, Scouts, Cubs and Brownies - including Cherie Blair, Ronnie Corbett, Betty Boothroyd and Arthur Smith - relive nights under canvas, fiddling with knots and singing around the campfire. Meanwhile, Neil Morrissey mucks in with some of today's Scouts for a weekend at camp. Plus, historical and classic comedy clips from the likes of Harry Enfield, the Goodies and Little Britain.
Should England have its own national anthem and should the song be Jerusalem? This documentary explores the enduring appeal of one of the nation's favourite hymns.
Our understanding of Edwardian Britain is dominated by images from flickering footage and formal family portraits. But a remarkable discovery has been made which for the first time gives voice to the Edwardians. Hundreds of recordings have come to light which reveal the accents and dialects of British Prisoners of War held in German camps and recorded during World War One. This archive presents a unique glimpse into the way ordinary men spoke at the time. Joan Washington, a voice coach and expert in British accents, sets out to tell the story of these recordings and piece together how the Edwardians spoke. She returns to the hometowns of some of the prisoners to meet their families and play them the recordings. Listening with an expert ear to the differences between the voices of the prisoners and their families, Joan explores how far all our accents have changed over the century.
From the streets of New York City to the studios of the BBC comes the cream of the New York rock scene, including classic archive performances from the Ramones, New York Dolls, Television, Blondie, Lou Reed and many more.
Today New York is America's greatest city. But 30 years ago this summer, they couldn't even keep the lights on. A blackout plunged seven million people into darkness. Then the nightmare began. Anarchy exploded on the streets: thousands of shops were looted, whole neighbourhoods were burned, it seemed the civilisation of the city had come to an end.
Biography of British motor racing sensation Lewis Hamilton, which tells the story of his incredible rise to fame from humble beginnings in Stevenage to the glitz and glamour of formula one. Includes interviews with Murray Walker, Denise Lewis, Colin Murray, Maxi Jazz and Trevor Nelson.
Alan Titchmarsh presents a tribute to the influential gardener and writer, Christopher Lloyd, who died in January 2006, and who challenged the tyranny of good taste in the garden.
Documentary about zoologist/anthropologist Desmond Morris. With contributions from experts such as Richard Dawkins, Oliver James and Morris's old friend David Attenborough, it asks how credible Morris's observations and conclusions really were in books such as The Naked Ape, and whether there is still anything to learn from studying humans in the way that he did.
Scot Thomas Telford is perhaps Britain's greatest engineer, and nowhere benefited more from his genius than Highland Scotland. 250 years on from his birth, scores of his creations still stand as testament to his achievements - roads, bridges, churches and the great Caledonian canal. This film reveals and celebrates Telford's Highland legacy.
One of Northern Ireland's most engaging columnists and writers Newton Emerson takes a celebratory yet irreverent look at Craigavon, unearthing the original plans, meeting the evicted farmers and visiting the residents of the experimental city.
A look at the colourful lifestyle and inspiring music and lyrics of Shane MacGowan, former lead singer of the Pogues. Featuring specially-recorded performances of MacGowan's songs.
Drama based on the events of May 1915, when the passenger liner Lusitania was sunk just off the coast of Ireland by a single torpedo fired from the German submarine U-20 and almost 1,200 passengers and crew lost their lives. Bitter controversy surrounded the sinking. Was the ship as innocent as she seemed? Had the British government secretly used a passenger ship to carry explosives? Worse still had Winston Churchill deliberately sacrificed then Lusitania to bring America into the war?
One flush and as if by magic our waste disappears forever, but hidden beneath our streets is a subterranean wonderland where everything we drop down the loo ends up. The boys from the brown stuff are the unsung heroes who pick up from where we leave off. Picking their way through build-ups of fat, with rats for company, it's their job to make sure our movements keep on moving all the way to the sewage treatment plant. Documentary maker David Clews follows the men, known in the sewage trade as flushers, who work under the streets of London. For 150 years flushers have spent their working lives knee deep in excrement, a special band of brothers united in their goal to keep our streets faeces free and save us from infectious waste and diseases. They date back to times when men weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, a job was for life and a day’s work meant hard graft. But times are changing for the flushers of London. Since privatisation and the introduction of modern machinery flusher numbers have plummeted. Once an army 900 strong, now there are only 39 left. One more is about to go, too, as Kenny, the boss, is retiring after 30 years of service. And a new era is also about to begin. For the first time in years the next generation of flushers have been hired. But can the pampered young cope with life underground?
Documentary showing how drab post-war Britain was enlivened by the trad-jazz scene, which ballooned into our first mass youth culture, with thousands of young people dancing the night away in dimly light underground clubs, from Soho's infamous Cy Laurie Club to The Cavern Club in Liverpool. George Melly relives his Rabelaisian youth on the road whilst revisiting some the pubs, clubs and concert halls he once played in. His hilarious stories of singing, drinking and sleeping his way around the country, staying in rotten B n B's and playing to University students are confirmed and embellished by interviews with fellow band members. We learn how 50s Britain saw the emergence of two rival jazz groups - the modernist scene centred around professional bebop musicians Ronnie Scott and friends, and the more amateur raucous style of the trads. Trads wore oversized ex-army gear and duffel coats, drank beer and occasionally took speed to keep awake during their all night parties, whereas the modernists wore sharp suits and black dresses and some musicians dabbled with hard drugs. The bouncer from Cy Laurie's club, Bill Palmer, and regular club goers describe how hundreds of strangely clad trad fans crammed into the club every weekend. Musician Laurie Morgan explains how Archer Street in Soho was the centre of activity for the emergent modernist scene.
1973 was the year when television realised its potential. Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii became the first show with a global audience of one billion and the arrival of large-screen colour TV sets confirmed that as a domestic fixture, the television had come of age. In this film, Mark Lawson looks back at five of the most popular programmes of the year - That's Life!, The Burke Specials, The Generation Game, The Onedin Line and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? - to consider what their success tells us about life in Britain at this time. With contributions from the former controller of BBC One Bill Cotton, Likely Lads writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, drama producer Verity Lambert and television critic Chris Dunkley.
A look at the cultural phenomenon of the ghost story, from folklore to the present.
Margy Kinmonth meets millionaire customers and world-famous designers as she explores the anachronistic but little-explained pocket of the fashion industry known as haute couture.
Michael Cockerell tells the story of how prime ministers have coped with life after Number Ten, after Tony Blair became the youngest member of the ex-PMs' club for a hundred years.
Documentary about the controversial 1970s union boss Derek Robinson, who led the British Leyland workers into a series of strikes.
Was Wales involved in the slave trade? Two hundred years after the trade was abolished, Sean Fletcher travels to Jamaica to look for clues.
Documentary which tells the inside story of the rise and fall of Beatlemania, using previously unseen archive footage and interviews with those who accompanied the Beatles on tour. By 1966 they had played over 1,400 gigs, toured the world four times and sold the equivalent of 200 million records. At the height of their popularity, and without warning, they pulled the plug and never toured again.
Graham Norton profiles the leading ladies of the disco era, including Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Madonna and 'honorary disco queen' Sylvester. Includes contributions from the queens themselves, plus Antonio 'Huggy Bear' Fargas, choreographer Arlene Phillips, songwriters Ashford and Simpson, disco artists Verdine White from Earth, Wind and Fire, Bonnie Pointer of The Pointer Sisters and Nile Rodgers of Chic.
Documentary presented by Jeremy Clarkson on the raid of the German drydock facilities in St Nazaire, France. This was the only site capable of repairing the German battleship Tirpitz, due to it's size. The St. Nazaire Raid (also called Operation Chariot) was a successful British seaborne attack on the heavily defended docks of St. Nazaire in occupied France on the night of March 28, 1942 during World War II. The operation was undertaken by Royal Navy and Army Commando units under the auspices of Louis Mountbatten's Combined Operations. The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown commanded by Stephen Halden Beattie and accompanied by 18 shallow draft boats, rammed the St. Nazaire lock gates and was blown up, ending use of the dock. Commandos landed on the docks and destroyed other dock structures before attempting to fight their way out. All but 27 of the commandos were either killed or captured: 22 escaped back to Britain in the motor torpedo boats and 5 to the Spanish border. The loss of St. Nazaire as a dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs to have to return to home waters. Five Victoria crosses were awarded to men involved in the raid, which has been called The Greatest Raid of All.
Documentary about Gretna Football Club. After unprecedented recent success, Gretna FC are striving to turn the dream of playing in the Scottish Premier League into a reality.
From 2007, a line-up of star performers celebrate the very best of Edward Elgar's music in the 150th anniversary year of his birth.
Andrew Marr explains how Edinburgh changed from a squalid provincial city into a beacon of intellectual thought.
Britain is weighed down by the biggest breasts in Europe. The average chest size of a British teenager has grown dramatically over the past 10 years and is now a whopping 36D. For some young women this is a cause for celebration, for others it can lead to a life of misery as they face bullying and physical pain. Thousands of teenagers - some as young as 13 - are now going under the knife in order to reduce their bust size and "fit" in. This documentary follows the lives of three women who feel defined by their naturally large bust size. One is terrified of having breast reduction surgery but with her breasts causing her chronic back pain she knows it may be her only option. Another hopes that alternative therapies and an exercise regime will downsize her chest; and the third, a fashion student, struggles to be taken seriously in a world where she feels only women with 'small boobs' can look attractive.
Harpist Catrin Finch takes a musical journey to discover the ancient and fascinating history of the harp in Wales and the world, with interviews and performances from internationally-renowned guests including Alan Stivell, Carlos Orosco, Alemu Aga, Isabelle Perrin and Elinor Bennett.
Professor Brian Cox visits Geneva to take a look around Cern's Large Hadron Collider before this vast, 27km long machine is sealed off and the experiment begins. When up and running, it is capable of creating the conditions that existed just a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. Brian joins the scientists who hope that the LHC will change our understanding of the early universe and solve some of its mysteries.
Anglican priest Peter Owen Jones explores the huge number of ancient Christian texts that didn't make it into the New Testament. Shocking and challenging, these were works in which Jesus didn't die, took revenge on his enemies and kissed Mary Magdalene on the mouth. Pete travels through Egypt and the former Roman Empire looking at the evidence of a Christian world very different to the one we know, and finds over seventy gospels, acts, letters and apocalypses all circulating in the early Church.
This year sees the 20th anniversary of the Carbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin that deemed the most famous relic in Christendom a fake. But since then, despite many attempts, no one has been able to determine who the forger was or how the forgery might have been done. This documentary sets out to discover exactly what it is about the image on the Shroud of Turin that has defied imitation and explores new evidence that may challenge the Carbon 14 verdict.
Lionel Mill's film has unique access to Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsen, one of the rulers of the rich, powerful and secretive Saudi royal family. This is a fascinating insight into the conflicts between tradition and modernity in one of the world's most conservative and autocratic countries.
Former Bond girl Joanna Lumley investigates the life of Ian Fleming to coincide with the centenary of his birth and the UK release of the 22nd Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. On a journey which takes her from London to Jamaica, driving Aston Martins, firing Berettas and being surrounded by 24 million pounds' worth of diamonds, Joanna discovers how Fleming poured his personal experiences of war-time espionage, love, luxury and death into his most alluring literary creation, James Bond.
What happens when young women pursue the glamorous lifestyle of WAGs? Is it all it's cracked up to be? Radio 1's Annie Mac meets the winners and losers of the WAGs' world and discovers the amazing tactics some women are using to bag a footballer, but soon she discovers that it can also be a world of exploitation and ruthlessness which has many victims. A recent survey suggests young women are choosing 'celebrity' over traditional jobs. Annie wants to know why and what happens to this wannabe generation when they pursue their dream. Amongst the champagne and excitement, Annie finds young women turning their youth and beauty into cash, careers and opportunity. At first she is impressed by their hard work, toughness and optimism. She teams up with club hostess Maria and meets Lizzy, the presenter of TV's WAGs World, who has a range of business ventures based on her WAG status. But Annie also meets other women who have had a tough time. As their stories unfold, she realises just how ruthless and cutthroat this world really is, one where both men and women can be exploited and where nearly everything has a price.
Documentary examining the the events leading up to the Israeli war of Independence in 1949, its continuing impact on Arab/Israeli relations and the implications for the Middle East peace process.
Fashion journalist Louise Roe goes on a journey to discover why women have boob jobs not just once but, in some cases, again and again. She meets four women in their twenties who have gone under the knife to get the perfect pair of boobs.
Documentary following Chelsea White, a teenager considering a career as a Page 3 girl. She began modelling when she was six but at 17 is too old to be a teenage model and too small for the catwalk. Inspired by Kelly Brook and Jordan believing topless modelling is a fast route to fame and fortune, but it is illegal to do a glamour shoot until the age of 18. For the two months leading up her birthday Chelsea goes on a journey to learn what the glamour industry is really like, seeking advice from agents, photographers and the current queen of glamour, Keeley Hazell, on whether or not she should bare all.
Documentary presented by Anglican priest Pete Owen Jones which explores the huge number of ancient Christian texts that didn't make it into the New Testament. Shocking and challenging, these were works in which Jesus didn't die, took revenge on his enemies and kissed Mary Magdalene on the mouth - a Jesus unrecognisable from that found in the traditional books of the New Testament.
Documentary introducing the world of the body-part double: men and women who have such perfect hands, feet, legs - even bottoms - that they earn a living modelling them and standing in for the stars. Not even in the world of film, pop videos and magazines can models be all-over beauties, or acting heroes perfect physical specimens. Appearing as Michelle Pfeiffer's legs, Kate Moss's hands and Kylie's body, meet the people who are in demand as standards of beauty become ever more exacting.
Journalist Nicky Taylor travels to Amsterdam to investigate the growing debate about the legal classification of cannabis. While there she helps out in a coffee shop that sells the drug, and discovers first hand what the effects of cannabis are on everyday life. Back in the UK Nicky finds out about the genetically modified cannabis skunk, cheap and increasingly sold on the streets. The programme asks whether the drug can make you mad, if it is worse than alcohol and if it is stronger than it used to be. Nicky takes part in a month-long medical trial to find out.
David Howard, professor of music technology at the University of York, presents a documentary about the human voice, explaining just how it works and why replicating it is such a challenge. Comedian Jeremy Hardy and impressionist Rory Bremner are amongst the contributors.
An amazing journey in Norway's Far North as Joanna Lumley pursues a lifelong dream to track down the elusive, stunningly beautiful Northern Lights - 'the true wonder of the world,' as she puts it. Joanna grew up in tropical Malaysia, and as a little girl never saw snow or felt cold. Inspired by fairytales and picture books, she always longed to make the journey north. At last she travels north across the Arctic Circle, up through Norway to Svalbard, the most northerly permanently inhabited place on Earth, where she has to cope with temperatures approaching minus 30 deg C. With a box of crayons in hand, her journey takes her from train to boat, to husky-sled, to snowmobile, as she is pulled ever northwards by what she calls 'the strongest point of the compass'. She explores the romantic fjords of Lofoten and learns to ride a snowmobile, speeding across endless expanses of Lapland tundra with a Sami herdsman in search of his reindeer. As she reaches the Arctic Ocean, she prepares for bed in a hotel made entirely of ice. Everywhere she goes, she asks about the mysterious Northern Lights.
Since his assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King has become known and celebrated throughout the world as a champion of freedom. But there's another side to this man that's in danger of being forgotten - King the raging prophet of God's judgement on the West, the Baptist pastor who said that his mission was 'to redeem the soul of America'. Forty years after his death, politician and campaigner Oona King goes on a journey through the Deep South in search of this aspect of his leadership.
For a year, BBC cameras have filmed the Prince of Wales at home, abroad, at work and on duty. Now, for the first time, we can see and hear for ourselves the private and passionate man behind the controversy and the headlines. As the Prince of Wales turns 60, he has defied convention to become one of Britain's most outspoken and prolific campaigners, as well as being a businessman, ambassador for Britain and a father. This revealing film goes behind the closed doors of the Prince's world and gives us the chance to make up our own minds about the man who, one day, will be king.
Documentary in which a team of top UK virologists exhume the body of statesman, military officer and diplomat Sir Mark Sykes from a country churchyard in an attempt to detect the genetic footprint of one of the most dangerous viruses the world has ever seen, the Spanish Flu. It may be that an aristocrat who died nearly 90 years ago holds the key to preventing a modern bird flu pandemic.
Stephen Fry examines the story behind the first media entrepreneur, printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg, to find out why he did it and how, a story which involves both historical enquiry and hands-on craft and technology. Fry travels across Europe to find out how Gutenberg kept his development work secret, about the role of avaricious investors and unscrupulous competitors and why Gutenberg's approach started a cultural revolution. He then sets about building a copy of Gutenberg's press.
Documentary telling the story of enduring 1960s children's animated marionette show, Thunderbirds. Creator Gerry Anderson, as well as cast, crew and fans, reveal how space travel and new technology promised an exciting future, as Thunderbirds captured the spirit of the age. There's a look at how Gerry's team created futuristic special effects from their humble studios in Slough and why the show was axed after just 32 episodes. Contributors include the voice of Lady Penelope, Sylvia Anderson.
Documentary tracing how human understanding of the jet stream - a ribbon of fast moving air high in the atmosphere - has grown. It has been responsible for bewildering effect on bomber pilots in World War II, turbocharging modern transatlantic flyers, the infamous 1987 hurricane and the devastating floods of recent years. Scientists now believe this powerful weather phenomenon is now changing its pattern of behaviour and could have an even bigger impact on our climate and the way we live our lives.
As the credit crunch bites and a global economic crisis threatens, Robert Peston reveals how the super-rich have made their fortunes, and the rest of us are picking up the bill.
Historian Michael Wood delves through medieval court records to follow the fortunes of a village in Hertfordshire and, more particularly, the family of peasant Christina Cok. The 14th century was a perilous time in British history, shot through with famine, plague and war. It was a time of climate change, virulent cattle diseases and, above all, the Black Death. But it was also the time when modern mentalities were shaped, not just by the rulers but increasingly by the common people. It was the beginning of the end of serfdom, the growth of individual freedom and the start of a capitalist market economy. Michael chooses an everyday story of a medieval country family through which to illustrate the bigger picture of how the character and destiny of ordinary British people was being shaped. It is history told not from the top of society but from the bottom - and especially through the eyes of the forgotten half of the workforce, women. Michael brings to life the story of a 14th-century extended family: peasant Christina Cok, her father Hugh, estranged husband William, and her children John and Alice. Michael shows us that though their lives might at first seem quite alien, you only have to scratch below the surface to find uncanny connections with modern-day Britons. In them, you can see our beginnings as a nation of shopkeepers and the roots of the British love affair with beer and football. Perhaps more importantly is the triumph of that sturdy and cussed streak of individualism that has been a characteristic of 'Britishness' down the centuries.
Documentary looking at how Detroit became home to a musical revolution that captured the sound of a nation in upheaval. In the early 60s, Motown transcended Detroit's inner city to take black music to a white audience, whilst in the late 60s suburban kids like the MC5 and the Stooges descended into the black inner city to create revolutionary rock expressing the rage of young white America. With contributions from Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, George Clinton, Martha Reeves, John Sinclair and the MC5.
Documentary looking at the history of Liverpool, the former gateway to the British Empire whose character was built on the dockside by seafarers and immigrants who came from around the world seeking a new beginning. It examines how the city's maritime history and mixture of people has made its citizens uncertain of their English identity.
Film historian Matthew Sweet presents a documentary reappraising over half a century of British B movies, from John Mills on the wrong end of a whipping in The Lash through to the giant gorilla Konga running amok in Croydon. Sweet argues that the cheapness of these films, unlike the A film, ensured they often portrayed Britain as it really was, even when (as in the case of 1970s sex movies) that wasn't necessarily a nice place to be. John Mortimer and Michael Winner are among the interviewees.
Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon visits an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, which contains a treasure trove of the world's most important illuminated manuscripts. Germaine Greer joins the modern-day illustrator Quentin Blake to consider the religious and political power of these beautiful medieval masterpieces, and to assess their place in the history of art and book production.
Comedian Rich Hall goes west to find out what killed off that most quintessentially American of all film genres, the western. Through films such as The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Little Big Man, The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven, Rich charts the rise and fall of America's obsession with its own creation myth - the Wild West. He explores how the image of the cowboy as a moral, straight-talking heroic figure was created by Hollywood but appropriated by Washington, as one president after another sought to associate themselves with this potent symbol of strength and valour. From Tombstone to Texas, Montana to Wyoming, Rich travels across a landscape that is both actual and mythic in the minds of not just Americans, but all of us. With his customary wit and intelligence he unpicks the truth from the fiction of Hollywood's version of frontier life, draws parallels between popular western narratives and America's more questionable foreign policy, and celebrates the real heroes of the west - John Ford, John Wayne, Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn and Clint Eastwood. Filmed on location in Arizona, Montana and Wyoming and incorporating interviews and archive clips of some of the best-loved westerns of all-time, the film is Rich Hall's personal salute to a genre of film he feels passionate about.
Using unseen archive footage, new filming and interviews with those closest to the action, Michael Cockerell tells the inside story of the 20 years that took Margaret Thatcher from Commons new girl to her election in 1979 as the first ever female British prime minister.
John Harvey presents a documentary about writer Henning Mankell, Sweden's most popular author internationally and the creator of the Kurt Wallander detective series.
Victoria Wood presents the true story behind Britain's timeless comedy (and the Queen Mother's favourite show), with footage of the cast on location and incredible personal tales about the making of the series. Was Arthur Lowe really just like Captain Mainwaring? Why did the Warden always end up in the water? And how did Corporal Jones find a bomb down his trousers?
The great cathedrals were the wonders of the Medieval World - the tallest buildings since the pyramids and the showpieces of Medieval Christianity. Yet they were built at a time when most of us lived in hovels. Architectural historian Jon Cannon explores who were the people that built them and how were they able to achieve such a bold vision.
A discussion of the mathematics of chaos that tries to tie it to climate change and fluctuating financial markets.
James Martin sets his sights on the gruelling Mille Miglia, the annual 1000-mile race through Italy in which over 300 classic cars compete. In its infamous history, the race has tested the talents and endurance of such legends as Fangio, Nuvolari and Sir Stirling Moss. Ever since he was kid in Yorkshire, James Martin has been mad about cars. Now a successful chef, he has put his money where his dreams are and has a garage full of Formula One cars, American classics and oddball delights - from hand-painted Harleys to bubble cars, fibreglass cross-country rough riders and a newly restored Mustang with all the trimmings. Having the power has not been enough - he wants the glory too. So he sets his sights on the Mille Miglia. Taking part has always been a dream for James. He searches for the right car and the right co-driver, and the costs mount as the day of his dreams draws near. In Italy, the support crew, girlfriend Sally and his real pride and joy assemble. The 1948 Maserati has left a 800-thousand-pound hole in the Martin finances - a lot of omelettes. Will the car stay the course? Will Sarah measure up? Is James as tough as he thinks he is? Can a non-Italian actually win? Can he beat the three other competitors with whom he bets on the race? Do the Italians always drive on the right? Should he have bought an English car instead? Crucially, what makes 700 grown men and women drive headlong through the elements for three days with little sleep and less comfort than offered by a sit-on lawn mower?
Northern Ireland has had many historic days in the last 40 years. October 5th, 1968 could be the most important. In this documentary, many of those who took part in the Civil Rights march in Derry on this date talk of the international influences that drove them to take to the streets in protest. Featuring interviews with the voices of dissent in America, Europe and Northern Ireland.
Drama about the life of Florence Nightingale, based largely on her own words, which tells the true and unexpected story behind this most unusual woman - adored by the masses, hated by the few and credited by historians as the brilliant mother of modern nursing.
Documentary in which novelist James Hawes attempts to demolish a number of myths and misconceptions about the life and work of cult writer Franz Kafka. The programme was filmed on location in Prague and Frankenstein in the Czech Republic.
In 1961 Newry man Robert McGladdery was convicted and executed for the brutal murder of local girl Pearl Gamble. His trial caused a media storm and proved a landmark in the debate on capital punishment in the United Kingdom. Now for the first time, using never-before-seen police evidence and private court papers, BBC Northern Ireland tells the story.
A look at the mythical roots in art and literature of Merlin - magician, hero and historical mystery. Merlin is the archetypal wizard, Welsh and Celtic in origin but with connections across the water in Cornwall and middle Europe, and, of course, the Arthurian legends. Clearly, Merlin is the distant relative of Dumbledore and all those weird and wonderful wizards in literature.
In one of the most magical stories ever told, a bright star led the wise men from the east to the new Messiah. Now scientists are looking back into the skies of the ancient world to find out if the Magi could have witnessed a real astronomical event. Could the star of Bethlehem have been a comet, an alignment of planets or even a supernova? Who were the wise men, and why were they watching the night skies? Could evidence from a clay tablet from Babylon, an ancient manuscript from China, a fresco in the Catacombs of Rome and biblical texts help to finally unravel the greatest astronomical story in history?
Documentary in which singer Alesha Dixon, concerned about the increasing pressure on women to conform to an ideal body type, investigates the practice of airbrushing and retouching that has become a staple of magazine photos. Keen to discover whether these images simply celebrate the female form or whether they make harmful, unrealistic demands on women and society, her journey sees her sitting in on 18-year-old Ellie's boob job, hearing fashion mag insider Liz Jones and celeb mate Cheryl Cole complain about the beauty industry and appearing on a front cover with her own body beautiful untouched.
Documentary which follows 19-year-old Amy Hall, full-time drama student, single mum and lap dancer. She can make up to 300 pounds a night dancing but the money doesn't go far, with food and nappies to buy, childcare to pay for and a college course to fund. The late nights also mean she feels both her daughter and college work are being neglected. Amy stands at a crossroads - to give up dancing and concentrate on her degree and dream of becoming an actress or carry on for the sake of her daughter.
Ian Hislop brings his customary humour, analysis and wit to the notorious Beeching Report of 1963, which led to the closure of a third of the nation's railway lines and stations and forced tens of thousands of people into the car and onto the road.
Documentary about how Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island in the world and a seven-day boat trip from Africa, could hold the key to unlocking one of the great mysteries of modern medicine - the genetic basis for asthma.
Documentary telling the story of Lee Barnes, a student who took the banks at their word and helped himself to 40,000 pounds of their credit in just over a year. Lee shows how he got away with it, how he went on the run and how finally he decided to give himself up. The big question now is whether he does or does not go bankrupt.
Drama based on the true story of an outrageous medieval heist, told in the style of Ocean's 11. When Dick Puddlecote is released from a Flanders jail in 1302 to discover his friends, his livelihood and his woman are all in hock to the king, he decides to exact a very modern form of revenge - break into the vault at Westminster Abbey and steal the king's gold. There’s just one catch - failure would earn him and his gang ruthless torture, swift punishment and potentially an eternity in hell. A true story sourced from original trial records, this bold comedy-drama combines the energy of a British heist comedy with the veracity of factual dramas and the bawdiness of Chaucer, breathing life into a strange and foreign world full of priests and prostitutes.
There could be nothing more sweet and sentimental than the sound of traditional carols performed by a velvet-voiced choir at Christmas. Or so you would think. Composer Howard Goodall uncovers the surprising and often secret history of the Christmas carol. Far from being accepted as part of the celebrations of Jesus' birth, over the centuries carols have been banned by both church and state. The carols we sing seem set in stone and yet they can have up to 400 regional variations. Individual carols have caused controversy - While Shepherds Watched had to be cleaned up by the Victorians for being too crude and there's a suspicion that O Come All Ye Faithful was a call to 18th century Jacobites to rebel. The documentary celebrates the enduring power of the carol with a variety of performances from folk singer Bella Hardy to the choir of Truro Cathedral.
During the 1970s, BBC shows like Morecambe and Wise, the Two Ronnies, the Generation Game, Dad's Army and Parkinson transformed the world of television entertainment and delighted audiences in their millions. The man behind the success of these shows was entertainment impresario Sir Bill Cotton, who died in 2008. Stars including Ronnie Corbett, Sir Michael Parkinson and Bruce Forsyth celebrate the golden age of entertainment and remember the man who made it happen.
Jeremy Marre tells the story of Marvin Gaye, one of the great and enduring figures of soul music. His life was one of sexual confusion, bittersweet success and death by the hand of his own father. Includes interviews with the singer's family, friends and musical colleagues, with re-enactments, and archive film of Marvin on stage, at home, and in the recording studio.
This new documentary takes a side-ways look at one of Scotland's highest profile industries, Scotch whisky production. The Whisky Dream, made by Demus Productions, is a wry look at the amazing tale of two English wine merchants Mark and Mary Reynier, who together with Gaelic speaking islanders Jim McEwan and Duncan MacGillivray, embarked on a venture some whisky purists dubbed ‘a hair-brained scheme’. In December 2000, eccentric vintner Mark Reynier overcame astonishing odds to raise the £7.5million needed to buy Bruichladdich, one of the world’s last 19th Century malt whisky distilleries. Aiming to recreate a malt whisky which ‘died’ with American Prohibition in 1929, they have further ‘stirred the pot’ in the whisky industry by, controversially, using a wide variety of wine casks to mature the spirit. The Whisky Dream witnesses through their eyes the birth of the first new Scottish single malt for a decade, debunks some whisky mythology and goes behind the marketing hype to uncover the art of the master blender. MD of the company Mary Reynier says: “We’ve created something new, brought into the world something that’s never been seen…And we’ve created it ourselves.”
As the British Museum prepares to launch its spectacular exhibition on the Emperor Hadrian, Dan Snow takes us on a journey around Hadrian's vast empire. Immortalised in the UK after building a Wall on the edge of his Empire, which bears his name to this day. Hadrian's Wall, as it is known, is just a tiny portion of a massive structure Hadrian had built to protect the Roman Empire, with similar, sister walls running through northern Europe and still more in north Africa. His legacy also includes the Pantheon in Rome. Hadrian brought the Empire to an unparalleled period of peace and prosperity. At the heart of this great Empire, however, lay a mystery - Hadrian's relationship with a young man, Antinous. The friendship led to Antinous being deified by Hadrian following his death, in strange circumstances, on the Nile. Dan Snow uncovers the genius and the dark side of Hadrian: peace-maker, frontier-builder, star-crossed lover, architect - and ruthless oppressor of the jews. But still, Dan concludes, Hadrian was one of the greatest Roman emperors.
Documentary detailing the creation of Ming Emperor Yongle's palace, the Forbidden City. Forged from hundreds of thousands of timbers felled in the remote corners of his empire, and massive stones dragged across ice from the frozen north, Yongle marshalled a million workers to his vision. At 180 acres and with 9000 rooms, it remains the greatest palace on Earth. For five centuries, what went on behind its blood red walls was forbidden to all but the intimate court of the Emperor. Now, the long neglected chronicles of the Ming Dynasty, many specially translated into English for the first time, will tell how the despotic emperor clawed his way to the top, betrayed his own family and killed all in his path to steal the throne. And how he constructed a gilded palace that was also a prison; stocked with concubines, policed by eunuchs and rife with greed and treachery.
Documentary to mark the 500th anniversary of arguably the world's most influential architect, Andrea Palladio. The villas, palaces and public buildings he designed for the aristocrats of Vicenza and Venice, as well as his seminal Four Books of Architecture, defined an architectural style that became known as Palladianism. Its influence can be seen everywhere, from the stately homes of England to the White House. The Palladian villa has been described as the 'perfect house', combining austere grandeur with an inspiring, intimate human scale. The film takes us on a ravishing journey through the plains of the Veneto, visiting the surviving villas and exploring in detail what makes them work, with contributions from leading experts as well as the owners who know and love them.
Professor David Reynolds takes a fresh look at the extraordinary events and personalities that brought about the armistice of 1918, venturing beyond the familiar British account of Remembrance Day to unravel how the other side, the Germans, plunged to total defeat in just a few months at the end of the war. In a journey that takes him through command centres and battlefields, he uncovers a story of wounded egos, mental illness and political brinkmanship as statesmen and generals haggled over the terms of peace, while, at the front, the soldiers fought on with sustained brutality. For many Germans, the armistice was a betrayal of all they had fought for and it caused lasting resentments that would eventually fuel Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Reynolds argues that the bitter endgame of the 'war to end all wars' tragically sowed the seeds of even more appalling conflict to come.
Documentary in which art critic Robert Hughes travels across Spain in search of the reality beyond the mythology of Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Goya has long been Hughes' favourite artist but has become a particular obsession since a near-fatal car accident left Hughes living with nightmares of Goya's often dark and violent imagery.
Blondie is perhaps the most commercially successful band to emerge from the 1970s punk scene. The original lineup consisted of Deborah Harry (vocals), Clem Burke (drums / percussion), Jimmy Destri (keyboards), Chris Stein (guitar / bass guitar) and Gary Valentine (bass guitar / guitar). New York City-based Blondie was formed in 1974, honing its musical skills at the famous punk rock club, CBGBs, and eventually emerging on top of the new wave scene and then crossing over to the pop music mainstream. Their self-titled first album, Blondie, reflected a punk ethos and 1960s girl group sensibilities or, the Ramones meets the Ronettes, as one music critic opined. Blondie made six albums from 1976 to 1982, the most successful being Parallel Lines, considered by many music critics to be one of the best rock albums of all time. Within this time span, from the late seventies to the early eighties, Blondie constituted a major force on the rock/pop scene, producing a string of hit singles internationally. The most well-known of these singles are the reggae-inspired "The Tide Is High," the rap song "Rapture," and the disco-flavored "Heart of Glass" and "Call Me." More recently, in 1999, the single, "Maria," debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, making this song the sixth number one single for the group there. With this hit single, Blondie reached yet another milestone–the first band to have had a number one single in each of the last three decades in the United Kingdom. And the new album, The Curse of Blondie, and its first single "Good Boys" build on that success. So Blondie continues to make music history and the band's legacy grows. The members of Blondie are true pioneers in every sense of the word. Mark Radcliffe narrates a documentary about New York band Blondie, from their early beginnings in Bowery clubs like CBGBs alongside other up and coming bands like The Ramones, Patti Smith & Talking Heads. The documentary tracks their years of international success, t
Professor Jim Al Khalili delves into over 50 years of the BBC science archive to tell the story behind the emergence of one of the greatest theories of modern science, the Big Bang. The remarkable idea that our universe simply began from nothing has not always been accepted with the conviction it is today and, from fiercely disputed leftfield beginnings, took the best part of the 20th century to emerge as the triumphant explanation of how the universe began. Using curious horn-shaped antennas, U-2 spy planes, satellites and particle accelerators, scientists have slowly pieced together the cosmological jigsaw, and this documentary charts the overwhelming evidence for a universe created by a Big Bang.
Portrait of the eccentric, charismatic British motor racing legend Graham Hill, a man who lived and died during a time when sex was safe and racing was dangerous. Uniquely, he won the Formula 1 World Championship, the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 hours; he won the Monaco Grand Prix five times and was a great raconteur and a dashing figure with a keen eye for the ladies. Features contributions from family, close friends and former colleagues including son Damon and track rival Jackie Stewart.
Cultural historian Andrew Hussey goes on a gastronomic tour through French history, from Versailles, the spiritual centre of French power politics and the birthplace of French cuisine, via the French Revolution and the creation of the Michelin guide, through to nouvelle cuisine and ethnic fusion food. For Hussey, France emerges as the 'Republic of Food', a place where the health of both its democracy and its civilisation can at any one time be gauged by how well its people are being fed. Some of France's top chefs, including Paul Bocuse and Pierre Gagnaire are among those he meets on the way.
Benjamin Woolley presents the gripping story of Nicholas Culpeper, the 17th century radical pharmacist who took on the establishment in order to bring medicine to the masses. Culpeper lived during one of the most tumultuous periods in British history. When the country was ravaged by famine and civil war, he took part in the revolution that culminated in the execution of King Charles I.
In 1986, Alastair Campbell had a mental breakdown, the culmination of months of intensive stress at work, too much alcohol, and myriad complex issues. Campbell believes that speaking openly about mental illness helps to de-stigmatise it and so in this startlingly frank documentary he relives the traumas of his breakdown. He talks to some of those who witnessed it, and though it was more than 20 years ago, the journey opens up painful memories. In the end Campbell believes the experience left him stronger and able to cope with the stresses and strains of working at the seat of power.
Documentary tracing the modern history of the comedy pop song from the birth of the charts in 1952 to its reinvention in the new millennium. We discover that George Martin was the missing link between the Goons and the Beatles, that the Barron Knights invented the parody song and that the Two Ronnies were not big fans of Not the Nine O'Clock News. Almost everyone appears in the comedy song's chequered history of peaks and troughs, from the 1960s satire boom to the 1970s golden period of Monty Python and Billy Connolly and on through the wilderness years of 1980s novelty naffness and the genre's redemption in alternative comedy and the likes of Victoria Wood and Alexei Sayle.
Documentary in which self-confessed medieval foodie Clarissa Dickson Wright tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook - The Forme of Cury, a 700-year-old scroll written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the king's master chefs - and wonders if this ancient manuscript may have influenced the way people eat today. On her culinary journey through medieval history she reawakens recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and discovers dishes that are still prepared now.
Documentary telling the story of swing, an obscure form of jazz that became the first worldwide pop phenomenon, inspired the first ever youth culture revolution and became a byword for sexual liberation and teenage excess well before the Swinging Sixties. In the process, swing threw up some of the greatest names in 20th century music, from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. The film uses archive and contemporary accounts to shed light on why it endures today.
For a century, Britain's newspapers have been run by a handful of extraordinary men - the press barons. Andrew Neil tells the remarkable story of Britain's newspaper proprietors and their relationships with the Prime Ministers of the day. From Lord Northcliffe and Lloyd George, to Lord Beaverbrook and Winston Churchill, to Rupert Murdoch and Gordon Brown, it's a tale of power and intrigue at the very top, and the epic battles between Fleet Street and Downing Street.
As three unconventional politicians - Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick - battle it out to be Mayor of London, John Sergeant tells the story of Westminster's lone riders, the rebels who have refused to play by the rules. Combining interviews and archive, he explores our enduring fascination with politicians who dare to be different and do their own thing.
A documentary looking at Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech on the 40th anniversary of its delivery. The documentary charts sacking from the Cabinet of Edward Heath after the controversial speech which predicted violence on the streets of Britain and which quoted Roman poet Virgil's prophesy: "I see the Tiber foaming with much blood". The documentary also examines the effect of the speech on Britain's immigration policy.
Former cabinet minister Michael Portillo assesses the legacy and continued influence of Margaret Thatcher on the Conservative Party. He talks with former colleagues about the highs of the Thatcher years and the lows that followed for the Tories, speaking frankly about his own personal regrets and the damage Thatcher inflicted on the party in the wilderness years after John Major's premiership.
Simon Russell Beale tells the story behind Allegri's Miserere, one of the most popular pieces of sacred music ever written. The programme features a full performance of the piece by the award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.
Jimmy Doherty, pig farmer and star of Jimmy's Farming Heroes, travels to Nepal to meet an ancient group of people who risk their lives to farm their local honey. A keen beekeeper with a passion for honey, Jimmy has always been blown away by the sheer variety of flavours, appreciating a good honey like others enjoy a fine wine. So when he heard about an ancient group of people in Nepal who are willing to risk their lives to taste their local honey, he knew he wanted to share the experience. As a 'honey hunter' Jimmy must scale a massive cliff to reach the home of more than two million bees and dangle 200 feet up to get their honey. If successful, the reward is not only to learn more about these amazing bees, but also to taste one of nature's finest bounties - beautiful wild honey.
Fifty years after his death, this musical and psychological portrait of Ralph Vaughan Williams explores the passions that drove a giant of 20th-century English music. It explores the enormous musical range of an energetic, red-blooded composer whose output extends well beyond the delicate pastoralism of his perhaps most famous piece, The Lark Ascending. The film tells the story of his long marriage to his increasingly disabled wife Adeline and his long affair with the woman who eventually became his second wife, Ursula. The effect of these complicated relationships on his music is demonstrated in performances of orchestral and choral works, specially filmed at Cadogan Hall, London by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox and by the singers of Schola Cantorum of Oxford. Among the contributors is the late Ursula Vaughan Williams, who was interviewed shortly before she died at the age of 96.
Documentary looking at how life in the Welsh countryside has changed in the last 50 years. Long-lost archive clips give a rare glimpse of the sights and characters.
John McDouall Stuart was Australia's greatest inland explorer. His maps enabled Charles Todd to construct a telegraph line through the continent, which allowed Australia to communicate on the world stage. It made Todd a hero - but it cost Stuart his life.
Marking the 2008 centenary of Alistair Cooke's birth, this documentary is a revealing portrait of one of the most celebrated broadcasters of the 20th Century, whose Radio 4 programme Letter from America spanned 58 years. Seen for the first time are extraordinary 8mm home movies shot by Cooke from 1933 onwards, charting his discovery of America, his passions and his friendships. This is a chance to see America as Cooke first saw it - the raw material for a lifetime of journalism. Some of the most fascinating of these films were made during his close friendship with Charlie Chaplin. Thought lost for years, they show Chaplin at leisure on his yacht with Paulette Goddard and Cooke, and are among the most candid footage ever shot of the star. Cooke's story is told in his own voice and in interviews with family and close friends. Both first wife Ruth Emerson Cooke and Jane Cooke - his wife from 1946 - share their memories, and actress Lauren Bacall also recalls their friendship.
In December 1938, Eilean nan Ron was abandoned by its people. This film accompanies one of the few surviving residents, 90-year-old Kitty Ann MacQueen, as she takes to the air in a helicopter to return to her childhood home - the tiny remote island near Skerray in Sutherland. During Kitty Ann's last years on the island, she was a school teacher and has clear memories of what life was like for the islanders. Despite having lived in England for 60 years, Kitty is one of the few remaining speakers of what was the prevalent language of the island - Sutherland Gaelic.
A look at pre-1980s British policing techniques, and whether the "old-style" policing techniques were as bad as their portrayal in "Life on Mars" (2006) or whether they may have proved more effective than modern-day political correctness.
Film about one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, when the radical spirit of the Sixties upstaged the greatest sporting event in the world. Two men made a courageous gesture that reverberated around the world and changed their lives forever. There were a number of unforgettable performances at Mexico City Olympic Games and many world records were broken, but the enduring image from the 1968 Games was when African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved clenched fists in support of the Black Panther movement during the Star Spangled Banner, after receiving gold and bronze medals for the 200m sprint. They were subsequently banned from the Games for life. This documentary asks what inspired them to make their protest, why it carried such a powerful message and what happened to the unlikely revolutionaries following the Games.
Documentary which reveals how the humble mouth-organ has been bent to different forms of music-making, featuring interviews and demonstrations from the world's leading players. With over a billion sold, the harmonica, often dismissed as a toy, was the first great democratiser in music creation, and Rory McLeod, Will Galison, Paul Jones, Brendan Power and Charlie Leighton are among those highlighting the instrument's appeal.
Following on from the BAFTA-shortlisted Panorama programme ]Taking on the Taliban, and the critically acclaimed follow up, What happened after taking on the Taliban, Ben Anderson catches up with 24-year-old Lance Corporal Jack Mizon of the Queen's Company, Grenadier Guards. Mizon was a hero in Aghanistan, in the thick of some of the fiercest fighting that left two of his fellow soldiers dead and many more seriously wounded. He was honoured for his bravery, but back home in the UK he is struggling to readjust to civilian life and has become involved in frequent fights near his Aldershot barracks. Anderson follows his exploits for two months in Afghanistan and then back home as Jack is charged with assault and GBH, stripped of his rank, and faces the prospect of four years in a civilian prison.
Walter Tull was a pioneering black British footballer and the first black officer in the British army, who died heroically fighting in the First World War and yet is virtually unheard of today. Former Eastenders star Nick Bailey relates the story of this forgotten hero, investigating war records to establish whether there was a colour bar in the British Army and asking how Tull managed to become an officer despite army regulations requiring only men of 'pure European descent'. Bailey also tries to discover why Lieutenant Tull was denied a Military Cross for heroism even though his commanding officer recommended him for one. Tull's parents died before he was seven years old and he was sent to an orphanage in London's East End, but despite that he won a place in the first team of one of Britain's most famous clubs, Tottenham Hotspur. However, after just seven games and great match reports, he received such racial abuse he never played for the first team again. Far from giving up, Tull rebuilt his football career and then signed up for military service at the first opportunity.
Documentary examining the the events leading up to the Israeli war of Independence in 1949, its continuing impact on Arab/Israeli relations and the implications for the Middle East peace process.
Rob Brydon narrates a dramatised/animated documentary which reveals the clash at the heart of the Medieval mind - between the reason and the supernatural - using rational process to dissect the divine. In 1307 the full weight of medieval justice descended on the sleepy town of Hereford. But this court wasn't summoned to prove innocence or guilt. The man on trial wasn't a murderer, or a criminal. In fact he wasn't even alive. This was a holy inquiry, called by the Catholic Church to prove whether a dead English bishop was actually a miracle-worker - and whether he should be made into a saint. His case comprised several alleged miracles, the most notorious being the spectacular resurrection of a hanged man. A Welsh terrorist executed by the state, hanged twice just to make sure, this wanted criminal somehow came back from the dead. And now a papal court would use all the instruments of legal process - witness statements, forensic evidence, cross examination - to prove whether it was truly a miracle.
Documentary about the evolution of innuendo on the BBC and how it led to the collapse of the corporation's prim and proper attitudes.
Daisy Asquith investigates the mysterious world of children's entertainers. The idea for the film came to her whilst on a typical seaside holiday where a different children's entertainer would set up in the hotel ballroom at six o'clock each evening and perform a different act. From animal petting to sea shanties to balloon buffoonery, it seemed an almost thankless task. Kids screaming, crying, badgering and demanding whilst performers attempted to maintain their professional cool and pull yet another hankie from their sleeve or fall face down again, knowing it's guaranteed to make a four-year-old laugh. She started to wonder who these people were, how they ended up here, whether this was their life-long ambition and how they knew what the children wanted. Then those creeping doubts and stereotypical fears stated to rear their ugly heads: don't you have to be a bit weird to do this sort of thing, are they all failed adult entertainers and do they all still live with their mothers? Back home, Daisy started to investigate further and soon found all her preconceptions challenged in a world of pirates and pumpkins, comedy handshakes and rabbits in hats. This is a film about what she found.
Documentary using archive footage, eye-witness testimony and contributions from some of the world's most distinguished historians to tell the story of the British wartime operation that rescued Hitler's hoard of looted art. During the war, the Fuhrer amassed about 2,000 old masters, stripped from the greatest galleries and museums in Europe. The Bonzos were the covert group sent to retrieve these treasures
Writer and pop addict Paul Morley explores and celebrates the beauty and mystery of the pop single.
Thirty-one years after his death, the elfin, glam rock star Marc Bolan 's rise to fame is retold with a mixture of rare concert footage, home movies and contributions from friends.
Documentary charting the success of Scottish pop bands in the 1980's and 90's.Featuring acts such as; Orange juice, The Associates , The Bluebells and The Proclaimers
Celebration of the magic of pop music and the skill and musical dexterity that goes into writing, performing and producing hit records. Conductor Charles Hazlewood explores the mechanics of pop songs such as Imagine, Tomorrow Never Knows and Back to Black by breaking them down into six key areas, aided by contributions from a cast of writers, producers and arrangers including Guy Chambers, Martin Fry, Steve Levine, Richard Niles, Nick Ingman, John Altman and Rob Davis.
Documentary looking at the history of the iconic quiz show University Challenge. Featuring famous ex-contestants such as Stephen Fry, John Simpson, Julian Fellowes and Miriam Margoyles plus hosts Bamber Gascoigne and Jeremy Paxman, it traces the origins and development of the programme. From the first show transmitted in 1962 to the present day as it is being immortalised on film in Starter for Ten, a celebration of the triumphs, disasters and quirky characters of an enduring TV institution.
With a passion for art that is rivalled only by travel, Michael Palin combines both in a European journey to discover more about Vilhelm Hammershoi, an enigmatic Danish artist that has fascinated him for years. Curious to see more of Hammershoi's paintings and discover what kind of life the artist lived, Michael searches for clues in London, Holland and Copenhagen.
A journey back to the 1950s for a look at the wildest pop music of all time in a film that tells the stories of Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, giants from an era when pop music really was mad, bad and dangerous to know. The programme features the artists themselves, alongside people like Bill Haley's original Comets, the Crickets, Buddy Holly's widow Maria Elena, Jerry Lee Lewis's former wife Myra Gail and his sister, Chuck Berry's son and many more, including June Juanico, Elvis' first serious girlfriend. Other contributors include Tom Jones, Jamie Callum, Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard, Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, Green Day, Minnie Driver, Jack White, the Mavericks, Jools Holland, Hank Marvin, Fontella Bass, John Waters and more. Elvis's pelvis was just the start. Who had to change the lyrics to their biggest hit because the originals were too obscene? Who married their 13-year-old cousin? Who used lard to get their hair just right? And what happened on the day the music died?
Respect Yourself is an authoritative film about one of the great stories in rock and roll. The story is about Stax Records whose hits include Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay, Soul Man, If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Wanna Be Right), Knock On Wood and Respect.
The Two Ronnies, Noel Edmonds, Andre Previn, Morecambe & Wise and Tony Blackburn are among the famous faces on this nostalgic feast - from soap-opera cliffhangers to tension on Top of the Pops. Presented by Phill Jupitus
Documentary in which Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how the Medici family transformed Florence through sculpture, painting and architecture and created a world where masterpieces fetch millions today. Without the money and patronage of the Medici we might never have heard of artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo or Botticelli. Graham-Dixon examines how a family of shadowy, corrupt businessmen, driven by greed and ambition, became the financial engine behind the Italian Renaissance.
Profile of the 1970s glam band Roxy Music, who reformed after 25 years to make a new album. The film traces the musical development of the group from 1972 up to the present day, as we discover how they influenced a generation of musicians such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Duran Duran and U2 and why they are still a musical force to be reckoned with today. Featuring interviews with band members Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay, Paul Thomson, Eddie Jobson and Gary Tibbs, plus fans including Bono, Siouxsie Sioux, Nile Rodgers of Chic, John Taylor of Duran Duran and Alison Goldfrapp.
Tribute to the prolific television and film producer, who was involved in making such shows as the original Doctor Who, Jonathan Creek , Minder and Eldorado.
Documentary celebrating the marvellously mirthful saga of Edmund Blackadder. Featuring interviews with key cast and crew members, and rare rehearsal footage.
A compilation of BBC studio performances of some of the great Manchester bands from the 1960s to the present, including Freddie and the Dreamers, The Hollies, 10CC, the Buzzcocks, The Fall, Joy Division, James, M-People, Oasis and many more.
An Irish language documentary featuring the natives of Inishbofin Island off the coast of Donegal, which is only habitable during the summer months, whether by humans or by the rare and elusive corncrake. The film chronicles the annual migration of the two populations to the island - the return of the corncrakes from sunnier climes and that of various families and individuals from the mainland to their ancestral homes where, isolated from most modern conveniences, they struggle to preserve a dying way of life.
Profiling the leading men of the glam rock era, Lisa Tarbuck guides us through the glittering careers of Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Noddy Holder, Brian Ferry, Elton John and honorary glam king Suzi Quatro. Industry men including producer Tony Visconti, songwriter Mike Chapman and photographer Mick Rock give the insider angle to the work of these artists.
Antonio Carluccio travels to Sicily to discover more about Lampedusa's novel The Leopard.
Documentary. At the Munich Olympics of 1972, Ugandan John Akii Bua powered round the inside lane in the 400m hurdles, past English favourite and reigning Olympic Champion David Hemery, to win the gold medal, 10m clear of the field. The clock showed 47.82, an astonishing new world record. Akii Bua was the first African to win gold in an event under 800 metres. He was also the first man to break the 48 seconds barrier in the 400 metre hurdles, an event so gruelling its nickname is 'The Mankiller'. But, while David Hemery retired to respectable fame and fortune, Akii Bua returned to a Uganda carving the name of its military 'President', Idi Amin, into genocidal notoriety. After the glory of 1972, John never found prosperity in his country, beautiful but blighted by the Amin slaughter, tribal rivalries and poverty. Akii Bua's tribe, the Langi, were the primary victims of Amin's slaughter, and John's national popularity could only protect him for so long. In 1979, Akii Bua fled for his life to Kenya. In the trauma, his wife gave birth prematurely, and the baby died. The couple did not even have the money to bury him. Shortly afterwards, Akii Bua presented his former coach, Englishman Malcolm Arnold, with 12 foolscap notebooks. Arnold, astonished, found they contained Akii Bua's life story, written in longhand, in pencil, in English, his third language. In 1983, with Amin ousted, Akii Bua returned to Uganda, his achievements and place in history seemingly forgotten. This is a film about the pinnacle of athletic achievement - and the search to discover what followed. The John Akii Bua Story is the story of one man, and of Africa itself; its glory, potential and tragedy.
On a wild autumn night in 1588 a gold-laden warship from the Spanish Armada was wrecked on Antrim's treacherous north coast. For nearly four centuries the Girona lay undiscovered, until treasure hunter Robert Stenuit found the wreck and secretly began to salvage its golden hoard.
Don Letts's hilarious and colourful profile of the godfather of funk, whose 50-year career has defined the genre. From his 1950s days running a doo-wop group out of the back of his barber store, through the madness of the monster Parliament/Funkadelic machine of the 70s to his late 90s hip-hop collaborations with Dre and Snoop, George Clinton has inspired generations of imitators. Contributors include Outkast's Andre 3000 and Macy Gray.
Documentary about the 18-year odyssey of a group of enthusiasts who set out to build a brand new mainline steam engine from scratch in 1990.
Around the World in 20 Years is a BBC television travel documentary first broadcast in December 2008, presented by Michael Palin. It follows him as he retraces the Dubai - Mumbai leg of his journey Around the World in 80 Days. Also featured is his reunion with the captain and crew of the al-Sharma dhow, in which he had undertaken the journey 20 years ago. Palin finds the captain of the al-Sharma in Gujarat and is heartily welcomed. He also reunites with several of the surviving crew members and discovers several of them have since died, including the old man whom he'd let listen to Bruce Springsteen on his Walkman during the voyage. The captain also reveals that the al-Sharma was lost at sea in the Indian Ocean some years before when it was being towed for repairs.
Back in 1980, a teenage Steve Cram was part of a team of British athletes who defied their government to go behind the iron curtain and compete in the Olympic Games. Steve Cram returns to the Russian capital to relive the story of the most controversial Olympics of modern times. An Olympics boycotted by the United States because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and blighted by allegations of cheating and state sponsored doping. But these were also the games of Daley Thompson, Duncan Goodhew, Alan Wells and the incredible rivalry between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. It's a fascinating story in which we hear how the games that threatened the very existence of the Olympic movement actually changed it for the better and, decades later, provided an unexpected bonus for the whole of British sport.
Michael Portillo revisits the family of a school friend who committed suicide as a teenager, discovering how the tragedy has coloured their lives ever since. His friend Gary was popular and good-looking, a gifted musician and a clever student. But just before his 16th birthday he committed suicide, leaving a note telling his parents he loved them and asking them not to be sad. In detailed and moving interviews with Gary's parents and younger brother, Michael learns how incredibly difficult it was for them to fulfil this plea. The implicit message from Gary's family to anyone who may be in despair and thinking of ending their life is to think hard about how it is going to affect those they are leaving behind. Despite the sadness, the courage shown by the family as they revive such painful memories is uplifting. Home videos reveal a happy and carefree family. The music in the programme was composed by Gary. After being lost for 40 years, it was rediscovered in the making of the film and performed by his younger brother.
In July 1992, Rachel Nickell was murdered on Wimbledon Common in front of her two-year-old son. What followed was one of the nation's most controversial murder investigations. Police used a honey trap to get a confession from one man, Colin Stagg. He suffered death threats, physical attacks, imprisonment, and became one of the most hated men in Britain. This drama documentary tells the shocking story of how police targeted an innocent man, and includes an exclusive interview with Stagg.
Britain's National Health Service celebrates its sixtieth birthday on 5 July this year. Serving over one and a half million patients and their families every day, the NHS is the biggest service of its kind in the world. It is universally regarded as a national treasure - the most remarkable achievement of post war Britain. Yet, surprisingly, the National Health Service very nearly did not happen at all. In the months leading to its launch it was bitterly opposed - by the Tory Party and the national press. But its most vicious and vocal opponents were the very people its existence depended on - surgeons, nurses, dentists and Britain's 20,000 doctors. To get the NHS at all required the persistence and determination of one man - Nye Bevan, Labour's minister of health. This film tells the extraordinary story of the six months leading up to its traumatic birth.
Marty Feldman was one of the greats of British comedy. He was a splendid physical clown who hoped to emulate Buster Keaton , but the system that made him a star withdrew its support when they couldn't pigeonhole him. John Cleese , Michael Palin and David Frost are among those who contribute.
The story of South Yorkshire's Highgate Greyhound Stadium, which each week attracts a motley crowd of characters to the world of flapping - independent, unregulated greyhound racing. In the days when the mines dominated South Yorkshire, flapping was a way of life. But as the mines have closed, so have the tracks. In 1948, there were over 130 flapping tracks in the UK. By 1984, the year of the miners' strike, there were less than 60. Today there are just 11. The tracks may be dwindling, but to those involved flapping remains an obsession and Highgate is at the centre of these dogmen's lives. At Highgate, 'Tricky' Russ is in charge and as proprietor is all powerful in this unregulated world. But financially, the track is in trouble and his son shows no interest in entering the family business. In step the track's landlords who have regretted their decision to lease the track and are now determined to restore it to its former glory.
Re-United follows Munich Air Crash survivor Harry Gregg on an intensely personal journey that re-unites the former Manchester United goalkeeper with the people and places inextricably linked to the single darkest moment in British sporting history. For the first time in 50-years Harry revisits the scene of the crash in Munich that claimed the lives of 23 passengers, including eight of the team known affectionately as the Busby Babes.
Documentary investigating the mystery behind the death of singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, killed by a speedboat in Mexico in 2000. The boat, travelling at high speed in an area restricted for divers, belonged to one of Mexico's wealthiest businessmen but no-one has been prosecuted over the incident. Kirsty's mother Jean's search for the truth and her attempts to bring those she believes are responsible to justice are documented here.
Remember Living in the Past? It was the 1970s documentary series in which six families spent a year living in the Iron Age, working, sleeping and eating as their ancestors would have done 2,300 years before. Thirty years on, What Happened Next? catches up with the people who took part. Some still sport neolithic beards, while others nurse ancient grievances - one man describes building a house from mud and wood during the wettest spring of the century as "sheer hell".
In the early 18th century, Antonio Vivaldi composed music for La Pieta in Venice, a home for children who were abandoned at birth. The institution had its own all-female orchestra and choir who provided entertainment in the church for visiting tourists. This film tells the story of that extraordinary partnership through the eyes of a modern group of female singers and musicians as they travel to Venice to recreate Vivaldi's music in the Pieta as it sounded 300 years ago.
In this programme, David Attenborough asks three key questions: how, and why, did Darwin come up with his theory of evolution? Why do we think he was right? And why is it more important now than ever before? David starts his journey in Darwin's home at Down House in Kent, where Darwin worried and puzzled over the origins of life. David goes back to his roots in Leicestershire, where he hunted for fossils as a child, and where another schoolboy unearthed a significant find in the 1950s. And he revisits Cambridge University, where both he and Darwin studied, and where many years later the DNA double helix was discovered, providing the foundations for genetics. At the end of his journey in the Natural History Museum in London, David concludes that Darwin's great insight revolutionised the way in which we see the world. We now understand why there are so many different species, and why they are distributed in the way they are. But above all, Darwin has shown us that we are not set apart from the natural world, and do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its laws and processes, as are all other animals on earth to which, indeed, we are related.
Dan Cruickshank presents a documentary revealing the story of the Dalai Lama, his secret Himalayan kingdom and the story of his exile, using eyewitness accounts from Tibetans including the Dalai Lama himself and colour archive footage of Tibet from the 1930s to 50s.
Charles Rangeley Wilson, author, journalist and BBC 2's Accidental Angler, travels to Japan to explore the Japanese people's passionate relationship to fish.
Documentary in which George Lamb dives into the world of legal party pills and herbal highs. Legal highs are sold openly and legally in shops across the UK and on the internet. There are thousands of different pills, powders and herbs that promise the same effects as illegal drugs, but for much less hassle - no arrests for possession and no backstreet dealers to visit. Lamb sets out to discover why they are legal and whether this means they can also be called safe. He meets people who take them, a man who sells them and a doctor who says they are potentially more dangerous than class A drugs. He travels to Guernsey, where most of the young people he meets have tried them, and finally decides to try one for himself. They might be legal and easily accessible, but should they be used? This film presents all the information needed to make a decision.
Writer Paul Morley takes a journey back through time to revisit his own adventures and misadventures in fashion and meets the pop stars who he feels are responsible for the way he looks now.
Cleopatra - the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared - until now. In one of the world's most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony. From Egypt to Turkey, Neil Oliver investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power. This is the portrait of a killer.
British novelist Marcel Theroux is fascinated by Wabi Sabi, a theory of Japanese aesthetics in which imperfection and transience are the touchstone of beauty. The Japanese say that if you can understand Wabi Sabi, you will understand Japan and the Japanese. Yet at the same time they have immense difficulty in explaining the concept themselves, so Marcel travels across Japan, from Tokyo to Kyoto and then on to the mountains of Fukui, trying to unravel the meaning of this baffling concept that is at the heart of what makes the Japanese tick. It is a challenging, funny and ultimately moving journey that starts under the bright neon lights and craziness of Tokyo and ends in an austere Zen Temple in the snowy foothills of Japan's eastern mountains.
An extraordinary insight into the secretive world of the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. When two radical Amish men, Ephraim and Jesse Stoltzfus, start to question some of the most fundamental aspects of their Amish culture, they face excommunication from their church and total rejection by their friends and family.
Andrew Graham-Dixon takes a journey into the art and soul of the Samurai, who ruled Japan for 700 years and were much more than mere warriors.
Documentary which tells the story of evolution theory since Darwin postulated it in 1859 in 'On the Origin of Species'. The theory of evolution by natural selection is now scientific orthodoxy, but when it was unveiled it caused a storm of controversy, from fellow scientists as well as religious people. They criticised it for being short on evidence and long on assertion and Darwin, being the honest scientist that he was, agreed with them. He knew that his theory was riddled with 'difficulties', but he entrusted future generations to complete his work and prove the essential truth of his vision, which is what scientists have been doing for the past 150 years. Evolutionary biologist Professor Armand Marie Leroi charts the scientific endeavour that brought about the triumphant renaissance of Darwin's theory. He argues that, with the new science of evolutionary developmental biology (evo devo), it may be possible to take that theory to a new level - to do more than explain what has evolved in the past, and start to predict what might evolve in the future.
There are some who believe that Darwin's theory of evolution has weakened religion, fuelled in part by Richard Dawkins' publishing phenomenon The God Delusion. Conor Cunningham argues that nothing could be further from the truth. Cunningham is a firm believer in the theory of evolution, but he is also a Christian. He believes that the clash between Darwin and God has been hijacked by extremists - fundamentalist believers who reject evolution on one side, and fundamentalist atheists on the other. Cunningham attempts to overturn what he believes are widely held but mistaken assumptions in the debate between religion and evolution. He travels to the Middle East where he shows that from the very outset, Christianity warned against literal readings of the biblical story of creation. In Britain, he reveals that, at the time, Darwin's theory of evolution was welcomed by the Anglican and Catholic Churches. Instead, he argues that the conflict between Darwin and God was manufactured by American creationists in the 20th century for reasons that had very little to do with science and religion and a great deal to do with politics and morality. Finally, he comes face to face with some of the most eminent evolutionary biologists, geneticists and philosophers of our time to examine whether the very latest advances in evolutionary theory do in fact kill God.
An estimated 70 per cent of women try to lose weight before they get married and Claire Richards, one fifth of superstar pop group Steps, is no exception.
A documentary exploring the causes of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Over six terrifying, desperate days in October 1929, shares crashed by a third on the New York Stock Exchange. More than $25 billion in individual wealth was lost. Later, three thousand banks failed, taking people's savings with them. Surviving eyewitnesses describe the biggest financial catastrophe in history. In 1919, the US had emerged victorious and dominant from World War One. Britain and its European allies were exhausted financially from the war. In contrast, the US economy was thriving and the world danced to the American tune. Easy credit and mass production set the tone in the roaring twenties for an era of consumption like none that had ever been seen before. The stock market rose and investors piled in, borrowing money to cash in on the bubble. In 1928, the market went up by 50 per cent in just 12 months. The crash was followed by a devastating worldwide depression that lasted until the Second World War. Shares did not regain their pre-crash values until 1954. This is the story of a financial disaster that we hoped could never happen again.
We explore the story behind the discovery of an early primate fossil, Darwinius masillae, nicknamed Ida, in a shale quarry in Germany. The fossil is believed to be around 47 million years old, and is extraordinarily well-preserved. Originally unearthed in 1983, Ida lay in the hands of a private collector for 20 years before it was shown to a Norwegian paleontologist, Dr Jørn Hurum. Realising that Ida could turn out to be a significant missing link between modern primates, lemurs and lower mammals, he persuaded the Natural History Museum in Oslo to purchase the fossil and assembled an international team of experts to study it. Their findings were announced in a press conference and the online publication of a scientific paper on 19 May 2009.
Documentary bringing to life Gavin Pretor-Pinney's international bestseller, The Cloudspotter's Guide, which draws on science, meteorology and mythology for a magical journey through the world of clouds. Presented by the obsessive and excitable Pretor-Pinney, it is no dry treatise on the science of nephology, but a playful trip through the varied beauty and distinctive personalities of the ten principal cloud types. From the ethereal cirrus to the terrifying cumulonimbus, the film tells the story of the short but eventful life of clouds, and their importance to our planet. We find out how immense quantities of water can stay up in the sky for so long and how lightning and thunder are created. Aided by his worldwide network of Cloudspotters, Pretor-Pinney also sets out to prove the existence of a totally new type of cloud, which finally leads him to present his findings to a panel of top scientists. Featuring stunning images filmed by the world's most experienced aerial cameraman, it inspires, informs and challenges all those who have ever wondered about the heavens above.
Fulfilling a life long dream to be an astronaut, May was given the opportunity to fly to the edge of space in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane. To do this he first had to spend three days training with the United States Air Force at Beale Air Force Base and then learning how to use a space suit correctly. Following this he was shown being taken on a 3 hour flight reaching an altitude of over 70,000 feet, piloted by instructor pilot Major John "Cabi" Cabigas. This programme tied in with another May documentary an hour earlier on BBC Two called James May on the Moon to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings.
In this programme James May commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. The show saw May interviewing Apollo moonwalkers Harrison Schmitt, Alan Bean, and Charlie Duke, before himself experiencing weightlessness and G-forces similar to that of a Saturn V rocket launch. As a passenger in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane, May flies to the edge of space where he is able to clearly view the curvature of the earth.
Can we trust the food we eat? Reporters Tom Heap and Simon Boazman set off on a mission to find out, revealing the tricks of food labelling and uncovering the world of food fraud.
On July 20th 1969, the ‘Great Southern Land’ of Australia had just twelve and a half million inhabitants and was known more for its kangaroos then its space program. But at the moment Neil Armstrong planted the first human footstep on the moon, all that would change in an instant. One Small Step – The Australian Story, produced exclusively for BBC Worldwide Channels by Freehand premieres on BBC Knowledge, Channel 619 on Monday July 20 at 7:30pm as part of Moon Week. Presented by Australian journalist and author Peter FitzSimons, the 60 minute documentary explores the front-line role Australian radio astronomers and technicians played in the Apollo 11 moon landing and the uniquely Australian approach they brought to the task. We meet the characters directly involved in bringing live pictures from the moon to the rest of the world and hear about the dramas of this most remarkable day. Their stories will be interwoven with snapshots of Australia from July 20th 1969 as we relive the day leading up to one of the most significant events in this country’s brief history. Myths will be debunked and real stories uncovered. Australians saw clearer pictures “live from the moon” than anyone else on Earth – and became the first witnesses to this momentous footstep in history. This was no ordinary television signal. After travelling 384,000km, it would inspire Australians from all walks of life and bring a sense of future possibilities to the nation. With Neil Armstrong’s “one small step”, Australia – would take a “giant step” onto the world stage. And just like the surface of the moon – would also cease to be a remote place largely unknown to the rest of the world.
Documentary about the love affair between the British and their caravans, which saw the country establish the world's largest caravan manufacturer and transformed the holiday habits of generations of families. In telling the intriguing story of caravanning in Britain from the 1950s through to the present day, the film reveals how caravans were once the plaything of a privileged minority but after World War II became a firm favourite with almost a quarter of British holidaymakers. It explores how changes in caravanning across the years reflect wider changes in British society, in particular the increased availability of cars during the 1950s and 60s, but also the improved roads network and changing attitudes towards holidaymaking and leisure time. Enthusiasts and contributors include Dorrie van Lachterop from the West Midlands and Christine Fagg from Hertfordshire, remarkable and adventurous women who started touring alone in their caravans during the 1950s.
Top chefs and celebrities pay tribute to one of the most original broadcasters of his generation, Keith Floyd. Rick Stein, Marco Pierre White and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are among those honouring the legendary chef and bon viveur, whose ground-breaking shows changed the face of TV cookery for ever.
Poet and gadget lover Simon Armitage explores people's obsession with upgrading to the latest technological gadgetry. Upgrade culture drives millions to purchase the latest phones, flatscreen TVs, laptops and MP3 players. But is it design, functionality, fashion or friends that makes people covet the upgrade, and how far does the choice of gadgets define identity? Simon journeys across Britain and to South Korea in search of answers.
Bees are dying in their millions. It is an ecological crisis that threatens to bring global agriculture to a standstill. Introduced by Martha Kearney, this documentary explores the reasons behind the decline of bee colonies across the globe, investigating what might be at the root of this devastation.
Through the life cycle of one mobile phone, this documentary investigates the million and one ways in which the mobile has made itself indispensable to modern life. One in every two human beings has a mobile, and this inanimate lump of plastic and minerals is made privy to people's innermost secrets - conversations with friends, lovers and family. It holds family photos, plays favourite music and yet, as an instrument of communication, it has its paradoxes. People are dumped by text, some pretend to be deep in a telephone conversation to avoid speaking to real people and others are affronted when their bellowed conversations on public transport are overheard. Then, at the end of a strangely intimate relationship, it becomes one of the one billion phones discarded every year - reconditioned for re-use or smelted down for the precious metals it contains.
Choirmaster Gareth Malone joins forces with the BBC Singers to explore the styles and techniques that create a choir. He finds out why there are four sections, what is polyphony, what links Bach and the Beach Boys, what difference the venue makes and what is the choral combination that is guaranteed to touch an emotional chord.
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage. In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain. The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are Friends Electric heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of the NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits. By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music. Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant. With Moogs turned up to 11, a 1970s/80s journey through the BBC's synthpop archives from Roxy Music to New Order. Track listing: Roxy Music — Do the Strand Tubeway Army — Are 'Friends' Electric? Sparks — Beat the Clock The Human League — The Path of Least Resistance Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark — Messages Ultravox — Vienna Depeche Mode — New Life New Order — Temptation Soft Cell — Say Hello, Wave Goodbye Japan — Ghosts Yazoo — Don't Go Tears for Fears — Mad World Eurythmics — Love is a Stranger Heaven 17 — Temptation Howard Jones — What Is Love? Pet Shop Boys — Opportunities
Dan Snow travels to Mexico to investigate the history, character and legacy of Montezuma, the last great ruler of the Aztecs of central America. He uncovers the extraordinary story of the Aztecs themselves, a cultured and civilised people whose lives were governed by eleborate ceremony and blood-curdling ritual. Dan Snow also discovers how, in a titanic clash of cultures, their leader Montezuma faced up to a mortal threat from another world - the weaponry, gold-lust and greed of 16th-century Spanish conquistadors.
Documentary telling the story of silicon chip inventor Robert Noyce, godfather of today's digital world. Re-living the heady days of Silicon Valley's seminal start-ups, the film tells how Noyce also founded Intel, the company responsible for more than 80 per cent of the microprocessors in personal computers. Noyce defined the unconventional, innovative culture of Silicon Valley - the likes of Apple and Google would be influenced by his egalitarian management style, which was inspired by his religious upbringing. Podfather shows why Noyce may be the most important person most people have never heard of. Contributors include industry giants Gordon Moore and Andy Grove.
Documentary which looks at how a radical generation of musicians created a new German musical identity out of the cultural ruins of war. Between 1968 and 1977 bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk would look beyond western rock and roll to create some of the most original and uncompromising music ever heard. They shared one common goal - a forward-looking desire to transcend Germany's gruesome past - but that didn't stop the music press in war-obsessed Britain from calling them Krautrock.
An eccentric team of British engineers attempts to break the longest standing land speed record in the world in a steam-powered car built in a shed in Hampshire. Driven by Hampshire-based tycoon Charles Burnett III and grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell, Don Wales, the attempt takes place at Edwards Air Force Base in California as the team goes in search of a runway big enough to break records on.
At 72, actor Richard Wilson - who famously died himself as Victor Meldrew - wonders why, when it's life's one certainty, people have such difficulty discussing death. In that Palinesque style that he's developed, Richard travels around the country meeting people and finding out how death is dealt with in the 21st century - how people face it, what happens when we die, and the different ways people cope with death and grief. New rituals like roadside memorials and ghostbikes are regular sights on the roads, but old traditions of cremation and burial still dominate. Richard meets members of the plethora of people whose jobs bring them into daily contact with the dead. He follows the elaborate processes dead bodies must go through as they are passed from pathologist to embalmer, funeral director to crematorium, and finds out why individuals should make choices about death while they can. In all it's a gentle and touching film that handles its subject matter with care and grace. It maybe about something that we're all going to have to face whilst rather preferring not to, but mostly, it's about living.
The untold story of two infamous labourers, Burke and Hare, who embarked upon a year-long killing spree in Edinburgh during the 19th century to provide corpses for the most famous anatomist of the day, Dr Robert Knox. The common perception is that Burke and Hare were Scottish graverobbers but, as this programme reveals, they were serial killers from Northern Ireland. Presented by Dr Alice Roberts and Dr Mark Hamilton, this programme uses dramatic reconstruction to investigate this macabre tale.
Documentary which explores television's fascination with forensics, revisiting classic shows like Quincy and Marius Goring's The Expert and looking at the appeal of contemporary dramas such as Silent Witness, Waking The Dead and CSI. The film examines how scientific advances like genetic fingerprinting have been reflected in the crime drama, finds out how pathology got so sexy, how accurate the science shown on screen actually is, and how TV cops solved crimes before DNA. Contributors include Sue Johnston from Waking The Dead, Tom Ward and William Gaminara from Silent Witness, and old Quincy himself, Jack Klugman. Plus comment from crime writers, scientists and detectives.
Peter Capaldi reveals a flair for presenting in this new documentary looking at the art of Scotland, as it reflects the changing face of the nation as part of BBC Four's This is Scotland season. The actor, a graduate of the Glasgow School Of Art, brings an interesting perspective to this feature-length piece, admitting that his early gift for drawing fell by the wayside as a young man but that he has once again taken to sketching. Peter doesn't pretend to be an expert, but acts as an intuitive guide to cottish art in this programme, which spans the 17th century through to the modern-day Glasgow Boys. Dropping into his alma mater, Peter says: "What gift I had was for drawing faces, so I'd certainly come to the right place if I wanted to learn that most particular of Scottish arts – the portrait. But then, you see, punk rock happened and whole armies of us abandoned our surplus greatcoats in favour of peroxide hair, pvc trousers and guitars. With this programme, I've been offered a second chance to learn anew about the great traditions and history of Scottish painting." With a quizzical look when talking to experts, Peter takes a tour through the early days of Scottish art and its influences, such as the Enlightenment, the Ossian works and representations of famous Scots such as Burns. He radiates a keen eye and accessible passion for the subject when viewing the paintings featured or talking to some of the major living Scottish artists, including Alison Watt, John Byrne, Sandy Moffat, Peter Howson and Calum Colvin.
Bogey, Bacall and Mitchum play it tough as Matthew Sweet celebrates the hardboiled world of noir movies.
Sue Perkins charts the changes in British taste towards domestic art by delving into the stories of contemporary bestsellers, charting the history of post-war prints and aiming to see first hand what the average British person displays above their mantelpiece. Half of British living rooms have art on their wall bought from high street stores, and many of the British artists who created them are among the country's most successful - but we've never heard of them.
Documentary in which artist and writer Matthew Collings explores the concept of beauty in art. Is beauty only in the eye of the beholder, or is there something more universal we can say about it? Collings takes the viewer on a sumptuously illustrated tour of 10 of his favourite beauty experiences from the history of art. The works of art he chooses each illustrate one of the timeless principles which he believes underpin and explain the rush of pleasure we get from beautiful art. They are all art experiences which he has loved for many years, but in this film he explores with each artwork what it is that is making their particular kind of beauty happen. Collings's personal list inspires some big questions about why art matters to us, and aims to get viewers thinking and arguing about what their own personal Top 10 might look like. The 10 art experiences range right across history, from the prehistoric cave art of the Dordogne to the hi-tech super-modernity of a Norman Foster-designed bridge in southern France, and from some of the indisputable masterpieces of the Renaissance to the much more debatable pleasures of contemporary art. Collings leaps fearlessly across history, making unexpected and revelatory comparisons between the art of different eras, and helping us to see the principles that underlie them. Collings's list includes works by Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Magritte, Gauguin and American artist Robert Rauschenberg, amongst others.
Documentary charting the history of the supernatural on British television, and how ghosts have been portrayed on the small screen. From Hamlet to Most Haunted, the apparitions have abandoned their traditional haunts of drama and comedy and crossed over into factual and reality TV. Ghosts in the Machine celebrates classic ghost stories like The Stone Tape, and Whistle and I'll Come to You. It revisits controversial shows like Derren Brown's Seance and 1992's Ghostwatch, which convinced thousands of viewers that Michael Parkinson was possessed by a poltergeist. The film examines the recent explosion of interest in the paranormal. How did ghosts get their own genre, and how did television become the medium of the medium?
To mark his 75th year, a rare glimpse into the life and work of Alan Bennett, one of the UK's best-loved writers. Given exclusive access to the key moments in his year, including final rehearsals of his new play, The Habit of Art, the programme gains unique insight into someone who can truly be described as a national treasure - a title Bennett would, no doubt, hate. Through candid interviews, classic archive footage, new work and personal testimony, this documentary celebrates the many sides, public and private, of the reluctant elder statesman of English culture.
In 1979, artist Kit Williams turned Britain into a giant treasure map, promising a golden hare, buried in the earth, to the first person who solved the riddle of his book Masquerade. The hysteria that followed the hunt drove Williams underground, where he has continued to create complex and beautiful art, which he refuses to publicly exhibit. In his first interview in two decades, Kit lifts the lid on life before and after Masquerade. Did the hare deprive us of one of our most gifted painters?
Documentary which explores the most important day in the career of the legendary Johnny Cash. Cash's concert at Folsom State Prison in California in January 1968 touched a raw nerve in the American psyche and made him a national hero at a troubled time in American history. Using the stark images of rock photographer Jim Marshall, graphic techniques, archive footage and interviews with Merle Haggard, Cash's daughter Rosanne, band members Marshall Grant and WS 'Fluke' Holland, alongside former inmates of the prison, the film documents this explosive concert, the live album that followed and a transformative moment in the lives of Cash, the inmates of Folsom Prison and the American nation in the troubled year of 1968.
Every year millions of people in Britain try to lose weight, and most fail. We are constantly bombarded with advice about dieting and the latest slimming fads. But what really works? In this programme, medical journalist Michael Mosley investigates the latest scientific breakthroughs in slimming, uncovering ten of the simplest ways you can shed those pounds. From the slimming secrets of soup to our brain's response after skipping meals, what he discovers may completely change the way you think about diets, health and losing weight.
Professors Iain Stewart and Professor Kathy Sykes take a timely look at global warming ahead of the Copenhagen summit, exploring the world's leading climate scientists' vision of the planet's future.
For the first time since 1990, Delia returns to television screens at Christmas time to unveil a celebration feast packed with indulgent, scrumptious recipes.
The story behind Not The Nine O'Clock News, which launched the careers of its key performers Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones and Pamela Stephenson.
Documentary about progressive music and the generation of bands that were involved, from the international success stories of Yes, Genesis, ELP, King Crimson and Jethro Tull to the trials and tribulations of lesser-known bands such as Caravan and Egg. The film is structured in three parts, charting the birth, rise and decline of a movement famed for complex musical structures, weird time signatures, technical virtuosity and strange, and quintessentially English, literary influences. It looks at the psychedelic pop scene that gave birth to progressive rock in the late 1960s, the golden age of progressive music in the early 1970s, complete with drum solos and gatefold record sleeves, and the over-ambition, commercialisation and eventual fall from grace of this rarefied musical experiment at the hands of punk in 1977.
Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. With its university founded around the same time as Oxford, Timbuktu is proof that the reading and writing of books have long been as important to Africans as to Europeans.
Documentary which tells the story of the British love affair with the American dream cars made at Ford in Dagenham in the 1960s and 70s. Ford helped put the nation on wheels with its fast, sexy cars such as the Zephyr, the Cortina and the Capri, which were pure rock'n'roll and hugely appealing to the younger generation.
Documentary about Falklands War veteran and ex-firefighter Jim Armstrong, who is now a farmer in Dorset. The film follows Jim through 2007 as he helps to raise a herd of traditional Longhorn cattle and his own flock of sheep. Sad echoes of his war experiences 25 years earlier resurface at times, but they never dent his optimistic spirit or his delight in selling meat locally and spending his days in the great Dorset outdoors.
Documentary unfolding the science behind the idea of six degrees of separation. Originally thought to be an urban myth, it now appears that anyone on the planet can be connected in just a few steps of association. Six degrees of separation is also at the heart of a major scientific breakthrough; that there might be a law which nature uses to organize itself and that now promises to solve some of its deepest mysteries.
Documentary telling the story of Rolls-Royce in India through the fortunes of India's princes.
Paul Merton continues his love affair with silent cinema in an exploration of Alfred Hitchcock's British films. Before Hitchcock became the master of suspense, he made all kinds of movies while learning his profession and honing his technique. His later, much loved American pictures are full of visual sequences which owe a huge debt to his early days as a silent film director.
Stars of the hit drama series Merlin, Colin Morgan and Bradley James, set off across Wales to explore the country's centuries-old connections to the legend of King Arthur and his wizard Merlin. Along the way they encounter enthusiasts and experts in Arthurian lore, and visit some of the most breathtaking landscapes in Wales.
Penelope Keith tells the story of Edwardian 'it girl' and motoring pioneer Dorothy Levitt. She retraces Levitt's 1905 journey from London to Liverpool in a De Dion motor car, with the aid of Dorothy's handbook The Woman and the Car and advice from motoring historians and veteran car enthusiasts. The story is further illustrated by archive material from the period.
In September 2009, the Girl Guides celebrated their centenary. With a membership of over 600,000, nearly half the female population of Britain has been involved with the Brownies and Girl Guides at some time during their lives. Throughout its history, the movement has given girls the opportunity to have fun and form life-long friendships. Narrated by Dominic West (The Wire), 100 Years of the Girl Guides delves into the movement's extraordinary archive and interviews a host of former Girl Guides from veterans to such household names as Kelly Holmes, Clare Short, Kate Silverton and Rhona Cameron.
An exclusive TV premiere, Attenborough Explores... Our Fragile World, a documentary looking at the impact of climate change in the UK. Our planet is the hottest it has been since records began - and it's getting hotter. Many predictions have been made about the future fate of a warming planet and its wildlife but, Attenborough Explores... Our Fragile World takes a look at the impact on the animals and habitats affected today. Global warming isn't a future phenomenon - it is happening right now
Nation on Film documentary telling the story of youth hostelling, which was founded in 1909 in Germany and was established in Britain in 1930, through fascinating archive films discovered in a storeroom at the Youth Hostel Association's headquarters in Derbyshire.
Tristram Hunt shows how motoring has gone from allowing us to explore the beautiful English countryside to the present day of speed cameras, congestion charges and environmental issues. Along the way, he looks at different cars through the ages that define a decade and a generation.
As the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew prepare to celebrate their 250th anniversary, Dan Cruickshank unearths some of the surprising stories that shaped the famous gardens. His travels take him from the royal gardens to the corridors of power and the outposts of the Empire as he pieces together Kew's story, uncovering tales of bravery, high adventure, passion and drama.
Damian Lewis-narrated documentary telling the colourful story of Island Records, the Jamaican-founded record label built by maverick boss Chris Blackwell which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009. The film features a rare, in-depth interview with Blackwell alongside contributions from former Island artists Grace Jones, Toots Hibbert, Amy Winehouse, Sly and Robbie, PJ Harvey, U2, Brian Eno, Spencer Davis, Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, the B52s, Kid Creole, Greg Lake, Ian Anderson, Trevor Horn, Paul Weller, Richard Thompson and Keane. News archive and rare performance footage are used to tell the story of the label - its part in bringing reggae music into the world; its expansion into progressive rock in the late 1960s; the rise of Bob Marley into a global star; and the label's reputation for consistently signing, producing and championing innovative acts from the UK and all over the world.
Documentary telling the story of Balmoral, the Royal Family's most private residence. For over 150 years this Scottish castle has been home to royal traditions of picnics, stag hunting and kilts. From prime ministers to Princess Diana, life at this tartan-bound holiday home hasn't appealed to everyone. But there's another story of Balmoral, of how the Royal Family has played a role in shaping modern Scotland and how Scotland has shaped the Royal Family. Queen Victoria's adoption of Highland symbols, from tartan to bagpipes, helped create a new image for Scotland. Her values, too, helped strengthen the union between Scotland and England. Ever since, Balmoral has been a place that reflects the very essence of the Royal Family.
Whether in his golden youth or premature old age, legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's musical virtuosity always shone through. In this frank and revealing documentary made a year before his death, interviews, recording sessions, archive footage and home movies are used by director Bruce Weber to show a man ravaged by his long involvement with drugs.
The story of a special train, the Lifeline Express. It is known as the Magic Train. With two state-of-the-art operating theatres, recovery rooms, offices and accommodation, each project requires a team of volunteer doctors, surgeons and nurses to give their services for free. For four weeks, cameras follow the Mandsor project as operations are carried out on poor rural people while the train is standing in a station in the middle of India.
The story of Frank Chalmers, an open water swimmer setting off on the challenge of his life. Having successfully swum the English Channel, Frank has been training for over a year in preparation for his toughest swim yet - to cross the Pentland Firth.
Little more than 100 years ago, Scottish mountains standing at more than 3,000 feet were virtually unknown. Today they are familiar terrain to many thousands of climbers, thanks to Victorian adventurer Hugh Munro's determination to list the high peaks which now define the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. This documentary tells the story of the magnificent peaks that bear his name and the people who have been possessed by them.
Historian Michael Wood returns to his first great love, the Anglo-Saxon world, to reveal the origins of our literary heritage. Focusing on Beowulf and drawing on other Anglo-Saxon classics, he traces the birth of English poetry back to the Dark Ages.
Is Margaret Thatcher the mother of the Scottish Parliament? BBC World Affairs Correspondent Allan Little looks back at the tumultuous Thatcher years, and assesses the effect they had on Scotland.
Poet Simon Armitage goes on the trail of one of the jewels in the crown of British poetry, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written about 600 years ago by an unknown author. The poem has got just about everything - it is an action-packed adventure, a ghost story, a steamy romance, a morality tale and the world's first eco-poem. Armitage follows in the footsteps of the poem's hero, Gawain, through some of Britain's most beautiful and mystical landscapes and reveals why an absurd tale of a knight beheading a green giant is as relevant and compelling today as when it was written.
Actress Melissa Suffield plays teenage tearaway Lucy Beale in EastEnders, a character famous for her bad behaviour. But now Melissa is coming of age - she has turned 16, is paying tax and is leaving school - and thinks she wants a say in how things are run. So she hits the road to find out whether 16-year-olds should get the vote. On her journey across Britain, Melissa meets teenage protesters, the mother of a 17-year-old soldier killed in Iraq and new citizens who have just won the right to vote. There are tears in a polling station, filming is stopped in the Houses of Parliament and Melissa visits the first country in Europe to grant all 16-year-olds the vote. At a time when our interest in politics has never been so high and our respect for politicians has never been so low, is giving 16-year-olds the right to vote the best way to refresh democracy?
Documentary looking at events in Gloucester, Massachusetts, when an unusually large number of teenage girls turned up for pregnancy tests at the clinic of a school. Within hours the news of an alleged 'pregnancy pact' had travelled round the world, appearing in newspapers, TV bulletins and chat shows. Town officials denied the rumours, but was there any truth in them? Featuring interviews with the girls, their families and friends, the film tells the human story behind the headlines.
Singer and Strictly Come Dancing star Alesha Dixon investigates the potential fallout of not knowing who your father is. Alesha talks to children and experts as she examines both the emotional and practical implications of not knowing where and who you come from; from the extreme case scenario of potentially sleeping with a half brother or sister that you did not know you had, to the possible backlash of not knowing your medical background. Alesha wants to get the nation thinking and talking about the issue of absent fathers as seen from the child's perspective. Along the way, she also takes on the ambitious task of helping one young person in their hunt to track down their biological father.
Documentary telling the little-known story of how Darwin came to write his great masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, a book which explains the wonderful variety of the natural world as emerging out of death and the struggle of life. In the twenty years he took to develop a brilliant idea into a revolutionary book, Darwin went through a personal struggle every bit as turbulent as that of the natural world he observed. Fortunately, he left us an extraordinary record of his brilliant insights, observations of nature, and touching expressions of love and affection for those around him. He also wrote frank accounts of family tragedies, physical illnesses and moments of self-doubt, as he laboured towards publication of the book that would change the way we see the world. The story is told with the benefit of Darwin's secret notes and correspondence, enhanced by natural history filming, powerful imagery from the time and contributions from leading contemporary biographers and scientists.
Kirsten O'Brien takes a warm-hearted and irreverent tour of Britain's Most Embarrassing Parents. We get a peek into the lives of ten families across the UK and hear first-hand from the mortified kids who've been brought up by some of the country's most unconventional parents.
Fashion photographer Rankin recreates seven of his favourite images as he takes a journey through a brief history of the fashion photograph. By re-staging iconic images by Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, David Bailey and Guy Bourdin, Rankin exposes the ways in which fashion photography uses fantasy and beauty to communicate something about reality.
Central Valley, California, is home to some of the most impoverished rural towns in America, where crystal meth addiction is prolific. In Fresno, Louis finds a community ravaged by this cheap and highly addictive drug. As he infiltrates the town, he experiences the reality of meth abuse, as addicts who are high (or 'tweaking', as it is known) invite him into their homes to see them take hit after hit of their favourite drug. Louis becomes surrounded by the madness of daily addiction and the meth-addled confusion which is breaking this community apart. He sees its impact through the eyes of the local police, and meets Diane and Karl, a couple who have sustained their marriage despite a 25-year meth addiction and losing custody of their five children. He witnesses arrests of sons doing meth with their mothers, and family after family broken apart from generations of meth abuse. At the Westcare residential centre, Louis sees the work being done to combat the destruction caused by the drug. Run by ex-addicts, it offers a six-month rehab programme. He witnesses the extraordinary challenges they face dealing with meth-addicted families - babies born already hooked, with mothers caring for them while attempting to kick their own habit too. Addiction is laid bare as Louis seeks out the stories and the people behind the drug.
Fleetwood Mac, one of the biggest-selling bands of all time, are back on the road again. Their story, told in their own words, is an epic tale of love and confrontation, of success and loss. Few bands have undergone such radical musical and personal change. The band evolved from the 60s British blues boom to perfect a US West Coast sound that saw them sell 40 million copies of the album Rumours. However, behind the scenes relationships were turbulent. The band went through multiple line-ups with six different lead guitarists. While working on Rumours, the two couples at the heart of the band separated, yet this heartache inspired the perfect pop record.
Professor Brian Cox takes a look through nearly 50 years of BBC archive at the story of man's relationship with the moon. From the BBC's space fanatic James Burke testing out the latest NASA equipment to 1960s interviews about the bacon-flavoured crystals that astronauts can survive on in space, to the iconic images of man's first steps on the moon and the dramatic story of Apollo 13, Horizon and the BBC have covered it all. But since President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s was reached, no one has succeeded in reigniting the public's enthusiasm for space travel and lunar voyages. Why? On his journey through the ages, Professor Cox explores the role that international competition played in getting man to the moon and asks if, with America no longer the world's only superpower, we are at the dawn of a bright new space age.
In 1926 John Logie Baird became the first man in history to give a successful public demonstration of television. During WWII, with the help of one assistant, a part-time glassblower and a refugee from Germany, he built his masterpiece and swansong - the Telechrome. It was the foundation of all modern electronic colour television. In a lifetime blighted with ill health, JLB - as he was known - produced 178 patents crucial to the technology that would define the 20th century. But since his early death in 1946, his achievements have been allowed to slip from view, obscured by ignorance about what he pioneered. Few are aware that much of his greatest work was done in complete seclusion, in his personal laboratory and entirely at his own expense. Filmed in the UK, USA and Germany between 1994 and 2002 and featuring previously unseen archive and historic eyewitness testimony led by his son Malcolm, this documentary reveals the unknown story of the central figure behind the most powerful technology on earth.
A documentary celebrating the golden age of air travel, when in the 1920s and 1930s Britain ruled the skies, and style and glamour were a passport to adventure.
In 1988, teenager John Davidson featured in a BBC documentary about Tourettes. At that time, few people had even heard of Tourettes Syndrome, let alone knew anything about the neurological condition which, at its worst, causes violent body movements and outbursts of swearing. John was 16, and trying to come to terms with a frightening world where his language and behaviour was a constant form of offence to everyone around him. In 2002, he took part in a follow-up film alongside 8-year-old Greg Storey, who had recently been diagnosed with Tourettes. Now, seven years on, this film revisits both John (aged 37) and Greg (aged 15), and sees how their worlds have changed. Greg is now the same age as John was when he first took part in a documentary. How does Greg's experience of being a teenager with Tourettes compare to John's, and how does John's life continue to change?
Documentary telling the forgotten story of a heroic battle fought by the children of the British Memorial School to help liberate Europe from the Nazis. The school served a unique horticultural community of ex-First World War soldiers and their families living in Ypres in Belgium who lovingly tended the war graves. Steeped in ideals of patriotic service and sacrifice, many pupils and ex-pupils refused to surrender to the invading Nazi forces. Three surviving school pupils tell their extraordinary stories of resistance, illustrated with rare archive film.
Documentary telling the story of what happened to blues music on its journey from the southern states of America to the heart of British pop and rock culture, providing an in-depth look at what this music really meant to a generation of kids desperate for an antidote to their experiences of living in post-war suburban Britain. Narrated by Nigel Planer and structured in three parts, the first, Born Under a Bad Sign, focuses on the arrival of American blues in Britain in the late 50s and the first performances here by such legends as Muddy Waters, Sonnie Terry and Brownie McGhee. Part two, Sittin' on Top of the World, charts the birth of the first British blues boom in the early 60s, spearheaded by the Rolling Stones and groups such as the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals and the Pretty Things. The final section, Crossroads, looks at the next, more hardcore British blues boom of the mid-to-late 60s, with guitarists Eric Clapton and Peter Green and the international dominance of their respective bands, Cream and Fleetwood Mac.
Documentary in which writer and journalist Christopher de Bellaigue explores the fraught but often surprisingly intimate history of Britain's relations with Iran, and asks why Iranians think that if something goes wrong in Iran then Britain must have something to do with it. De Bellaigue has lived in Tehran, speaks fluent Persian and knows well the phenomenon of 'Uncle Napoleonism', the notion that the cunning British are 'out to get you' that has been a common attitude in Iranian society for 100 years. He looks at some key events in the relationship, notably Britain's role in the overthrow of several Iranian governments, its control of Iran's oil and the on-off support for Iran's democrats. Meeting prominent Iranians, including Uncle Napoleon's inventor and others with direct knowledge of these events, he examines the foundations and justification for these Iranian suspicions and asks if they are still there after 30 years of isolation.
Most young adults take their freedoms for granted - they can choose their friends, stay out late, learn to drive and decide what they want to do as a career. But for people growing up on the autistic spectrum, life is very different. Stuck in a strange limbo between childhood and adulthood, they are unable to make these choices. This documentary follows three people with autism at pivotal moments on the rocky road to being accepted as an adult. They are all fighting for independence and responsibility, but being frustrated by the shackles imposed on them by their disability, their families and the preconceived ideas of mainstream society. Twenty-three-year-old Oli has high-functioning autism (HFA) and is looking to find work. He is finding it tough as his condition means that he can't communicate or deal with pressure in the same way others can. Thomas has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is approaching 16, the legal age of adulthood. As he does so, he is demanding more independence and wants to escape his family. But the freedom he is after is not forthcoming from his parents. Alex, 24, is looking for love, but when you have the type of autism known as Asperger syndrome, communicating and socialising can seem an impossible task
Documentary following writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith on the trail of Vladimir Nabokov, the elusive man behind the controversial novel and 1962 film, Lolita. The journey takes him from the shores of Lake Geneva to Nabokov's childhood haunts in the Russian countryside south of St Petersburg to the streets of New York City and a road trip through the anonymous world of small-town America. Along the way Smith meets fellow Nabokov admirer Martin Amis and puts in a cheeky visit to Playboy's literary editor who is publishing an extract of Nabokov's last work.
Award-winning 87-year-old actress Liz Smith does the one thing she has never managed to achieve in her life - go on a proper holiday. Liz, known and loved by millions as Nana in The Royle Family and Leticia in The Vicar of Dibley, finally fulfils her modest ambition to join a group of like-minded individuals on a summer cruise across the Adriatic to Venice. The film gives an intimate and personal insight into Liz's life, both past and present, from the moment she plans her holiday, packs her bags and bids farewell to her friends in the security of her sheltered accommodation. Was the holiday everything she dreamed of?
Documentary about the pioneering computer animation studio Pixar, featuring contributions from the studio's bosses and a host of actors who have lent their voices to their creations, including Tom Hanks. Films such as Toy Story and A Bug's Life have led to the studio becoming one of the most consistently successful, both critically and financially, of recent years.
Documentary which sheds new light on the greatest crisis to rock the British monarchy in centuries - the abdication of King Edward VIII. Usually, it has been presented as the only possible solution to his dilemma of having to choose between the throne and the woman he loved. Using secret documents and contemporary diaries and letters, this film shows a popular monarch whose modern ideas so unsettled the establishment that his love for Wallis Simpson became the perfect excuse to bounce him off the throne.
A look at the legacy of actress, singer and comedienne Gracie Fields who, during her lifetime, was a national institution. Through interviews and some previously unseen archive footage, the programme explores the extraordinary singing voice, comic genius and unique talent that made her arguably the greatest female entertainer Britain has ever produced. 'Our Gracie' was one of the world's first megastars: not so much a person as an event. The secret of her popularity lay in her relationship with her audience, as she goaded them into enjoyment, fed them the kind of cheek that passes for affection and appealed to a shared contempt for pretension. Her films were sentimental and reassuring, but they also tapped into real social anxieties and reflected the spirit of a troubled pre-war decade. When the press began its lengthy campaign of vilification against her, after she moved to America during World War Two to prevent her Italian husband from being interned, the public, by and large, remained loyal. From her triumphant return to the London stage in the late 1940s until her death some 30 years later, she continued to maintain her place in the nation's heart. Fields, although still a huge star in many people's living memory, encapsulates the spirit of a bygone age. It is too easy to say we don't make them like that anymore; the truth is, we no longer want to. Our national institutions are built on shakier foundations these days and the sheer uncomplicated pleasure that she delivered for the best part of a century seems a world away. This documentary reminds us of what we have lost.
Sir Jackie Stewart is one of Britain's all time great sporting personalities - winner of three Formula 1 world championships and 27 grand prix, and ranked as one of the ten greatest racing drivers of all time. With his black cap and sideburns, he became an unmistakable icon in the glorious era of style, glamour and speed of the 1960s and 70s. Venturing beyond the world of motor sport, this documentary is an insight into the triumphs and tragedies of Stewart's eventful life, and includes contributions from friends and colleagues such as Niki Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi, Sean Connery, Murray Walker and Edsel Ford, as well as the last ever interview with the late Ken Tyrrell, without whom Stewart's career might have taken a very different turn. Produced by Stewart's youngest son Mark, the film is enriched with family photographs, home movies and scrapbooks kept by Lady Helen Stewart that document her husband's career.
The film recreates the life and loves of France's most famous king, Louis XIV. Dubbed the Sun King by his admiring court, Louis conquered half of Europe, conducted dozens of love affairs and dazzled his contemporaries with his lavish entertainments. But perhaps his greatest achievement - and certainly his longest lasting love - was the incredible palace he built at Versailles, one of the wonders of the world.
Just after midnight on Good Friday 1989, the giant supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound to create one of the biggest man-made ecological disasters of the 20th century. Eleven million gallons of crude oil gushed from the stricken tanker into the pristine waters of the Sound, killing whales, millions of fish and birds, and thousands of sea otters. The spill had a catastrophic effect on local communities, wiping out their herring fishery and severely depleting the Alaskan salmon industry for years to come.
The Berlin Wall was the ugly, concrete obstacle that for more than a generation (from 1961 to 1989) split the city and divided its families. Hundreds of people, mainly young, were killed there trying to escape to the West. The people who built the Wall thought they were building a brave new socialist world. But their dream turned into a nightmare as over time the Wall poisoned, corrupted and brutalized the little world it encircled. In The Secret Life of the Berlin Wall, the dreams and nightmares come dramatically back to life as the spies, informers, double agents and interrogators of Cold War Berlin weave their nervy spells of double lives and double dealing.
Duran Duran came out of Birmingham and conquered the world during the 1980s. Originally a New Romantic band in full make-up and cossack pants, they rapidly became bedroom pinups for a generation of teenage girls. Led by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, Duran Duran dominated the British and American charts in the mid 1980s with classic singles such as Rio, Save a Prayer and Wild Boys. Pioneers of the MTV-style promo video - from the X-rated Girls on Film to Raiders of the Lost Arc spoof Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran were the 80s equivalent of the Beatles in America and outsold Spandau Ballet and Wham! in their pomp. Sixty million records later, Le Bon and Rhodes are seen touring America with their Pop Trash project from the early 2000s. The documentary reflects on the heady heights of Duran Duran's career, the cracks in their make-up plus the effects of sex, drugs and fame on ordinary boys from working class backgrounds. Apart from the key Durannies - Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor - the programme also features celebrity interviews with Debbie Harry, Yasmin Le Bon, Duran Duran managers Paul and Michael Berrow, Claudia Schiffer, Nile Rodgers and Lou Reed.
An unconventional look at the best of Steve Coogan's television work and character comedy. With classic archive moments and some rarely seen early appearances, this one-hour special includes interviews with well-known faces who have collaborated with Steve, and others who are simply fans of Alan Partridge, Paul and Pauline Calf, Tony Ferrino and Tommy Saxondale - to name only a few of his great comic creations. Along with Julia Davis, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer also appear in several guises to give the inside scoop on what it's like to work with Steve Coogan - while Steve himself appears as his Irish auntie Peggy and Mickey Gold - his first showbiz agent. Narrated by Mark Williams. Part of the BBC Christmas 2009 season.
Documentary which explores the ways that cars have been presented on television in the motoring programmes that have tapped into our collective subconscious. It looks at the classic motoring magazine shows of the 1960s and 70s like Wheelbase, which showcased some of the world's latest innovations and spawned the next generation of programming such as the original Top Gear with Angela Rippon and Noel Edmonds. The film investigates how more recent motoring programmes changed to accommodate society's view of the car. The new Top Gear and shows such as Panic Mechanics and Stars in Fast Cars reflect a shift away from the traditional car review show towards a more topical, aspirational and spectacular viewing experience.
Celebrating the achievements of Ballets Russes under Diaghilev's guidance and their continuing influence on dance, art and music today. The English National Ballet perform extracts from two Ballets Russes' masterpieces, Les Sylphides and Scheherazade, as well as a new version by David Dawson of the iconic Nijinsky ballet Afternoon Of A Faun. Karl Lagerfeld talks about the influence of Coco Chanel and the design legacy of the Ballets Russes. The music from the period is discussed by great French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who is joined by prolific English composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall. Ninety-five-year-old Frederick Franklin recounts what it was like to see the scandalous ending of Nijinsky's Afternoon Of A Faun, while dancers, musicians, writers, critics, stylists and historians paint a vivid portrait of this unique dance company and discuss the legacy of Diaghilev's genius on the creative arts.
Documentary which follows the story of Mark Devlin and his team of scientists as they try to figure out how all the galaxies formed by launching a revolutionary new telescope under a NASA high-altitude balloon. Their adventure takes them from Arctic Sweden to Inuit Canada, where failure forces the team to try again on the desolate ice of Antarctica. The obsessions, personal and family sacrifices, and philosophical and religious questioning of a professional scientist are all laid bare.
In a special programme showing on St. David's Day, we celebrate the awesome beauty of some of Wales' iconic engineering achievements, structures which help define the landscape of Wales. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in the Dee Valley is a masterpiece of engineering. Completed in 1805, Thomas Telford's design was extraordinarily ambitious and marked the beginning of a new confidence in 19th century engineering. Eddie Butler tells the story of the acqueduct, along with three other great feats of engineering in Wales, namely the Severn Tunnel, the Menai Suspension Bridge and Snowdon Mountain Railway. Featuring experts, the programme looks at the brilliance of these structures.
Gary Lineker presents a special tribute to the late Sir Bobby Robson. Recorded in 2003, the former England player and manager talks about his life, from humble beginnings as the son of a Durham coal miner through to his days as one of the most successful managers in history. Contributors include Paul Gascoigne, Terry Butcher and Alan Shearer.
Science writer Rita Carter tells the story of how modern neuroscience has revealed that reading, something most of us take for granted, unlocks remarkable powers. Carter explains how the classic novel Wuthering Heights allows us to step inside other minds and understand the world from different points of view, and she wonders whether the new digital revolution could threaten the values of classic reading.
Do you get enough sleep? Many of us don't. 10 Things You Need to Know About Sleep reveals the science behind why so many find it difficult to nod off, and offers practical tips on the best ways to get a good night's sleep. In a series of experiments, presenter Kate Silverton sets out to help those insomniacs desperate to get some shut eye, help travelers beat jet lag, and see if there is anything that can be done to stop loud and persistent snorers. Chef Aldo Zilli discovers how the food we eat affects our sleep, while volunteers in a sleep laboratory test the effects of alcohol and coffee on the rhythm of sleep. Record-breaking round-the-world yachtswoman Dee Caffari learns the best time to take a nap and catch up on lost sleep, while journalist Dominik Diamond finds out that less sleep can help an insomniac break bad habits. Joe Swift from Gardeners World tries out some herbal sleep remedies, and comedian Russell Kane checks out techniques that can reduce the stress that keeps him awake at night. Kate takes a hot bath before bed and discovers the surprising secret to a good night's sleep, as well as how a trick of the light can both wake you up and keep you asleep.
Art historian explores the state of British art in 2009 and asks whether a new era in art is dawning and whether there is a reason to be optimistic.
Has beauty disappeared from modern art? Several influential modern thinkers insist that it has. Art critic Waldemar Januszczak fiercely disagrees, believing that great art is as interested in beauty as ever.
Philosopher Roger Scruton presents a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives.
Coverage of the 2009 Barclaycard World Freerun Championship from London's Trafalgar Square, presented by Reggie Yates and Kirsten O'Brien. The best athletes in the world compete at the foot of Nelson's Column on a specially-constructed stage, with a crowd of nearly 10,000 fans packed in around them. The runners leap, tumble and vault across the konk and cat boxes, bars, kicker walls, pipes and railings. 27 athletes from 17 different countries compete, including last year's winner Gabe 'Jaywalker' Nunez from USA, Britain's Paul 'Blue Devil' Joseph and Mexico's Erick 'Daer' Sanchez all hoping to win the world crown. Commentary from David Croft.
Portrait of Jim Clark, one of the most talented and intriguing characters of the 1960s. From unlikely beginnings on a farm in Scotland, the introverted and media-shy Clark emerged to become the most successful racing driver of his time, and forged a reputation as one of the all-time great heroes of motor sport. Using previously unseen archive footage, testimonials from friends, family and former colleagues, the film tells the extraordinary but tragic story of an enigmatic racing legend.
Glamorous, talented and decidedly unconventional, Lee Miller led one of the most fascinating lives of the 20th century. A model for Vogue in 1920s New York, pupil and lover of Man Ray in Paris and the only female photojournalist covering the Second World War, her photographic work encompassed striking surrealist images and shocking reportage from Dachau. Having given up photography in later life and virtually disowned her work, Miller's extraordinary archive of 40,000 negatives was only rediscovered after her death in 1977. George Melly, David Hare, Miller's friends and colleagues and her son Tony Penrose trace the story of her life through her own pictures, photographs of Miller herself and rarely-seen archive footage.
An insight into the world of design through 12 stories, shot across a range of countries, ranging from product design to world class feats of engineering and design projects which have a social impact.
When the Japanese ambassador saw Rick Stein preparing sushi on a boat off Cornwall, he was not impressed. However, this sparked off an idea where Rick would go on a voyage of discovery to the ultimate seafood lover's destination - Japan. On his return he promised to create a banquet fit for an ambassador and his friends.
Documentary in which artist and writer Matthew Collings explores the concept of beauty in art. Is beauty only in the eye of the beholder, or is there something more universal we can say about it?
Documentary about 13-year-old Deborah Drapper, who, unlike other British teens has never heard of Britney Spears or Victoria Beckham. She has been brought up in a deeply Christian family and her parents have tried to make sure she and her ten brothers and sisters have grown up protected from the sins of the outside world. Deborah is a bright, confident girl who has big ambitions for her life and the film spends a summer with her as she ventures out in the world to see what life outside her family could be and starts putting her beliefs forward to a wider audience.
Documentary featuring interviews with soldiers on the act that defines them: killing. For civilians, it is a crime. For soldiers, it is a job. Soldiers who have done it usually do not talk about it, but five former British infantrymen recall the reality of combat in compelling and candid detail. Through powerful personal testimonies, the programme traces the journeys of these men, from young recruits through training and frontline combat to where killing places them today.
In 1962 an unknown group from Liverpool entered Abbey Road Studios to record their debut single. During the next eight years they created what is arguably regarded as the greatest collection of studio recordings of the 20th century. This film charts how The Beatles developed as musicians, matured as songwriters and created a body of work that sounds as fresh now as the time it was recorded.
It has been said that ten thousand years from now, only one name will still be remembered - that of Neil Armstrong. But in the four decades since he first set foot on the moon, Armstrong has become increasingly reclusive. Andrew Smith, author of the best-selling book Moondust, journeys across America to try and discover the real Neil Armstrong.
Naoki 56, had it all in Japan's bubble economy days: he ran a business with 70 staff, drove a brand new BMW, and lived in a 6 bedroom house. But when Japan's economy crashed in the early 1990's he lost everything, ending up divorced (for the third time) and penniless. He was saved from being homeless by his new girlfriend, Yoshie 29, who took him in, despite living in a tiny one-room apartment with no windows.
The Rough Trade story begins more than thirty years ago on 20th February 1976. Britain was in the grip of an IRA bombing campaign; a future prime minister was beginning to make her mark on a middle England in which punk was yet to run amok; and a young Cambridge graduate called Geoff Travis opened a new shop at 202 Kensington Park Road, just off Ladbroke Grove in west London. The Rough Trade shop sold obscure and challenging records by bands like American art-rockers Pere Ubu, offering an alternative to the middle-of-the-road rock music that dominated the music business. In January 1977, when a record by Manchester punk band Buzzcocks appeared in the shop, Rough Trade found itself in the right place at the right time to make an impact far beyond that of a neighbourhood music store. When Spiral Scratch was released in 1977, the idea of putting out a single without the support of an established record company was incredible. But Rough Trade was to become the headquarters of a revolt against this corporate monopoly - it was stocking records by bands inspired by the idea that they could do it themselves. But selling a few independent records over the counter was not going to change the world. Early independent labels had to hand over their distribution to the likes of EMI or CBS. But one man at Rough Trade challenged that monopoly. Richard Scott joined Rough Trade in 1977 and became the architect of a grand scheme that was nothing short of revolutionary: independent nationwide distribution. The shop could now offer experimental musicians the chance to sell records nationwide and so it was inevitable that Rough Trade became a record label in its own right. In 1978 the Rough Trade label was born and by the end of the year it had released a dozen singles by an eclectic mix of post-punk artists and become not just an alternative ideological force, but genuine competitors in the commercial music world.
Few musicals can claim to capture the mood of a historical period as well as the 1972 classic Cabaret. In this documentary, actor Alan Cumming explores the truths behind the fiction. He meets many of those closely involved with the original film, including Liza Minnelli, and talks to cabaret artists, among them acclaimed performer Ute Lemper.
1959 was the seismic year jazz broke away from complex bebop music to new forms, allowing soloists unprecedented freedom to explore and express. It was also a pivotal year for America: the nation was finding its groove, enjoying undreamt-of freedom and wealth; social, racial and upheavals were just around the corner; and jazz was ahead of the curve. Four major jazz albums were made, each a high watermark for the artists and a powerful reflection of the times. Each opened up dramatic new possibilities for jazz which continue to be felt: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue; Dave Brubeck, Time Out; Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um; and Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come. Rarely seen archive performances help vibrantly bring the era to life and explore what made these albums vital both in 1959 and the 50 years since. The programme contains interviews with Lou Reed, Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, Herbie Hancock, Joe Morello (Brubeck's drummer) and Jimmy Cobb (the only surviving member of Miles' band), along with a host of jazz movers and shakers from the 50s and beyond.
Slapstick comedy special narrated by Miranda Hart, charting the highs and lows of physical comedy and examining the audience's love of visual humour. Featuring pies and pratfalls from over a century of comedy and entertainment programming including Monty Python, Charlie Chaplin, Morecambe and Wise and even Hole in the Wall. From the craft of the Buster Keaton classics to the cartoon antics of The Goodies and the absurdly violent anarchy of Bottom, the genre has shifted through silent films, surrealism, sketch and sitcom, and today even filtered in to Saturday night family entertainment. Featuring analysis from great physical gag practitioners including Vic Reeves, Mathew Horne, Reece Shearsmith, Ben Miller and Sally Phillips. A festive treat that features physical comedy both classic and contemporary, including the inappropriate manhandling of Manuel from Fawlty Towers, the roller-skating Frank Spencer epic from Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em and more funny physical pain than you can fling a Frying Pan at!
Documentary examining claims that CS Lewis's Narnia Chronicles contain a hidden meaning. CS Lewis wrote the Narnia Chronicles over 50 years ago, yet they are more popular today than ever. When they were first published, many critics thought them little more than childish scribblings, replete with random characters and unexplained events. Even Lewis's good friend JRR Tolkien thought them confused and misconceived. Other scholars were sure there was something more, something hidden beneath the stories. Although many tried, none could find this secret key of Narnia - until now. Dr Michael Ward, a young academic and expert in all things Lewisian, claims he has found the answer at last: he has discovered the Narnia Code. Using dramatisations of Lewis's early life and career, the programme travels the world, from the Mid-West of modern America to the battlefields of the First World War, meeting experts, testing evidence and uncovering surprising questions and ideas that still challenge readers today.
One in four people have a mental illness at some point in their lives. No-one likes to think it could happen to them, or someone close to them. David Tennant narrates a documentary showing what living with mental illness is like.
Thirty years on from the no confidence vote that brought down the 1979 Labour Government, Carolyn Quinn tells the story of one of the most dramatic nights in Westminster history.
If Peter Green had only written Black Magic Woman, his name would still have a place in blues rock history forever. His three short years leading Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac saw the band established as one of the biggest-selling groups of the 1960s. Featuring archive performances and interviews with Carlos Santana, Noel Gallagher, founding members of Fleetwood Mac and Green himself, this film tells the story of one of blues rock's living legends.
To mark the 175th anniversary of the destruction of the Palace of Westminster by fire, Mark D'Arcy looks back at the disaster and its aftermath.
Updating the impression of life on the Isle of Lewis given by the MacDonald Sisters. First broadcast in 1969.
Manet is one of the main candidates for the title of the most important artist there has been. As the reluctant father of Impressionism, and the painter of Dejeuner sur l'herbe, he can probably be accused of inventing modern art. Using the life of Manet as his narrative arch, Waldemar Januszczak tells the story of a complex and difficult man who started a revolution that continues to rumble on today
A personal history of the Thatcher years and their legacy, told through the stories of three Welsh children born the year Margaret Thatcher came to power. Thirty years on, this film traces the course their lives have taken, and the way one woman's vision shaped the fortunes of three families.
Alexander Armstrong travels the country to explore the state of the great British holiday. It is widely acknowledged that 2009 is a bumper year for the UK tourist industry. With the Euro and the Dollar strong, and consumers tightening their belts, Visit Britain, the national tourism body, reckons around one in five Brits - or some 4,000,000 people who holidayed abroad in 2008 - will holiday in the UK. For many in the tourist industry this is the news they have longed for, after two years of falling numbers owing to bad weather. Can Britain's holiday destinations cope with the masses? Alexander Armstrong visits tourism-dependent businesses before, during and after the busiest season. In this boom-or-bust summer, are the owners ready and prepared for the demands of their guests? Can they thrive and survive, or will the pressure be too much for them? Visiting hotspot locations, Alexander explores life in themed hotels, quaint and quirky B&Bs, family-run holiday parks and unusual attractions. There are moments of tension and jeopardy, as summer 2009's takings may safeguard their business futures. For some their livelihood is at stake. Showcasing the splendour of Britain's most beautiful scenery, Alexander travels the country by a variety of transport, from the back seat of the Jones family's Ford Sierra to a packed holiday train, bringing the best of eccentric Britain to life
The date is 1959. The place is Le Mans racing circuit, France. A little known Texan racing driver, Carrol Shelby, wins the most prestigious event in motor racing at his first attempt and is universally acclaimed as one of the best drivers in the world. But Shelby had a secret that was to prevent him ever driving again. This is the comeback story of a man driven by the desire to beat the world on the race track, and specifically to beat the might of motor racing, Ferrari. From his base in California with only a team of hot rodders for support, in three years Shelby put together a car that would take on the world and win. The Shelby Cobra, as it was known, is still an automotive icon today.
In this moving and sometimes disturbing film, actress and writer Meera Syal meets young people who self-harm to find out why they do it, and how parents like herself can avoid it happening to their own children.
Phill Jupitus looks at how we thought the car of the future was going to turn out and finds out why it didn't happen that way, focusing on the classic era of the 1950s and 60s, a time when they hadn't quite yet worked out how to make cars fly and instead just made them look like they could.
BBC FOUR pays tribute to musical maverick John Martyn, who died at the age of 60 on 29th January 2009, with an intimate documentary portrait originally transmitted in 1994. This honest and often blackly hilarious film shows Martyn at home in Ireland, during the lead-up to and aftermath of an operation to have one of his legs amputated below the knee. Contributors include sometime collaborator and buddy Phil Collins, the late Robert Palmer, Ralph McTell, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, fellow hellraiser bassist Danny Thompson, John's ex-wife Beverley Martyn and younger generation fan Beth Orton. We see a man incapable of compromising his creative vision, from his folk club roots in the Sixties, through a career of continuous musical experimentation. Along the way there is a surreal roll-call of accidents and incidents, including a collision with a cow.
an Hislop takes an amused look at one of the most peculiar offices in the British establishment, that of Poet Laureate. Its 341-year history produces a gloriously eccentric picture of who we are, how we are ruled, what we want to say about ourselves and just how hard it is to do that in verse. We know that Poets Laureate write about royal weddings but Hislop discovers a whole lot more, such as 534, John Masefield's brilliant poem on the launch of the Queen Mary from the Clydebank shipyards and Nicholas Rowe's New Year's Ode for 1716 dedicated to the Princess of Wales's labour pains. There was Colley Cibber, the Laureate so ashamed of his poor output he adopted a pseudonym and wrote poems attacking himself, and Alfred Tennyson, who wrote the nation's favourite laureate poem, Charge of the Light Brigade. The film also throws light on the shadowy process by which the appointment is made. Lord Gowrie, the arts minister in Mrs Thatcher's cabinet, reveals how Ted Hughes came to be Thatcher's choice for Laureate, when many people were still hostile towards him due to his wife Sylvia Plath's suicide. A visit to the National Archive unearths a hilarious list by C P Duff, a top civil servant, ranking the poets of the day for the benefit of one very confused prime minister, and Candida Lycett Green reveals to Ian just how much whisky it took before her father, John Betjeman, could summon up a poem to celebrate Princess Anne's wedding. Ian gets to the bottom of the bizarre tradition of the payment in sherry (650 bottles of the stuff), and after trying a glass or two himself, poetic inspiration strikes and he concludes the film with his very own ode to Carol Ann Duffy, our newest Poet Laureate.
The untold story of how a giant of science was erased from history by the jealous rival who owed him more than most - Isaac Newton. A drama revealing the extraordinary, prolific, bizarre and conflict-riddled life of Robert Hooke, one of the greatest scientists in English history, on the tercentenary of his death. In science, Hooke was a colossus. As Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society he wrote the laws of elasticity (Hooke's Law), built a radical reflecting telescope and found major new stars, made the first powerful microscope, coined the word cell, wrote the first science best-seller, Micrographia and co-discovered the diffraction of light with Newton, but got no credit. New research confirms that Hooke stated an inverse square law of gravitation years before Newton's legendary Principia. However, he not only got no credit but also became the target of the most protracted, vitriolic campaign of character assassination in the history of science. The main plot of the film presents a disturbing portrait of the dark side of Isaac Newton, revealing for the first time how heavily he borrowed from Hooke and how, after fermenting in neurotic isolation, he conspired to have his reputation destroyed and his memory erased from history.
In the years after the second world war, in preparation for sending the first man into orbit, the Soviets began sending dogs into space. Featuring unique archival footage, including that of the first 'dog flight' into space taken inside the capsule, this documentary tells the secret history of dog cosmonautics in Russia. Alongside famous dog cosmonauts Belka and Strelka were a large team of other test dogs. All the characteristics of weightlessness on a living organism were tested on these defenseless creatures given up for the conquest of space. The programme cost more than 20 dogs' lives and each loss was a personal blow to the trainer. As the relationship between the men and dogs developed, scientists began to treat them as colleagues and true companions and to this day, Russian scientists keep photographs of their departed four-legged friends.
Felix Mendelssohn was a passionate Christian. He was also born a Jew. This film, marking the 200th anniversary of his birth, tells the extraordinary story of what happened, generations later, both to Mendelssohn's family and to his music, when the Nazis remembered the Jewish roots of Germany's most celebrated composer. It also examines how the influences of both Judaism and Christianity affected Mendelssohn's music and was made by documentary-maker Sheila Hayman, Mendelssohn's great-great-great-great niece.
Anorexia and bulimia were once more commonly associated with teenage girls but are now on the increase among older women. This film goes into the seemingly perfect world of four housewives who are struggling with the fallout from their eating disorders. They may seem to have it all with their nice houses, perfect children and middle class lives, but behind the wisteria, they are having a constant battle with their food and eating. Jane in her early fifties now has the bone density of a 92 year old; 36-year-old Zoe has turned to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to reclaim her life from anorexia; bubbly Tracey is bulimic and spends her nights binging and vomiting in secret from her children; and young mum Georgia tries hard to lose her baby weight, but will her obsession with weight see her falling back into the anorexic danger zone?
Happy Birthday OU - 40 Years of the Open University In 1969 change was in the air. Man stepped on the moon and Britain launched a revolutionary new kind of university, one where the lectures were televised and the students could study at home. It was greeted with scepticism, both by politicians and academics, but went on to become a much-loved, and often spoofed, British institution. Lenny Henry tells the story of the Open University and reveals how it changed his own life. Featuring contributions from Sir David Attenborough, Myleene Klass and Anna Ford.
Documentary which joins former hobo and festival favourite bluesman Seasick Steve on a trip back to his old stomping grounds in America's Deep South. Filmed in Mississippi and Tennessee, the programme follows the musician into his natural habitat of run-down juke joints, roadside diners and freight-train yards, as he reflects on his past life and recent rise to fame. In addition to Steve's raw, stomping tunes, the soundtrack features Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, RL Burnside and BB King.
The watchwords of the French Revolution were liberty, equality and fraternity. Maximilien Robespierre believed in them passionately. He was an idealist and a lover of humanity. But during the 365 days that Robespierre sat on the Committee of Public Safety, the French Republic descended into a bloodbath. 'The Terror' only came to end when Robespierre was devoured by the repressive machinery he'd created. This drama-documentary tells the story of the Terror and looks at how Robespierre's revolutionary idealism so quickly became an excuse for tyranny, and why a lover of liberty was so keen to use the guillotine.
When Chairman Mao died in 1976, he left China in chaos and poverty. He was succeeded by Deng Xiaoping, who overturned Maoism and taught the Chinese to love capitalism, creating special investment zones for the West. But Deng's crash course in capitalism went wrong when inflation grew and workers lost jobs. By 1989, China faced disaster. Now, 20 years after the tragic events in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, this programme reveals an interpretation of the motives of the demonstrators that may well overturn the conventional view in the West. The demonstrators did not begin by demanding democracy. Corruption, inflation and the hardship caused by economic reforms drove students and workers to confront the government and the army. Students went on hunger strike, and troops killed more than 2,000. Deng Xiaoping gave the order to fire, but his ideas prevailed. This film argues that Deng's capitalist revolution created today's China.
Warren Buffett is the greatest investor of all time. His decisions about buying shares and companies have beaten the stock market year after year and made him the richest person in the world - thought to be worth 37 billion dollars. Yet Buffett lives modestly in his native Omaha, in America's mid-West, and runs his 150 billion dollar business with a staff of just twenty. Evan Davis meets him to find out about his unique investment strategy and his eccentric lifestyle. He talks to Buffett's family, friends and colleagues about the man they call the Sage of Omaha, and Buffett's friend Bill Gates praises his philosophy of life. As the greed of the super-wealthy is widely criticised in the current financial crisis, Davis asks whether Warren Buffett is the acceptable face of the filthy rich.
Documentary looking at one of Britain's worst mining disasters, in 1934 in Gresford, when 265 men were killed. Eye witness accounts and archive footage tell a story of sadness, courage, cover-ups and lies.
In the years after the second world war, in preparation for sending the first man into orbit, the Soviets began sending dogs into space. Featuring unique archival footage, including that of the first 'dog flight' into space taken inside the capsule, this documentary tells the secret history of dog cosmonautics in Russia. Alongside famous dog cosmonauts Belka and Strelka were a large team of other test dogs. All the characteristics of weightlessness on a living organism were tested on these defenceless creatures given up for the conquest of space. The programme cost more than 20 dogs' lives and each loss was a personal blow to the trainer. As the relationship between the men and dogs developed, scientists began to treat them as colleagues and true companions and to this day, Russian scientists keep photographs of their departed four-legged friends.
Live Performance from 1974
Documentary examining the thoughts and observations of writer, raconteur and national treasure, Sir John Mortimer. He enjoyed a successful career as a QC before becoming a full-time writer, a staunch defender of civil liberties who was involved in the Oz magazine obscenity trial in the 1960s and the man who won the Sex Pistols the right to put the word 'bollocks' in the title of their infamous album. Opinionated and unconventional, Mortimer persists in speaking out against the ludicrous ways in which politicians try to curtail our liberties and, very often, our fun. This characteristic outspokenness is delivered with such gentlemanly charm and wit that he continues to be admired and adored by all.
Ten extraordinary women, all in their seventies, come to Arizona for a special reunion. They are each different but have one thing in common - each was married to an Apollo astronaut. These women were right at the heart of the most ambitious journey ever made, as America shot for the moon. In exclusive interviews, they tell how it felt to watch their husband blast off into space and about the death, danger and divorce as many of their men struggled to come back to Earth.
Documentary telling the story of the US space programme, from the early days of the space race with the Soviet Union to the first moon landing in 1969. Includes interviews with astronauts and ground staff, rare archive footage and an introduction by Neil Armstrong.
On 14th November 1940, the Luftwaffe launched the most devastating bombing raid so far on Britain. The target was Coventry, deep in the heart of England. In a 12-hour blitz, the Luftwaffe dropped thousands of tons of bombs. Three-quarters of the city centre was devastated, including the ancient cathedral. The Nazis coined a phrase - 'to Coventrate' - to describe the intense destruction. It was a baptism of fire for Coventry and Britain. For years, the government feared that aerial bombardment could destroy civilian morale. In Coventry, those fears were tested, and in the immediate aftermath of the blitz the evidence was not encouraging. Panic and hysteria gripped the city, and half of Coventry's population fled. However, within weeks - and contrary to all expectations - the city revived. Factories were soon turning out aircraft parts which would be used to avenge the attack on Coventry. The RAF studied the Nazi bombing techniques and perfected the art of 'Coventration'. In Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin, the Nazis reaped the whirlwind they had sown in their devastating attack.
Lord Richard Attenborough makes a moving and very personal contribution to The Kindertransport Story, to mark the 70th anniversary of the unique British rescue mission to save nearly 10,000 children, mostly Jewish, from the Nazis. As the dark clouds of the Second World War descended upon Europe, Lord Attenborough's parents were among those who responded to the urgent appeal for foster families. The two young refugee girls they took in were cherished ever after as sisters by the Attenborough boys. Three rescued children, Dorothy, Otto and Edith, all from Vienna, and now in their eighties, tell their moving stories. They describe the violent persecutions of the Jews under Hitler, and how their desperate parents strived to acquire the necessary papers to send them away to Britain on the precious few places available on the Kindertransport trains. Little did the children realise, when they said their last goodbyes to distraught parents on the railway platform, that they may never see their parents again. On reaching Britain, the new arrivals faced an uncertain future, as the hastily-assembled rescue mission struggled to accommodate this unprecedented influx of young Jewish immigrants. As Britain lurched towards war, prospective foster parents were not readily available. As German-speaking child refugees in wartime Britain, separated from their parents, life was not going to be easy, and yet Dorothy, Otto and Edith consider themselves to be the lucky ones. One and a half million children who were not able to benefit from any sort of rescue, like that of the Kindertransport, died in the Holocaust.
TV producer and presenter William G Stewart investigates the allegation that journalist and prominent MP Tom Driberg, who died in 1976, was a KGB spy. Stewart was Driberg's secretary in the 1960s and goes in search of the man he thought he knew well, talking to some of his surviving friends and colleagues and to experts in the murky world of spying. It is a journey that encompasses public schools, Oxford, luxurious country houses, the back streets of the East End of London, left-wing labour politics and the seedy bohemia of postwar Britain. Among others Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, Edith Sitwell, Guy Burgess and Nye Bevan all feature in Tom Driberg's incredible life, a colourful one that included astonishing sexual risk-taking, but above all Stewart wants to discover if his former boss betrayed his friends and his country.
In 1835 the mummified remains of Takabuti were unwrapped in Belfast. Now for the first time in thousands of years, her true face is revealed. In October 2006, the Ulster Museum closed its doors to allow major refurbishment to take place. Its contents were stored away in a dark, secret location. Light was soon to be shed, however, on one of the museum's most beloved exhibits, the mummy Takabuti. Show Me The Mummy: The Face Of Takabuti, takes advantage of the mummy's retreat from public life by gathering together a crack team of top scientists and historians to help piece together the remarkable history of the mysterious Takabuti. Borderline Productions & Straight Forward Productions for BBC Northern Ireland
A look back at Victoria Wood's hugely successful television career. Featuring sketches, stand-up, characters and songs from her incredible repertoire as well as exclusive interviews with Victoria and friends and fans, including Dawn French, Julie Walters and Sir Roger Moore.
Skin lightening is big business. The market for cosmetics to lighten darker skin is now reported to be worth millions of pounds; Anita Rani (presenter of Watchdog and The One Show) is on a journey to find out why. Starting in her own family, with her mother's preference for lighter skin, she explores the pressures within the Asian community that lead a growing number of people to want to "lighten up".
English literature professor John Mullan explores the dramatic increase in reading which took place in 18th-century Britain, as it went from being the preserve of the rich to the national pastime it is today. In 1695 a tiny amendment to the British constitution allowed for a flood of publications, without which Britain would be almost unrecognisable. This was the era that gave us the first ever magazines, newspapers and perhaps most vitally, the novel. Mullan takes us from raucous, politically-charged coffee houses to the circulating library, the social space of the late 1700s. There is a glimpse inside an 18th century lady's closet where she hid with her novel, and Mullan also celebrates the hero of the reading revolution, Dr Samuel Johnson.
In 1979 Scotland went to the polls to vote on the Scottish Devolution Referendum Bill to define her place in the United Kingdom. Thirty years later Scotland's first minister is proposing Scotland go to the polls again to vote in a new referendum on Scottish independence. Scotland's Conspiracy Files takes a fresh look at the events building up to the 1979 referendum and asks if all the truth has come out or, as some allege, there was a conspiracy surrounding the original refendum. The film looks at the role oil played, the political manoeuvring and of course the now famous '40 percent rule' requiring that at least 40 percent of the registered electorate vote 'Yes' in order to make it valid. In the search to discover the truth surrounding the 1979 referendum, the programme sees what parallels can be drawn to the politics of today and whether there are lessons Scotland can learn if we go to the polls again as the first minister is suggesting.
With the Moogs turned up to 11, a 1970s and 80s journey through the BBC's synthpop archives from Roxy Music and Tubeway Army to New Order and Sparks.
Documentary looking at how going on strike became almost a rite of passage at one time.
To commemorate the centenary of the birth of one of Britain's most influential and best-loved poets, this film combines dramatisations of telling events in the life of WH Auden with interviews from the TV and radio archives and extracts from Auden's poetry, notebooks, letters and journals.
Documentary film looking at the poetry of W H Auden, revealing how it came not just from inspiration but from a rigorous scientific analysis of love itself. When he died in 1973, he left behind some of the greatest love poems of the 20th century. Most of his unpublished material was destroyed, apart from two short journals and a series of jottings, containing diagrams and notes about the nature of love.
In the autumn of 2008, Al Gentry from Albemarle, North Carolina, achieved his goal of 22 years hard work - he had Betty Neumar arrested for the murder of his brother Harold who was Betty's husband back in 1986. Only then did it emerge that Harold Gentry was just one of Betty's former husbands. She'd in fact been married five times in total - and all five husbands appear to have died in suspicious circumstances. The US media had a field day and labelled her 'The Black Widow', but could this 76-year-old grandmother really have got away with murder, not just once but five times?
In 1968, John Betjeman, the poet and architectural critic, was asked by the BBC to make a television programme about Leeds. The film was never broadcast, but now, 40 years on, extracts are being shown by Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Elvis is alive and well and in Porthcawl - at least at the Elvis Porthcawl Festival. This programme tracks some of the performers as they pay tribute to the King, and looks at how this seaside town is transformed, for one weekend a year, into a veritable Elvisfest.
To mark Previn's 80th birthday, this profile of the celebrated pianist, conductor and composer follows his long journey from escaping Nazi Germany to the studios of Hollywood and fame.
Milton is often considered too difficult and obscure for today's reader, but to Armando Iannucci Paradise Lost is a thrilling work of creative genius that we ignore at our peril. In this film, Iannucci journeys through Milton's life and his great poem, taking in everything from Satan and the start of spin to farting angels and the questioning of God's existence, offering his own passionate and illuminating response to Paradise Lost. Along the way, he talks to schoolchildren, politicians and former prisoners to build up a picture of what Milton was like, and why his art may have turned out the way it did.
Mark Benton narrates a step-by-step guide to how the Brits tie the knot. From the stag do to the table plan, from the rings to the first dance, this is a look at how the Brits just about manage to rise to the occasion on one of the most momentous days of our lives - the wedding day.
Mark Benton has been abroad, he knows all about it: 'The British are an island race - abroad is really abroad, not just across the border but actually over the horizon. It's far away - outlandish, exotic and scary. Frankly, we're terrified of it.' The Brits, foreign travel and all points in between - how we got there, what we did there and how we got back.
To commemorate the 'Ruby Jubilee' of Monty Python, this film takes us on a journey telling the story of the Pythons from start to finish. Starting with the very humble beginnings of how the legendary British comedy troupe emerged, we learn how the cast met, their early influences and how they went on to create groundbreaking television, and their transition into movies that would change the face of comedy forever. Featuring interviews with John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Eric Idle, as well as archive interviews from Graham Chapman, this film explores the highs and the lows, and examines how Monty Python became a British institution. This is the first time the Pythons have come together for a film project since 1983's Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
Documentary using specialist photography and 3D animation to show how the common fruit fly has been crucial to a hundred years of genetic research.
When Orson Welles went into self-imposed exile in Europe, he first found stardom with The Third Man and then immersed himself in challenging films, television, theatre and bullfighting. Simon Callow trails the complex actor-director.
When Orson Welles went into self-imposed exile in Europe, he first found stardom with The Third Man and then immersed himself in challenging films, television, theatre and bullfighting. Simon Callow trails the complex actor-director.
Colombia now accounts for 62% of the world's cocaine production, estimated to be worth US$70 billion worldwide. In this very personal documentary, former cocaine addict Alex James, bassist of Britpop band Blur, travels to Colombia to see firsthand what the cocaine industry is doing to the country and its people.
Writer Andrew O'Hagan asks what made Robert Burns one of the world's favourite poets, as Scotland celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of its most famous sons. He travels through the landscape of modern Scotland in a poetic journey to the places that inspired Burns and to discover the story of his wild and dramatic life.
Twenty-year-old Gary Mannion calls himself Britain's youngest psychic surgeon, channelling a spirit from the dead to operate on the sick. He is a rising star in the world of spiritual healing, travelling the world to bring his alleged ability to effect miracle cures to a devoted following. In Young, Psychic and Possessed filmmaker Emeka Onono follows Gary as he tries to prove he really does have the power to heal. It is a journey into the supernatural that will challenge both sceptics and true believers. Emeka hears stories of miracle cures, watches Gary operate, and even participates in seances, before turning to science to try to separate fact from fantasy.
BBC correspondent Clive Myrie traces the life story of America's first black president. From Obama's broken home childhood in Hawaii, through his political awakening in the rough neighbourhoods of Chicago, to his arrival in Washington, Myrie follows the extraordinary journey that transformed the son of a Kenyan student into the most powerful man in the world.
Determined to prevent it if he possibly can, Terry Pratchett took a personal journey through the science and the reality of what it's like to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This two part documentary followed Terry's race to find a cure as he endeavoured to find ways of slowing, mitigating or even reversing its course.
Steeped in cunning, guile and forensic knowledge, the notorious Johnson Gang ran rings around the law as they stole from some of England's grandest stately homes. It eventually took five police forces to end their 20-year crime spree - this is the inside story.
From semi-naked women to prize-winning goats, this documentary examines the weird and wonderful ways the Government has tried to promote Britain's image abroad.
An alternative vision of Britain during the 1930s, challenging the commonly held perception that the period was defined by unemployment, gloom and recession.
Using archival footage, this film explores the American space program, from the Mercury program through Gemini program through the return to space after the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster.
Documentary looking at the extraordinary changes and crazes that have happened to British gardening since the Second World War, from garden gnomes and crazy paving to Leylandii and decking. As recently as the 1960s, garden centres didn't exist and gardening was strictly for old boys in sheds, yet today it has become the height of cool. Contributors include Penelope Keith, Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, Germaine Greer and Carol Klein.
A decade on, and after an emotional split tore the original team in half, six of the Calendar Girls are reuniting to strip for the cameras one final time, baring all for charity once more. They joke that they'll need bigger props to pose behind, but little else has changed for the ladies of Rylstone and District WI. This is the story of how a group of normal middle aged women from the Yorkshire Dales united in the face of grief, inspired the world and changed the reputation of the WI forever.
A feast of old chestnuts from the glory days of Christmases past with this look at the rise and demise of the Christmas light-entertainment spectacular. From Christmas Night with the Stars to Val Doonican and Christmas Snowtime special, the programme revisits a world of snow made from soapflakes, chorus lines sweating in winter woolies and recycled sleighs.
Jonathan Ross takes a look into the life and times of one of the greatest film directors of our time, David Lean.
Documentary looking at Nationwide, Britain's first truly regional TV programme, which ran on BBC in the early evenings from 1969 to 1983. Featuring contributions from many of those involved, including Sue Lawley, Michael Barratt, Richard Stilgoe, Bob Wellings, Hugh Scully, Frank Bough, Esther Rantzen and John Stapleton
Documentary journey into actor Brian Cox's past, and on to Kolkata in the footsteps of the Dundee jute workers who left to seek their fortunes in India.
In the 4th century BC the Greek philosopher Aristotle travelled to Lesvos, an island in the Aegean teeming, then as now, with wildlife. His fascination with what he found there, and his painstaking study of it, led to the birth of a new science - biology. Professor Armand Leroi follows in Aristotle's footsteps to discover the creatures, places and ideas that inspired the philosopher in his pioneering work.
Over three thousand years ago, legend has it that Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's first female pharaoh, sent a fleet of ships to the wonderful, distant land of Punt. A bas-relief in the temple where she is entombed in Luxor shows them bringing back extraordinary treasures. But did this expedition really happen? And if it did, where exactly is the land of Punt? Drawing upon recent finds, the archaeologist Cheryl Ward sets out to recreate the voyage, in a full-size replica of one of these ancient ships, sailing it in the wake of Hatshepsut's fleet, in search of the mythical land of Punt. A human adventure as well as a scientific challenge, the expedition proves that, contrary to popular belief, the ancient Egyptians had the necessary tools, science and techniques to sail the seas.
Since shooting to fame in 2002 as one fifth of one of Girls Aloud, Nicola Roberts has had to deal with life under the spotlight. As a result, everyone seems to have an opinion about her fashion, hairstyles and her naturally pale complexion. In this documentary, Nicola goes on a personal journey to explore the culture of tanning amongst young women and men in the UK, and the extremes they will go to in order to obtain the perfect tan. Nicola meets young women whose love of tanning is an addiction, who use sunbeds 5-6 times a week and who inject untested tanning-aid drugs. She meets girls in their early teens who, like her when she was young, experience the pressures from their peers to conform and be tanned. Nicola reveals how she has overcome her early reliance on fake tan and her gradual sense of confidence in her own skin. She meets top dermatologists and cancer experts who explain the risks tanning addicts are exposing themselves to. Nicola's journey takes her into hospital wards where some of the estimated 120 under-40s who die from skin cancer each year are treated. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in under-35s in the UK. Nicola meets the families of those who have died from melanoma and who are now pushing for a change in the law to protect the young from the tanning industry. Her journey takes her to Westminster, where she has the chance to rally support for a new bill that would protect under-18s from the dangers of sunbeds.
On Christmas Day 2009, as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 began its descent towards Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a 23-year-old man left the airplane toilet, returned to his seat and pulled a blanket across his lap. He then attempted to detonate a device containing military-grade explosive PETN, a deadly bomb designed to take the plane out of the sky. With powerful eyewitness testimony and in-depth expert analysis, this timely documentary examines how alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab slipped under the US intelligence radar and evaded three sets of airport security. From Abdulmutallab's student days in London, via his time in the Al Qaeda hotspot of Yemen, to the final leg of his journey on a flight bound for the USA, the timeline of this story throws up important questions. What did security services know about him before he boarded the plane? What would have happened to the 290 passengers and crew on board if the bomb had detonated successfully? What lessons have be learned? And, in the aftermath of this attack, how safe is it to fly?
Graham Bell and Ed Leigh journey southwards through the frozen province of British Columbia, Canada, towards the home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. En route, they travel through remote communities cut off from civilisation through the winter, learning how the locals survive off the land. Leigh and Bell experience this harsh life for themselves alongside miners, loggers and hunters, and find out what it is like to function and work in such harsh conditions. Their journey ends with a gruelling trek on foot through the spectacular Coast Range Mountains into Whistler, one of the Olympic venues.
The first of two films by Christopher Nupen about the music and the artistic preoccupations of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky covers the period from the first tentative stirrings of Tchaikovsky's musical talent to the composition of his opera Eugene Onegin and the disastrous failure of his marriage to Antonina Milyukova. It looks at the women who fired his musical imagination in the early years, from Katerina Kabanova in his first orchestral work, The Storm, to his dearly loved Tatyana in Onegin. There are, however, natural correspondences with the women in his private life - his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach, the Belgian opera singer Desiree Artot, Antonina Milyukova and his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck. Up to the time of his marriage the prime source of inspiration for much of his best music lay in Tchaikovsky's deep identification with the fate of his vulnerable young heroines. All through his life he was preoccupied with the idea of fate and in the beginning it was the fate of these young women that touched him most - Katerina in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini and above all Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. His identification with Tatyana was so complete that it had a direct influence on his decision to marry Antonina Milyukova with such unhappy consequences. The film features Cynthia Harvey and Mark Silver, both principal dancers with the Royal Ballet, as well as Welsh soprano Helen Field and Swedish Soprano Clarry Bartha. The music is performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
The first of two films by Christopher Nupen about the music and the artistic preoccupations of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky covers the period from the first tentative stirrings of Tchaikovsky's musical talent to the composition of his opera Eugene Onegin and the disastrous failure of his marriage to Antonina Milyukova. It looks at the women who fired his musical imagination in the early years, from Katerina Kabanova in his first orchestral work, The Storm, to his dearly loved Tatyana in Onegin. There are, however, natural correspondences with the women in his private life - his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach, the Belgian opera singer Desiree Artot, Antonina Milyukova and his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck. Up to the time of his marriage the prime source of inspiration for much of his best music lay in Tchaikovsky's deep identification with the fate of his vulnerable young heroines. All through his life he was preoccupied with the idea of fate and in the beginning it was the fate of these young women that touched him most - Katerina in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini and above all Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. His identification with Tatyana was so complete that it had a direct influence on his decision to marry Antonina Milyukova with such unhappy consequences. The film features Cynthia Harvey and Mark Silver, both principal dancers with the Royal Ballet, as well as Welsh soprano Helen Field and Swedish Soprano Clarry Bartha. The music is performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Food writer and critic William Sitwell investigates the passions, pressures and obsessions behind that apparently all-important description, 'Michelin-starred chef'. 'It elevates your average stove monkey to superior cheffy status; it puts you in a completely new culinary class. But how relevant is Michelin? Do we want poncey food? Or can you get a Michelin star for a good steak and chips? Is the Michelin Guide harmful in its influence? And does the path to Michelin-starred perfection lead to dangerous obsession?' In the lead-up to the 2010 Guide's publication, Sitwell goes behind the scenes to hear contrasting views on the Michelin phenomenon, from Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White to chefs dreaming of stars and restaurateurs dismissive of them. He rolls up his sleeves and immerses himself in this extraordinary world, spending a day in the kitchen with Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley hotel, who has two stars and is hoping for that mythical third. He learns just what is involved at this level, from the precise placing of a sliced fresh chestnut on a bed of Dorset crab, to the presentation of today's pre-starter: fish and chip soup. In France, he encounters the big boss of Michelin at their Paris HQ and hears from the widow of the celebrated three-star chef, who was the ultimate perfectionist, a passionate chef who took his own life. And he explores who the strictly anonymous people are who make these apparently vital decisions. A senior British Michelin inspector, interviewed in shadow, confesses to enjoying the anonymity, likening himself to a secret agent, 'licensed to eat'.
Dream city, Sin City, a mirage in the desert, Las Vegas is a film set in its own right, a piece of pop art, an outdoor museum of American culture. What is the story behind the neon lights and fantastical buildings? What will its future be in these tough times? Alan Yentob takes a mob tour and talks to producers and performers about the golden days when Sinatra and Dino held the stage, and the wise guys called the shots. With Jerry Weintraub, producer of Ocean's Eleven and Thirteen, and Brandon Flowers of the Killers.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents a personal profile of the legendary food writer Alan Davidson, one of the unsung heroes of the culinary world. Davidson's greatest work, The Oxford Companion to Food, took him 20 years to write. It's an encyclopaedia of everything a human being can eat, from aardvark to zucchini, all catalogued in 2,650 separate entries. But it is much more than just a food reference book; it is a portrait of the whole human race, its many cultures, customs and histories, all revealed through the stories of what we eat. If you want to understand why the Genoese enjoy dolphin, how to cook a warthog, why the French call dandelions 'piss-en-lit' or who invented Spam, then 'The Companion', as it is known by aficionados, is the place to look.
King Edward VII has always been an enigma. Twentieth-century dynasty builder and sex addict; dyslexic dunce and astute political operator; boorish philistine and civilised cosmopolitan - he was all of these. Using extensive new research, Edward VII - Prince of Pleasure unravels the mystery of this thoroughly modern monarch and shows that his legacy is still very relevant today.
Documentary which follows award-winning artisan baker Tom Herbert in his search to bake a loaf that will win him first prize at the National Organic Food Awards.
For years now, some town halls have been renaming their Christmas Lights as Winter Lights festivals. More and more Christians are ending up in court, defending themselves against what they see as victimisation for not being allowed to wear a cross to work or to pray for a patient. Many Christians feel that Christianity - once the heart of British society - is being pushed to the margins. Nicky Campbell investigates whether Christians are being discriminated against. He explores the effects of multiculturalism and asks Muslims whether they are offended by Christmas Lights celebrations. Campbell also analyses the impact of recent human rights legislation and the Equality Bill: do they promote a more or less tolerant society? A poll specially commissioned for the BBC reveals what the public think. If the Christian faith is being sidelined from the public space, is that a good or a bad thing? Campbell interviews Christians who claim they have been discriminated against, as well as leading religious and secular voices, including Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols; Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir Ali; Shami Chakrabati, Director of the civil rights organistation Liberty; and Polly Toynbee, President of the National Secular Society.
21-year-old Nel has lived in Britain since she was six, after her family fled war and violence in Afghanistan. Despite respecting her parents' decision to leave, Nel has always felt a strong connection with the country and longs to know what her life would have been like if she'd stayed and grown up there. This documentary tells the intimate story of a young woman returning to Afghanistan. In Kabul, she sees the modern face of the country through her cousin - one of only a handful of female lecturers at Kabul University. But even her cousin accepts that her marriage will be arranged. Outside the capital, behind the closed doors of hospital wards and prisons, Nel soon discovers a world of extreme violence against women and gains a new understanding of why her family decided to leave.
As a crew of forty kept the zeppelin in the air, Lady Grace feasted her eyes on the world's major cities, white alpine peaks, oceans and swamps, and fell in love with a married man. Rare archival footage gives glimpses of day-to-day life in a zeppelin gondola, Grace listening to one of her fellow passengers playing the accordion, the repair of a tear in the cloth shell during the flight, the sleeping cabins and lounge, and the splendid views from the windows. The film offers a fascinating look into the world of the roaring twenties which would soon be gone forever.
Sue Johnston goes in search of her lifelong dream - the lost, fantasy world of Shangri La. The film is a contemporary travelogue and a journey into the private world of Sue Johnston. She changes and learns about herself, overcoming fears and exposing a previously private, emotional side. Sue first came across the story of Shangri La as a 16 year old in 1959 when she watched the movie Lost Horizon with her mother on their first black and white television. The film was based on a book written by Englishman James Hilton in 1933. She read the book voraciously and has re-read it many times over the years since. As a child she was fascinated by the Orient and the mysteries of the Far East, but in those post-war austerity days the chances of ever following her dream, of finding the actual place, seemed an unattainable goal. It looked like her dream would remain just that, as life took over and she got married, had a child, started a successful acting career and got divorced. The dream slipped further away into the dark, forgotten corners of her mind. Recently, as her life has changed, she has recalled her longed-for Shangri La. Her parents died, her son left home and settled into his own life, and her sense of mortality hit home. She decided that it was time to find the inspiration for the book, the story of Lost Horizon. Sue's quest takes her through south-west China's Yunnan province and into Tibet, travelling over high mountain passes, into deep, hidden valleys and gorges, through bustling towns and ultimately on horseback to her final destination, the sacred mountain of Kawarkapo and the tiny, isolated village of Yipung - on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and the basis for James Hilton's novel.
Nigel Planer narrates a documentary which traces the origins and development of British heavy metal from its humble beginnings in the industrialised Midlands to its proud international triumph. In the late 60s a number of British bands were forging a new kind of sound. Known as hard rock, it was loud, tough, energetic and sometimes dark in outlook. They didn't know it, but Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and, most significantly, Black Sabbath were defining what first became heavy rock and then eventually heavy metal. Inspired by blues rock, progressive rock, classical music and high energy American rock, they synthesised the sound that would inspire bands like Judas Priest to take metal even further during the 70s. By the 80s its originators had fallen foul of punk rock, creative stasis or drug and alcohol abuse. But a new wave of British heavy metal was ready to take up the crusade. With the success of bands like Iron Maiden, it went global. Contributors include Lemmy, Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden and Saxon's Biff Byford.
British fashion photographer Rankin explores South Africa's rich photographic tradition, discovering how its leading photographers have captured this complex, often turbulent, nation through remarkable images and charting the unique role photography has played in documenting the story and people of this fascinating country. Through encounters with legendary conflict photographers the Bang Bang Club, documentary photographer David Goldblatt and photojournalist Alf Kumalo amongst others, Rankin goes on a compelling and moving photographic journey to see the nation through their gaze.
Richard E Grant - who grew up in Swaziland - examines the controversial history of the safari. Exploring the world of the big game hunters and the luxury of today's safaris, he goes on a personal journey to experience how the beauty of the bush made Africa the white man's playground.
Paul Merton goes in search of the origins of screen comedy in the forgotten world of silent cinema - not in Hollywood, but closer to home in pre-1914 Britain and France. Revealing the unknown stars and lost masterpieces, he brings to life the pioneering techniques and optical inventiveness of the virtuosos who mastered a new art form. With a playful eye and comic sense of timing, Merton combines the role of presenter and director to recreate the weird and wonderful world that is early European cinema in a series of cinematic experiments of his own.
The exploits of young Britons abroad often hit the headlines, but are holidaymakers risking more than just their reputations? BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James joins British tourists heading to party capital Magaluf on the Spanish island of Mallorca, to examine the risks that many seem all too willing to take with their mind, body and soul.
Robert Llewellyn discovers why submarine movies have gripped us for over a century. He travels along the River Medway to find a beached cold war Russian nuclear sub and then on to the abandoned WW2 German U-boat pens on the French coast, recalling many of the real events that inspired these films. From 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Das Boot, Llewellyn discovers that fear - and bravery - is the key, and he also reveals the unique role that Walt Disney played in promoting atomic submarines.
This fascinating documentary – part of a BBC season on the subject – looks at Britain’s history of mental health care. From frontal lobotomies to care in the community, Mental: A History of the Madhouse tells the story of the closure of Britain’s mental asylums. They’re a grizzly reminder of a time when ‘out of sight, out of mind’ was the mantra for tackling the nation’s mental health issues. But as part of its season on mental health, the BBC has revisited Britain’s asylums to look at how we used to treat the issues that face up to one in four people. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in these vast Victorian institutions. Institutions like High Royds Hospital, near Leeds, which forms the basis of this programme. High Royds with its Gothic clock tower and endless corridors, looks like the stuff of nightmares, built to keep out of sight those deemed to be out of their minds. But mental health care in the UK has changed, and today the asylums have all but disappeared as attitudes towards these issues have softened. Built around testimonies from patients, doctors and psychiatric nurses, the film explores the seismic shift in mental health care over the last sixty years. Mental: A History of the Madhouse tackles some heavyweight subject matter and is anything but light evening viewing. However, it does an admirable service to the issues at hand and offers an insightful exploration of a subject that is all too often ignored.
Joan Root, with her husband Alan, produced beautiful and famous natural history films, born of her deep love of Africa and its flora and fauna. This delicate but determined member of Kenya's Happy Valley was gunned down in January 2006 by intruders bearing AK-47s. Four men were charged with her murder, including David Chege, the leader of a private vigilante group Root herself had financed to stop the illegal fishing that was killing Lake Naivasha, the beautiful lake beside which she lived. Chege was from Karagita, the largest of the slums that has sprung up beside the lake in the last twenty years. In that time, the population of Naivasha has rocketed from 30,000 to 350,000 as a desperate tide of impoverished migrant workers arrived in search of employment on Kenya's flourishing flower farms. This has created squalor, crime and, in the minds of Root and her fellow naturalists, ecological apocalypse. This film tells the story of the extraordinary life and brutal death of Joan Root, and of her campaign to save the lake she loved. Who killed Joan Root? Was it the fish poachers, whom Root stopped from plying their illegal trade in a bid to save her beloved Lake Naivasha? Was it her loyal lieutenant Chege, whom Root ultimately cut off from her payroll? Or was it one of her white neighbours, with whom Root had feuded? Through the telling of Root's story, the film opens a window onto contemporary Africa and the developed world's relationship to it. For it is the Kenyan rose, which is exported by the millions on a daily basis from Naivasha, that has brought not just jobs and foreign exchange earnings, but a population explosion that has caused the destruction of the environment Root worked so hard to stop. Her campaign may have ultimately cost her her life.
At 6.26 pm, June 11th 1955, the world of playboy racers and their exotic cars exploded in a devastating fireball. On the home straight early in the Le Mans 24-Hour race, future British world champion Mike Hawthorn made a rash mistake. Pierre Levegh's Mercedes 300 SLR smashed into the crowd, killing 83 people and injuring 120 more. It remains the worst disaster in motor racing history. The story was quickly engulfed by conspiracy theory, blame and scandal. Was the mysterious explosion caused by Mercedes gambling all on untried technologies? Did they compound it by using a lethal fuel additive? Have the French authorities been covering up the truth ever since? Or was the winner, the doomed British star Mike Hawthorn, guilty of reckless driving and did his desire to win at all costs start the terrible chain of events?
The world of early 19th century England is usually seen through the eyes of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. Sue Perkins explores a dramatically different version of this world, as lived and recorded by the remarkable Anne Lister. Anne was born in Halifax in 1791. A Yorkshire landowner, she was a polymath, autodidact and traveller who kept a detailed diary. Running to more than 4,000,000 words, the work ranks as one of the most important journals in English literature. Parts of Anne's epic diary were written in code: once deciphered they reveal graphic details of Anne's many love affairs with women.
Franz Schubert was undervalued in his own lifetime and for at least the next century because he died young and, for all the appreciation of his intimate circle of friends, he failed to achieve public recognition and financial success. He was the first great composer in western music to live by his art alone, without patronage, but he enjoyed only one public concert of his music in his lifetime. Christopher Nupen's documentary uses Schubert's words and music to help us feel closer to what the composer himself was trying to say. The film begins with the funeral of Beethoven, at which Schubert was a torch bearer, and the story is told almost entirely in music that Schubert wrote between then and his death.
Documentary following the Grenadier Guards as they prepare to lead the 2010 Trooping the Colour. But these men have had precious little time to prepare; as fighting soldiers, they have just spent six months on the front line in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. This is the story of how one and a half thousand men and women join together to create one of the greatest military ceremonies on earth. It is a ceremony with just one standard: Excellence.
Stephen Fry explores his passion for controversial composer Richard Wagner. Can he salvage the music he loves from its dark association with Hitler's Nazi regime? His journey takes him to Germany, Switzerland and Russia as he pieces together the story of the composer's turbulent career. Along the way he plays Wagner's piano, meets the composer's descendants and eavesdrops on rehearsals for the legendary Bayreuth Festival, the annual extravaganza of Wagner's music held in a theatre designed by the composer himself.
Documentary telling the story of Australia's most cherished TV star, Skippy the bush kangaroo, the crime-busting marsupial who conquered the world in the late 60s and early 70s. The 91 episodes of Skippy were sold in 128 countries and watched by hundreds of millions. It put Australia on the map and - for those of a certain generation - the heroic marsupial is synonymous with their childhood, often in more profound ways than they realise. Includes interviews with every surviving member of the cast and some of the key crew - not least those responsible for getting the best performances out of the temperamental star.
In 2008 Ben Fogle caught a flesh-eating disease called leishmaniasis which, if untreated, would have destroyed his face. In this film, Ben investigates a sickness that's far worse but virtually unheard of - noma, which eats away the faces of thousands of Africa's poorest children. Ninety per cent of noma victims die while survivors are left terribly disfigured.
Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus goes on a quest to discover why dads are so important. Through a series of extraordinary experiments she discovers how radical changes in a man's hormones during his partner's pregnancy actually serve to boost his nurturing instincts. Laverne's final investigation is perhaps most intriguing of all: can a father's relationship with his daughter really influence when she reaches puberty and who she eventually marries?
Poet Roger McGough narrates the story of how a simple invention - the shipping container - changed the world forever and forced Britain into the modern era of globalisation. With a blend of archive and modern-day filming, the impact of the box is told through the eyes of dockers, seafarers, ship spotters, factory workers and logisticians. From quayside in container ports to onboard enormous ships, the documentary explains how the container has transformed our communities, economy and coastline.
David Reynolds takes a fresh look at the controversial career and embattled presidency of Richard Nixon. Reynolds sees Nixon as a successful international statesman, but that the methods that won him this acclaim also doomed his presidency in the Watergate scandal. Using memos, audio and home movie footage, the film throws new light on Nixon's secrecy, deception and mistrust of aides, as he ran his presidency largely from his 'den' - a hideaway office across the road from the White House.
Who could have predicted it? The Who in their sixties, singing 'Hope I die before I get old' to enthusiastic audiences spanning generations; Mick Jagger, with seven years already on his bus pass, snaking across the stage singing 'Let's spend the night together'; or a topless, leathery Iggy Pop growling 'Last year I was 21', before climbing the speaker stacks for a bit of mock fornication. Scenes that is at once incredibly odd, but undeniably powerful and inspiring. Forever Young takes a closer look at how rock 'n' roll has had to deal with the unthinkable - namely growing old. From its roots in the Fifties as a music made by young people for young people, to the 21st-century phenomena of the 'revival' and the 'comeback', the programme investigates what happens when the music refuses to die and its performers refuse to leave the stage. What happens when rock's youthful rebelliousness is delivered wrapped in wrinkles? Featuring contributions by Iggy Pop, Lemmy, Rick Wakeman, Suggs and Alison Moyet.
In a moving and often funny documentary, award-winning filmmaker Sean Langan is off to East Africa to ride the rails of the Tazara railroad, whose passenger and goods trains travel through spectacular scenery and a game park teeming with wild animals. The railway was built by the Chinese just after independence to link Zambia's copper belt to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, and once carried the region's hopes and dreams. But now it is in crisis. Every day there are derailments, trains running out of fuel and mechanical breakdowns. Langan meets the train crews, controllers and maintenance crews who battle to keep it going - and at Tazara HQ he is on the track of Tazara's elusive Chinese railway advisors to find out why it is in such a parlous state.
A documentary about the decay and industrial collapse of America's fourth largest city.
Provocative documentary following the doctors who can now interrupt, and even reverse, the process of death. Filmed over six months in the country's leading brain injury unit (Addenbooke's Hospital, Cambridge), it follows the journey of a man who, by only moving his eyes, is eventually asked if he wants to live or die. Two other families are also plunged into the most ethically difficult decision in modern medicine.
Road users pass them every day - sudden flashes of flowers tied to lampposts or lying by the side of the road. Across the UK roadside memorials have become the expected response when someone dies suddenly in a traffic collision. For friends and family the spot where these tributes are left becomes sacred; for others these shrines are an eyesore and a display that should be kept private. Yet behind each roadside memorial there is a story of personal grief.
An investigation into the life and death of the great Baroque artist Caravaggio, who died in 1610 aged only 39 after a life full of violent incident. Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from Rome to Naples, then to Sicily and Malta, where Caravaggio died four years after being exiled from Rome for killing a man in a street fight.
Featuring the evocative memories and unseen archive of generations of enthusiasts, a documentary which tells the intriguing story of how sleeping under canvas evolved from a leisure activity for a handful of adventurous Edwardian gents to the quintessentially British family pastime that it is today.
Mud, midges, barbed wire - just why do us Brits love the great outdoors? In this nostalgic look at life for campers, twitchers, ramblers and metal detectors, Mark Benton examines the history of the British fresh air freak.
One of the true originals of American country music, 73-year-old Californian-born Merle Haggard has always felt and expressed America's contradictions in his life and his songs. This is the journey of the former Nixon poster boy of Okie from Muskogee renown to the now outspoken critic of the Bush era, as director Gandulf Hennig explores one of the greatest songbooks in American music.
Rich Hall sets his keen eye and acerbic wit on his homeland once again as he sifts truth from fiction in Hollywood's version of the southern states of the USA. Using specially shot interviews and featuring archive footage from classic movies such as Gone With The Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire and Deliverance, Rich discovers a South that is about so much more than just rednecks, racism and hillbillies.
Growing up is hard enough for most young people, but how different would it be if you couldn't view the world through your eyes. This documentary follows four young blind people on the rollercoaster ride to adulthood as they try to work out what they want from their lives. Eighteen-year-old Dwight is seeking love and independence, Karen dreams of a career designing jewellery and blind couple Katy and Scott are facing dilemmas about their future together.
Author Rob Penn travels around the world collecting handbuilt parts for his dream bicycle and charts the social history of one of mankind's greatest inventions.
Alex Horne tries to discover why some games survived, and examines the best of those that didn't. Whilst revisiting his own childhood haunts, he attempts to relaunch the ancient sport of 'The Quintain', horseless jousting, and tries his damnedest to understand the rules of the 'Jingling Match'. Not forgetting his attempt to restage the forgotten spectacle of 'Cricket on Horseback'. This might just be a journey to the very heart of sport itself, but if not, it will be a lot of fun playing games that haven't been seen for hundreds of years and even more fun discovering why.
With eyewitness accounts from former British team mates and top stars of continental cycling, Death of the Mountain recounts the dramatic events of 13th July during the 13th stage of the 1967 Tour de France when Tom Simpson died trying to climb the notorious Mont Ventoux in Southern France. Interwoven into this story of Simpson's controversial death is the remarkable story of how the miner's son from Nottinghamshire conquered continental cycling during the 1960s.
In 1969, Elvis Presley was at the peak of his powers with a stage show at the Hilton and recordings that made him "the most famous entertainer in the world". But, beneath the surface, his own demons – and the schemes of his celebrity manager, Colonel Tom Parker – were taking their toll. This is the untold story of how Elvis transformed Las Vegas but how the city helped destroy him. Based in Seventies Vegas, and featuring some of Elvis's finest performances, home movies and rare archive footage, Elvis In Vegas reveals a bizarre tale of intrigue and excess, recounted by those closest to him. It reveals how the Las Vegas experience impacted on his spectacular shows, chart-topping recordings, volatile relationship with Colonel Parker and his unusual private life – all set against the glamorous backdrop of a "Sin City" that would never be the same again. The programme features interviews with Priscilla Presley, Colonel Parker's wife, Loanne, the Memphis Mafia, Tom Jones, Nancy Sinatra, songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and many more.
Chef Rick Stein takes a light-hearted look at the role that food played in the creation of Italian opera and shows how music and food are intrinsically linked in Italy. He draws parallels between cooking and composing, noting how both involve the skilful combination of ingredients and how they share the common purpose of bringing pleasure to many. Rick also explains why he thinks the music of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini are linked to the food of the regions where they lived and worked.
The great tenor Rolando Villazon takes us inside the world of the sexiest and most risky of all operatic voices. It's a journey which includes some of the great names of the past, such as Caruso and Lanza, and some of the brightest stars performing today, like Domingo, Alagna and Florez. We hear how they tackle their most famous roles and what the risks and rewards are.
Evan Davis presents a programme exploring the effects of immigration in the UK by focusing on Wisbech, a town in Cambridgeshire. Since 2004 this once prosperous market town has received up to 9,000 immigrants seeking work - the majority from Eastern Europe. But with nearly 2,000 locals unemployed and claiming benefits, many of them blame the foreign workers for their predicament. To test if the town needs so many foreign workers, immigrant employees are temporarily removed from their jobs, and the work given to the local unemployed. Now the town's British workers have a chance to prove they can do it. Eleven British unemployed workers are recruited to go into a range of different Wisbech workplaces including a potato company, an asparagus farm, an Indian restaurant and a building site run by a local landlord. Moving beyond the workplace, Evan Davis investigates how the town's local public services, such as schools and the NHS, are coping with the demands of the new arrivals. As the British unemployed workers get to grips with their new jobs, this documentary examines the facts and dispels the myths around the subject of immigration.
The story of Britain's maritime past has a hidden history of shanties and sea songs, and choirmaster Gareth Malone has been travelling Britain's coast to explore this unique heritage. From dedicated traditionalists to groundbreaking recording artists, Gareth meets a variety of sea-singers from across the country.
Moving and inspiring film telling the story of Bobby Moore, who has passed into football legend as the captain who led England to its only World Cup victory in 1966.
The remarkable story of how a 53-year-old rare book dealer from the North East of England became the centre of a mystery surrounding the disappearance of a long lost Shakespeare First Folio. The film follows bachelor Raymond Scott as he finds himself the focus of a worldwide investigation, involving the FBI, a Cuban fiancee and Durham CID.
The extraordinary behind-the-scenes story of five days in May when the UK's political leaders haggled over who should form the next government. In exclusive interviews, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and other key players tell the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson how the coalition government was created.
Almost 90 years ago, Kitty Murray wrote a new chapter in history by becoming Scotland's first female MP. An aristocrat who campaigned alongside communists, she led the fight against appeasing Hitler. But who was the Duchess of Atholl? And why has history forgotten her? Elizabeth Quigley looks back to investigate.
Historian Dan Cruickshank reveals the history of Britain's public parks. He travels the country to discover their evolution - a story of class, civic pride, changing fashions in sport and recreation which helps re-evaluate the amazing assets they are. From their civic heyday in the 19th century to the neglect of the 1980s and their resurgence today, the film is a fascinating and entertaining history of an often-overlooked great British invention.
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond and motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss share the same life-altering experience - they had their lives changed forever by terrible car accidents. The pair recovered quickly from their respective physical injuries, but the acquired brain injuries of those major impacts meant their minds took much longer to heal. But why should brain tissue take so much longer to repair itself than skin and bone and what kind of trauma does the organ go through when trying to 're-boot' itself? In an engaging and intimate conversation punctuated by some extraordinary medical insights and archive footage of both of their accidents, the two men exchange their experiences.
Powerful documentary which, for the first time, follows three people who have been sectioned on their journey through the mental health system. With unprecedented access to one of the largest mental health trusts in the UK, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, the film focuses on Andrew, Richard and Anthony as they battle to regain control of their lives, bringing into sharp focus the huge challenges faced by patients and staff alike.
Ben Anderson reports on the English Defence League, a movement set up to protest against what it perceives to be the spread of militant Islam in Britain, and whose demonstrations often end up in violence. The reporter questions what motivates these young men to join this organisation and their motivation to take part in violent acts
Drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as Van Gogh. Every word spoken by the actors in this film is sourced from the letters that Van Gogh sent to his younger brother Theo, and of those around him. What emerges is a complex portrait of a sophisticated, civilised and yet tormented man. This is Van Gogh's story in his own words.
Documentary telling the story of the Battle of Quebec, 1759, where at stake was the future of North America and the fate of the British Empire. Britain used its growing industrial strength and a new scientific approach to fight a campaign unlike any that had gone before. It launched a fleet of 200 ships carrying 20,000 men on a deadly mission through uncharted waters. Dan Snow sets sail up the magnificent St Lawrence River following the route taken by the British.
Documentary feature film, tracing the lifelong quest of visionary genius John Lautner to create 'architecture that has no beginning and no end.' It is the story of a complicated life - and the most sensual architecture of the 20th century.
Art historian Dr Nina Ramirez reveals the codes and messages hidden in Anglo-Saxon art. From the beautiful jewellery that adorned the first violent pagan invaders through to the stunning Christian manuscripts they would become famous for, she explores the beliefs and ideas that shaped Anglo-Saxon art. Examining many of the greatest Anglo-Saxon treasures - such as the Sutton Hoo Treasures, the Staffordshire Hoard, the Franks Casket and the Lindisfarne Gospels - Dr Ramirez charts 600 years of artistic development which was stopped dead in its tracks by the Norman Conquest.
Dr Stephen Baxter, medieval historian at King's College, London, reveals the human and political drama that lies within the parchment of England's earliest surviving public record, the Domesday Book. He also finds out the real reason it was commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The Domesday Book is the first great national survey of England, a record of who owned every piece of land and property in the kingdom. It also records the traumatic impact of the Norman conquest on Anglo-Saxon England, the greatest social and political upheaval in the country's history. Most historians believe that Domesday is a tax book for raising revenue, but Baxter has his own theory. He proves that the Domesday Book could not have been used to collect taxes and he argues that it is about something far more important than money. Its real purpose was to confer revolutionary new powers on the monarchy in Norman England.
Poet Simon Armitage traces the evolution of the Arthurian legend through the literature of the medieval age and reveals that King Arthur is not the great national hero he is usually considered to be. He's a fickle and transitory character who was appropriated the the Normans to justify their conquest, he was cuckolded when French writers began adapting the story and it took Thomas Malory's masterpiece of English literature, Le Mort d'Arthur, to restore dignity and reclaim him as the national hero we know today.
Born almost 1000 years ago in Persia, Omar Khayyam was an astronomer, mathematician and poet. His contribution to algebra and geometry has sealed his reputation as one the greatest mathematicians of all time; and a lunar crater has been named after him for his advances in astronomy.
In 2008, BBC cameras filmed two Swedish sisters throwing themselves into traffic on the M6. When it was shown on BBC One, nearly 7 million viewers were glued to their screens, and millions more watched it later on YouTube. Now, two years later, this documentary reveals the full story of the hours just before the cameras captured that motorway footage, and the even more chilling story of what happened over next 72 hours, which left one of the sisters fleeing the scene of a crime, after she had stabbed a man through the chest.
Internet dating is here to stay. Fifteen million people in the UK are single and half of them are now looking for love online. Sue Bourne, award-winning director of 'My Street' and 'Mum and Me' sets out to discover what the growing phenomenon of internet dating is doing to people and relationships.
A warm hearted and emotional film, following 22-year-old Alice as she searches for her real dad. During Alice's life there have been six different men that she's thought of as being her dad - some meant more to her than others. But there's one of these men Alice has no memory of - her biological dad. In this film Alice sets off on a journey to meet these different men from her childhood, and in the process work out what it really means to be a dad. And Alice has a big decision to make, she's recently got engaged, but which of her dads will walk her down the aisle?
Two years ago, James Hobley couldn't read or write and was happier playing with his cats than talking to his family. Then, aged eight, he discovered disco dancing and his life changed forever. Within months he was reading and writing and winning dance competitions. Now he wants to be known as James the amazing dancer, not James the boy with autism. He's competing for the world title in disco at Blackpool's Tower Ballroom, but can he win?
Every teenager wants to drive. It represents a coming of age, a new beginning and the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want. Learning to drive is a daunting and stressful experience even for the calmest of individuals, but much more so when you have autism and see the world and understand things very differently to other people. Taking a driving test is something that everyone can relate to - a stressful rite of passage for all young people but even more so for autistic people with low self-confidence and poor social skills. Learning to drive represents the independence that many autistic people find so difficult to achieve in the rest of their lives - people who cannot cope with crowds, noisy and unreliable public transport or even being looked at by strangers. The film follows a group of young characters with autism at different stages along the journey towards learning to drive. Stories includes the build up to theory and practical tests and a woman who has passed her test but is too scared to drive on her own.
A history of one of the world's most challenging mountains, the Eiger, and its infamous north face. The film gets to the heart of one of Europe's most notorious peaks, exploring its character and its impact on the people who climb it and live in its awesome shadow.
Alice Roberts embarks on a quest to discover what lies behind the passion for wild swimming, now becoming popular in Britain. She follows in the wake of Waterlog, the classic swimming text by the late journalist and author, Roger Deakin. Her journey takes in cavernous plunge pools, languid rivers and unfathomable underground lakes, as well as a skinny dip in a moorland pool. Along the way Alice becomes aware that she is not alone on her watery journey.
Documentary telling the story of 14-year-old Rebecca Flint, an ordinary schoolgirl from the Isle of Man who in Japan becomes Beckii Cruel, a teen icon and an internet sensation. Beckii became famous in Japan after uploading films of herself dancing on YouTube. She did this secretly, without telling her parents. This intimate documentary has exclusive access to her as it explores the real world of Beckii and the other British teenage girls who hope to become famous in Japan.
Sir David Frost interviews Dame Vera at her home in Sussex and hears about her extraordinary career. She talks revealingly about her childhood in London's East Ham; her days singing with the big bands of the 30s; her role as WW2's Forces Sweetheart and her successful post-war career.
To mark the Papal visit to the UK, camera crew have spent a year filming a world that few have ever seen. With unprecedented access to the Vatican and the people who live and work there, this is a unique profile of the heart of the Catholic Church and the world's smallest Sovereign State. Archivists reveal the Vatican's secrets, including the signed testimony of Galileo recorded by the Inquisition. A Cardinal journeys deep below St Peter's Basilica to inspect the site claimed to be tomb of the Saint himself, and curators share a private viewing of Michelangelo's extraordinary decoration of the Sistine Chapel. An intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the workings of one of the world's most powerful and mysterious institutions.
James Holland presents a fresh analysis into the Battle of Britain, exploring the lesser-told German point of view, and highlighting the role of those who supported the Few during the summer of 1940. Focusing on the tactics, technologies and intelligence available to both sides, Holland examines the ways in which both Germany and Britain used their resources: from aircraft to air defence, and from intelligence to organisation. And, by gaining rare firsthand testimony from German veterans, and access to the untapped diaries and documents we reveal that this was a battle of two sides and many layers. Part of the Battle of Britain season to mark the 70th anniversary.
Award-winning film-maker Mark Dowd looks at the life of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The journey takes Mark from Bavaria to the heart of the Vatican itself.
During World War II, a remarkable band of female pilots fought against all odds for the right to aid the war effort. Without these Spitfire Women, the war may never have been won. These trailblazers were part of the Air Transport Auxiliary, a thousand-strong organisation that delivered aircraft to the frontline RAF during Britain's darkest hours. Every day, responsibility fell on their shoulders to get the planes to the fighters, which often pushed them into dangerous and even deadly situations. Using interviews with the last few surviving veterans, archive footage and dramatic reconstruction, this documentary brings to life the forgotten story of the ATA. The resilience of these women in the face of open discrimination is one of the most inspiring and overlooked milestones in women's rights. Their story is one of courage, sexism and patriotism, but above all a story about women who want to break the confines of the world they live in and reach for the skies.
Wellington Bomber takes a look at a challenge posed by the RAF and the War Ministry during the war – could a Wellington Bomber be built from scratch in a single day? One autumn weekend, early in the Second World War at an aircraft factory at Broughton in North Wales, a group of British workers set out to smash the world record for building a bomber from scratch. Combining archive footage of the attempt with testimonials from the workers involved at the time, one of whom was only 14 years old, this fascinating film documents the amazing attempt bolt by bolt. Their story of the excitement of the attempt and of their wartime lives is the heart of this documentary.
The exquisite Rosslyn Chapel is a masterpiece in stone. It used to be one of Scotland's best kept secrets, but it became world-famous when it was featured in Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code. Art historian Helen Rosslyn, whose husband's ancestor built the chapel over 500 years ago, is the guide on a journey of discovery around this perfect gem of a building. Extraordinary carvings of green men, inverted angels and mysterious masonic marks beg the questions of where these images come from and who were the stonemasons that created them? Helen's search leads her across Scotland and to Normandy in search of the creators of this medieval masterpiece.
In the first of two films exploring the life and music of Jean Sibelius, celebrated filmmaker Christopher Nupen looks at the Finnish composer's development from his beginnings to the time of his third symphony. At the peak of his career Sibelius was hailed by almost every leading critic and composer in England as the greatest symphonist of the twentieth century. The Americans went even further, with a survey by the New York Philharmonic Society in 1935 showing his music to be more popular with their concert-goers than that of any other composer in the history of music - a degree of recognition in his own lifetime unequalled in Western music. The film offers an intimate account, using archive footage and Sibelius's music and words, of a great artist's struggle with his medium, with the world and with himself.
In the second of two films exploring the life and music of Jean Sibelius, celebrated filmmaker Christopher Nupen covers the period from the fourth symphony to the unfinished eighth. At the peak of his career Sibelius was hailed by almost every leading critic and composer in England as the greatest symphonist of the twentieth century. The words are provided almost entirely by Sibelius himself and his wife Aino and the music by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Elisabeth Soderstrom and Boris Belkin with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Michael Smith goes in search of the Newcastle of his youth. Approaching the Toon from the Tyne, he believes the place has more in common with Baltic City States than London, where he now lives. He argues that there are in fact several Norths; unlike the South, where everything is centered on London's inescapable black hole gravity, the North has plural accents and plural identities. The North East is the far north, the Deep North of the title, remote and disconnected from this axis. As far as the North East is concerned, Leeds and Manchester may as well be in the midlands. Smith's North is a land apart entirely, and a land that defines itself by this basic fact. A small conurbation clustered by the coast, separated from the main rump by miles and miles of rural emptiness. Deep North is a lyrical meditation on Newcastle and the North East, and ultimately, a subjective and personal response of a prodigal son returning.
Samantha Poling investigates how homeopathy has penetrated the heart of the NHS and asks whether prescribing homeopathic preparations for serious conditions could be dangerous for patients. The investigation looks at the history and preparation of homeopathic remedies and the extent of their use in Scotland and England. Advocates of homeopathy, including patients and a former GP who overcame her scepticism and became an enthusiastic practitioner, report stories of dramatic recovery in some cases. Glasgow still has a fully fledged homeopathic hospital while in English towns and cities, with the exception of London, such hospitals have been downgraded or closed. Powerful voices, including the British Medical Association, question the level of funding within the NHS for homeopathy and call for more evidence-based research to back up the claims of homoepathic practitioners.
Engineer Jem Stansfield is used to creating explosions, but in this programme he uncovers the story of how we have learnt to control them and harness their power for our own means. From recreating a rather dramatic ancient Chinese alchemy accident to splitting an atom in his own home-built replica of a 1930s piece of equipment, Jem reveals how explosives work and how we have used their power throughout history. He goes underground to show how gunpowder was used in the mines of Cornwall, recreates the first test of guncotton in a quarry with dramatic results and visits a modern high explosives factory with a noble history. Ground-breaking high speed photography makes for some startling revelations at every step of the way.
Martin Shaw takes a fresh look at one of the most famous war stories of them all. The actor, himself a pilot, takes to the skies to retrace the route of the 1943 raid by 617 Squadron which used bouncing bombs to destroy German dams. He sheds new light on the story as he separates the fact from the myth behind this tale of courage and ingenuity.
A tribute to Joey Dunlop to mark the tenth anniversary of the famous motorcycle racer's death. His family, friends and fellow riders describe the many ways he still is fondly remembered. The programme features a number of firsts, including unseen interviews with Joey, his wife Linda and two of his children. There is also a chance to see unpublished pictures of Joey plus a visit by Linda to Japan to meet the former president of Honda Racing.
From street urchin to knight of the realm: the story of Norman Wisdom, who used to be one of the biggest film stars in the UK - portraying a man who rarely stepped out of character in public, and whose highly individual comic style hid the private tragedy of his early life. The actor's life story is told through the people who knew him well: his son and daughter Nick and Jaqui Wisdom, and his daughter-in-law Kim, plus film director Stephen Frears, actors Ricky Tomlinson, Leslie Phillips and Honor Blackman and singer Dame Vera Lynn.
Crime author Denise Mina investigates the life and work of one of the world's greatest horror writers, Edgar Allan Poe. The relationships between Poe and the women in his life - mother, wife, paramour and muse - were tenuous at best, disastrous at worst, yet they provided inspiration and stimulus for some of the most terrifying and influential short stories of the early 19th century. Travelling between New York, Virginia and Baltimore, Mina unravels Poe's tortuous and peculiar relationships. Dramatised inserts take us into the minds of Poe and his women through their own letters, journals and published writing.
Stacey Dooley explores the issue underage sex trafficking in Cambodia, investigating how thousands of young girls are being sold into sexual slavery often by those they trust the most, their family. She confronts the problem head on as she joins the police on raids to shut down brothels and learns the harsh realities for girls who are trafficked and abused in the sex industry
In the 1960s, a small indie label would conquer American music. With artists like the Doors, Love, Tim Buckley, the Incredible String Band and the Stooges, Elektra Records was consistently on the cutting edge, having built its name initially with folk revival artists like Judy Collins and Tom Paxton, signed out of Greenwich Village. Elektra was run by suave visionary Jac Holzman and this is his story. Featuring contributions from Jackson Browne, Iggy Pop, Judy Collins and choice BBC archive.
Military historian Howard Tuck travels along the south coast uncovering forgotten traces of one of the most terrifying planned invasions of Britain. Howard knocks on doors and takes metal detectors into the countryside to unearth untold stories of bravery, tragedy and guilt lain buried for 70 years.
Greg Foot buckles up for a 13.7 billion year trip through time, to answer the biggest question of them all - where do we come from? But the last thing you'll find in this programme is a particle accelerator. All Greg needs is the stuff that's lying around. So, you want to prove the Big Bang really happened? Easy - it can all be done by playing guitar at 60 mph and blowing up a watermelon in super slow-motion. What about calculating the speed of light? By microwaving ants on full power, of course. Whether Greg is squeezing a car into suitcase or making Big Ben strike 13 o'clock - this is the story of how we all got here, as you've never seen it before.
Eminent classical historian Robin Lane Fox embarks on a journey in search of the origins of the Greek myths. He firmly believes that that these fantastical stories lie at the root of western culture, and yet little is known about where the myths of the Greek gods came from, and how they grew. Now, after 35 years of travelling, excavation and interpretation, he is confident he has uncovered answers.
Stephen Fry loves Louisiana. Four months after the BP oil spill, dubbed the worst ecological disaster in the history of America, Fry returns to the Deep South together with zoologist Mark Carwardine, to see what the impact has been on the people, the vast wetlands and the species that live there. What they find both surprises and divides the travelling duo.
What really went on at the ancient Greek oracle at Delphi, how did it get its awesome reputation and why is it still influential today? Michael Scott of Cambridge University uncovers the secrets of the most famous oracle in the ancient world. A vital force in ancient history for a thousand years it is now one of Greece's most beautiful tourist sites, but in its time it has been a gateway into the supernatural, a cockpit of political conflict, and a beacon for internationalism. And at its heart was the famous inscription which still inspires visitors today - 'Know Thyself'.
On both sides of the Atlantic, John F Kennedy continues to be invoked by today's politicians in the hope that some of his magic might rub off on them. Now, 50 years since Kennedy's election, Andrew Marr looks afresh at the events of 1960 and provides a fascinating insight into politics today.
From the heads of Roman Emperors to the “blood head” of contemporary British artist Marc Quinn, the greatest figures in world sculpture have continually turned to the head to re-evaluate what it means to be human and to reformulate how closely sculpture can capture it. Witty, eclectic and deeply insightful, this single film is a journey through the most enduring subject for world sculpture, a journey that carves a path through politics and religion, the ancient and the modern. Actor David Thewlis has his head sculpted by three different sculptors, while the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, artist Maggi Hambling and writer Ben Okri discuss art’s most enduring preoccupation, ourselves.
The Prussian king Frederick the Great was one of the greatest warriors and leaders in modern European history, achieving greatness through the Seven Years War and lauded as a philosopher and cultured 'Prince of the Enlightenment'. Yet the reputation of both Frederick and his Prussia was to be tarnished by association with Hitler's Nazi regime. Historian Christopher Clark re-examines the life and achievements of one of Germany's most colourful and controversial leaders.
Virginia Woolf said Homer's epic poem the Odyssey was 'alive to every tremor and gleam of existence'. Following the magical and strange adventures of warrior king Odysseus, inventor of the idea of the Trojan Horse, the poem can claim to be the greatest story ever told. Now British poet Simon Armitage goes on his own Greek adventure, following in the footsteps of one of his own personal heroes. Yet Simon ponders the question of whether he even likes the guy.
For more than 60 years, the real story behind Operation Mincemeat has been shrouded in secrecy. Now, Ben Macintyre reveals the extraordinary truth in a documentary based on his bestselling book. In 1943, British intelligence hatched a daring plan. As the Allies prepared to invade Sicily, their purpose was to convince the Germans that Greece was the real target. The plot to fool the Fuhrer was the brainchild of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. British agents procured the body of a tramp and reinvented his entire identity. He was given a new name, an officer rank and a briefcase containing plans for a fake invasion of Greece. The body was floated off the Spanish coast where Nazi spies would find it. The deception was an astonishing success. Hitler fell for it totally, ordering his armies to Greece to await an invasion that never happened. Meanwhile, the Allies landed in Sicily with minimal resistance. The island fell in a month. The war turned in the Allies' favour. Together with original witnesses, Macintyre recreates the remarkable story of how one brilliant team, and one dead tramp, pulled off a deception which changed the course of history.
Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power thay have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend. Rosling is a man who revels in the glorious nerdiness of statistics, and here he entertainingly explores their history, how they work mathematically and how they can be used in today's computer age to see the world as it really is, not just as we imagine it to be. Rosling's lectures use huge quantities of public data to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes. The film also explores cutting-edge examples of statistics in action today. In San Francisco, a new app mashes up police department data with the city's street map to show what crime is being reported street by street, house by house, in near real-time. Every citizen can use it and the hidden patterns of their city are starkly revealed. Meanwhile, at Google HQ the machine translation project tries to translate between 57 languages, using lots of statistics and no linguists. Despite its light and witty touch, the film nonetheless has a serious message - without statistics we are cast adrift on an ocean of confusion, but armed with stats we can take control of our lives, hold our rulers to account and see the world as it really is. What's more, Hans concludes, we can now collect and analyse such huge quantities of data and at such speeds that scientific method itself seems to be changing.
Academic and broadcaster Lisa Jardine turns detective on her famous father, Jacob Bronowski. Through his personal and professional dilemmas she reveals the story of science in the 20th century, from Einstein to the atom bomb.
For many years our place in the universe was the subject of theologians and philosophers, not scientists, but in 1960 one man changed all that. Dr Frank Drake was one of the leading lights in the new science of radio astronomy when he did something that was not only revolutionary, but could have cost him his career. Working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenback in Virginia, he pointed one of their new 25-metre radio telescopes at a star called Tau Ceti twelve light years from earth, hoping for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence. Although project Ozma resulted in silence, it did result in one of the most seminal equations in the history of science - the Drake Equation - which examined seven key elements necessary for ET intelligence to exist, from the formation of stars to the likely length a given intelligent civilisation may survive. When Frank and his colleagues entered the figures, the equation suggested there were a staggering 50,000 civilisations capable of communicating across the galaxy. However, in the 50 years of listening that has followed, not one single bleep has been heard from ET. So were Drake and his followers wrong and is there no life form out there capable of communicating? Drake's own calculations suggest that we would have to scan the entire radio spectrum of ten million stars to be sure of contact. But what the equation and the search for life has done is focus science on some of the other questions about life in the universe, specifically biogenesis, the development of multi-cellular life and the development of intelligence itself. The answers to those questions suggest that, far from being a one off, life may not only be common in the universe but once started will lead inevitably towards intelligent life. To find out about the equation's influence, Dallas Campbell goes on a worldwide journey to meet the scientists who have dedicated their lives to focusing on its different aspects.
Artist and writer Matt Collings takes the plunge into an alien world of equations. He asks top scientists to help him understand five of the most famous equations in science, talks to Stephen Hawking about his equation for black holes and comes face to face with a particle of anti-matter. Along the way he discovers why Newton was right about those falling apples and how to make sense of E=mc2. As he gets to grips with these equations he wonders whether the concept of artistic beauty has any relevance to the world of physics.
From Raymond Baxter live on Tomorrow's World testing a new-fangled bulletproof vest on a nervous inventor to Doctor Who's contemporary spin on the War on Terror, British television and the Great British public have been fascinated with the brave new world offered up by science on TV. Narrated by Robert Webb, this documentary takes a fantastic, incisive and funny voyage through the rich heritage of science TV in the UK, from real science programmes (including The Sky At Night, Horizon, Tomorrow's World, The Ascent of Man) to science-fiction (such as The Quatermass Experiment, Doctor Who, Doomwatch, Blake's 7, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), to find out what it tells us about Britain over the last 60 years. Important figures in science and TV science, including Sir David Attenborough, Robert Winston, Dr Tim Hunt, Professor Colin Blakemore, Tony Robinson, Sir Patrick Moore and Johnny Ball, comment on growing up with TV science and on how it has reflected - or led - our collective image of science and the scientist.
Documentary following 16-year-old Louisa Ball, who suffers from the very rare sleep disorder Kleine Levin Syndrome, which causes her to sleep for up to two weeks at a time while life passes by without her, and has no known cure. The disorder effects only one in a million people and the film follows Louisa over the most crucial period of her young life. Her GCSEs are looming, her birthday is coming up, she's got a major dance competition and her school prom - but will she be awake for all or any of them, and will she get the five GCSEs she needs to win her place at college? While Louisa battles to stay awake, father Rick battles to find an answer to his daughter's condition, which ultimately leads him to one of the world's leading specialists in France.
Pompeii: one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history. We know how its victims died, but this film sets out to answer another question - how did they live? Gleaning evidence from an extraordinary find, Cambridge professor and Pompeii expert Mary Beard provides new insight into the lives of the people who lived in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius before its cataclysmic eruption. In a dark cellar in Oplontis, just three miles from the centre of Pompeii, 54 skeletons who didn't succumb to the torrent of volcanic ash are about to be put under the microscope. The remains will be submitted to a barrage of tests that will unlock one of the most comprehensive scientific snapshots of Pompeian life ever produced - and there are some big surprises in store. Using the latest forensic techniques it is now possible to determine what those who perished in the disaster ate and drank, where they came from, what diseases they suffered, how rich they were, and perhaps, even more astonishingly, the details of their sex lives. The way the remains were found in the cellar already provides an invaluable clue about the lives of the people they belonged to. On one side of the room were individuals buried with one of the most stunning hauls of gold, jewellery and coins ever found in Pompeii. On the other, were people buried with nothing. It looked the stark dividing line of a polarised ancient society: a room partitioned between super rich and abject poor. But on closer examination the skeletons reveal some surprises about life in Pompeii.
With Britain's first-ever political leaders' television debate imminent, award-winning reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers what it's like to take part in these contests and how leaders try to win them. He tells the inside story of why it has taken so long for such debates to arrive in the UK. The programme features candid interviews with US Presidents and their advisers on the tricks of the debate trade. Blending new film and behind-the-scenes footage, some never seen before, it's a tragicomic tale of high politics and low cunning. From John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon through to Barack Obama, candidates are seen being prepared for their debates, then in the sometimes funny, sometimes disastrous results on live television. Cockerell shows why for our would-be next Prime Ministers - Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg - the three debate stages across Britain will be what one former US President calls 'Tension City'.
For the three days of the Ryder Cup, Wales and Newport will be the focus of the world's sporting media. Against all the odds, the upstart of golf, the Celtic Manor, succeeded in its bid to host the event. But it was a battle filled with squabbles and mud-slinging. Some of the main players involved speak about the bid process and the final decision by the Ryder Cup board, and the programme also hears from people at the Celtic Manor who faced the challenge of building the 2010 course.
Documentary about the troubled creation and enduring legacy of the science fiction classic Blade Runner, culled from 80 interviews and hours of never-before-seen outtakes and lost footage.
Powerful and inspiring documentary in which TV presenter Jeff Brazier is on a mission to improve his brother's life. Spencer Brazier is 24 and has cerebral palsy. He has very limited use of his hands and cannot speak. Spencer has no job, few friends and spends most of his time at home where he is completely reliant on his mum for support. Jeff believes that, despite his disability, Spencer is capable of living a much more active and fulfilling life. Jeff wants to put his theories to the test. Over an intense three-week period he plans to push his brother to make some real changes in his life, but will Jeff's tough love prove too much for their already fragile relationship? With much conflict and heartache along the way, the film shows the surprising and uplifting journey of two siblings trying to understand and accept each other for who they are.
Jono Lancaster was born with a rare genetic condition, Treacher Collins Syndrome, which affected the way his facial bones developed while he was in his mother's womb. The condition has affected his hearing and the way he looks - he has no cheekbones, which means his eyes droop downwards - but this hasn't stopped him finding love with his beautiful girlfriend, Laura Richards. Now 25, he was given up for adoption by his birth family just 36 hours after he was born. Treacher Collins makes Jono stand out, but what really sets him apart is his attitude to life - he's on a mission to find his parents and show them and the rest of the world that he's done really well for himself and he's happy just the way he is.
'I want to know where my personality begins and dyslexia ends. I'm fed up with putting things on hold and having this vision that one day I'm going to be something different to who I am now'. Actress Kara Tointon dreams about reading a novel cover to cover. Standing in her way is her dyslexia. Kara is now wondering whether this neurological condition is affecting her work as an actress and even her day-to-day life. In this intimate documentary, Kara is tested and undergoes specialist help. She also meets other young dyslexics, many of whom share Kara's experience of feeling 'stupid'. As Kara faces some difficult truths about herself, will she be able to take control of her condition and transform her life?
A rare pygmy sloth that looks like a teddy bear and can swim, an insect as long as your arm and a fish from the deep with a face like a headlight. Just some of the extraordinary and weird new species chosen by presenter Chris Packham as his top ten discoveries of the last decade from around the world. Also chosen are a giant orchid worth thousands, a walking shark and a small mammal related to an elephant with a nose to match, and two geckos which are evolving before our eyes. Equally extraordinary are the personal stories of how the new species were found, as told by the 21st century scientists and explorers who discovered them - the Indiana Joneses of the natural world. All these species are new to us and new to science, and proof that the Earth can still surprise us.
Professor Robert Winston presents his top ten scientific breakthroughs of the past 50 years. Tracing these momentous and wide-ranging discoveries, he meets a real-life bionic woman, one of the first couples to test the male contraceptive pill, and even some of his early IVF patients. He explores the origins of the universe, probes the inner workings of the human mind and sees the most powerful laser in the world. To finish, Professor Winston reveals the breakthrough he thinks is most significant.
On 2 January 1971, 66 people died while leaving the ground after the traditional New Year Old Firm Derby. This came to be known as the Ibrox Disaster. This documentary movingly tells the story of the terrible event from the perspective of survivors, bereaved families, rescue workers and players who took part in the game. First shown in 2001 to mark the 30th anniversary of the tragedy.
Sir Cliff Richard, Bruce Forsyth, Michael Crawford and Andrew Lloyd Webber are among the stars sharing the gossip, glamour and behind the scenes shenanigans of the world's most famous theatre as it celebrates its 100th birthday.
A look at the dangers faced by women working as prostitutes in Britain. After the murders of three sex workers in Bradford, Chris Buckler speaks to women who continue to work on the streets despite the dangers.
Les Miserables is the world's best-loved musical. It's been seen by 57 million people and in 2010 celebrated its 25th anniversary with its two largest ever productions at London's O2 Arena. Matt Lucas, a life-long fan of 'Les Mis', was invited to fulfil his dream of performing in these shows alongside more than 300 stalwarts from previous productions. This documentary tells the story of a musical that many thought would fail but which become a worldwide phenomenon with unforgettable songs like 'I Dreamed A Dream'. We follow Matt Lucas as he prepares for the performance of a lifetime, we hear from those involved with the show's creation including Cameron Mackintosh and Michael Ball, and of course we enjoy wonderful moments from the show itself.
Young Northumbrian folk-singing siblings Rachel and Becky Unthank take a journey around England from spring to autumn 2010 to experience its living folk dance traditions in action. They lead us through the back gardens and narrow streets of towns and villages from Newcastle to Penzance to discover the most surprising of dances, ceremonies, rituals and festivities that mark the turning of the seasons and the passing of the year. On their journey the Unthanks learn about the evolving history of the dances, whether connected to the land and the cycles of fertility or to working customs and practices in industrial towns. The girls talk to local historians and visit Cecil Sharp House to explore the dances' 20th century revival and codification through archivist Sharp and others, and we get to enjoy extraordinary film archive of the dances through the decades which show that although the people have changed, the dances have often remained remarkably constant. Rachel and Becky grew up clog dancing in their native Northumberland and now get to observe and try other English dances, including travellers' step dancing in Suffolk, horn dancing with huge antlers in Staffordshire and stick dancing in Oxfordshire. This curious but vibrant world of local dances flies in the face of modernisation, and sometimes of ridicule, to keep the traditions and the steps alive.
Shot mainly using spy cameras, this film gets closer than ever before to the world's greatest land predator. Icebergcam, Blizzardcam and Snowballcam are a new generation of covert devices on a mission to explore the Arctic islands of Svalbard in Norway. Backed up by Snowcam and Driftcam, these state-of-the-art camouflaged cameras reveal the extraordinary curiosity and intelligence of the polar bear. The cameras are just a breath away when two sets of cubs emerge from winter maternity dens. They also capture the moment when the sea-ice breaks away from the island in the Spring. As one set of mother and cubs journey across the drifting ice in search of seals, the other is marooned on the island with very little food. How they cope with their different fates is captured in revelatory close-up detail. The cameras also follow the bears as they hunt seals, raid bird colonies, dive for kelp and indulge in entertaining courtship rituals. Icebergcam even discovers their little-known social nature as seven bears share a washed-up whale carcass. Often just a paw's swipe from the play-fighting and squabbling bears, the spy cameras face their most challenging subject yet. When their curious subjects discover the cameras, they are subjected to some comical-but-destructive encounters. As the film captures its intimate portrait of polar bears' lives, it reveals how their intelligence and curiosity help them cope in a world of shrinking ice.
A celebration of the life and times of the actor Gerard Kelly, with contributions from his friends and colleagues. Gerard's career spanned nearly 40 years starting in 1973 at the age of fourteen, moved on to the hapless Willie Melvin in City Lights and culminated with the fabulous, outrageous Bunny in Extras. Among those appearing will be Richard Wilson, David Hayman, Les Dennis, Andy Gray, Jonathan Watson and Elaine C Smith.
Seventy years on, brothers Colin and Ewan McGregor take viewers through the key moments of the Battle of Britain, when 'the few' of the RAF faced the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. As they fly historic planes, meet the veterans, explore the tactics and technology, Colin and Ewan discover the importance of the Battle and the surviving legacy of the 1940's campaign for the modern RAF.
Five years ago the people of White Horse Village in China were informed that the motorway was coming and a new high-rise city was to be built on their land. Carrie Gracie, a former BBC Beijing correspondent, has witnessed the upheaval from the very beginning.
The composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often regarded as the quintessential English gentleman, but Edward Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived. In reality, he was the son of a shopkeeper, who was awkward, nervous, self-pitying and often rude, while his marriage to his devoted wife Alice was complicated by romantic entanglements which fired his creative energy. In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's nature which produced some of Britain's greatest music.
When teenagers are out of control at school what can the teachers do? We see teachers getting extraordinary powers to take over young pupils' lives and stop them throwing away their considerable potential. Expect tears and tantrums as badly-behaved schoolgirl Loretta Cook gets the shock of her life. Her mum hands control of the family over to her teacher, for one week, in a last-ditch attempt to sort out the teenager's bad behaviour. Spending a week with her teacher is Loretta's worst nightmare - and when Miss Dudley discovers that the parents are a big part of the problem, mum and dad are in the firing line too. It's an unexpected battle of wills between the young teacher, who has never been in a student's home before and has no kids of her own, and Loretta's recently divorced parents, who can barely speak to each other. With the family fighting against the rules and structure Miss Dudley introduces, the teacher struggles to take command. With the whole project at risk, can she turn it around and convince the family that teacher knows best? With 6,000 thousand children getting expelled every year and 2,000 being sent home every day, can radical interventions like this help to stop the bad behaviour before it reaches breaking point?
From the earliest Victorian filmmakers to the news cameras of today, this programme uses moving images from almost every decade in between to tell the story of this fascinating seaside town. With wall-to-wall archive including newsreel, documentary films and entertainment shows, it explores over a century of filmmaking to get to the heart of a remarkable British holiday resort.
Continuing the critically-acclaimed Britannia music series for BBC Four, this documentary tells the story of the emergence and evolution of the British music festival through the mavericks, dreamers and dropouts who have produced, enjoyed and sometimes fought for them over the last 50 years. The film traces the ebb and flow of British festival culture from jazz beginnings at Beaulieu in the late 50s through to the Isle of Wight festivals at the end of the 60s, early Glastonbury and one-off commercial festivals like 1972's Bickershaw, the free festivals of the 70s and 80s and on through the extended rave at Castlemorton in 1992 to the contemporary resurgence in festivals like Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and Reading in the last decade. Sam Bridger's film explores the central tension between the people's desire to come together, dance to the music and build temporary communities and the desire of the state, the councils and the locals to police these often unruly gatherings. At the heart of the documentary is an ongoing argument about British freedom and shifts in the political, musical and cultural landscape set to a wonderful soundtrack of 50 years of great popular music which takes in trad jazz, Traffic, Roy Harper, the Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Orbital and much more. Featuring rare archive and interviews with Michael Eavis, Richard Thompson, Acker Bilk, Terry Reid, the Levellers, Billy Bragg, John Giddings, Melvin Benn, Roy Harper, Nik Turner, Peter Jenner, Orbital, amongst others.
Art critic Laura Cumming takes a journey through more than five centuries of self-portraits and finds out how the greatest names in western art transformed themselves into their own masterpieces. The film argues that self-portraits are a unique form of art, one that always reveals the truth of how artists saw themselves and how they wanted to be known to the world. Examining the works of key self-portraitists including Durer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Warhol, Laura traces the development of the genre, uncovering the strange and various ways artists have managed to get their inner and outer selves to match up. Laura investigates the stories behind key self-portraits, interviews artists as they attempt a self-portrait, and shows how the history of the self-portrait is about more than how art and artists have changed; it also charts the evolution of the way we see ourselves and what it means to be human. She also discusses Courbet with Julian Barnes, Rembrandt's theatricality with Simon Callow, and meets the contemporary artists Mark Wallinger and Patrick Hughes, observing the latter making his first ever self-portrait.
Across Britain and Ireland lie thousands of unmarked mass graves. People drive past them every day, not knowing that in them are buried tens of thousands of tiny stillborn babies. Hidden and secret, it is as though they never existed. The babies ended up buried in these graves because of a piece of Catholic theology according to which babies who were stillborn or who died shortly after birth and that had not been baptised could be denied a cemetery burial. Their souls could not go to heaven but would remain in a place called Limbo. These are the so-called 'Limbo babies', stillborn babies born to Roman Catholic families who could not be buried in consecrated ground. In a rare personal testimony, mums, dads and families describe the harsh effects of this centuries-old practice on their lives. Many of them secretly buried their children as close as they could to consecrated ground, or in desolate, beautiful locations they felt had been touched by God. The film documents pioneering work by communities, clergy and people seeking change, such as at Milltown, Belfast's biggest Roman Catholic Cemetery. In Milltown, families made the shock discovery that their loved ones, some of them 'Limbo babies', were now buried in a wildlife reserve. Their mass unmarked graves had been sold through error by the cemetery. The film follows events as relatives of the Milltown babies began a weekly protest, the Catholic Church tried to seek resolution, and people began to arrive at the cemetery gates with stories of unresolved grief. Finally, Fr Thomas Norris, from the powerful International Theological Commission which advises the Pope, describes the current Limbo situation. Does it still exist?
Documentary examining why followers of the Sikh religion were marked out as a 'martial race' under the British Empire, and how thousands of Sikh soldiers valiantly laid down their lives for Britain's freedom across two world wars. With contributions from eminent historians, military experts and war veterans, the film features the last-ever interview with legendary WW2 Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji, and the first television broadcast of a rare audio recording of a WW1 Sikh prisoner of war, handed to Britain in 2010 after 94 years in German hands. .
The story of the Great War told from a unique new aerial perspective. Featuring two remarkable historical finds, including a piece of archive footage filmed from an airship in summer 1919, capturing the trenches and battlefields in a way that's rarely been seen before. And aerial photographs taken by First World War pilots - developed for the first time in over ninety years - show not only the devastation inflicted during the fighting, but also quirks and human stories visible only from above.
Fifty years after the village of Six Bells in Abertillery was hit by a tragic coal mining disaster killing 45 local men, renowned artist Sebastien Boyesen has returned to the community. He wants to create an iconic 20-metre-high landmark sculpture for Wales to change the face of the area for generations to come. But it's a hugely complex piece of work and Sebastien and his team are working against the clock to complete this enormous modern masterpiece in time for the memorial ceremony on 28th June 2010. Alongside the tensions surrounding the building and installation of this giant sculpture, the film follows the moving true stories of the families who lost loved ones in the disaster, and we hear the experiences of some of those who were actually there at the time of the accident.
Filmmaker Penny Woolcock spent eight months in a parallel world, the world of the homeless, befriending people and finding out where they eat, sleep and socialise. While making her film, Woolcock realised that the very real problems of homeless people have very little to do with the lack of a roof over their heads or a bed to sleep in. Their problems come from their past lives - and are less easy to remedy. Despite the efforts of different charities to move people into homes, the streets are often where they feel safe and what they know best. In this moving documentary, Woolcock gives the seen-but-unheard residents of London's streets a voice.
Documentary exploring Elton John's childhood, apprenticeship in the British music business, sudden stardom in the US at the dawn of the 70s, and his musical heyday. Plus the backstory to the new album reuniting him with Leon Russell, his American mentor. Features extensive exclusive interviews with Elton, plus colleagues and collaborators including Bernie Taupin, Leon Russell and more.
To most people hiccups are a temporary minor irritant, but to 25-year-old Christopher Sands his hiccups are a living nightmare. He hasn't stopped hiccupping for over two years. He can't sleep, can't work, can't eat properly and has tried hundreds of remedies that just don't work. His doctors have no idea why they started or how to stop them. This film follows Chris's desperate story as he refuses to give in to his hiccups and goes on an exhaustive search to find a cure. But is there one?
Marking the 50th anniversary of the influential novel To Kill a Mockingbird, writer Andrew Smith visits Monroeville in Alabama, the setting of the book, to see how life there has changed in half a century.
Documentary marking the centenary of sculptor Henry Moore's birth, using film footage and notebook extracts to build up a picture from Moore's early life and student days in Leeds to his wartime experiences. His love of natural forms and his placing of sculpture in the landscape led to a reputation that brought him international success.
Twenty-three-year-old Judith Wanga grew up in London but was born thousands of miles away in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sent away by her parents to live in Britain as a small child, she's now returning to Congo - two decades later - to meet them for the first time. She wants to understand the childhood she missed and the country she was forced to leave. After reuniting with her parents in the capital, Kinshasa, Jude heads east to an area of the country that's been devastated by war. It is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman, where rape has become a weapon of war. Jude meets survivors - women and children - as well as perpetrators, and finds out what's driving this brutality - the precious minerals that make our mobile phones and laptops work.
Every year, a secret tribe take to the roads of Britain. In the space of a few months they will drive thousands of miles and spend thousands of pounds in pursuit of their prey. Their aim is to see as many birds as possible, wherever that bird may be. Welcome to the very competitive world of the twitcher - obsessives who'll stop at nothing to get their bird.
The life and crimes of Dundee murderer Robert Mone, who remains active in his bid for parole. Scots Gaelic with English subtitles
In 2002, Britain produced 15 per cent of its own cannabis. In 2010 that figure is 90 per cent, and police around the country raid at least three factories every day. Organised gangs are cashing in on widespread demand for cannabis among Britain's youth by setting up sophisticated factories in suburban homes and disused warehouses. Research shows a third of the UK's 15-year-olds have tried cannabis and a quarter of young people aged 16-24 smoke it regularly. Presenter Rickie Haywood-Williams journeys beyond the scaremongering headlines to find out the true impact of the UK's skunk-smoking habit. Rickie accompanies Avon and Somerset police on raids, and rides in a heat-seeking helicopter as it uncovers cannabis farms with hi-tech thermal imaging equipment. He also meets a landlord who was horrified to find his tenant was in fact part of an organised gang who were farming cannabis in every bedroom of his house. Rickie's journey also includes a trip to Amsterdam and meetings with some of the UK's three million smokers, from those who fiercely defend their habit to others who regret the effect it has had on their lives.
One of the greatest poets of his generation, Norman MacCaig (1910-96) was also an expert fly-fisher. His favourite loch, the Loch of the Green Corrie, lies high up in the mountains of Assynt in the far north-west of Scotland. Fiddle maestro Aly Bain, Billy Connolly and award-winning poet and novelist Andrew Greig celebrate MacCaig in the centenary year of his birth with a journey from Edinburgh to Assynt and then the long climb to the Loch of the Green Corrie with its elusive trout. Friends and fellow poets - including Jackie Kay, Liz Lochhead, Douglas Dunn and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney - also feature with anecdotes, tributes and readings of some of MacCaig's finest poems.
The music Brian Eno has been involved in making ranges from the experimental to the massively popular. Paul Morley talks about some of Eno's hit tracks, including Heroes, Once in a Lifetime, With or Without You and Viva La Vida.
Documentary which looks at the controversial life of Winnie Mandela, asking whether she was the mother of the nation or a wilful egotist who simply got out of control.
Actress Lenora Crichlow sets off to discover the story of how Nelson Mandela brought peace to his country and what he means to people there today. She uncovers a more complex and fascinating picture of Mandela and his country than she ever imagined, discovering a vibrant Rainbow Nation but also learning more about the horrors of apartheid and the extent of poverty and violence. On her journey she unlocks the secrets of who Mandela really is and why his achievements are so special and so admired.
At the height of the industrial revolution in the last decades of the 19th century there was a dance, now rarely seen, that resounded through the collieries and pit villages of the north east of England - the clog dance. For conductor and musician Charles Hazlewood, clog dance has become an obsession and he plans to put it firmly back on the map by staging a mass flashmob clog dance. Helped by a team of local enthusiasts led by expert clog dancer Laura Connolly, Charles recruits and trains 140 men and women from across the north east, and one sunny Saturday in a busy square in central Newcastle they ambush the public with a six-minute performance. Along the way, Charles delves into the history of this fascinating folk dance, learns and performs a few steps himself, and meets and works with some of the key characters keeping this ancient dance alive.
Sir David Frost presents an investigation into the power of political satire with the help of some of the funniest TV moments of the last 50 years. Beginning with the 1960s and That Was the Week That Was, he charts the development of television satire in Britain and the United States and is joined by the leading satirists from both sides of the Atlantic. From the UK, Rory Bremner, Ian Hislop and John Lloyd discuss their individual contributions, while from the US, Jon Stewart analyses the appeal of The Daily Show, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell talk about their respective portrayals of Sarah Palin and George W Bush, and Chevy Chase remembers how Saturday Night Live turned them into huge stars. All of them tackle the key question of whether satire really can alter the course of political events.
Peter Howson is one of the world's most collected living artists, his work hanging on the walls of galleries and museums and in the homes of rock stars and actors. In 2008 he received the biggest commission of his career - to paint the largest-ever crowd scene in the history of British art - but the commission is fraught with so much difficulty its completion is in jeopardy from day one. This film follows Peter over two difficult years, a journey that took him to the brink of bankruptcy, and also to the edge of his sanity.
In the early hours of 1st June 2009, Air France flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, disappeared over the Atlantic. Five days later the shattered wreckage was discovered, with all 228 passengers and crew dead. One year on, a full explanation of what might have happened has emerged. This film brings together an independent team of leading air crash investigators to provide the first credible solution to the mystery of flight 447. Conducting their own tests and simulations using the available evidence, they painstakingly piece together a convincing scenario of what they believe happened. Their conclusions raise worrying concerns about aviation's increasing reliance on automated flight systems.
Are the so-called Black Diaries forgeries by MI5 to ensure the execution of a British traitor? Or are they the genuine and lurid homosexual accounts of an Irish hero and fearless campaigner for human rights? In 1916, Sir Roger Casement was sentenced to be hanged for trying to enlist German help in the Easter Rising. A powerful lobby of writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Conan Doyle appealed for leniency because of his humanitarian work against the evils of colonialism. Then MI5 circulated the Black Diaries and Casement went to the gallows in disgrace. Ever since, Irish Nationalists have claimed the diaries were forged by British Intelligence and until recently the Home Office kept them under lock and key. Now the truth is out. The Black Diaries have been submitted to forensic tests and the findings are revealed.
In 1984 Indira Gandhi sent troops into the holiest and most revered of Sikh shrines, The Golden Temple. The aim was to expel the Sikh militant preacher, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and his followers. The bloodiest of consequences ensued, ultimately leading to Indira Gandhi's assassination by her own Sikh bodyguards and a backlash against the Sikhs that India had not witnessed since the days of partition. 1984: A Sikh Story tells the tale of this tumultuous year through the eyes of British-born Sikh, Sonia Deol, who was only 11 when the Indian army stormed The Golden Temple. Sonia has only begun to understand her faith in recent years an awakening that began during her own visit to The Golden Temple; and there are many questions she needs answered. How could Indian troops, led by a Sikh, storm such a sacred shrine? How did the cult of Bhindranwale attract so many Sikh followers and why is he still revered by some today? This one-off documentary takes Sonia on an emotional journey back to India in a bid to discover how such an attack could ever have taken place.
From childhood prodigy to veteran master, Birmingham-born Steve Winwood's extraordinary career is like a map of the major changes in British rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues from the 1960s to the present. This in-depth profile traces that journey and reveals a master musician blending Ray Charles and English hymnody into a unique brand of English soul. From the blues-boom-meets-beat-group chart hits of the Spencer Davis Group, through the psychedelic pop of early Traffic and into Berkshire as Traffic become the first band to 'get their heads together in a country cottage', then via a brief sojourn in supergroup Blind Faith and back to Traffic as a jam band who conquer the emerging American rock scene, Winwood's first ten years on the boards were extraordinary. As the 80s dawned he reinvented himself as a solo artist and became a major star in the US with hits like Higher Love and Back in the High Life. These days he's back in arenas, touring with old friend Eric Clapton. Paul Bernay's film blends extensive interviews with Winwood in his Gloucestershire home and film of Winwood's first return to that Berkshire cottage since 1969 with rare archive footage and contributing interviews with Eric Clapton, Paul Rodgers, Paul Jones, Paul Weller, Muff Winwood, Dave Mason and more.
Our supermarket shelves groan with fresh food from around the world. Farmer Jimmy Doherty explores the global logistics that bring these crops to a shop near you.
Richard Bacon and guest presenter Peter Crouch look back on the 50 greatest shocks in the history of the World Cup, covering the last six tournaments and including moments such as Maradona's 'Hand of God', Zinedine's Zidane's headbutt in the 2006 final and England's penalty pain. Featuring first-hand accounts from people who were there, such as David Seaman talking about getting lobbed by Ronaldinho, John Barnes exclusively revealing how Gazza nearly rapped on World in Motion, and Graham Poll talking about his infamous three yellow cards moment.
Documentary following boys as young as seven or eight when they leave home for the first time and start boarding school in England. This film tells the story of three boys - Luke, Louis and Dominic - during their first term at Sunningdale, a small family-run prep school in Berkshire that educates 100 boys, the vast majority of whom go on to top public schools like Eton or Harrow. Luke is joining his older brother James at Sunningdale. All the boys at the school can only benefit from the small class sizes of ten, but the school's system called 'fortnightly orders' - which places pupils from top to bottom in each class - shows just how academically superior young Luke really is. Dominic has travelled half way around the world to join Sunningdale. He lives in Shanghai but he will go to school in the UK. He says his mum will find being apart for the ten-week term harder than he will. Dominic's dream is to attend an English public school and after his interview for Harrow, he hopes to be one of the lucky ones to be offered a place. Louis starts boarding school after leaving his state school in north London. Tearful and homesick, he struggles at first. Getting into the football team and being made captain goes someway to helping Louis feel better, but is it enough to convince him to stay at Sunningdale until the end of term? From the daily chapel services, to the headmaster's weekly dormitory check, and the boys' very first night in dormitories, we get to understand the magical world of boarding school life from the boy's point of view.
As the unemployment statistics start to climb once more, multi BAFTA winning film-maker Brian Woods goes behind the numbers to the people they represent, and presents his take on the recession. Filmed throughout 2009, and seen in part through the eyes of the children, Jobless tells the interwoven stories of several families across the length and breadth of Britain, as both husband and wife cope with losing their jobs, in most cases for the first time in their lives. Andy and Jackie both worked for a computer printer company in Bracknell. Andy is confident he will soon find something, but as the months pass, the strain starts to show on both adults and children, including their 8-year-old daughter Hannah. In the North East of England, 9-year-old Leah sums up the world as she see it; "I don't really understand why there isn't that much money anymore, I only really understand that people are all losing their jobs. Is that the recession?" As the pressures of unemployment take their toll on her parents's relationship, and her dad's temper, Leah observes "If I'm naughty then he gets more angry with me that he usually would. But he's trying to keep himself calm, and I think he's doing well. I just hope he gets a job." And in Enfield, Samantha, also nine, is missing her dad. Both her parents lost their jobs of 20+ years when the car parts company they worked for, originally part of Ford, filed for bankruptcy. But rather than meekly walking away, Samantha's dad, along with several hundred others, occupied the plant, demanding that Ford honour their original severance terms. This gently-observed documentary takes us inside the experience of losing the thing most of us use to define ourselves.
Professor Brian Cox addresses the main challenges in bringing science to television, in this year's Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture 2010. He tackles the risks in simplifying science for a television audience, the perils of abandoning fact in the name of balance and the importance of making science on television intellectually and emotionally engaging.
Politically passionate Jack Ashley was one of the first working class reporters at the BBC. He wanted to show the suffering caused by high unemployment. The documentary caused a storm. Almost half a century later his daughter Jackie Ashley returns to Hartlepool to discover what happened to the families in the film, and assess the impact of being under the spotlight in the new age of television, on a struggling town. Whilst making the film Jack Ashley stayed at the Grand Hotel, but he felt uncomfortable living in luxury while he interviewed people in poverty. Instead, to get to know the community better, he moved in with a local shopkeeper, Leo Gillen. The Gillen family were heavily involved in making the film. They had a social conscience and wanted both the poverty and the community spirit of Hartlepool to be shown. When the documentary was shot Hartlepool’s unemployment rate was one of the highest in the country. The Macmillan government was under pressure to do something, and Jack Ashley believed his film, shown nationwide on the BBC, may have tipped the balance. Lord Hailsham was appointed the new Minister for the North. But he wanted to transform the North into a tourism hot spot - in double quick time. Most of Hailsham’s plans were eventually shelved, but he is credited with re-connecting the North East with the rest of Britain through multi-million pound transport projects like Teesside Airport. The documentary brought Hartlepool’s problems to a national audience. One of the families featured in the film - the Coomers - claimed that they had to burn their furniture to keep warm. Their revelations about life on the breadline shocked and split the town. Some thought they shouldn’t be washing their dirty linen in public. But after the film's impact faded, Hartlepool carried on being a town with problems. Jackie Ashley returned to Hartlepool to discover the impact of Waiting for Work on the town and to try to follow up the
Learn about the inner alchemy that gives four different hunters the edge over others. Those profiled include the peregrine falcon, the great white shark, the cheetah and the Nile crocodile.
A tribute to Brian Duffy, who passed away in May 2010. Duffy was one of the greatest photographers of his generation. Along with David Bailey and Terence Donovan he defined the image of the 1960s and was as famous as the stars he photographed. In the 1970s he suddenly disappeared from view and burned all his negatives. Filmed on the eve of the first-ever exhibition of his work, Duffy agrees to talk about his life, his work and why he made it all go up in flames.
Is French cuisine the best in the world or has it lost its magic? Bestselling New Yorker magazine writer Bill Buford dons a white hat and works in a series of French kitchens to investigate whether French food is all it's cracked up to be. Bill starts in one of the best French restaurants in America before moving, with his family, to Lyon, where he enrols in a cookery school and works on the line for one of the most demanding chefs in France, Matthieu Viannay. Can Bill survive in a restaurant where one of the signature dishes consists of garlic snails on a bed of crusty veal ears? Is sophisticated French food really worth the effort?
s French cuisine the best in the world or has it lost its magic? Bestselling New Yorker magazine writer Bill Buford dons a white hat and works in a series of French kitchens to investigate whether French food is all it's cracked up to be. Bill leaves fancy French food behind and goes back to basics at the foot of the French Alps. He works in a bakery, kills a pig, makes cheese, gathers herbs and cooks in a small family restaurant in order to understand how to cook simple French food to perfection.
Twenty years after Nelson Mandela's release from prison, James Robbins reports from South Africa, a country transformed by the end of white minority rule and racial segregation. Former President FW de Klerk and Desmond Tutu look back on that historic day.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa takes a personal journey exploring the physical and artistic demands of being an international soprano in the 21st century. Along with fellow sopranos including Renee Fleming, Diana Damrau and Anna Netrebko, she explains the qualities that separate the great from the merely good, and shares some of her favourite performances from sopranos including Dame Nellie Melba, Maria Callas, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Kirsten Flagstad, Leontyne Price and Dame Joan Sutherland.
With Over the Rainbow's Dorothy about to create another star, whatever happened to the Nancys, Josephs and Marias? West End Story tracks the remarkable careers of the eventual winners: Jodie Prenger, Lee Mead and Connie Fisher, and it also tells the stories of some of the other finalists whose lives were turned upside down by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Britain was top of Europe's league for shoplifting in 2009 with an item being stolen from a UK store every minute. For many, nicking something is a one-off teenage rite of passage or a way to feed a drugs habit, but for some it becomes an addiction in itself. This programme meets three people who have all battled with the urge to shoplift, following their stories as they reveal why they did it, the buzz they got from it, the impact it has had on their lives and how they kicked the habit. It also shows the people whose job it is to stop them getting away with it in a cat and mouse game where each side thinks they can outwit the other. Shoplifting carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years and retailers spend millions of pounds on high tech surveillance equipment, yet people continue to brazenly steal from shops.
Documentary in which Cherry Healey explores women's attitudes to alcohol. Cherry drinks with women across the country and tries to find out what girls drink, where they drink and how their tastes change throughout their lives. From teenagers drinking in their bedrooms to grannies on a boozy trip, she hears people's embarrassing drunken secrets and sees how some women want to grow old disgracefully, as well as looking at why drunk women get such bad press.
At the age of just 18, Geoffrey Wellum was one of the youngest Spitfire pilots to go into combat in the Battle of Britain. A boy, barely out of school, he was determined to fight for survival. The price of victory was more than he could bear. Seventy years later, that same boy is still yearning to be free. Credits Boy Sam Heughan Older Boy Geoffrey Wellum Brian Kingcombe Ben Aldridge Tommy Lund Alex Robertson Mac Gary Lewis Bevington Paul Kynman Davy Paul Tinto Trevor 'Wimpey' Wade Jordan Bernarde Drummond Alex Waldmann Grace Tuppence Middleton Dad Richard Walsh Director Matthew Whiteman Producer Matthew Whiteman Writer Caleb Ranson Writer Matthew Whiteman
Updating a profile of the Island of Barra first broadcast in 1965.
Andrew Marr tackles Tony Blair in an exclusive interview and the first major political interview with Tony Blair since 2007, the year he stood down as Prime Minister. Andrew Marr seeks to learn more about what Blair was trying to achieve in office and how he now regards his record in office, as Blair's memoirs are published.
Shot entirely undercover over the course of nine months, a beautiful and moving documentary which tells the stories of three children growing up in today's Zimbabwe. 12-year-old Grace rummages through rubbish dumps in Harare to find bones to sell for school fees; nine-year-old Esther has to care for her baby sister and her mother who is dying of HIV/AIDS; and 13-year-old Obert pans for gold to make enough money to buy food for himself and his gran, while dreaming of somehow getting the education he craves. From BAFTA-winning director Jezza Neumann and BAFTA-winning producer, Xoliswa Sithole, a powerful tale unfolds of the gaping chasm between what these children hope for and what their country can currently provide.
A look at the crimes of Peter Tobin, possibly the UK's most notorious serial killer, and the police investigation that caught him. Comprises interviews and dramatic reconstructions.
First shown in August 2009, The Autistic Me was a critically acclaimed documentary. It followed the lives of three young men with autism as they struggled with the transition into adulthood: finding work, looking for love and striving for independence. Now BBC Three catches up with the same characters a year after director Matt Rudge first met them. The last 12 months have seen dramatic changes and upheavals in their lives. Twenty-four-year-old Oliver has high-functioning autism and is still desperate to find a job, but now he lives away from his parents in supported living and attends a course designed to help people with autism find employment. He attends mock interviews and has a work trial at a local supermarket, but will it pay off? With an encyclopedic knowledge of British history, is stacking shelves the best Oliver can get? Sixteen-year-old Tom and his family have moved over 300 miles to Cornwall but their idyllic dream is proving a challenge for Tom. He is isolated in the countryside and, having left the support of his specialist residential school, must cope with the daunting prospect of starting at a mainstream college with thousands of students he doesn't know. Will Tom be able to make friends, and will he be able to fulfill his dream of being in a rock band? Twenty-five-year-old Alex has Asperger's syndrome. At the end of the first film he had a date with Kirsty, an autistic girl he was talking to online. Now they are boyfriend and girlfriend. They text and email all the time but haven't been able to see each other because they live in separate towns on the south coast of England. Kirsty has invited Alex to her birthday party on Valentine's Day. Will he be able to get there, and what does the future hold for their relationship?
Scotland's well-known walker Cameron McNeish explores one of the most diverse landscapes in Europe. On a newly developed 250-mile trail, he travels on foot and on bike through the long chain of the Outer Hebrides, from the most southerly inhabited island of Vatersay to the Butt of Lewis in the north.
Usain Bolt is the fastest man on the planet and a sportsman like no other. But what makes him so much faster than any other man in the history of the human race? Who better to investigate than athletics legend Michael Johnson, the man Bolt has dethroned as the world's fastest human ever. Johnson travels to Jamaica to meet Bolt and explore every element of the 23-year-old's story from the suspicions of drug taking and the burden of single-handedly carrying athletics to how Bolt is dealing with the constant worldwide media attention.
Documentary about the life of the great pianist and composer Chopin and the story of the women whose voices inspired his music. It is undeniable that Chopin revolutionised the nature of music composed for the piano both technically and emotionally. What is less well known is that the actual musical instrument that provided his greatest source of inspiration was the female voice. To mark the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, this film follows young pianist James Rhodes on a journey to Warsaw, Paris and London to discover the real women who had such a powerful influence on the composer.
During the late 1960s Finnish photographer and filmmaker Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen came to Byker, a working class community in Newcastle upon Tyne. She fell in love with her new home just as it was about to be demolished. In 2005, Sirkka returned.
Based on David Maraniss's book They Marched into Sunlight, a documentary telling the story of two seemingly unconnected events in October 1967 that changed the course of the Vietnam War. Whilst a US battalion unwittingly marched into a Viet Cong ambush which killed 61 young men, half a world away angry students at the University of Wisconsin were protesting the presence of Dow Chemical recruiters on campus.
A celebration of the TV sidekick. Narrated by Catherine Tate (Donna Noble to David Tennant's Dr Who), Sidekick Stories looks at the role of the assistant/companion on television, from drama to sitcom, and light entertainment to children's programmes. What are the literary antecedents of the TV sidekick - and who's the greatest of them all? What's the dramatic function of the game show hostess? Did the That's Life reporters feel emasculated? How do you create a memorable robot? And what's it like playing straight man to a puppet? We examine the role of the companion in Dr Who (the man with the most sidekicks in TV history) and reveal the hidden talents of the magician's assistant. There's Edward Hardwicke on how to play Dr Watson; Andrew Sachs on the enduring appeal of Manuel, and Isla St Clair on life as 'principal boy' to Larry Grayson's 'dame'. The show also features Ian Carmichael (Lord Peter Wimsey; Jeeves and Wooster) in his last ever television interview.
A look at how domestic servants have been portrayed on television, from The Forsyte Saga in the 60s to Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs today. Why are butlers, cooks and nannies such staples of television drama long after their real-life roles have declined? Are these shows socially relevant or mere escapism, and how accurately does television reflect the experiences of real-life servants? Featuring archive from Brideshead Revisited, Jeeves and Wooster and The Duchess of Duke Street, contributors include Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey), Jean Marsh (Upstairs, Downstairs), Susan Hampshire (The Forsyte Saga) and Wendy Craig (Nanny).
Documentary revealing the epic story of how the SS Great Britain, Brunel's iconic ship, was brought home to Bristol in 1970. Key figures from the salvage team recall their audacious mission to rescue a rusting hulk from a desolate corner of the Falkland Islands. When the ship eventually returned to Bristol, thousands of people lined the banks of the River Avon to welcome her home. The SS Great Britain is now a hugely successful visitor attraction.
Father may be the head of the family, a potent symbol of authority, but he has always been the butt of some of our biggest laughs in British sitcom. Over the last five decades some of our most iconic comedy dads have been bewildered by a changing world and struggled with the work/life balance. These dads have coped with every curveball their writers threw at them and in the process changed the course of British comedy. They remain our most enduring Men About The House.
Charismatic, outspoken, and often controversial, Brian Clough is widely considered to be the best manager England never had and one of the best English managers the game of football has ever seen. This frank documentary tells the story of an unforgettable career, including heady days with Derby County, unprecedented European success with Nottingham Forest and a notorious 44-day tenure as Leeds United boss, fictionalised in the novel and film 'The Damned United'. For many his like will never be seen again. Martin O'Neill and Sir Michael Parkinson are among those who remember the man they called 'Cloughie'.
HRH Prince Charles talks exclusively to Griff Rhys Jones about his passion for the built environment in the new Coed Darcy development in South-West Wales, where a new village is being built from scratch. We hear from critics and supporters of the project and the Prince speaks frankly about his views on modern and traditional architecture, building sustainable communities and his fears for the future.
Danny Dyer goes on a quest to spot a UFO, spurred on by a meeting with his boyhood hero Sir Patrick Moore. Danny examines reported UFO landing sites and the sinister evidence that aliens may have been conducting scientific experiments here in Britain. He meets witnesses who claim to have seen UFOs and one man who says he can prove he's been abducted by aliens. Danny's search for his own close encounter takes him all the way to the UFO Research Centre in Portland, Oregon
A leisurely trip down the River Dart, through moor and heath into ancient oak woodland and back out onto open pasture. Dippers, herons, kingfishers, mallards and many other water birds can all be found on its water, along its banks live badgers and foxes, and above it soar buzzards and peregrine falcons.
Captivating portrayal of family life illustrated by the work of renowned Scottish artist John Bellany. Bellany's filmmaker son Paul takes us on a journey through the hurt and pain of a decimated family at the point of implosion, and unearths many unseen masterpieces along the way.
The programme explores the enduring appeal of the classic sitcom. With contributions from, amongst others, Richard Briers, Penelope Keith, Monty Don, Brian Sewell and John O'Farrell, All About The Good Life goes behind the scenes and reveals all you ever wanted to know about the series from choosing outfits for Margo to the iconic title sequence.
Born Free caused a sensation when it was first published in 1960. The book and the film that followed made a massive impact on conservation and science and our fundamental attitudes to wild animals and the environment. This documentary tells the story of the lives and legacy of George and Joy Adamson and Elsa, the orphaned lion cub they raised and successfully returned to the wild. The seismic shift in popular attitudes towards wild animals that the book and film caused are as controversial today as they are celebrated.
EastEnders actor Joe Swash turns ghostbuster and sets out in search of tangible proof that ghosts exist. He meets Britain's youngest professional psychic, who claims he has a hotline to the spirit world, sleeps in a haunted bedroom to lure an amorous spirit and stakes out a terrace house in Hartlepool where the family say they're sharing their home with at least four ghostly inhabitants. But it's a night alone in the Edinburgh vaults that makes Joe convinced he really believes in ghosts.
Chock-full of innuendo, dodgy lifts, occasional customers and much loved regulars, this documentary tells the story of the long-running farce set in the clothing section of a dilapidated department store. It's an affectionate look back at one of Britain's most popular sitcoms, where off camera the veneer of camaraderie concealed an undercurrent of envy and sadness.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the 'miracle of Dunkirk', 50 of the surviving 'little ships' which made the original perilous cross-channel voyage are returning to France. Dan Snow tells their extraordinary story: their role in the evacuation and the people who struggled to keep them afloat during those fateful days in 1940, when the future of Europe hung in the balance.
A spectacular live rock climb broadcast from the daunting overhanging cliff face at Sron Uladail on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Dougie Vipond joins leading climbers, Dave MacLeod and Tim Emmett, as they attempt a first ascent of an extreme new route, which promises to stretch their physical endurance and skill to the limit. With absolutely no guarantee that they will be able to conquer the route, and the huge physical and technical challenges involved, this promises to be a unique and compelling live event.
Sue Johnston goes in search of her lifelong dream - the lost, fantasy world of Shangri La. Sue first came across the story of Shangri La as a 16 year old in 1959 when she watched the movie Lost Horizon with her mother on their first black and white television. The film was based on a book written by Englishman James Hilton in 1933. She read the book voraciously and has re-read it many times over the years since. As a child she was fascinated by the Orient and the mysteries of the Far East, but in those post-war austerity days the chances of ever following her dream, of finding the actual place, seemed an unattainable goal. It looked like her dream would remain just that, as life took over and she got married, had a child, started a successful acting career and got divorced. The dream slipped further away into the dark, forgotten corners of her mind. Recently, as her life has changed, she has recalled her longed-for Shangri La. Her parents died, her son left home and settled into his own life, and her sense of mortality hit home. She decided that it was time to find the inspiration for the book, the story of Lost Horizon. Sue's quest takes her through south-west China's Yunnan province and into Tibet, travelling over high mountain passes, into deep, hidden valleys and gorges, through bustling towns and ultimately on horseback to her final destination, the sacred mountain of Kawarkapo and the tiny, isolated village of Yipung - on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and the basis for James Hilton's novel.
In a failing comprehensive school in North London, three individuals lives are about to collide. Excluded charts the intersecting stories of Amanda, an ambitious headmistress, Ian, an idealistic new maths teacher, and Mark, a troubled and disruptive pupil. Against the odds, Ian makes a connection with Mark, but will he put his career on the line to save him? A witty, emotionally powerful and searingly real expose of the realities and struggles that inner-city schools face today.
Robert Plant discusses his musical journey from Stourbridge, the British blues boom, superstardom with Led Zeppelin in the 70s, to the Band of Joy album. He also looks at his work with The Honeydrippers and North African musicians, his reunion with Jimmy Page, and his pairing with Alison Krauss. Robert Plant has been performing and recording for more than 40 years. For 12 of those, he was the front man for what many still consider to be the greatest rock band ever - Led Zeppelin. BBC 2 presents a rare opportunity to hear what the man himself has to say about a life spent in music: from his earliest days as a school kid in Stourbridge to the world domination of Led Zeppelin, which ended when he was only 32 years old. The programme also looks at his triumphant solo career with bands such as The Strange Sensation and his startling collaboration with country singer Allison Krauss.
Veterans of World War II describe their experiences of the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 and the evacuation. On 10 May the German Army invaded Holland and Belgium. The Blitzkrieg had begun - an entirely new way of fighting war. For the young men aged 18 and 19 who joined up to 'do their bit' it was a terrifying baptism of fire, and for the British Army a shattering blow. Within three weeks it was a crushing defeat, leading to the largest military evacuation in history. This film is the story, told in their own words, of a group of young men, now veterans, and their first experience of modern mechanised warfare.
This is the story of the band, the city and the album that gave birth to the UK electronic pop movement in late 70s Sheffield. Against a backdrop of economic decline, art students Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh experimented with early synthesisers to create sounds which would inspire a new generation of pop music with their first band The Human League. When this fractured, Ian and Martyn recruited singer and old friend Glenn Gregory to form Heaven 17. Penthouse and Pavement, their first album, was released in 1980 and was a landmark in UK pop history, combining electronica with pop hooks. Due to technological constraints the band were unable to perform the album live, but to celebrate its 30th anniversary the film also charts the band's troubled attempts to perform the album entirely live for the very first time.
The Skye Cuillin has been an important landmark since early times, a lure for mountaineers since the early 1800s, and a favoured haunt of poets, artists and writers. Charting the history, climbs, characters and artistry associated with the longest mountain ridge in Britain. Featuring interviews with artists, climbers, and local people.
Chicago's Chess Records was one of the greatest labels of the post-war era, ranking alongside other mighty independents like Atlantic, Stax and Sun. From 1950 till its demise at the end of the 60s, Chess released a myriad of electric blues, rock 'n' roll and soul classics that helped change the landscape of black and white popular music. Chess was the label that gave the world such sonic adventurers as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf and Etta James. In this documentary to mark the label's 60th anniversary, the likes of Jimmy Page, Mick Hucknall, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Paul Jones and Little Steven, as well as those attached to the label such as founder's son Marshall Chess, pay tribute to its extraordinary music and influence. The film reveals how two Polish immigrants, Leonard and Phil Chess, forged friendships with black musicians in late 1940s Chicago, shrewdly building a speciality blues label into a huge independent worth millions by the end of the 1960s. Full of vivid period detail, it places the Chess story within a wider social and historical context - as well as being about some of the greatest music ever recorded, it is, inevitably, about race in America during these tumultuous times.
A look back at one of British sport's golden moments - the 1985 World Championship Snooker final. At its peak, over 18 and a half million people sat glued to their sets as Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor battled past midnight to a final and deciding black ball, with over 18 million viewers watching, BBC Two's biggest ever audience. Colin Murray journeys around the UK filling in the gaps on the first time that he was allowed to see the other side of midnight. Along the way he finds answers to questions such as where did Dennis's 'upside-down glasses' actually come from? What really went on behind those dressing room doors? How do you spread good news in a world without mobile phones? And how different would the lives of the two protagonists have been if the result had been reversed that night? Contributions from, amongst others, Barry McGuigan, David Icke, Ted Lowe, Stephen Hendry and Barry Hearn.
A 60-minute documentary including an interview and exclusive location filming with Neil Diamond in New York and Los Angeles. Robbie Robertson, Jeff Barry, Mickey Dolenz and other contributors track Neil from his childhood in Brooklyn to his early days in the Brill Building, his nascent solo career and superstardom in the early 70s, the lean years of the 80s, his career reboot via Rick Rubin in the noughties and his Glastonbury success.
Phil Cunningham and Mark Knopfler spend the day together and talk about their shared love for traditional music. Playing some of their favourite tunes, they talk about collaborating on Knopfler's latest album Get Lucky. Mark speaks about growing up in Scotland, Dire Straits and composing the soundtrack for Local Hero. Phil Cunningham looks back at his musical career in Silly Wizard and his partnership with Aly Bain
The story of six women with big hair and bigger voices who came out of the South and changed America and its music for good. The 60s and 70s were the golden age for this music from the battlefield of marriage - songs about the hurt and pride of raising a family, about standing by your man (or standing up to him), about going crazy with love. The six are: Patsy Cline, whose weeping ballads made country music modern; Tammy Wynette, her life a chaos of divorce, violence and pills; Bobbie Gentry, who quit recording 35 years ago; Loretta Lynn, the coalminer's daughter who went on to rock with the White Stripes; Tanya Tucker, a teen queen who made country music sexy; and Dolly Parton, who made millions singing of the world she left behind. Contributors include Billy Connolly, Jack White, LeAnn Rimes, Lauren Laverne, Crystal Gayle, George Jones and Elvis Costello. Featuring rare archive performances.
The art colony of St Ives in Cornwall became as important as Paris or London in the history of modernism during a golden creative period between the 1920s and 1960s. The dramatic lives and works of eight artists who most made this miracle possible, from Kit Wood and Alfred Wallis to Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, are featured in a documentary which offers an alternative history of the 20th century avant-garde as well as a vivid portrayal of the history and landscapes of Cornwall itself
Documentary telling the story of the immigrant doctors who arrived in Wales in the 1950s and 60s from the Indian subcontinent and worked at the front line of the Welsh health service throughout one of the most turbulent periods in its history. These doctors not only changed the face of the NHS but also the culture of the communities they came to serve. The programme reveals how these doctors came to Wales and, through their years of service, helped to change attitudes towards racism and immigration across Wales.
One man transfixed television viewers during snooker's golden age - Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins. This poignant documentary charts the remarkable rise and fall of the snooker genius, from his early days growing up in Belfast to his climb to the top of the sport as two-time world champion. Higgins was pure showbiz, a mercurial talent at the table who played the game like nobody had done before. Boxing had Muhammad Ali, football was blessed by George Best - snooker had Alex Higgins. Yet like Best, Higgins's brilliance was flawed by his demons. We chart the depressing lows - the alcohol abuse, threatening to have fellow Ulsterman Dennis Taylor shot, headbutting a senior member of snooker's hierarchy and falling out of a top floor window and living to tell the tale after a row with his then-girlfriend. The Higgins story is completed with the final chapter of his life spent battling throat cancer; desperate hours spent in pubs and working men's clubs trying to rekindle his halcyon days; finally unable to eat properly because he'd lost his teeth and in the end, ultimately found dead alone in sheltered accommodation. At times uplifting, but at other moments very sad - this is a rollercoaster journey charting the life of snooker's 'rock and roll star'. Contributors include Jimmy White, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Dennis Taylor, Barry Hearn, Steve Davis, Ray Reardon and members of the Higgins family.
An evening dedicated to the Battle of Britain, bringing together World War Two historians, Battle of Britain veterans and the modern RAF for in-depth discussion, sharp analysis and rare archive footage. They investigate how Britain prepared for a war in the sky, compare first-hand experiences of air combat and explore the strengths and weaknesses of the RAF and the Luftwaffe as they faced one another in 1940.
World War Two historians, Battle of Britain veterans and the modern RAF explore how victory in the air was achieved, why the Battle of Britain has such legendary status and how the present day RAF came to be defined by the events of 1940.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a man whose name was Oliver Postgate. He had a shed where he made things. With his friend Peter Firmin, Oliver created entire worlds for characters including Bagpuss, The Clangers and Ivor the Engine. These stories fired the imaginations of generations of children, and his lullaby voice became a universal reminder of childhood. Time Shift celebrates Oliver Postgate's life and work through a treasury of clips from well-known and rarely seen films, alongside film and photos from the family archive. Fans including Lauren Child (Charlie and Lola) and Andrew Davenport (In the Night Garden) are on hand to heap praise on the man who is such an inspiration for their work. Postgate's family help delve deep into his history and discover the inventions, such as Oliver's old camera adapted with Meccano, that powered his imagined worlds. Co-creator Firmin reveals the story behind his most celebrated characters and introduces his daughter Emily, familiar to millions as the owner of Bagpuss. The documentary also reveals how, as the grandson of Labour leader George Lansbury, Postgate's life was shaped by radical politics. His deeply held beliefs influenced his classic creations, and campaigning became his focus until his death in December 2008.
A chronological look at the life and career of jazz musician, composer, and performer Dave Brubeck (1920-2012), presented through contemporary interviews, archival footage of interviews and performances, and commentary by family, fellow musicians, and aficionados. Emphases include his mother's influence, his wife's invention of college tours, his skill as an accompanist, the great quartet (with Desmond, Morello, and Wright), his ability to find musical ideas everywhere, his orchestral compositions, his religious conversion, and his unflagging sweet nature.
In 1903, on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, a syphilitic and alcoholic Frenchman called Paul Gauguin died of a heart attack. At that point nobody realised the incredible impact Gauguin's work was to have on modern art. Art critic and broadcaster Waldemar Januszczak wrote and directed this examination of a man who was not only a great painter but sculptor, wood carver, musician, print maker, journalist and ceramicist. As well as telling the remarkable story of Gauguin's life, Januszczak also celebrates Gauguin's achievements and examines the various accusations of sexual misconduct, familial neglect and racism that are frequently made against him. The film contains many of Gauguin's masterpieces and includes paintings put on show at the Hermitage in St Petersburg which haven't been seen in public since their disappearance during World War II.
From bridges to bulldozers and shipyards to sing-alongs, Newcastle is a city rich in history with a thousand different stories to tell. This programme uses archive footage from the 1900s through to the present day to reveal a fascinating glimpse into the life of this great city and its inhabitants
Film which celebrates the life and rock 'n' roll philosophy of Motorhead frontman and bassist Lemmy. Born Christmas Eve 1945 in Stoke and schooled in part on Anglesey, Ian Fraser Willis acquired the name 'Lemmy' while roadying for Jimi Hendrix and co when he hit London in 1967; it comes from the oft repeated saying 'Len' me a quid'. Lemmy became the bass player in Hawkwind and sang their biggest hit Silver Machine before forming his own hard rockin' metal trio Motorhead in the mid-70s, blending punk and primal rock into a foot to the floor, hard driving rock 'n' roll aesthetic which resulted in monster hits like Ace of Spades and the live album No Sleep Til Hammersmith in the early 80s and to which he has remained constantly steadfast. Still touring, still enjoying the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, still inspired by Little Richard and the Beatles, Lemmy remains the ultimate unredeemed and unrepentant rocker. Joining Lemmy and members of Motorhead to celebrate his life and times are Hawkwind's Dave Brock, Metallica's James Hetfield, Dave Grohl, Alice Cooper, Peter Hook and Jarvis Cocker.
They say that blood is thicker than water and this documentary puts that to the test by examining the brothers who have formed and fronted rock bands. From the Everlys to the Gallaghers via the Kinks and Spandau Ballet, it tells the stories of the bands of brothers who went from their bedrooms to become household names - often with a price to pay. With contributions from Martin Kemp, Matt Goss, Dave Davies, Phil Everly, David Knopfler and the Campbell brothers of UB40.
In 1960, a young secretary from Bournemouth, with no scientific qualifications, entered a remote forest in Africa and achieved something nobody else had ever done before. Jane Goodall became accepted by a group of wild chimpanzees, making discoveries that transformed our understanding of them, and challenged the way we define ourselves as human beings by showing just how close we are as a species to our nearest living relatives. Since then, both she and the chimps of Gombe in Tanzania have become world famous - Jane as the beauty of many wildlife films, they as the beasts with something profound to tell us. As one of the programme's contributors, David Attenborough, suggests, Jane Goodall's story could be a fable if it wasn't true. In this revealing programme filmed with Jane Goodall in Africa, we discover the person behind the myth, what motivates her and the personal cost her life's work has exacted from her - and why she still thinks we have a lot to learn from the chimps she has devoted her life to understanding.
During nine days in May/June 1940, the British Army in France was evacuated from Dunkirk, a brilliant escape from a military defeat. Ever since, the 'Dunkirk spirit' has become part of our national mythology - a particularly British catchword for muddling out of disaster with a stiff upper lip and a strong cup of tea. But this investigation is not a military history - it looks instead at the creation of a legend and reveals that the truth we think we all know about Dunkirk is not quite the truth after all.
A special weekend anniversary show celebrating the weekday news analysis series "Newsnight". Rather than a standard history of the show featuring past presenters and producers, this takes the format of a discussion about a changing Britain over those 30 years.
Using moving images from across the decades, this documentary goes on a short trip to one of the most beautiful parts of the UK, the Yorkshire Dales. Encompassing newsreels, documentaries and home movies, these rarely-seen archive gems come together to reveal all aspects of life in the Dales, from sheep farming to cheese making, railway lines to dry stone walls and hill runners to potholing.
Using everyday objects to tell the history of the world, Stuart Maconie goes in search of Britain's atomic past, revealing the story of Calder Hall in Cumbria, the world's first commercial nuclear power station. Back in the 1950s, this huge industrial site was seen as a shining beacon of the future during the dark days of the Cold War. Stuart meets the workers who were there during the royal opening by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956, and through colour archive film taken during its building and launch we see a rare snapshot of Britain's pioneering industrial days. On his journey back through time, Stuart examines the objects that unlock the past. He discovers an invitation to the royal ceremony, how the newspapers of the time reported the 'magnificent achievement', the old piece of machinery from the station that kept breaking down, and how this now distant world was fondly viewed through the pages of the Eagle Comic. Going behind the closed doors of Calder Hall, he reveals a sci-fi version of the future and meets those who played their part in this turning point in history
Elton John's career tracked in archive from performances, interviews and news clips.
Compilation which unlocks the BBC vaults to explore the burgeoning singer-songwriter genre that exploded at the dawn of the 1970s and became one of the defining styles of that decade. Featuring songs from Donovan, Gerry Rafferty, James Taylor, Elton John, Mickey Newbury, Tom Paxton, John Prine, Melanie, Jesse Winchester, Steve Forbert, Chris Rea, Carole King and others. Programme sources include The Old Grey Whistle Test, In Concert, Top of the Pops, One in Ten and Cilla!
Compilation which unlocks the BBC vaults to explore the burgeoning singer-songwriter genre that exploded at the dawn of the 1970s and became one of the definining styles of that decade. Featuring classic songs from Bobbie Gentry, Kris Kristofferson, Buffy Saint-Marie, Janis Ian, Gordon Lightfoot, John Martyn, Randy Newman, Linda Lewis, Joni Mitchell, Don McLean, Ralph McTell, Loudon Wainwright III, Don Williams and Paul Brady. Programme sources include The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops, Sounds for Saturday, The Bobbie Gentry Show and One in Ten The first of two BBC documentaries on the subject, shown on successive weeks.
Emily Maitlis tells the incredible story of Donald Trump, the world's most famous developer, who changed the New York skyline with his glitzy towers and made himself a multi-billionaire. With unprecedented access to Trump and his family Maitlis finds out how he did it. Trump's own lifestyle, with the glamorous wives and the private jet, is all marketing for his luxurious brand. Now the all-American tycoon is over here. Maitlis asks why he wants to build a huge golf resort on the sand-dunes near Aberdeen, and watches him presiding over his own beauty pageant in Las Vegas. She finds out how it was a Brit who made Trump the star of the original Apprentice series, bringing the media-loving mogul with the amazing hair to an even bigger public.
The inside story of what really happened when Pope Benedict XVI came to Scotland earlier this year -the first ever State visit by a Pope to the country. With first-hand testimony, the programme features interviews with organisers, participants and protestors as well as spectacular footage of the day's historic events. It will ask what this visit meant to believers and non-believers, while questioning what, if anything, will be a lasting legacy from the trip.
Documentary following the epic battle of American billionaire Donald Trump to build 'the greatest golf course in the world' on a beautiful, protected stretch of coastline in the north-east of Scotland. When Trump announces bold plans for two golf courses, private houses and a five-star hotel, not everyone welcomes him with open arms. Protestors find an unlikely local hero in farmer Michael Forbes. His 22-acre property is surrounded on all sides by prime Trump real estate, yet the stubborn local farmer is not selling. Featuring five years of exclusive interviews with Trump and his family, the programme tells the story of this controversial billion-pound development from first announcement to the moment the diggers roll.
Fiona Bruce traces the story of one of history's great royal love affairs: the love between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was a love based on a powerful physical attraction, and it grew into a marriage that set the tone for the Victorian age. Over the 20 years they spent together, until Albert's tragic death, they gave each other a dazzling collection of paintings, sculptures and jewellery. That collection was on show - much of it for the first time - at a major exhibition in London, and it reveals a new and passionate side of the royal couple. Fiona meets HRH Prince Charles and travels to the royal palaces that Victoria and Albert made their own, as well as the royal workshops where artworks for the exhibition are being restored, to tell the story behind a collection that is one of the wonders of the nation.
South African musician Hugh Masekela celebrates his 70th birthday and reflects on his career in performance and interview, from first picking up a trumpet in the 50s through the apartheid years, exile and stardom in America, his return to South Africa on Nelson Mandela's release, and concluding with his vision of the future for his country. The programme also features performances from his 70th birthday concert at the Barbican in London in December 2009, where he was joined by the London Symphony Orchestra, their Community Choir and guest South African singers.
Mud, midges, barbed wire - just why do us Brits love the great outdoors? In this nostalgic look at life for campers, twitchers, ramblers and metal detectors, Mark Benton examines the history of the British fresh air freak.
Where did America's 44th president find religion? Was it the cynical move of an ambitious politician or a deep spiritual awakening? Theologian Robert Beckford takes a road trip across America retracing Barack Obama's journey from religious sceptic to devout Christian. The son of an African Muslim father and a white agnostic mother, Obama found God in the slums of Chicago, at the altar of one of America's most militant and controversial preachers, the Rev Jeremiah Wright. Beckford speaks to the people who helped Obama along his spiritual path, including former presidential candidates Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. He also meets Jeremiah Wright, speaking for the first time since his former disciple's election. America's religious Right had claimed God for them. Beckford reveals how Obama adopted the precepts of black liberation theology and turned them into a winning manifesto that reached out to all Americans.
DJ Chris Moyles looks at how the Radio 1 Breakfast Show has reflected life in Britain over the past 40 years, as he meets his predecessors in the early morning slot. Former hosts Mike Read, Mike Smith, Simon Mayo, Steve Wright, Zoe Ball, and Sara Cox reveal the highs and lows of their reigns on Breakfast, and Tony Blackburn, who launched Radio 1 in 1967, explains why the Breakfast Show has always kept its finger on the pulse of the nation.
Simon Russell Beale takes a journey through Italy, Britain, Germany and Austria as he explores how the sound of Christmas has evolved in response to changing ideas about the Nativity. His story takes us through two millennia of music, from a fragment of papyrus preserving the earliest known piece of Christian music to the stories behind Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night and In the Bleak Midwinter, and the work of popular Christmas composer, John Rutter. Music is performed by Harry Christophers and his choir, The Sixteen.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili shows how chaos theory can answer a question that mankind has asked for millennia - how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? It's a mindbending, counterintuitive and for many people a troubling idea. But Professor Al-Khalili reveals the science behind much of beauty and structure in the natural world and discovers that far from it being magic or an act of God, it is in fact an intrinsic part of the laws of physics.
Everyone has heard of Nelson Mandela and every celebrity in the world queues up to be photographed with him, but what exactly did he do to become such an incredible icon? In the build-up to the World Cup in South Africa, actress Lenora Crichlow sets off to discover the amazing story of how Mandela brought peace to his country and what he means to people there today. In a journey packed with emotion for Lenora, she uncovers a far more complex and fascinating picture of Mandela and his country than she ever imagined. Lenora discovers a vibrant Rainbow Nation but also learns more about the horrors of apartheid and the extent of poverty and violence in the country. On her journey she unlocks the secrets of who Mandela really is and why his achievements in life are so special and so admired.
Former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion discovers an unseen and unpublished poem by Philip Larkin when he returns to Hull to meet one of the poet's former lovers. Speaking for the first time about her relationship with Larkin, Betty Mackereth reveals the man behind the famous poems.
40 years after Jimi Hendrix's death on September 18th 1970, this film tells Jimi Hendrix's life story in his own words and is narrated by funk legend Bootsy Collins in the soft, authoritative voice of Hendrix himself.
Drama documentary about John Darwin, who faked his death to fund a better life. He pretended to disappear at sea in a canoe, prompting his wife Anne to play the grieving widow.
An investigation into the dark consequences of British stag parties travelling to Europe's sex tourism hot-spots. Reporter Simon Boazman goes undercover to break into a sex trafficking ring and finds the women who have fallen victim to the trade in sex slaves.
Through 25 key moments, this programme takes a look at the highs and lows of the multi award-winning animation studio Pixar as it celebrates its 25th birthday, and discovers the secrets of how to make a Pixar movie. With unique access to Pixar HQ and the creative team, it features memorable moments from hits such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc, as well as exclusive interviews with Billy Crystal, Tim Allen, Holly Hunter, Kelsey Grammer, Michael Keaton, George Lucas and others.
Nel Hedayat investigates the controversial world of music videos and meets the girls who dream of dancing in them. Nel spends time with girls who are on the path to success, but also learns about the dark side of an industry where dancers chasing fame can leave themselves open to financial and sexual exploitation.
The life and times of the much-loved comedienne, from vaudeville showgirl to star of the Ulster stage.
The extraordinary story of comedian Bob Monkhouse's life and career, told for the first time through the vast private archive of films, TV shows, letters and memorabilia that he left behind.
Rankin, the UK's leading fashion photographer, reveals the rich history of Hollywood photography and how its most influential and enduring images were created. From Hollywood's golden age, epitomised by gorgeous images of screen goddesses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to brooding shots of Marlon Brando; from the unparalleled allure of pictures of Marilyn Monroe to iconic black and white stills of Charlie Chaplin, Rankin immerses himself in the art of the Hollywood portrait and explores the vital role it has played in both the movie business and our continuing love affair with movie stars. To understand how the image makers of Hollywood created these iconic photographs, Rankin recruits a cast of leading Hollywood actors to help him recreate some of the most important - including Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin); Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions), British actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, Dylan Thomas's biopic The Edge of Love); actor extraordinaire Michael Sheen (The Damned United, Frost/Nixon), and living Hollywood legend Jane Russell.
Johnny Beattie leads this celebration of one of Scotland's finest singers, the tenor Kenneth McKellar, who died early last year. McKellar's career spanned 50 years and saw him become a household name in Scotland and beyond, but behind the public persona was a quiet man who regularly spurned personal honours and accolades and shied away from the trappings of showbusiness. The programme features contributions from McKellar's friends and colleagues including Sir Jackie Stewart, the singers Eddi Reader and Jean Redpath and his daughter Jane McKellar.
Drawing from Eric and Ernie, the BBC's new film, this celebratory documentary charts the duo's early years and the hurdles they faced, whilst showing why Eric and Ernie still remain Britain's best loved double act. Featuring specially shot, behind-the-scenes footage from the film, treasured Morecambe and Wise archive and celebrity interviews, the documentary visits important landmarks in their journey and uncovers the hard work and secrets of their phenomenal success. Featuring contributions from the people who knew Eric and Ernie best: their family, peers, greatest fans and fellow comics of stage and screen. Contributors include Cilla Black, Michael Grade, Eddie Braben, Joan and Gary Morecambe, Doreen Wise, Miranda Hart, Lee Mack, Reece Shearsmith, Penelope Keith and Andrew Marr. Narrated by Victoria Wood.
Proms to mark the end of primary school are the latest pre-teen craze. And they're growing, not just in numbers, but in glitz. Pre-teen Proms tells the story of the children at two schools in the three months running up to this latest, inescapable, rite of passage. At Riverside Primary in Livingston, the teachers love the fun and glamour of the prom, while at well-heeled Mearns Primary just outside Glasgow, they're fighting to keep the 40-year-old Scottish tradition of their leavers dance alive. But as the kids demands mount - pamper parties, horse drawn carriages, limos, maseratis, red carpets and non-alcoholic cocktails, not to mention prizes for prom king, prom queen and couple most likely to get married - the parents have little choice but to stump up the cash. So once the kids have had their say, how different will the dances really be? Who wins - the adults or the 11-year-old kids?
Donnie Macsween was a schoolboy when the BBC made 'A Boy in Harris' in the 1960s. This programme looks at his life since then. An opportunity to see the original, acclaimed documentary once more. Scottish Gaelic with English subtitles.
Darren was diagnosed with orophyrangeal cancer, a rare form of mouth cancer, at the age of only 31. But that wasn't the only shocking news that he had to deal with. Most oral cancers are caused by smoking or drinking, but Darren's was caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted. Darren had caught it through having oral sex. New research shows that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of HPV-related oral cancers amongst young people. Jaime Winstone sets out to discover why the statistics are rising and whether anything can be done to stop this trend. Sadly, she has an intimate relationship with cancer - as filming began, her close friend Paul died from pancreatic cancer aged only 26. Whilst his cancer wasn't preventable, Darren's was. HPV is recognised as the cause of cervical cancer in women and so, two years ago, the government introduced a national vaccination programme for teenage girls. But if a vaccine exists, why isn't it also given to boys to protect them from developing HPV-related cancers? Although this oral cancer is still relatively rare, the HP virus is common, with an estimated 80 per cent of adults having it, without any symptoms, during their lives. Jaime's journey takes her to meet Dr Margaret Stanley, an expert on HPV and Professor Hisham Mehanna, a head and neck specialist at University Hospital, Coventry whose research has shown an increase in HPV-related oral cancers. Jaime talks to teenage boys about what they know of HPV and to teenage girls about why they are reluctant to get the freely available vaccine, before confronting the Department of Health over why they currently don't vaccinate boys as well as girls on the NHS.
In Ready, Steady, Drink Emily Atack, who plays Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners, looks at the UK's culture of drinking games and whether they should be banned. Travelling the length and breadth of the country Emily investigates why young Brits like to find new and more risky ways of drinking and she asks if there is anything the government can do to stop them.
The story of Charles Byrne the famous Irish Giant and some possible modern-day relatives.
A tribute to the Oscar-nominated British actor Pete Postlethwaite, who died on 2 January following a lengthy illness. Includes interviews and clips with fellow actors and directors.
The Campbell sisters are the best known triplets in the Hebrides. But behind the incredible story of their dramatic birth lies a tale of loss and separation, hardship and poverty, amid much laughter and tears. Scottish Gaelic with English subtitles.
It's more than two years since the giant banks were bailed out with billions of pounds of tax-payers' money, yet little has been done to reform or regulate these vast institutions. The BBC's business editor Robert Peston looks at how the international regulators, a little-known and secretive committee that sits in the Swiss city of Basel, have consistently failed to curb the excesses of the giant banks and how new proposals fall short of the root-and-branch reform promised after the crash. With the fate of Ireland, brought to its knees by the excesses of its banking industry, fresh in our minds, Peston asks whether Britain would be in any position to bail out our huge banks should there be another crisis. Are the banks, once thought to be too big to fail, now actually too big to save? The film contains the first interviews with the government's new Banking Commission, as well as contributions from Business Secretary Vince Cable, new RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton and the Bank of England.
From the Royal Institution in London, Harvard professor Michael Sandel hosts a discussion to explore fairness in public policy and the Big Society. An audience of politicians, opinion-formers and the general public should ensure a lively and topical debate.
A specially-commissioned documentary in which renowned Harvard professor Michael Sandel looks at the philosophy of justice. Is it acceptable to torture a terrorist in order to discover where a bomb has been hidden? Should wearing the burka in public be banned in Europe, if the majority of citizens disapprove? Should beggars be cleared off the streets of London? Sandel goes in search of Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant and Aristotle, three philosophers whose ideas inform much contemporary thinking on justice, and tests their theories against a range of contemporary problems. Filmed in Berlin, Boston, Athens and London, this thought-provoking film includes interviews with the world's great philosophers, modern day politicians and thinkers from all around the globe.
In April 2010, Laura Hall from Bromsgrove hit the headlines for being barred from buying or drinking alcohol anywhere in England and Wales. After being expelled from school at 15, she has no qualifications and has been arrested over 40 times. Now she is determined to change. This documentary follows Laura into rehab, capturing her highs and lows as she attempts to turn her back on six years of binge drinking.
This programme follows two women who on the front line of Northern Ireland's continuing abortion battle. Audrey Simpson is the director of the Family Planning Association, the only agency in NI that provides women with information on how to arrange an abortion. And every day, Bernie Smyth and fellow activists from the Precious Life pressure group are literally standing in the way of the women entering the FPA's Belfast offices. She says her mission is simple: to save the lives of the unborn.
Ness is the last place in the UK where young gannets, known in Gaelic as guga, are hunted for their meat. The hunting of sea birds was outlawed in 1954 in the UK, but the community of Ness on the Isle of Lewis continues to be granted the only exemption under UK and EU law allowing them to hold the annual hunt. Every August, ten men from Ness set sail for Sula Sgeir, a desolate island far out in the Atlantic. Following in the footsteps of countless generations, they leave their families behind to journey through wild storms and high seas to reach the remote hunting ground. The men live on the island for two exhausting weeks, sleeping amongst ruins left behind by monks over a thousand years ago. They work ceaselessly, catching, killing and processing 2000 birds using traditional methods unique to the hunt. Today the future of the hunt is uncertain. Island life has changed dramatically in recent years. The population of Ness has halved in the last 50 years as the young head south. Distinctive Hebridean traditions such as crofting and peat cutting, which have long since disappeared elsewhere in Scotland, are finally vanishing in Ness.
Set in the heart of the Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Harris is a landscape rich in culture, history and the Gaelic language. Home to some of Britain's most important wildlife, it's a naturalist's paradise. In this special programme Dougie Vipond celebrates the people who live and work on the edge of western Europe - from traditional crofters and craftspeople to those developing new skills for the future.
During the 40s, 50s and 60s Sister Rosetta Tharpe played a highly significant role in the creation of rock & roll, inspiring musicians like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. She may not be a household name, but this flamboyant African-American gospel singing superstar, with her spectacular virtuosity on the newly-electrified guitar, was one of the most influential popular musicians of the 20th century. Tharpe was born in 1915, close to the Mississippi in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. At the age of six she was taken by her evangelist mother Katie Bell to Chicago to join Roberts Temple, Church of God in Christ, where she developed her distinctive style of singing and guitar playing. At the age of 23 she left the church and went to New York to join the world of show business, signing with Decca Records. For the following 30 years she performed extensively to packed houses in the USA and subsequently Europe, before her death in 1973. In 2008 the state governor of Pennsylvania declared that henceforth January 11th will be Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in recognition of her remarkable musical legacy.
They arrive, they smoke, they wait - armed robbers seeking redemption, life-long thieves, addicts and anxious fathers of wayward children. Hard exteriors hide soft centres, old lives exist in young bodies - ordinary people awaiting judgement on an unlovely stretch of pavement outside a London magistrates' court. Whilst waiting for their cases to be heard they reveal their lives, and the complexities of the human soul are laid bare. Tense and intimate conversations with the filmmaker illuminate stories that the magistrates hear daily. Director Marc Isaacs spent three months outside Highbury Magistrates Court and, in doing so, demonstrates how the eye of the camera has the ability to delve much deeper into character and motivation than the eye of the law. Consequently, the more we get to know the characters in this film, the harder it is to make easy judgements. Whilst the court must judge, the filmmaker need not.
They are the UK's most powerful arbiters of justice and now, for the first time, four of the Justices of the Supreme Court talk frankly and openly about the nature of justice and how they make their decisions. The film offers a revealing glimpse of the human characters behind the judgments and explores why the Supreme Court and its members are fundamental to our democracy. The eleven men and one woman who make up the UK Supreme Court have the last say on the most controversial and difficult cases in the land. What they decide binds every citizen. But are their rulings always fair, do their feelings ever get in the way of their judgments and are they always right? In the first fourteen months of the court they have ruled on MPs' expenses, which led to David Chaytor's prosecution, changed the status of pre-nuptial agreements and battled with the government over control orders and the Human Rights Act. They explain what happens when they cannot agree and there is a divided judgement, and how they avoid letting their personal feelings effect their interpretation of the law. And they face up to the difficult issue of diversity - there is only one woman on the court, and she is the only justice who went to a non-fee-paying school.
Bafta-winning director Morgan Matthews's landmark film exploring the impact of teenage killings on families and communities across Britain, an emotional journey that chronicles every teenager who died as a result of violence in 2009 in the UK. Harrowing actuality filmed in the immediate aftermath combines with moving testimony from the spectrum of people affected in the wake of violent death. Filmed over eighteen months, this epic documentary is the BBC's most ambitious film to date about youth violence. The film questions society's attitudes towards young people whilst probing the meaning behind terminology such as 'gang violence' or 'gang-related' often used in connection with teenage killings. It reveals the reality of the teenage murder toll across one year, connecting the viewer with the people behind the headlines and the emotional consequences of violent death. Differing perspectives from families, friends, passers-by and the police are explored with intimacy and depth. Together they reflect the collective impact of a teenage killing on an entire community. Travelling the length and breadth of Britain, the film meets people of different religion, race and class. It tells the story of Shevon Wilson, whose misreported murder divided a community; the teenage girl who discovered she was pregnant to her boyfriend shortly after he was stabbed to death; the nurse who fought to save a dying teenager who was stabbed outside her home; and the outspoken East End twins who lost a mother and daughter in the same attack. The documentary names every teenager to die as a result of violence in 2009. Haunting footage of shrines is a reminder of the countless families who continue to suffer as a result of violence. Powerful and compelling, Scenes from a Teenage Killing is a poignant and brutal reminder of the needless waste of young potential.
Pleasure is vital for our survival - without it we wouldn't eat or have sex, and would soon die out as a species. But how does pleasure work and what gives us the most pleasure in life? In an attempt to find out, Michael Mosley learns how the hottest chilli in the world creates euphoria in the brain, why parents have an overwhelming surge of love for their newborn child and what happens if you turn your own wedding into a chemistry experiment. We all know that where there is pleasure, pain can't be far behind, and Michael gamely exposes himself to some painful experiments to show why the two are so interlinked. Why is pain so important and how can we measure it? How much pain are we prepared to put up with if the reward is right and what would happen if we couldn't feel pain at all? And how far is Michael prepared to go in the name of pleasure? Will he be able to overcome enormous pain and stress in order to experience one of the biggest pleasure kicks in the world?
David Cameron and Nick Clegg seem made for each other: Eton and Oxford meets Westminster School and Cambridge. But does the return of public school boys to the top of our politics say something worrying about the decline of social mobility in Britain? Andrew Neil goes on a journey from the Scottish council house he grew up in to the corridors of power to ask if we will ever again see a prime minister emerge from an ordinary background like his. In this provocative film Andrew seeks to find out why politicians from all parties appear to be drawn from an ever smaller social pool - and why it matters to us all.
A story of hope in a country that has none, and one that has uncomfortable lessons for the governments of the West. On 12 January 2010, Haiti was hit by a terrible quake. Hundreds of thousands dead and wounded; thousands of buildings crushed; the capital, Port au Prince, wiped out; death and disease everywhere. The disaster left Haiti and its government in ruins. Three weeks post quake, Haiti's fate depends in large part on one man: Bill Clinton's guy on the ground, Irish telecoms billionaire Denis O'Brien. O'Brien flies straight in, taking with him on his jet a party of nuns, builders, and British architect John McAslan. The assessment is that if Haiti is going to pull back from the brink, it needs two things fast: houses for the millions left homeless by the quake, and a beacon rebuilding project that the country can reunite around, and thus reboot its shattered economy. This is the Iron Market, Haiti's equivalent of the Eiffel Tower at the heart of Port au Prince. O'Brien makes a promise to the people of Haiti and sets an ambitious completion date of 15 December 2010 - the race is on. It quickly becomes apparent that although international aid is promised in its billions, very little is actually appearing on the ground. O'Brien's building project is the only real game in town. What's more, over the next 12 months they are hit by hurricanes, cholera, an unhappy government election and subsequent rioting - the challenge and the deadline seem impossible. On 11 January 2011, the eve of the anniversary of the tragic event, all eyes turn to the Iron Market - have they done it? Clinton, O'Brien and the world's media arrive. Will this be one promise to Haiti that is kept?
Once a week pensioners Jimmy, Colette, Sean and friends blast the airwaves with their own feisty, funny and issue-driven radio show 'Afternoon Delight'. Observationally shot, this moving film takes us into the homes and hearts of a generation who struggle in an entertaining and inspiring way with issues that face many of our pensioners.
The Moon is such a familiar presence in the sky that most of us take it for granted. But what if it wasn't where it is now? How would that affect life on Earth? Space scientist and lunar fanatic Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock explores our intimate relationship with the Moon. Besides orchestrating the tides, the moon dictates the length of a day, the rhythm of the seasons and the very stability of our planet. Yet the Moon is always on the move. In the past it was closer to Earth and in the future it'll be farther away. That it is now perfectly placed to sustain life is pure luck, a cosmic coincidence. Using computer graphics to summon up great tides and set the Earth spinning on its side, Maggie Aderin-Pocock implores us to look at the Moon afresh: to see it not as an inert rock, but as a key player in the story of our planet, past, present and future.
Documentary-maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.
Britain is a less equal society than at any time since World War One. In Who Gets the Best Jobs, Richard Bilton investigates access to the professions - and finds that the best jobs are being snapped up by an increasingly small gene pool of privileged, well-connected families. Getting a good degree matters more than ever - and those from low income families can no longer easily work their way up from the bottom without the qualifications, contacts and social skills that their more fortunate counterparts make full use of.
The catalyst to Britain's Industrial Revolution was the slave labour of orphans and destitute children. In this shocking and moving account of their exploitation and eventual emancipation, Professor Jane Humphries uses the actual words of these child workers (recorded in diaries, interviews and letters) to let them tell their own story. She also uses groundbreaking animation to bring to life a world where 12-year-olds went to war at Trafalgar and six-year-olds worked the fields as human scarecrows.
To most Americans Abraham Lincoln is the nation's greatest president - a political genius who won the Civil War and ended slavery. Today the cult of Lincoln has become a multi-million dollar industry, with millions of Americans visiting his memorials and thousands of books published that present him as a saint more than a politician. But does Lincoln really deserve all this adulation? 150 years after the war his reputation is being re-assessed, as historians begin to uncover the dark side of his life and politics. They have revealed that the president who ended slavery secretly planned to deport the freed black people out of America. Others are asking if Lincoln should be remembered as a war hero who saved the nation or as a war criminal who launched attacks on innocent southern civilians.
Sir Peter Tapsell MP delivers a lecture on F E Smith in the State Apartments of the Palace of Westminster, from Tuesday 1 February.
It can be tough working together for one goal, but the rewards more than make up for it. Set in the South Wales valleys, the drama Baker Boys follows the highs and lows of a group of bakery workers who, against all odds, manage to buy their own factory and run it as a co-operative. In this documentary, we take a journey into the past with Mark Lewis Jones, who stars in the drama, to reveal the incredible vision of the co-operative movement's Welsh founder Robert Owen. And Steven Meo uncovers how his radical thinking is impacting on Welsh communities even today. Robert Owen is a man of our times. Big Society is not a new phenomenon. It may be over 200 years since his death, but it seems this visionary Welshman was always way ahead of his time.
Three groups use dance, food and music to explore modern India and Indian life. The films were made by the Scottish-Indian groups themselves, supported by the LAB team. LAB, or Learn At BBC Scotland, is part of the Learning Department doing workshops to pass on skills and stimulate creativity.
Author Henry Hitchings explores the lives and works of Britain's radical and pioneering 18th century novelists who, in just 80 years, established all the literary genres we recognise today. It was a golden age of creativity led by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney and William Godwin, amongst others. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy are novels that still sparkle with audacity and innovation. On his journey through 18th century fiction, Hitchings reveals how the novel was more than mere entertainment, it was also a subversive hand grenade that would change British society for the better. He travels from the homes of Britain's great and good to its lowliest prisons, meeting contemporary writers like Martin Amis, Will Self, Tom McCarthy and Jenny Uglow on the way. Although 18th century novels are woefully neglected today compared to those of the following two centuries, Hitchings shows how the best of them can offer as much pleasure to the reader as any modern classic.
A programme exploring the life and writing of navvy poet Patrick MacGill. Drawing upon a rich vein of early cinema archive and live action re-enactment shot in Ireland, Scotland and England, the film retraces MacGill's journey from itinerant labourer to man of letters. Born in 1889 into crushing poverty in Donegal in the west of Ireland, MacGill went on to become one of Ireland's most successful authors, widely recognised as the voice of the migrant Irish in Scotland at the turn of the last century. His autobiographical novels, penned in Scotland and hugely popular at the time, paint a vibrant picture of the life of the navvy, the labourer and the prostitute, 'the outcasts of a mighty industrial society'. MacGill lived the life of a navvy in the Scottish highlands, and in his writing fact and fiction, social report and love story mingle. Later he finds himself working as a scribe in Windsor Castle and mixing with the aristocracy. MacGill was to fight in the First World war and write of the horror of the trenches. We follow his rags to riches story as he fashions a career as a writer against the backdrop of a society in turmoil.
In 2008, after 25-years as Ian Paisley's deputy, Peter Robinson finally got his hands on power, becoming leader of the DUP and Northern Ireland's First Minister. Less than two years later, he was facing personal and political ruin after he was alleged to have failed to alert the authorities to his wife's financial dealings with two property developers and her 19-year-old lover. Yet today, the First Minister appears stronger than ever. With interviews from enemies and colleagues, past and present, this documentary examines the political life of Peter Robinson, a journey that has taken him from street protests to power sharing
As Wales prepare to take on England at the Millennium Stadium on Friday night, Chris Corcoran takes a sideways look at this famous fixture which has generated so much passion over the years. From the games of the 80s with stripey bobble hats, Bill McLaren's commentary and supporters running on the pitch, to the professional era of today, Chris presents his personal take on growing up with the Five - now Six - Nations rugby championship.
Tough times have hit Britain and for young people it is the hardest time to find a job since the 1980s. Greg James finds out what it's like to be young, unemployed and living with your parents when he follows graduates and school leavers chasing jobs in the worst job market in decades.
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of Western art and ethics. He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history; how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze; and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye. In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.
The rocksteady era of Jamaican music in the mid-to-late 1960s is considered a golden age because rocksteady's sweet, soulful vocals, romantic but often socially conscious lyrics and prominent basslines gave birth to reggae, which went on to capture the world. This documentary chronicles the coming together of rocksteady's surviving vocal stars - artists like the Tamlins, U-Roy, Ken Boothe, Leroy Sibbles from the Heptones, Judy Mowatt, Dawn Penn, Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths - and some of the island's greatest players, to celebrate their greatest 60s hits, perform a reunion concert and celebrate that golden era. Think of it as a kind of Buena Vista Social Club for the great 60s architects of Jamaican music. It is also a beautiful portrait of Jamaica. In 1962, Jamaica gained its independence from Great Britain. There was celebration, optimism, economic growth and opportunity. Recording studios popped up all over Kingston and a generation of great singers and players emerged playing the tuneful, mellow music that became known as rocksteady - tunes like The Tide Is High, Rivers of Babylon and You Don't Love Me Anymore, No No No, which were so successfully celebrated by UB40 on their Labour of Love albums. By 1968, Jamaica's economic bubble had burst and social unrest took to the streets. As poverty, violence and political upheaval spread, rocksteady became politicised, upped its tempo and began to evolve into the music they call reggae.
The acclaimed BBC4 Britannia series moves into the world of British reggae. Showing how it came from Jamaica in the 1960s to influence, over the next twenty years, both British music and society, the programme includes major artists and performances from that era, including Big Youth, Max Romeo, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jerry Dammers and the Specials, the Police, UB40, Dennis Bovell, lovers rock performers Carroll Thompson and Janet Kay, bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse and reggae admirers such as Boy George and Paul Weller. The programme celebrates the impact of reggae, the changes it brought about and its lasting musical legacy.
Scott Mills travels to Uganda where the death penalty could soon be introduced for being gay. The gay Radio 1 DJ finds out what it's like to live in a society which persecutes people like him and meets those who are leading the hate campaign.
Veteran television reporters Kate Adie, Martin Bell, Peter Taylor and Bill Neely return to Northern Ireland to revisit their coverage of the Troubles and meet with some of the people whose stories they told.
In 2008, Decca Records had a worldwide smash hit with a group of Austrian monks singing Gregorian chant. Now the company is hoping to repeat their success, this time with an order of nuns. Record executives Oliver Harrop and Tom Lewis travel the world in search of the finest singing nuns, with the aim of signing them up and taking them to number one in the charts. From Ireland to the USA via France and Spain, no stone is unturned in the quest to find the world's most heavenly voices. But there is a problem; many orders of nuns live in communities hidden from the modern world. Will Tom and Olly be able to persuade any to swap their solitude for the media attention and fame that could result from recording a hit album?
Jo Brand is outraged and appalled by the latest outburst of public crying. It is happening on X Factor, Who Do You Think You Are and even the politicans are at it. It would appear we are awash with tears. Jo is particularly baffled by this outpouring of weepiness as crying is something she rarely does. In this documentary, Jo decides it's time to get to the bottom of crying: why we do it, who does it and whether we have always done it. And once she discovers crying is in fact good for you, she has no choice but to see if she can actually make a handkerchief soggy too. To find out more about crying she talks to friends Phill Jupitus, Shappi Khorsandi and Richard E Grant; interviews crying historians, psychologists and biochemists; and, in her quest to discover her own tears, visits Moorfields Eye Hospital to check her tear ducts are in good working order. She subjects herself to joining a class of crying drama students, discovers the world's weirdest crybabies at the Loss Club and finally opens up to Princess Diana's psychotherapist, Susie Orbach. Having unpicked the watery world of crying, can Jo bring herself to actually shed a tear?
David Nash is one of Britain's most original and internationally recognised sculptors. In a career spanning 40 years he has created over 2,000 sculptures out of wood, many of then monumental in scale. In this film Nash gives an intimate insight into his unique collaboration with his material. From sawing and gouging to charring and planting, it reveals how he has used his profound knowledge of trees and the forces of nature to inform his work. Using extensive archive it traces Nash's artistic journey from art school to the rugged mining landscape of Blaenau Ffestiniog in north Wales via the many exhibitions he has had around the world, culminating in the most significant to date at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2010.
On a remarkable journey of discovery, one Armagh family trace their roots to the Great Famine, experiencing the realities of life 150 years ago and discovering two very different paths their ancestors took - one half choosing to remain behind, while the other half abandoned Armagh for a new life across the Atlantic. Through fire and ice, their struggle to survive is revealed to be a microcosm of courage and endurance.
Wales's great artist Sir Kyffin Williams talks about four seminal turning points in the course of his life. Sir Kyffin's Welsh upbringing, viewing a 15th-century Italian fresco by Piero Della Francesca, and a 1947 realization he might be able to earn his living as a painter - these are the first three. The fourth moment was an agonizing choice between Patagonia and Venice. He had spent two exciting months on a Winston Churchill Scholarship in Patagonia, and first visited Venice in 1955. The extraordinary Italian city's magnificence and lack of inhibition had cast a spell during each of his subsequent visits.
Investigation into how two brothers set up a failed Christmas theme park in Dorset. Lapland New Forest opened for just six days and took over 1.2 million pounds.
Documentary telling the unexpected story of how arguably the greatest work of English prose ever written, the King James Bible, came into being. Author Adam Nicolson reveals why the making of this powerful book shares much in common with his experience of a very different national project - the Millennium Dome. The programme also delves into recently discovered 17th century manuscripts, from the actual translation process itself, to show in rich detail what makes this Bible so good. In a turbulent and often violent age, the King hoped this Bible would unite a country torn by religious factions. Today it is dismissed by some as old-fashioned and impenetrable, but the film shows why, in the 21st century, the King James Bible remains so great.
The untold story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica, Toots Hibbert, featuring intimate new performances and interviews with Toots, rare archive from throughout his career and interviews with contemporaries and admirers including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Cliff, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Marcia Griffiths and Paolo Nutini. From his beginnings as a singer in a Jamaican church to the universally-praised, Grammy award-winning artist of today, the film tells the story of one of the true greats of music. Toots was the first to use the word reggae on tape in his 1968 song Do the Reggay and his music has defined, popularised and refined it across six decades, with hit after hit including Pressure Drop, Sweet and Dandy, Monkey Man, Funky Kingston, Bam Bam, True Love Is Hard To Find and Reggae Got Soul. As Island records founder Chris Blackwell says, 'The Maytals were unlike anything else... sensational, raw and dynamic'. Always instantly recognisable is Toots's powerful, soulful voice which seems to speak viscerally to the listener - 'one of the great musical gifts of our time'. His songs are at the same time stories of everyday life in Jamaica and postcards from another world.
The Shetland Folk Festival is one of the world's most exotic events with a hard earned reputation as the festival where nobody sleeps. Celebrating its 30th birthday, a hundred folk-musicians from as far afield as New York, Mumbai and Stockholm descend on the islands for four days and 200 performances, aided by 700 volunteers. With non-stop music from before the ferry leaves Aberdeen until the moment the visiting musicians return.
Documentary following Graham Vick, one of the leading opera directors of our times, through six months of intensive rehearsals for two radically different productions of operas by Giuseppe Verdi. From a spectacular outdoor Aida, staged on an Austrian lake, to a raw and emotionally charged version of Othello presented in a derelict Birmingham factory with the participation of more than two hundred enthusiastic local singers, dancers and actors.
As Caster Semenya achieved her dream of winning the 800m World Championship in 2009, rumours of a failed gender test spread. A vicious and voyeuristic media storm erupted and Caster's triumph was turned into public humiliation. With exclusive access, this film follows the shy teenager from a remote South African village as she struggles to come to terms with what has happened and fights to return to competition. With the support of her family and a top legal team, Caster takes the fight to the IAAF, the world's leading body for the sport of athletics. As international lawyers and eminent scientists thrash out what it means to be a woman, the 19-year-old at the centre of the storm wants only to run. A heart-rending and uplifting story of a young woman who overcame incredible odds to become the world's best, only to find that her biggest challenges still lay ahead.
Watercolours have always been the poor relation of oil painting. And yet the immediacy and freedom of painting in watercolours have made them the art of adventure and action - even war. It has been an art form the British have pioneered, at first celebrating the greatest landscapes of Europe and then recording the exotic beauty of the British Empire. Sheila Hancock - an ardent fan of watercolours since her childhood, and whose father was an amateur watercolourist - sets out on a journey - from the glories of the Alps and the city of Venice to deepest India - as she traces the extraordinary story of professional and amateur watercolourists, and reveals some of the most beautiful and yet little-known pictures.
21-year-old Dean Whitney was born in Sheffield to a British dad and Yemeni mum. He has always dreamt of travelling to Yemen to meet his extended family and get in touch with his Muslim and Yemeni identity. But will his life-changing journey become a nightmare in the country now better known for international terrorism and for officially being one of the most dangerous places on earth?
It's been 50 years since nuclear submarines first came to Scotland, and more than 40 since Britain's nuclear missile fleet was stationed on the Clyde lochs. But the Trident fleet is ageing, and the decision to start work on its replacement has been delayed until 2016. With public spending under unprecedented pressure, there's a very real debate over whether we can afford the 20 billion-pound bill. Partly filmed on board one of Britain's nuclear bomber submarines, 'Who Needs Trident?' asks whether a Cold War weapon, designed to deter the Soviet Union from attacking Britain and its NATO allies, is still relevant in the 21st century, and whether Britain, and Scotland, gain anything from it being replaced. Presented by Sally Magnusson.
Murder in the Mearns, in 1968. A young farmer is shot in his sleep - but who pulled the trigger? Scottish Gaelic with English subtitles
The story of Live at Treorchy, the best-selling album that turned an unknown comedian and singer called Max Boyce into an international star, launching a career spanning 40 years and two million record sales. The album that changed Max Boyce's life also captured how Wales was changing in the early 1970s and still stands as an icon of Welsh identity four decades later. Among those describing the impact Live at Treorchy had on them are broadcaster Huw Edwards, comedian Jasper Carrott and rugby legend Gareth Edwards.
In the late 50s and early 60s Arthur Haynes was ITV's highest paid comic, as popular as Tony Hancock. Paul Merton and Nicholas Parsons rediscover the genius of this forgotten comedy great.
David Attenborough returns to the island of Madagascar on a very personal quest. In 1960 he visited the island to film one of his first ever wildlife series, Zoo Quest. Whilst he was there, he acquired a giant egg. It was the egg of an extinct bird known as the 'elephant bird' - the largest bird that ever lived. It has been one of his most treasured possessions ever since. Fifty years older, he now returns to the island to find out more about this amazing creature and to see how the island has changed. Could the elephant bird's fate provide lessons that may help protect Madagascar's remaining wildlife? Using Zoo Quest archive and specially shot location footage, this film follows David as he revisits scenes from his youth and meets people at the front line of wildlife protection. On his return, scientists at Oxford University are able to reveal for the first time how old David's egg actually is - and what that might tell us about the legendary elephant bird.
Documentary presented by Melvyn Bragg to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Melvyn Bragg sets out to persuade us that the King James Version has driven the making of the English speaking world over the last 400 years, often in the most unanticipated ways. He travels to historic locations in the UK and USA where the King James Bible has had a deep impact, including Gettysburg and the American Civil War and Washington's Lincoln Memorial, site of Martin Luther King's famous speech. He argues that while many think our modern world is founded on secular ideals, it is the King James Version which had a greater legacy. The King James Bible not only influenced the English language and its literature more than any other book, it was also the seedbed of western democracy, the activator of radical shifts in society such as the abolition of the slave trade, the debating dynamite for brutal civil wars in Britain and America and a critical spark in the genesis of modern science.
Documentary following the lives of two Amish families leaving the only world they've ever known and trying to get to grips with the modern world. The Amish travel by horse and buggy, and dress exactly as their forebears did when they first arrived in America almost 300 years ago. They have countless rules which keep them separate from the modern world, with electric lights, mobile phones, television and radio all forbidden. For those born into this culture, leaving is the biggest decision they'll ever make.
A unique journey around the weird and wonderful planet that we call home. When Yuri Gagarin was blasted into space he became the first human to get a proper look at where we live. 'The Earth is blue,' he exclaimed, 'how amazing!'. Suddenly our perspective on the world had changed forever. We thought we were going to explore the universe, yet the most extraordinary thing we discovered was our own home planet, the Earth. So what would you see during just one orbit of the Earth? Starting 200 miles above the planet, this film whisks you around the planet to show what changes in the time it takes to circumnavigate the Earth just once. We hear from British-born astronaut Piers Sellers on what it's like to live and work in space, and also to gaze down and see how we are altering and reshaping our world. We marvel at the incredible forces of nature that brings hundred-mile wide storms and reshapes continents, and also discover how we humans are draining seas and building cities in the middle of the desert. We also visit the wettest place on Earth, as well as the most volcanic. Narrated by David Morrissey, this inspirational trip around the planet will make you view our home as you've never seen it before.
In the 60s and early 70s it was common for Grand Prix drivers to be killed while racing, often televised for millions to see. Mechanical failure, lethal track design, fire and incompetence snuffed out dozens of young drivers. They had become almost expendable as eager young wannabes queued up at the top teams' gates waiting to take their place. This is the story of when Grand Prix was out of control. Featuring many famous drivers including three times world champion Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, twice world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and John Surtees OBE, this exciting but shocking film explores how Grand Prix drivers grew sick of their closest friends being killed and finally took control of their destiny. After much waste of life, the prestigious Belgian and German Grands Prix would be boycotted, with drivers insisting that safety be put first. But it would be a long and painful time before anything would change, and a lot of talented young men would be cut down in their prime. This is their story.
Tree surgeon-turned-filmmaker Robb Leech is an ordinary white middle-class boy from the Dorset seaside town of Weymouth. So too is his stepbrother Rich, but a little over a year ago Rich became a radical Islamist who now goes by the name of Salahuddin. He associates with jihadist fundamentalists and believes the UK should be ruled by Sharia law. In a film that took over twelve months to shoot, Robb sets out to reconnect with his extremist stepbrother and find clues to what led Rich to become Salahuddin. It charts the brothers' relationship and Robb's attempt to understand why the person he'd once looked up to as a teenage role model could so strongly reject all that his family and the Western world believe in. As Robb spends time with Salahuddin, he witnesses a very particular phenomenon - the embrace of radical Islamism by young men, many of them white. Robb first heard of Rich's conversion in a national newspaper in the summer of 2009. The article said Rich had converted under Anjem Choudary, leader of the radical Muslim group Islam4UK (later banned under Britain's anti-terror laws). Robb was horrified by the things his stepbrother was telling him - that under Sharia law, women should be stoned to death for committing adultery, that he was prepared to die for Islam and that as a non-believer, Robb was going to hell. Just the previous summer the two brothers had shared a room on holiday in Cyprus and been practically inseparable. Robb began filming what was happening to Rich to try to understand why it had happened and what the world was like that Rich had chosen.
Journalist and author Michael Collins presents a hard-hitting and heartwarming history of one of Britain's greatest social revolutions - council housing. At its height in the mid-1970s, council housing provided homes for over a third of the British population. From the 'homes for heroes' cottages that were built in the wake of the First World War to the much-maligned, monolithic high rises of the 60s and 70s, Collins embarks on a grand tour of Britain's council estates. He visits Britain's first council estate, built as an antidote to London's disease and crime-ridden Victorian slums, the groundbreaking flats that made inter-war Liverpool the envy of Europe, the high rise estate in Sheffield that has become the largest listed building in the world, and the estate built on the banks of the Thames that was billed as 'the town of the 21st century'. Along the way he meets the people whose lives were shaped by an extraordinary social experiment that began with a bang at the start of the 20th century and ended with a whimper 80 years later.
It's a voyage of exploration like no other - to Titan, Saturn's largest moon and thought to resemble our own early Earth. For a small team of British scientists this would be the culmination of a lifetime's endeavour - the flight alone, some 2 billion miles, would take a full seven years. This is the story of the space probe they built, the sacrifices they made and their hopes for the landing. Would their ambitions survive the descent into the unknown on Titan's surface?
London won the bid to stage the Olympics on the basis of an extraordinary promise of a lasting legacy. With the Games less than 500 days away, leading political journalist Jon Sopel scrutinises the original pledges and asks if the legacy of the Games can really be delivered.
In 2008 Stacey Dooley emerged as one of the stars of the hit BBC Three series, Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts, and has since spent the three years lifting the lid on shocking stories from the developing world. In 2010 she travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo where she examined the plight of child soldiers and journeyed to Cambodia to investigate the shocking world of underage sex trafficking. This time Stacey is travelling to one of our favourite holiday destinations, Thailand, to explore the darker side of tourism that the average holiday maker doesn't see. Hundreds of thousands of us flock to Thailand every year, where for just a few hundred pounds you can enjoy beautiful beaches, top hotels and unbeatable service. A trip to Thailand has become a rite of passage for many young Brits, but why is it possible to enjoy such luxury at such bargain prices? Stacey begins her trip in Phuket, where she stays as a tourist before swapping roles and becoming a hotel worker. She works as a chambermaid and struggles with the hard work and incredibly high standards, having to clean 14 rooms a day for just four pounds. She also discovers what it's like to live on such low wages and the sacrifices that some hotel workers have to make. Many live in slum conditions or in hotel dormitories, separated from their children for months at a time.
Steven Hydes was abandoned in the ladies toilet at Gatwick Airport when he was just ten days old, wrapped in a blanket and with a spare babygro by his side. Dubbed 'Gatwick Gary' by the newspapers at the time, his family never came back to claim him. With no birth certificate or clue to where he had come from, Steven has spent his life not knowing a thing about his identity. Steven was adopted at six months old and now 24 years later, with the support of his adoptive parents, he wants to find his birth mum - 'even though I've had this amazing upbringing I don't think I will ever stop searching until I get my answers.' He is about to embark on a life-defining journey, a detective story that might answer the most important questions of all - who am I and where do I come from? Being found in an airport means it's a worldwide search. He uses science in his desperate search for answers; can DNA testing pinpoint his racial make-up and will that narrow the search for his mum? Being a doting father himself it's a question that dogs him: what made his mother leave him to the mercy of strangers? 'It does make me wonder why things didn't work out with me. What happened to make them able to abandon me like that? I couldn't imagine my daughter being abandoned, so it makes me want to find out'. In this touching documentary, Steven also meets other foundlings, the term given to babies who have been found abandoned. What have they done to search for answers? How do they cope with knowing nothing about their origins? As Steven shares his experiences, the bond between these individuals, who have such unusual stories, is clearly visible. His journey ends with a heart-rending appeal to his birth mum via a national newspaper. But will he ever find the answers he is searching for?
Ben Fogle joins an expedition across Antarctica to find Captain Scott's Hut, frozen in time for a century. The hut was built to support Scott's 1911 attempt to be first to the South Pole, and was later abandoned together with ten thousand personal, everyday and scientific items. Ben uncovers the hut and its contents, finding new information about his hero Scott and his famously tragic expedition. Scott's diaries are read by Kenneth Branagh.
In April 2011, cities across the UK will play host to huge, colourful and joyous parades as Britain's Sikh community marks the festival of Vaisakhi. This programme explores the rituals through which the festival is celebrated today, and examines how Vaisakhi's themes - tolerance, equality, humility, dignity and an active concern for others - impact the daily lives of Sikhs. With contributions from a number of eminent Sikh historians and religious experts, this film provides an entertaining, informative and highly accessible introduction to the Sikh religion's annual festival.
Anka Bergman gave birth to her baby daughter Eva in a Nazi concentration camp. During her pregnancy, Anka witnessed the horrors of Auschwitz and endured six months of forced labour. If the Nazis found a woman was pregnant, she could be sent straight to the gas chambers. Amazingly, Anka's pregnancy went unnoticed for months. Anka eventually gave birth - on the day she arrived at an extermination camp. Anka weighed just five stone and was on the brink of starvation; baby Eva weighed just three pounds. Remarkably, both mother and daughter survived, and are living in Cambridge. Now they tell their story.
What should we do with children who commit serious crime? Following the recall of Jon Venables who, along with his friend Robert Thompson, murdered two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool aged just ten, it's a question that many experts are asking. Retired detective Albert Kirby, the man who brought Venables and Thompson to justice, goes on a journey to find out what happened to Jon, the system that was designed to rehabilitate him, and what led to him being returned to jail. Featuring experts, practitioners, and people who knew Venables, this thought-provoking, challenging documentary lifts the lid on the system of secure children's homes, and asks if more should be done for the next generation of serious child criminals.
The Arabian Nights first arrived in the West 300 years ago, and ever since then its stories have entranced generations of children and seduced adults with a vision of an exotic, magical Middle East. Actor and director Richard E Grant wants to know why the book he loved as a child still has such a hold on our imagination. He travels to Paris to discover how the stories of Sinbad, Ali Baba and Aladdin were first brought to the West by the pioneering Arabist Antoine Galland in the early 18th century. The Nights quickly became an overnight literary sensation and were quickly translated into all the major European languages. Richard then travels to Cairo to explore the medieval Islamic world which first created them. He quickly finds that some of the stories can still be deeply controversial, because of their sexually-explicit content. Richard meets the Egyptian writer and publisher Gamal al Ghitani, who received death threats when he published a new edition of the book. He also finds that the ribald and riotous stories in the Nights represent a very different view of Islam than fundamentalism. Can the Nights still enrich and change the West's distorted image of the Arab world?
The first ever full-length film about Gustav Holst, composer and revolutionary - a man who taught himself Sanskrit; lived in a street of brothels in Algiers; cycled into the Sahara Desert; allied himself during the First World War with a 'red priest' who pinned on the door of his church 'prayers at noon for the victims of Imperial Aggression'; hated the words used to his most famous tune, I Vow to Thee My Country, because it was the opposite of what he believed; and distributed a newspaper called the Socialist Worker. Holst's music - especially the Planets - owed little or nothing to anyone, least of all the English folk song tradition, but he was a great composer who died of cancer, broken and disillusioned, before he was 60
Kirsten O'Brien investigates the boom in cosmetic injections. She looks at the growing phenomenon of the young using botox and fillers, and finds out what can go wrong with the procedures. Finally, she decides whether she is ready for the needle in a bid to go wrinkle free.
They have dined together through two series of Supersizers and attempted to live The Good Life. Now Giles Coren and Sue Perkins take their relationship to the next level as they prepare for their very own royal wedding.
This iconic American story was written in 1900 by L Frank Baum, a Chicago businessman, journalist, chicken breeder, actor, boutique owner, Hollywood movie director and lifelong fan of all things innovative and technological. His life spanned an era of remarkable invention and achievement in America and many of these developments helped to fuel this great storyteller's imagination. His ambition was to create the first genuine American fairytale and the story continues to fascinate, inspire and engage millions of fans of all ages from all over the world. This documentary explores how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has come to symbolise the American Dream and includes previously unseen footage from the Baum family archives, still photographs and clips from the early Oz films, as well as interviews with family members, literary experts and American historians as it tells the story of one
Bizet's Carmen, Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Verdi's Violetta - some of the most famous and powerful roles in opera and they are all, in different ways, fallen women. And now there's a newcomer to their ranks - Anna Nicole. The Royal Opera's latest smash hit is an operatic version of the life of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith. Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House and conductor of Anna Nicole, delves into the world of opera's fallen women and discovers how for centuries composers and librettists have used female characters in opera to explore and challenge society's attitudes and prejudices.
Our junk food addiction is dropping alarmingly down the age ladder, and we are now rearing a generation of fast food babies. This arresting documentary reveals babies and toddlers eating a diet of chips, burgers and kebabs, all washed down with bottles of fizzy cola. It explores the deep-seated reasons why parents resort to junk food feeding and follows three families as they desperately try and get back on the right nutritional track. From gentle food play to dramatic shocks, the parents team up with real experts who mentor them through the latest techniques as they try to wean their children off fast food.
Hundreds of years ago in faraway Iceland the Vikings began to write down dozens of stories called sagas - sweeping narratives based on real people and real events. But as Oxford University's Janina Ramirez discovers, these sagas are not just great works of art, they are also priceless historical documents which bring to life the Viking world. Dr. Ramirez travels across glaciers and through the lava fields of Iceland to the far north-west of the country to find out about one of the most compelling of these stories - the Laxdœla Saga.
The heroic tales of World War II are legendary, but Operation Crossbow is a little known story that deserves to join the hall of fame: how the Allies used 3D photos to thwart the Nazis' weapons of mass destruction before they could obliterate Britain. This film brings together the heroic Spitfire pilots who took the photographs and the brilliant minds of RAF Medmenham that made sense of the jigsaw of clues hidden in the photos. Hitler was pumping a fortune into his new-fangled V weapons in the hope they could win him the war. But Medmenham had a secret weapon of its own, a simple stereoscope which brought to life every contour of the enemy landscape in perfect 3D. The devil was truly in the detail and, together with extraordinary personal testimonies, the film uses modern computer graphics on the original wartime photographs to show just how the photo interpreters were able to uncover Hitler's nastiest secrets.
Most people thought that when the working traffic on canals faded away after the war, it would be the end of their story. But they were wrong. A few diehard enthusiasts and boat owners campaigned, lobbied and dug, sometimes with their bare hands, to keep the network of narrow canals open. Some of these enthusiasts filmed their campaigns and their home movies tell the story of how, in the teeth of much political opposition, they saved the inland waterways for the nation and, more than 200 years after they were first built, created a second golden age of the canals. Stan Offley, an IWA activist from Ellesmere Port, filmed his boating trips around the wide canals in the 40s, 50s and 60s in 16mm colour. But equally charming is the film made by Ed Frangleton, help from Harry Arnold, of a hostel boat holiday on the Llangollen Canal in 1961. There are the films shot by ex-working boatmen Ike Argent from his home in Nottinghamshire and looked after by his son Barry. There is astonishing film of the last days of working boats, some shot by John Pyper when he spent time with the Beechey's in the 60s, film taken by Keith Christie of the last days of the cut around the BCN, and the films made by Keith and his mate Tony Gregory of their attempts to keep working the canals through their carrying company, Midland Canal Transport. There is film of key restorations, the Stourbridge 16 being talked about with great wit and affection by one of the leading activists in that watershed of restorations in the mid-60s, David Tomlinson, and John Maynard's beautiful films of the restoration of the Huddersfield, 'the impossible restoration', shot over two decades. All these and more are in the programme alongside the people who made the films and some of the stars of them. Together they tell the story of how, in the years after 1945, a few people fought the government like David fought Goliath to keep canals open and restore ones that had become defunct, and won against all the o
The behind-the-scenes story of the town of Wootton Bassett, whose tributes to fallen soldiers have earned the community the first royal title awarded in over 100 years.
It is possible that only one percent of the wonders of Ancient Egypt have been discovered, but now, thanks to a pioneering approach to archaeology, that is about to change. Dr Sarah Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands, where she has found cities, temples and pyramids. Now, with Dallas Campbell and Liz Bonnin, she heads to Egypt to discover if these magnificent buildings are really there.
Harold Wilson and Edward Heath are two very different men equally overlooked by history, but they were the political titans of the era in which Britain changed for ever. For ten years they faced each other in the House of Commons, and swapped in and out of Number Ten. They fought four general elections, three of which were amongst the most exciting of the century. They were deliciously different and scorned one another, yet they were cast from the same mould. Both promised a revolution of meritocracy and dynamism in the British economy and society. Both utterly failed, but together they presided over a decade that redefined the nation: Britain ceased to be a world power and entered Europe; the postwar consensus in which they both believed was destroyed; Thatcherism and New Labour were born. The country they left behind was unrecognisable from the one they had inherited - and the one they had promised. This documentary tells the story of their highly personal and political duel in the words of those who watched it blow by blow - their colleagues in the cabinet and government, and the journalists at the ringside. Set against a scintillating backdrop of the music and style of the 1960s and 70s (which was of no interest to either man) it brings the era, and its forgotten figureheads, vividly to life.
Documentary about the painters Augustus John and James Dickson Innes who, in 1911, left London for the wild Arenig Valley in North Wales. Over three years, they created a body of work to rival the visionary landscapes of Matisse.
In-depth documentary investigation into the story of a popular music that is often said to be made to be heard, but not listened to. The film looks at easy listening's architects and practitioners, its dangers and delights, and the mark it has left on modern life. From its emergence in the 50s to its heyday in the 60s, through its survival in the 70s and 80s and its revival in the 90s and beyond, the film traces the hidden history of a music that has reflected society every bit as much as pop and rock - just in a more relaxed way. Invented at the dawn of rock 'n' roll, easy listening has shadowed pop music and the emerging teenage market since the mid-50s. It is a genre that equally soundtracks our modern age, but perhaps for a rather more 'mature' generation and therefore with its own distinct purpose and aesthetic. Contributors include Richard Carpenter, Herb Alpert, Richard Clayderman, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jimmy Webb, Mike Flowers, James Last and others.
It's over 40 years since Annie Nightingale's very first show on Radio 1 - she was the station's first female DJ and is its longest-serving broadcaster. A lifelong champion of new music, first with punk, then new wave, acid house and dubstep, Annie is still at the cutting edge in her current incarnation as the 'Queen of the Breaks'. In this film Annie takes us on a counter-cultural journey through the events, people and sounds that have inspired her career. Full of insightful anecdotes about her sonic adventures and the numerous pop-cultural shifts that have helped shape her idiosyncratic outlook and tastes, the film features exclusive contributions from some of the many artists Annie has worked with and admired, including Sir Paul McCartney and Mick Jones of the Clash. We also hear from the new generation of artists who confirm that she's an icon of the British music scene.
The story of the remarkable family who tamed the wild Scottish coastline - told 200 years after the building of their first iconic lighthouse, the Bell Rock.
Documentary telling the stories of some of the 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK. It is one of the worst child poverty rates in the industrialised world, and successive governments continue to struggle to bring it into line. So who are these children, and where are they living? Under-represented, under-nourished and often under the radar, 3.5 million children should be given a voice. And this powerful film does just that. Eight-year-old Courtney, 10-year-old Paige and 11-year-old Sam live in different parts of the UK. Breathtakingly honest and eloquent, they give testament to how having no money affects their lives: lack of food, being bullied and having nowhere to play. The children might be indignant about their situation now, but this may not be enough to help them. Their thoughts on their futures are sobering. Sam's 16-year-old sister Kayleigh puts it all into context, as she tells how the effects of poverty led her to take extreme measures to try and escape it all. Poor Kids puts the children on centre stage, and they command it with honesty and directness. It's time for everyone to listen.
As the Duke of Edinburgh marks his ninetieth birthday, Fiona Bruce explores the apparent contradictions in the life of Prince Philip. The longest-serving consort in British royal history began life as a prince of Greece, yet he is not actually Greek. He is regarded by many today as a crusty pillar of the establishment, yet early in the Queen's reign he was seen as a moderniser. "Get him on a bad day, and it's quite hard work", says one of his close friends; "get him on a good day, and you really don't want to be with anyone else". Many say his proudest achievement is his Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme, which has stretched the capabilities of thousands of young people. Yet, in his interview with Fiona Bruce, he rejects the idea that it makes him proud. The man who the Queen has said is her strength and stay says he wants to start winding down before his 'sell-by date'. But, as Joanna Lumley tells the programme, he is like "a bird of prey, a hawk or an eagle, with something absolutely penetrating about the eyes... You feel like you're being scanned." The Duke may be ninety, but he's very definitely not out.
Commentator Murray Walker's dramatic, excitable voice defined a golden era of Formula One and enthralled viewers across the globe. This is an intimate portrait of one the nation's treasures, and the inspiring tale of a man who, at the age of nearly 90, continues to break the mould. The documentary accompanies the indefatigable Walker as he travels to Australia for the opening F1 of the season, relives his tank commander past and rides classic scramble bikes. The programme also delves deep into the archive to bring back to life some of Murray's most sensational moments in motorsport and beyond. With contributions from Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jenson Button.
In a frank and personal documentary, author Sir Terry Pratchett considers how he might choose to end his life. Diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008, Terry wants to know whether he might be able to end his life before his disease takes over. Travelling to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland, Terry witnesses first hand the procedures set out for assisted death, and confronts the point at which he would have to take the lethal drug.
400 years of art history in 90 minutes? This film takes an eclectic group of people from all walks of life, including artists, critics and academics, out into the countryside to take a look at how we have depicted our landscape in art, discovering how the genre carried British painting to its highest eminence and won a place in the nation's heart.
Horticulturalist Chris Beardshaw uncovers the British contribution to the history of our most iconic fruit. He reveals the passion and dedication of Victorian gardeners who in an apples ‘golden age’ gave us more varieties than anywhere else in the world; and the remarkable ingenuity of a small group of 20th century British scientists who made one of the most significant contributions to the apple industry the world has ever seen. The apple has a more complex genetic make up than any other fruit. If you plant the pips from the apple in your lunchbox they almost certainly won’t turn into trees bearing identical fruit. Every single pip is potentially a new variety which could fall anywhere in the spectrum of small and sour to big and juicy. Some of the world’s best-loved apples like Braeburn and Bramley were discovered growing as chance seedlings - Granny Smith was found growing out of a rubbish tip by Mrs Smith of New South Wales. So while the apple seeks only to multiply rather than reproduce the same delicious apples, man fathomed how to clone it with an ancient process that remains the same to this day. Chris’s journey takes him from Britain’s most famous and time honoured apple tree - the original Bramley from which all Bramley apples are descended; to a new contender discovered growing in a hedgerow on the A4260. He meets the Head Gardener at Audley End House in Cambridge, a man bent on preserving the spirit of the Victorian nurserymen who toiled away in the kitchen gardens of the nation’s stately homes creating thousands of new varieties; and goes underground in Kent to explore the remarkable contribution made by scientists at East Malling Research Station in the early 20th century. Their work is captured on fascinating film archive, showing the extraordinary lengths they went to give tired British orchards a facelift. The Malling series of rootstocks became the foundation of the global apple industry as we know it, allowing the most successful v
For generations, the Kennedy family held America and the whole world in thrall. The entire clan - grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren - were part of a dynasty JFK's father had planned would last forever. But as tragedy struck again and again, the children would have to cope with death and disaster. Based on private home movies and the memoirs of the nannies who looked after them, this is the inside story of growing up in one of the twentieth century's most powerful families.
Documentary which celebrates 125 years of Wimbledon history, featuring archive of the tournament's most memorable moments and illuminating interviews with the key players and famous fans. The memories are plentiful: the champions, the fierce rivalries, the tantrums, the British expectation, the weather, the fashions. Wimbledon is the place gladiators like Borg and McEnroe, Federer and Nadal went head to head, where Mahut and Isner played for days and Novotna cried on Centre Court. It's where traditions are challenged but never forgotten, where the greats have been crowned and where even Sir Cliff Richard has entertained the crowds during the rain. Featuring contributions from John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graff, Roger Federer, Boris Becker, Bille Jean King, the Williams sisters, Rafa Nadal, plus celebrity fans like Sir Cliff Richard and Stephen Fry.
Marking the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, historian Professor David Reynolds re-assesses Stalin's role in the life and death struggle between Germany and Russia in World War Two, which, he argues, was ultimately more critical for British survival than 'Our Finest Hour' in the Battle of Britain itself.
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the ancient Christian practice of preserving holy relics and the largely forgotten art form that went with it, the reliquary. Fragments of bone or fabric placed inside a bejewelled shrine, a sculpted golden head or even a life-sized silver hand were, and still are, objects of religious devotion believed to have the power to work miracles. Most precious of all, though, are relics of Jesus Christ and the programme also features three reliquaries containing the holiest of all relics - those associated with the Crucifixion. The story of relics and reliquaries is a 2,000-year history of faith, persecution and hope, reflected in some of the most beautiful and little known works of art ever made. Featuring interviews with art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum.
In 2009, over a hundred former pupils from two Catholic prep schools in England and Tanzania were reunited via the internet. Chatting in cyberspace, they discovered they had all suffered terrible abuse at school: mental, physical and, in some cases, sexual. As young children they were frightened into silence by their abusers. Now, as men in their fifties and sixties, and strengthened by the group, they want the truth to come out. Twenty two men have started legal proceedings against the Rosminian Order for compensation. They want justice. But half a century has passed, and their abusers are now elderly. What will it take to repair the damage and for the victims to feel able to move on?
The teenage search for sophistication is recalled in this bittersweet film about the people we were and the luxury items we thought would give us the keys to the kingdom.
In the first of three programmes to mark ten years since the invasion of Afghanistan, key decision makers reveal the inside story of how the West was drawn ever deeper into the Afghan war. Reporter John Ware charts the history of a decade of fighting and looks at when the conflict may end.
Mark Urban tells the inside story of Britain's fight for Helmand, told with unique access to the generals and frontline troops who were there.
A journey through the parts of Afghanistan that don't normally feature in news coverage to meet some amazing people and see fascinating places. Lyse Doucet uses her many years experience in Afghanistan to show a different side of a country which has been at war for 30 years.
Morgan Neville's full-length documentary is James Taylor and Carole King's first-hand account of the genesis and blossoming of the 1970s singer-songwriter culture in LA, focusing on the backgrounds and emerging collaboration between Taylor, King and the Troubadour, the famed West Hollywood club that nurtured a community of gifted young artists and singer-songwriters. Taylor and King first performed together at the Troubadour in November 1970, and the film explores their coming together and the growth of a new, personal voice in songwriting pioneered by a small group of fledgling artists around the club. Contributors include Taylor, King, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Krist
Art critic Alastair Sooke tracks down the ten most expensive paintings to sell at auction, and investigates the stories behind the astronomic prices art can reach. Gaining access to the glittering world of the super-rich, Sooke discovers why the planet's richest people want to spend their millions on art. Featuring works by Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Klimt and Rubens, Sooke enters a world of secrecy and rivalry, passion and power. Highlights include a visit to the art-crammed home of millionaire author Lord Archer; a rare interview with the man at the heart of the sale of the most expensive old master of all time; privileged access to auctioneers Christie's; and a glimpse of the world of the Russian oligarchs. These revelatory journeys allow Sooke to present an eye-opening view of the super wealthy, and their motivations as collectors of the world's great art treasures.
Julia Bradbury heads for Iceland to embark on the toughest walk of her life. Her challenge is to walk the 60 kilometres of Iceland's most famous hiking route, a trail that just happens to end at the unpronounceable volcano that brought air traffic across Europe to a standstill in 2010 . With the help of Icelandic mountain guide Hanna, Julia faces daunting mountain climbs, red hot lava fields, freezing river crossings, deadly clouds of sulphuric gas, swirling ash deserts and sinister Nordic ghost stories as she attempts to reach the huge volcanic crater at the centre of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier.
Only the most charismatic are known by just one name. Known to his adoring public simply as 'Seve', Severiano Ballesteros took the world of golf by storm and transcended the sport, with his magnetic personality and sublime skill. Presented by Gary Lineker, this heart-warming tribute celebrates Seve's life and features exclusive footage of the man himself. Handsome, flamboyant and passionate, Seve strode the fairways for 30 years. He won the greatest honours in the game including three Open Championships and two Masters titles, often playing miraculous escape shots that held galleries in awe, from St Andrews to Augusta. He became a European talisman in the Ryder Cup, on the winning side four times as a player, and memorably, once as a captain on the Spanish course of Valderrama. Tragically at the age of just 54, Seve lost his painful battle with brain cancer earlier this year. His foundation had already raised millions for cancer charities, ensuring his legacy will live on. Featuring contributions from Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rafa Nadal, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sir Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Greg Norman, HRH Prince Andrew , Sir Bruce Forsyth, Des Lynam and Peter Alliss.
Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins celebrates the humble and sometimes hated plants we call weeds. He discovers that there is no such thing as a weed, botanically speaking, and that in fact what we call a weed has changed again and again over the last three hundred years. Chris uncovers the story of our changing relationship with weeds - in reality, the story of the battle between wilderness and civilisation. He finds out how weeds have been seen as beautiful and useful in the past, and sees how their secrets are being unlocked today in order to transform our crops. Finally, Chris asks whether, in our quest to eliminate Japanese Knotweed or Rhododendron Ponticum, we are really engaged in an arms race we can never win. We remove weeds from our fields and gardens at our peril.
Sir Hubert Parry is simultaneously one of Britain's best-known and least-known composers. Jerusalem is almost a national song, regularly performed at rugby grounds, schools, Women's Institute meetings and the Last Night of the Proms, while Dear Lord and Father of Mankind is one of Britain's best-loved hymns. Everyone knows the tunes, yet hardly anyone knows much about the man who wrote them. In this film, HRH The Prince of Wales, a long-standing enthusiast of Parry's work, sets out to discover more about the complex character behind it, with the help of members of Parry's family, scholars and performers. This feature-length documentary by the award-winning director John Bridcut offers fresh insight into the life and work of Hubert Parry through the unique perspective of HRH The Prince of Wales.
Supersize Ambulance is narrated by Liz Tarbuck and follows the work of the Thames Ambulance Service's bariatric service.The use a much bigger vehicle to take obese people weighing up to 70st to hospital.
It is the most remarkable comeback story in English sporting history, and it all began 30 years ago this summer. It's the story of a team, so abject they had been written off completely, led by a man so distrusted and ridiculed that he was forced to resign his post for the sake of his family. Days later that man, Ian Botham, produced a 'boys own' performance to inspire that team, England, to beat Australia against 500-1 odds. It was just the start of Botham's Ashes. Botham: The Legend of '81 tells the simply incredible story of how Ian Botham went from national zero to hero, not once but twice. As well as the story of that almost unbelievable summer of '81, we hear how the success that followed changed Botham's life, making him, but breaking him at the same time. Having been reduced to zero once more we see how the anti-establishment Botham unwittingly became a national hero once again, this time through his tireless work to help children suffering with leukaemia. Featuring contributions from his family, colleagues and eyewitnesses such as Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Viv Richards, Bob Willis, David Gower, Sir Elton John, Stephen Fry and Sir John Major, Botham: The Legend of '81 charts one of English Sports most colourful and controversial careers and tells surely its most enduring comeback story.
In the last month of the space shuttle programme, Kevin Fong is granted extraordinary access to the astronauts and ground crew as they prepare for their final mission. He is in mission control as the astronauts go through their final launch simulation, and he flies with the last shuttle commander as he undertakes his last practice landing flight. Kevin also gains privileged access to the shuttle itself, visiting the lauchpad in the company of the astronaut who will guide the final flight from mission control. Kevin's journey takes him to the heart of NASA, when after 30 years of shuttle missions, they finally draw the curtain. As well as meeting the final astronauts, Kevin follows the specialist teams of men and women whose job it is to make sure the shuttle and its crew are as safe as they can possibly be. After experiencing the launch and being in mission control during the final mission, Kevin will be there on the tarmac at the Kennedy Space Centre when Atlantis returns from space for the last time, marking the end of an era in manned space flight.
A unique journey around the weird and wonderful planet that we call home. When Yuri Gagarin was blasted into space he became the first human to get a proper look at where we live. 'The Earth is blue,' he exclaimed, 'how amazing!'. Suddenly our perspective on the world had changed forever. We thought we were going to explore the universe, yet the most extraordinary thing we discovered was our own home planet, the Earth. So what would you see during just one orbit of the Earth? Starting 200 miles above the planet, this film whisks you around the planet to show what changes in the time it takes to circumnavigate the Earth just once. We hear from British-born astronaut Piers Sellers on what it's like to live and work in space, and also to gaze down and see how we are altering and reshaping our world. We marvel at the incredible forces of nature that brings hundred-mile wide storms and reshapes continents, and also discover how we humans are draining seas and building cities in the middle of the desert. We also visit the wettest place on Earth, as well as the most volcanic. Narrated by David Morrissey, this inspirational trip around the planet will make you view our home as you've never seen it before.
At 16, Roger Nsengiyumva has already made a name for himself as the star of the football movie Africa United. But there's something else about Roger; he was born in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and only survived thanks to the raw courage of his mother. She spent 100 days hiding her newborn baby from the murderous gangs, and then bravely escaped to Britain after seeing her husband, Roger's father, shot dead. This is the story of Roger's return to his homeland to discover the harrowing truths of his family history and to find out whether he can share his mother's remarkable willingness to forgive those who destroyed both their lives. Part of Extraordinary Me, a season of programmes for BBC Three which focuses on young people with amazing stories to tell.
A witty exploration of the evolution of the gentleman's suit. Alastair Sooke only owns one suit, but he is fascinated by how the matching jacket and trousers has become a uniform for men. Over the last 100 years the suit has evolved from working man's Sunday best to the casual wear of royalty. For many 'the suit' is synonymous with all that is dull. But tailor Charlie Allen, Top Man chief designer Gordon Richardson and Sir Paul Smith show Alastair that the suit can be a cutting-edge fashion item and 'armour' to face the world.
Alex Lewis knows he does not have much longer to live. Aged 21 he finds himself falling hopelessly in love and can't quite believe what's happening. Alex was first diagnosed with bone cancer shortly before his 18th birthday. After over three years of intensive treatment, he realises he is running out of options. He decides to cram as much life as possible into the time he has left. His remarkable zest for life is contagious. On the first day of filming in June, 2010 his only sadness is not being able to commit to a long-term relationship. That evening he goes to a party in Swansea, kisses a girl, falls in love and within weeks they are inseparable. In September Alex and Ali become engaged to be married. This is a story of the power of love, as a young man confronts his mortality in the most emotionally charged circumstances imaginable. Part of Extraordinary Me, a season of programmes for BBC Three which focuses on young people with amazing stories to tell.
Documentary following the story of teenager Jamie Campbell, who wants to be a drag queen. Growing up in an ex-mining village in County Durham, Jamie has already faced his fair share of difficulties after coming out as gay at 14. However, with the majority of his family and friends being supportive, he has decided that he is ready to share his passion with the world. He plans to embrace who he really is by attending his end of school prom in drag, but he doesn't get the reaction he'd hoped for from both his school and, heart-breakingly, his own father. So Jamie has to make some difficult decisions. Jamie spends time with an established drag artist and battles his demons, performing as his alter ego, Fifi La True, for the very first time in front of a large audience. As Jamie has some frank and intimate family moments, and finds out just how strong he really is, the film explores his hopes and fears for the future. Will he get the acceptance he craves from his peers and the confidence to be who he really is? Part of Extraordinary Me, a season of programmes for BBC Three which focuses on young people with amazing stories to tell.
The unlikely story of how, between 1929 and 1945, a group of tweed-wearing radicals and pin-striped bureaucrats created the most influential movement in the history of British film. They were the British Documentary Movement and they gave Britons a taste for watching films about real life. They were an odd bunch, as one wit among them later admitted. "A documentary director must be a gentleman... and a socialist." They were inspired by a big idea - that films about real life would change the world. That, if people of all backgrounds saw each other on screen - as they really were - they would get to know and respect each other more. As John Grierson, the former street preacher who founded the Movement said: "Documentary outlines the patterns of interdependence". The Documentary Film Mob assembles a collection of captivating film portraits of Britain, during the economic crisis of the 1930s and the Second World War. Featuring classic documentaries about slums and coal mines, about potters and posties, about the bombers and the Blitz, the programme reveals the fascinating story of what was also going on behind the camera. Of how the documentary was born and became part of British culture.
The summer of 1960 was a critical moment in the history of film, when the fly-on-the-wall documentary was born. The Camera that Changed the World tells the story of the filmmakers and ingenious engineers who led this revolution by building the first hand-held cameras that followed real life as it happened. By amazing co-incidence, there were two separate groups of them - one on each side of the Atlantic. In the US, the pioneers used their new camera to make Primary, a compelling portrait of American politics. They followed a then little known John F Kennedy as he began his long campaign for the presidency. Meanwhile, in France, another new camera was inspiring an influential experiment in documentary filmmaking. Chronique d'un Ete captures the real lives of ordinary Parisians across the summer of 1960. Both these extraordinary films smashed existing conventions as handheld cameras followed the action across public spheres into intimate and previously hidden worlds. In The Camera that Changed the World this remarkable story is told by the pioneers themselves, some of whom, such as DA Pennebaker and Al Maysles are now filmmaking legends. Back in 1960, they were determined young revolutionaries.
Benedict Cumberbatch, one of the country's leading actors, explores the life and work of enigmatic playwright Terence Rattigan. Rattigan was the master of the 'well crafted play' of upper class manners and repressed sexuality and he dominated the West End theatre scene throughout the 40s and early 50s. But then, in the mid fifties 'the angry young men arrived'; a wave of young playwrights and directors who introduced a new, radical style of theatre. Rattigan's work faced a critical onslaught and he fell completely out of fashion. But now, in his centenary year his plays are enjoying a huge revival. But Rattigan himself remains an enigmatic figure - a troubled homosexual whose polite, restrained dramas confronted the very issues - sexual frustration, failed relationships, adultery and even suicide - that he found so difficult to deal with in his own life. He had a gift for commercial theatre but yearned to be taken seriously as a playwright. In this film Benedict re-visits his old school Harrow where Rattigan was also educated and was first inspired to write plays. He takes a trip down memory lane with one of Rattigan's closest friends (Princess Jean Galizine) and he talks to playwrights, critics and directors about what it is about Rattigan's work which we find so appealing today.
In 1728, 12-year-old James Annesley was snatched from the streets of Dublin and sold into slavery in America - the victim of a wicked uncle hell-bent on stealing his massive inheritance. Dan Cruickshank traces James's astonishing journey from the top table of 18th century society to its murky depths. The story, which helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped, reveals some disturbing home truths that cast a shadow over the century of the Enlightenment.
The Emmy Award-winning story of a young woman grappling with the terrible legacy left by her Nazi father. Amon Goeth was a prominent Nazi leader and commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp. Utterly ruthless and sadistic, he murdered thousands of Jews and others during WWII. After seeing Ralph Fiennes's portrayal of him in Schindler's List, Goeth's daughter Monika began a quest to come to terms with his evil legacy. Together with Helen Jonas, a survivor of the Holocaust and Goeth's slave, the two women unearth the personal cost of crimes that consumed millions and question whether a parent's actions can ever be truly laid to rest.
A Jewish teenager and an injured soldier join a doomed plot to kill Hitler. They face almost certain death, yet luck and love shine upon them as they outwit Nazi terror and become the first couple married in post-war Berlin. Narrated by the former teenager herself and featuring the original footage shot by her sweetheart, their story would sound like a pitch for a Hollywood blockbuster were it not all true. A harrowing tale of war, resistance, love and survival - and, miraculously, a happy ending.
Simon Armitage presents the extraordinary story of the most disturbing witch trial in British history and the key role played in it by one nine-year-old girl. Jennet Device, a beggar-girl from Pendle in Lancashire, was the star witness in the trial in 1612 of her own mother, her brother, her sister and many of her neighbours and, thanks to her chilling testimony, they were all hanged.
George Mallory was obsessed with becoming the first person to conquer the untouched Mount Everest. He was last seen 800 feet below the summit in 1924 as the clouds rolled in and he disappeared into legend. His death stunned the world. This documentary uses astonishing visuals to tell the intersecting stories of George Mallory, the first man to attempt a summit of Mount Everest, and Conrad Anker, the mountaineer who finds Mallory's frozen remains 75 years later.
In this fascinating documentary, historian Bettany Hughes travels to the seven wonders of the Buddhist world and offers a unique insight into one of the most ancient belief systems still practised today. Buddhism began 2,500 years ago when one man had an amazing internal revelation underneath a peepul tree in India. Today it is practised by over 350 million people worldwide, with numbers continuing to grow year on year. In an attempt to gain a better understanding of the different beliefs and practices that form the core of the Buddhist philosophy and investigate how Buddhism started and where it travelled to, Hughes visits some of the most spectacular monuments built by Buddhists across the globe. Her journey begins at the Mahabodhi Temple in India, where Buddhism was born; here Hughes examines the foundations of the belief system - the three jewels. At Nepal's Boudhanath Stupa, she looks deeper into the concept of dharma - the teaching of Buddha, and at the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, Bettany explores karma, the idea that our intentional acts will be mirrored in the future. At Wat Pho Temple in Thailand, Hughes explores samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death that Buddhists seek to end by achieving enlightenment, before travelling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia to learn more about the practice of meditation. In Hong Kong, Hughes visits the Giant Buddha and looks more closely at Zen, before arriving at the final wonder, the Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, to discover more about the ultimate goal for all Buddhists - nirvana.
Documentary which reveals the story of German lawyer Hans Litten's public attempt to challenge Adolf Hitler. It examines Litten's life and work, the circumstances which prompted him to take such an extraordinary risk with his own safety, and the fate that awaited him after his historic confrontation with Hitler in a Berlin courtroom. This study of courage, politics and humanity combines original archive material and interviews with Litten's friends and family, survivors from the street-fighting political landscape of 1930s Berlin, and historians and lawyers to illuminate Litten's tactics and choices. The documentary also explores Litten's story after the trial, his arrest and torture by the Nazis, and his courage in the concentration camps as Hitler's first political prisoner. So what drove a 29-year-old lawyer with his whole career ahead of him to challenge fascism so directly, pursuing the man at the top and forcing Hitler to account for the violence of his massive private army?
Legendary Texan outlaw comic Bill Hicks was and still is an inspiration to millions. A true product of the American dream, his rebellious and exhilarating comedy left no stone unturned and his profound observations on American life were a life-changing experience for many who saw him. The story of a son, a brother and a friend, this funny and critically-acclaimed film is told 'in the round' by the family and peers who knew Hicks best. With captivating photographs animating the scenes of his rollercoaster life - from precocious teenager through the dark years of addiction to his spectacular recovery - Hicks found international fame before his life was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of just 32. This intimate and emotional portrait is both a revelation for fans, and the perfect introduction for newcomers, to an iconic comedy hero whose timeless material seems to resonate more strongly by the year.
When the 33 Chilean miners emerged from underground before a worldwide audience of over a billion, they made a pact not to speak about what had happened underground. Now six of them remember the untold story of the first 17 days - when no-one outside knew if they were alive. Filming down a Chilean mine, the programme explores the nightmare of living in the dark tunnels half a mile underground, eating a spoonful of tuna every two days and not knowing if you would ever be found.
After a summer dominated by shocking revelations about phone hacking and celebrity superinjunctions, former Heat editor Sam Delaney investigates how much we're entitled to know about the private lives of the famous - and how much they have a right to keep hidden. Do celebs deserve to have their sex lives exposed just because they are famous? And could the rest of us really be jailed for passing on their secrets? As he meets victims of phone hacking and tabloid exposés, and goes out with the paps hunting the latest juicy shots, Sam asks how the gossip he has always considered harmless has suddenly become so serious - and even dangerous.
Award-winning filmaker Sue Bourne goes behind the normally closed doors of the world of competitive Irish dance in a documentary telling the story of the 40th Irish Dancing World Championships. Thousands of dancers, their families and teachers from around the world descend on Glasgow for seven drama-filled days.
Documentary telling the story of the long dispute between fifty Traveller families living on Dale Farm in Essex and the local council, as the bitter campaign to evict the families reaches its climax. Having spent six years filming all sides in this conflict, film-maker Richard Parry speaks to the extended clan of matriarchs Marianne McCarthy and Mimi Sheridan, who vow they will not leave Dale Farm without a fight. He also meets Len Gridley, the unofficial leader of the residents' campaign against the Travellers, who claims that they are a menacing, destructive presence.
In the first of this two-part series, Mishal Husain charts the tumultuous events earlier this year in Tunisia and Egypt as people power toppled the governing regimes. She meets some of those who led the uprisings and finds out about the role played by the internet and social media in the organisation and mobilisation of resistance movements.
For more than four years the town of Wootton Bassett has quietly marked the return of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We look at what repatriations have meant to bereaved families and the town.
Emily Maitlis tells the incredible story of Donald Trump, the world's most famous developer, who changed the New York skyline with his glitzy towers and made himself a multi-billionaire. With unprecedented access to Trump and his family Maitlis finds out how he did it. Trump's own lifestyle, with the glamorous wives and the private jet, is all marketing for his luxurious brand. Now the all-American tycoon is over here. Maitlis asks why he wants to build a huge golf resort on the sand-dunes near Aberdeen, and watches him presiding over his own beauty pageant in Las Vegas. She finds out how it was a Brit who made Trump the star of the original Apprentice series, bringing the media-loving mogul with the amazing hair to an even bigger public.
At just two years old, Kellie O'Farrell suffered horrendous burns to her face and hands in a car fire. Now, at 22, she's leaving the security of her family and the small community in Ireland where she grew up to start a new life on her own in London. How will she cope as she tries to make new friends and live an independent life in this big beauty-obsessed city?
The Clink is a restaurant with a difference. The menu may sound mouthwatering, but the paying customers at this classy establishment tuck into their crab, lobster and coq au vin knowing that most of the staff are convicted criminals. This unique and controversial rehabilitation scheme, set within the walls of HMP High Down Prison, aims to transform prisoners into fully trained chefs and waiters. The film follows fiery head chef Al as he employs three new inmates who are struggling to change their lives and turn their backs on crime.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, The Twins of the Twin Towers tells the previously untold story of the twins who lost their 'other half' on the day of the terrorist attacks. It features the accounts of some of the 46 twins including Zachary Fletcher, a New York City Fire Fighter who lost his fellow fire fighter and twin brother, Andre in the south tower; Gregory Hoffman, who was on the phone to his twin, Stephen, as the second plane hit and former NYPD undercover cop, Lisa DeRienzo who lost her brother, Michael. As a broker, Michael believed he was the one with the safe job. These and other compelling testimonies make for a profound and powerful tale, which strikes at the heart of what it is to be, not only a twin, but also a human being and reminds us why, as the tenth anniversary approaches, the world can never forget the events of September 11 2001.
The story of how the Arab world erupted in revolution, as a new generation used the internet and social media to try to overthrow their hated leaders. In the last of this two part series, Mishal Husain meets those who spread the revolt to Libya and Bahrain, and those who are still fighting the Syrian regime.
This September marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, one of the biggest terrorist atrocities of the 21st Century. Nineteen hijackers, all members of Al Qaeda, crashed four planes on American soil, leading to the deaths of 2,973 innocent people. This horrific event has generated a multitude of conspiracy theories that contradict the official findings of the US government's investigation into the events of that day. Andrew Maxwell, a comedian, believes in the findings of the official investigation, which claim the responsibility for the attack lies with Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. He thinks the conspiracies theories are unsubstantiated nonsense. So in this film he offers to take five young Brits, who believe some of these conspiracy theories, on a road-trip from New York to Washington. They visit Ground Zero where two planes hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, home of vast American defence HQ and Shanksville in Pennsylvania where United 93 crashed. Each of them believes different elements of the conspiracy theories. Charlotte, a North London nanny who witnessed the attacks, thinks the American government is responsible. She can't believe the hijackers, barely out of flying school, could have steered jetliners into the Twin Towers with such deadly accuracy. Rodney a health worker who studied biochemistry suspects the collapse of the towers was not caused by the planes that went in to them and he wants to get to the bottom of the science. Student Emily, an active member of the 9/11 Truth Movement, thinks the US government was forewarned of the attacks and yet ignored the intelligence allowing it to happen. Shazin, a qualified surveyor, wants to find out how the passengers on United 93 could have made phone calls to loved ones from a plane. And Charlie, an ex-banker thinks 9/11 was an excuse for the US Government to go to war with Iraq. Andrew Maxwell thinks all five of them are wrong and wants to change their minds by confronting them with the fa
In the year of the Rugby World Cup to be played on All Black territory, Eddie Butler tells the story and reassesses the impact of the victorious Lions tour in 1971, taking a journey through a rugby-mad country with staggering scenery.
Terry Wogan looks at the life of writer PG Wodehouse. In exploring the extraordinarily long career of his literary hero, Terry employs rarely seen archive material and is joined by Stephen Fry, Griff Rhys Jones, Joanna Lumley and a series of expert contributors in a documentary which addresses Wodehouse's longstanding appeal.
Drama-documentary in which art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of the greatest cultural controversy of the last 200 years. He explores the history of the Elgin Marbles, tells the dramatic story of their removal from Athens and cites the arguments for and against their return to Greece
From dinosaurs to mammoths, when our ancient ancestors encountered the fossil bones of extinct prehistoric creatures, what did they think they were? Just like us, ancient peoples were fascinated by the giant bones they found in the ground. In an epic story that takes us from Ancient Greece to the American Wild West, historian Tom Holland goes on a journey of discovery to explore the fascinating ways in which our ancestors sought to explain the remains of dinosaurs and other giant prehistoric creatures, and how bones and fossils have shaped and affected human culture. In Classical Greece, petrified bones were exhibited in temples as the remains of a long lost race of colossal Heroes. Chinese tales of dragons may well have had their origins in the great fossil beds of the Gobi desert. In the Middle Ages, Christians believed that mysterious bones found in rock were the remains of giants drowned in Noah's Flood. But far from always being wrong, Tom learns that ancient explanations and myths about large fossilsed bones often contained remarkable paleontological insights long before modern science explained the truth about dinosaurs. Tom encounters a medieval sculpture that is the first known reconstruction of a monster from a fossil, and learns about the Native Americans stories, told for generations, which contained clues that led bone hunters to some of the greatest dinosaur finds of the nineteenth century. This documentary is an alternative history of dinosaurs - the neglected story of how mythic imagination and scientific inquiry have met over millennia to give meaning to the dry bones of prehistory. Today, as our interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures continues unabated, it turns out we are not so far away from the awe and curiosity of our ancient ancestors.
Documentary looking at how war has been dramatised on British television from the Second World War through the Falklands campaign to contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, examining the challenges - both financial and dramatic - in bringing war to the small screen.
Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago and we have hardly ever found a complete skeleton. So how do we turn a pile of broken bones into a dinosaur exhibit? Dr Alice Roberts finds out how the experts put skeletons back together, with muscles, accurate postures, and even - in some cases - the correct skin colour.
Born and bred in Lancashire, 17-year-old Alia was coerced into marrying a stranger in Pakistan and only allowed home once pregnant. Meanwhile, Jessie is marooned in rural Bangladesh, promised to a cousin twice her age. These young women are terrified of marrying a stranger, and even more terrified of shaming their families should they dare to refuse; and if they flee they face a lifetime ostracised from family and community. Itís heartbreaking, especially when, a year after escaping, Alia finally gives in to parental pressure and agrees to return to Pakistan. Documentary offering an insight into arranged marriages, a practice that involves 8,000 British people every year. Following one married woman and another facing nuptials in Bangladesh, the film observes how they cope with pressure from families expecting them to wed out of honour and not love.
The Scots have a reputation as brave, ferocious warriors. Despite a troubled history with England, history shows that more of Scotland's young men sign up to fight for the crown than anywhere else in Britain. Rory Bremner, whose own father and great grandfather were distinguished Scottish soldiers, sets out to discover why rebel clansmen became loyal servants of the military establishment. His story takes him to Culloden, Crimea and northern France. As the sound of the pipes floats over Scottish military camps in Afghanistan he asks if, after 250 years, the Scottish soldier's loyalty to Queen and country is running out?
Set against the post war period of debt, austerity and rationing, the 1951 Festival of Britain showed how to carve out a bright new future through design and ingenuity, while still having fun. Told by the people who made it happen and making use of some previously unseen colour footage, this is the story of how an extraordinary event changed Britain forever.
Has one of Britain's greatest artists been unfairly forgotten? Waldemar Januszczak thinks so. In this documentary, Januszczak argues that the little known 17th-century portrait painter William Dobson was the first English painter of genius. Dobson's life and times are embedded in one of the most turbulent and significant epochs of British history - the English Civil War. As official court painter to Charles I, the tragic British king later beheaded by parliament, Dobson had a ringside seat to an period of intense drama and conflict. Based in Oxford, where the court was transferred after parliament took control of London, Dobson produced an astonishing number of high quality portraits of royalist supporters, heroes and cavaliers which Januszczak believes are the first true examples of British art. As he puts it in the film: 'Dobson's face should be on our banknotes. His name should be on all our lips.' The film investigates the few known facts about William Dobson and seeks out the personal stories he left behind as it follows him through his tragically short career. When he died in 1646 - penniless, unemployed and a drunk - Dobson was just 36. Among the Dobson fans interviewed in the film is Earl Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, who agrees wholeheartedly that William Dobson was the first great British painter.
Buddha in Suburbia tracks the extraordinary journey of 40 year old Lelung Rinpoche, one of Tibetan Buddhism's three principal reincarnations, as he sets out to gather the lost teachings of his faith and to attempt a return to his homeland. For the past seven years, Lelung Rinpoche has been living in Ruislip North London, in the garden shed of one of his students. He runs a dharma or teaching centre locally, attended by British followers. Now a British passport holder, he embarks on a mission to find previous Lelungs' teachings, and the teachers who hold the key to unlocking their secrets. His odyssey takes him to India, Mongolia and China as he tries to find a way of getting back home to Tibet. He meets some of Tibetan Buddhism's most senior teachers, including the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile. Lelung is a young, modern lama, with relationships with many across the globe from teenagers in Rusilip to the Dalai Lama. The film includes an interview with Tibetan Buddhist expert Professor Robert Thurman, father of Uma Thurman. Lelung Rinpoche has a daunting task to complete on his quest to recover lost teachings before they disappear, and to try to take the right steps on his own path towards enlightenment.
It's the tree which ate suburbia. Fifty-five million leylandii are growing in Britain, with another 300,000 planted each year. Nobody knows how high they will grow, and some botanists believe the trees have the potential to grow to the size of a giant redwood. This film meets lovers and loathers of leylandii hedges, including the naturist who loves the privacy it affords his back garden in Keighley, and the residents of a sheltered housing project in South Shields who live in the perpetual shadow of the massive hedge owned by their local church. We meet the biggest hedge in Britain, standing at 130 feet and rising, and we meet householders for whom mere mention of the word leylandii is enough to induce gnashing of teeth. The so-called High Hedges Act of 2005 was meant to put an end to this sort of conflict, but we meet hedge victims who bemoan the impotence, bureaucracy and expense of the law. In the midst of it all, we meet reasonable and kind people forking out thousands of pounds to cull the monstrous hedges they inherited when they bought new homes.
Through personal testimony, this programme follows the process of resigning: from the initial crisis to taking the decision to resign and handling the timing, to the costs, consequences and legacy of the resignation. It shows that the honourable resignation is not dead. In all walks of life people grappling with moral issues still take that decision to resign. Consultant anaesthetist Stephen Bolsin felt he could only go public after he had resigned and left the country. Former home secretary Jacqui Smith was determined to do the honourable thing and resign immediately over her expenses, but she was thwarted by a prime minister with any eye on political timing. The honourable resignations of Lord Carrington and Richard Luce were put back on track by a hostile parliament and press. The programme charts how resignation can act as a social barometer - affairs that were once a fast route to leaving are no longer a career fullstop. Max Mosley talks frankly about how determined he was not to bow to pressure to go after revelations over his extra-marital sex. Interviewees talk about their experiences and what they have learned. Alastair Campbell describes almost 'lamping' demonstrators outside his house. Greg Dyke can't sleep after his resignation 'deal' with the BBC governors goes wrong. Daily Star journalist Richard Peppiatt is plunged into depression after his plan to publish his resignation letter in the Guardian falls apart. My Resignation shows that however society changes, resigning remains a personal and often traumatic journey.
Sophie Dahl explores the extraordinary life and times of her food heroine, Mrs Beeton - the creator of the original domestic bible Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. Through cooking original recipes from her book, investigating her childcare advice and home remedies and even throwing a full Victorian dinner party, Sophie finds out how one young woman shaped our idea of what a home really is and reveals the personal tragedies behind Mrs Beeton's starchy public persona.
For the first time on UK television, Transplant shows the extraordinary reality of multiple organ donation, following the organs from a single donor to the different recipients. The film shows the surgeries and the human stories on both sides, as both donor and recipients have agreed to waive the normal anonymity that exists between them. Transplant follows the complex process of donation coordinated by the organ donor organisation, NHS Blood and Transplant, from the very beginning when a potential donor is declared brain dead and their organs are retrieved through to the transplant surgeries and recovery of the patients who've benefited from the donor's organs.
From the beginnings of film-making to the triumph of Jurassic Park - the dinosaur has always been a movie star. Over 60 minutes, BBC4's Rex Appeal takes a bite out of the Cretaceous cinema and reveals the truth about T-Rex. It's a story that stretches from the charming cartoon apatosaurus Gertie (1914), to the vicious and cunning velociraptors of Spielbrerg's imagination. But it's not all teeth and trashing city centres - as our critics explain, dinosaur movies are always about more than just dinosaurs. The 'nature finds a way' DNA argument in Jurassic Park directly mirrored the arguements about GM crops in the early 90s. Godzilla - the radioactive-breathed dinosaur emerged from the seas of Japan just nine years after the nuclear attack on Hiroshima. King Kong and his dinosaur pals on Skull Island have sparked a million film school theories. Of course, not all dino dramas are so high minded - in the Hammer film One Million Years BC, the audience were just as fascinated with Racquel Welsh's fur tops as they were with the Triceratops. Despite Hammer's claim that 'This is the way it was', the science was a little dubious- the last dinosaur died 64 million years before the first modern human appeared. Whatever cultural anxieties dinosaurs represent, they've always been a cinematic spectacle that has thrilled audiences on a instinctual level - with each new breakthrough in special effects giving us ever more real Rex's. Willis O'Brien gave us the legendary Kong v Rex fight that taught us to love Kong, Ray Harryhausen invented 'dinomation' and put dinosaurs and cowboys together in The Valley of Gwangi. And since the 90s - CGI has banished the man in the dino suit, and made prehistoric protagonists are more real than ever. Contributors include film critics James King and Kim Newman, science broadcaster Adam Rutherford, comedian Susan Calman and broadcaster and film historian Matthew Sweet.
No-one has done more for the cello than Mstislav Rostropovich, or Slava as he was widely known. As well as being arguably the greatest cellist of the twentieth century, he expanded and enriched the cello repertoire by the sheer force of his artistry and his personality and composers lined up to write works for him. In this film by John Bridcut, friends, family and former pupils explore the unique talents of this great Russian artist, and listen to and watch him making music. Contributors include his widow Galina Vishnevskaya and their daughters Olga and Elena; the eminent conductors Seiji Ozawa and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky; and cellists who attended his famous classes in Moscow, including Natalya Gutman, Mischa Maisky, Moray Welsh, Elizabeth Wilson and Karine Georgian. The film traces the development of Rostropovich's international career amid the political tensions of the final years of the Soviet Union.
Just off the southern coast of mainland Greece lies the oldest submerged city in the world. A city that thrived for 2000 years during the time that saw the birth of Western civilisation. An international team of experts uses the latest technology to investigate the site and digitally raise it from the seabed, to reveal the secrets of Pavlopetri. Led by underwater archaeologist Dr Jon Henderson, the team use the latest in cutting-edge science and technology to prise age-old secrets from the complex of streets and stone buildings that lie less than five metres below the surface. State-of-the-art CGI helps to raise the city from the seabed revealing, for the first time in 3,500 years, how Pavlopetri would once have looked and operated. Jon Henderson is leading this ground-breaking project in collaboration with a team from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, and Nic Flemming, the man whose hunch led to the intriguing discovery of Pavlopetri in 1967. Also working alongside the archaeologists are a team from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, who aim to take underwater archaeology into the 21st century. The team scour the sea floor for any artefacts that have eroded from the sands. The site is littered with thousands of fragments, each providing valuable clues to the everyday lives of the people of Pavlopetri. From the buildings to the trade goods to the everyday tableware, every artefact provides a window into a long-forgotten world. Together these precious relics provide us with a window on a time when Pavlopetri would have been at its height, showing us what life was like in this distant age, and revealing how this city marks the start of Western civilisation.
There's only a slim chance that black and white parents will have twins of different skin colour, but as one in ten children born in the UK is now mixed race, this genetic quirk is going to become increasingly common. Twincredibles follows five sets of twins, from toddlers through to adults, to create a surprising and compelling story about the journey of mixed-race Britain. The stories of all these twins throw a new and fascinating light on how brothers and sisters who are similar in so many other ways lead different lives because of their skin colour. The experiences don't always match the stereotype. For teenage boys James and Daniel, growing up in Eltham South East London, it was the whiter-looking twin Daniel who suffered racial abuse, whilst darker twin James was left alone. Travelling through the experiences of each set of twins, the film unpeels the impact this accident of their birth has on how they see themselves and how the outside world views them. Living in diverse locations across England to Scotland, the twins tell their stories in their own words, to paint an honest and sometimes hard-hitting picture of race in modern Britain.
17-year-old Sam and 20-year-old Evan are a gay male couple - but underneath their clothes they have female bodies. What makes this story so exceptional is that they are both in the process of changing their bodies from female to male, at the same time. This film follows their gender journey and the prejudice they encounter along the way - including the humiliation and fear they suffer of having eggs thrown at them as they walk to the bus stop. The documentary tells the story of how Sam and Evan met, fell in love and embarked on a remarkable transgender journey together to transform their bodies from Girls to Men.
What is the truth about the sexes? It is a deeply-held assumption that every person is either male or female; but many people are now questioning whether this belief is correct. This compelling and sensitive documentary unlocks the stories of people born neither entirely male nor female. Conditions like these have been known as 'intersex' and shrouded in unnecessary shame and secrecy for decades. It's estimated that DSDs (Disorders of Sexual Development) are, in fact, as common as twins or red hair - nearly one in 50 of us. The programme features powerful insights from people living with these conditions, and the medical teams at the forefront of the field, including clinical psychologist Tiger Devore, whose own sex when born was ambiguous.
In November 2010, a Chinese vase unearthed in a suburban semi in Pinner sold at auction for £43 million - a new record for a Chinese work of art. Why are Chinese vases so famous and so expensive? The answer lies in the European obsession with Chinese porcelain that began in the 16th century and by the 18th century was a full-blown craze that swept up kings, princes and the emerging middle classes alike. In this documentary Lars Tharp, the Antiques Roadshow expert and Chinese ceramics specialist, sets out to explore why Chinese porcelain was so valuable then - and still is now. He goes on a journey to parts of China closed to Western eyes until relatively recently. Lars travels to the mountainside from which virtually every single Chinese export vase, plate and cup began life in the 18th century - a mountain known as Mount Gaolin, from whose name we get the word kaolin, or china clay. He sees how the china clay was fused with another substance, mica, that would turn it into porcelain - a secret process concealed from envious Western eyes. For a time porcelain became more valuable than gold - it was a substance so fine, so resonant and so strong that it drove Europeans mad trying to copy it. Carrying his own newly-acquired vase, Lars uncovers the secrets of China's porcelain capital, Jingdezhen, before embarking on the arduous 400-mile journey to the coast that every piece of export porcelain would once have travelled. He sees how the trade between China and Europe not only changed our idea of what was beautiful - by introducing us to the idea of works of art we could eat off - but also began to affect the whole tradition of Chinese aesthetics too, as the ceramicists of Jingdezhen sought to meet the European demand for porcelain decorated with family coats of arms, battle scenes or even erotica. The porcelain fever that gripped Britain drove conspicuous consumption and fuelled the Georgian craze for tea parties. Today the new emperors - China's rising millio
Brian Clarke is one of Britain's hidden treasures. A painter of striking large canvases and the designer of some of the most exciting stained glass in the world today, he is better known abroad - especially in Germany and Switzerland - than in his own country, and more widely recognised among critics, collectors and gallery owners than he is by the general public. In this visually striking documentary portrait made by award-winning filmmaker Mark Kidel, Clarke returns to Lancashire where he grew up as a prodigy in a working-class family and charts his meteoric rise during the punk years and eventual success as a stained glass artist working with some of the world's great architects, including Norman Foster and Arata Isozaki - and producing spectacular work in Japan, Brazil, the USA and Europe. Contributors include his close friend and architect Zaha Hadid, architect Peter Cook and art historian Martin Harrison.
In September 2011, an international group of scientists has made an astonishing claim - they have detected particles that seemed to travel faster than the speed of light. It was a claim that contradicted more than a hundred years of scientific orthodoxy. Suddenly there was talk of all kinds of bizarre concepts, from time travel to parallel universes. So what is going on? Has Einstein's famous theory of relativity finally met its match? Will we one day be able to travel into the past or even into another universe? In this film, Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores one of the most dramatic scientific announcements for a generation. In clear, simple language he tells the story of the science we thought we knew, how it is being challenged, and why it matters.
Documentary that reveals the secret story behind one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II, a feat that gave birth to the digital age. In 1943, a 24-year-old maths student and a GPO engineer combined to hack into Hitler's personal super-code machine - not Enigma but an even tougher system, which he called his 'secrets writer'. Their break turned the Battle of Kursk, powered the D-day landings and orchestrated the end of the conflict in Europe. But it was also to be used during the Cold War - which meant both men's achievements were hushed up and never officially recognised
Ice is one of the strangest, most beguiling and mesmerising substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is transparent yet it can glow with colour, it is powerful enough to shatter rock but it can melt in the blink of an eye. It takes many shapes, from the fleeting beauty of a snowflake to the multi-million tonne vastness of a glacier and the eeriness of the ice fountains of far-flung moons. Science writer Dr Gabrielle Walker has been obsessed with ice ever since she first set foot on Arctic sea ice. In this programme she searches out some of the secrets hidden deep within the ice crystal to try to discover how something so ephemeral has the power to sculpt landscapes, to preserve our past and inform our future
Actor and aviator Martin Shaw takes to the skies to rediscover one of the most audacious and daring raids of World War II. On the morning of 18 February 1944, a squadron of RAF Mosquito bombers, flying as low as three metres over occupied France, demolished the walls of Amiens Jail in what became known as Operation Jericho. The reasons behind the controversial raid remain a mystery to this day. This dramatic documentary investigates the missing pieces of the story, with interviews from survivors and aircrew, and tries to find out why the raid was ordered and by whom.
In May this year, US Special Forces shot and killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. Publicly Pakistan is one of America's closest allies - yet every step of the operation was kept secret from it. Filmed largely in Pakistan and Afghanistan, this two-part documentary series explores how a supposed ally stands accused by top CIA officers and Western diplomats of causing the deaths of thousands of coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. It is a charge denied by Pakistan's military establishment, but the documentary makers meet serving Taliban commanders who describe the support they get from Pakistan in terms of weapons, training and a place to hide. This first episode investigates signs of duplicity that emerged after 9/11 and disturbing intelligence reports after Britain's forces entered Helmand in 2006.
Historian Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of a centuries-old masterpiece in glass. At 78 feet in height, the famous East Window at York Minster is the largest medieval stained-glass window in the country, and it was the creative vision of a single artist - a mysterious master craftsman called John Thornton, one of the earliest named English artists.
Humphrys is of a generation and a background for whom stigma acted as a break on behaviour that others might consider anti-social or even immoral. He was brought up in a working-class area of Cardiff where there were few single mothers and the only man in his street who refused to work was treated with contempt, and the veteran broadcaster’s evident bafflement over the way the post-war welfare state has nurtured a dependency culture made for compelling viewing. This was a serious programme about an important subject with a fundamental question at its heart: how did the great ambitions of William Beveridge to banish the Five Evils of Want, Ignorance, Squalor, Disease and Idleness produce a society in which hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, choose to live off their fellow taxpayers and consider that they are entitled to do so?
Leonardo da Vinci is considered by many to be one of the greatest artists who ever lived. Yet his reputation rests on only a handful of pictures - including the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. As the National Gallery in London prepares to open its doors on a remarkable exhibition of Leonardo's work, Fiona Bruce travels to Florence, Milan, Paris and Warsaw to uncover the story of this enigmatic genius - and to New York, where she is given an exclusive preview of a sensational discovery: a new Leonardo.
Just how did the Devil get inside our heads? And who put him there? For Halloween, award-winning comedy writer and performer Andy Hamilton (creator and star of Radio 4's acclaimed infernal comedy Old Harry's Game) explores just who the devil Satan is, where he comes from and what he's been up to all this time.
Journalist Frank Gardner sets out to trace the first adventure of Tintin, the childhood hero that inspired him to travel and report from the world's hot spots. Frank follows Tintin to Moscow and discovers the influences that created the successful cartoon strip.
The second film in this timely and enthralling two-part documentary series reveals how Britain and America discovered compelling evidence that Pakistan was secretly helping the Taliban and concluded they had been double-crossed. It tells the story of how under President Obama the US has waged a secret war against Pakistan. Taliban commanders tell the film makers that to this day Pakistan shelters and arms them, and helps them kill Western troops - indeed one recently captured suicide bomber alleges he was trained by Pakistani intelligence. Chillingly, the film also reveals that, based on some evidence, Pakistani intelligence stands accused of sabotaging possible peace talks. Pakistan denies these charges, but relations between Pakistan and America now verge on hostility.
Documentary which follows tornado researcher and weather fanatic Sam Hall on an epic road trip across the US in search of some of the planet's most violent storms. This would be a gruelling trip for the toughest of individuals, but there's an added challenge for Sam as she has a skin condition known as Epidermolysis Bullosa or EB. The layers of her skin don't stick together and so even the slightest knock can tear or blister her skin. Once out in the States, Sam is intoxicated by the brutal tempests she encounters, but her excitement soon turns to trepidation as she heads right into the middle of America's worst ever tornados.
What do you do when your child is gifted and their academic ability has overtaken yours? In a lot of ways 13-year-old Cameron Thompson is a normal teenage boy - obsessed with computer games, sporting the first hints of a moustache and a newfound interest in girls. But he is also a maths genius who is currently doing an Open University degree in applied mathematics and it is this ability that has singled him out. That, and an intense social awkwardness his parents put down to his Asperger's Syndrome. Can Cameron balance the need to remain the genius he has always been - and therefore different - with the classic teenage longing to be accepted?
It is only ten years since the mixed race category was added to the census in Britain and only 40 years since laws against miscegenation were in force in 16 states of America. Yet interracial relationships have been a feature of society throughout modern history. This film, shown as part of the Mixed Race Britain season, tells the stories of prominent relationships that created huge controversy at the time and examines the historical and contemporary social, sexual and political attitudes towards race mixing. Among those contributing are Tony Benn and Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah. About this programme Throughout history, interracial sex has been one of society's great taboos, but despite the social and legal constraints placed on mixed-race couples, such relationships have been an ever-present feature of modern society. Through the stories of relationships that created scandals in their own time, this documentary examines the complex history of interracial relationships and chronicles the shifts in attitudes that for centuries have created controversy and anxiety all around the world.
Ian Hislop presents an entertaining and provocative film about the colourful Victorian financiers whose spectacular philanthropy shows that banking wasn't always associated with greed or self-serving financial recklessness. Victorian bankers achieved wealth on a scale never envisaged by previous generations, but many of them were far from comfortable about their new-found riches, which caused them intense soul-searching amidst furious national debate about the moral purpose of money and its potential to corrupt. Like so many other Victorian bankers, Samuel Gurney was a Quaker. Banking and its rewards seemed at odds with a faith that valued modest simplicity, but Gurney's wealth helped the work of his sister, prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, who is immortalised on today's five-pound note. Self-made millionaire George Peabody was a merchant banker who made an enormous donation to London housing. 150 years on, his housing estates still provide accommodation to 50,000 Londoners. Angela Burdett-Coutts became an overnight celebrity after she inherited the enormous Coutts fortune. With her love of small dogs and her vast stash, she could have been the Paris Hilton of her day. Instead, she went on to become a great philanthropist. Perhaps the richest of them all was Natty Rothschild, who tried not just to ensure that his personal wealth did good, but that his bank's did too. Deploying his customary mix of light touch and big ideas, Ian champions these extraordinary and generous individuals. Along the way, he meets Dr Giles Fraser, until his recent, dramatic resignation canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, chairman of the FSA Lord Turner, philanthropic financier the current Lord Rothschild, historian A N Wilson and chief rabbi Lord Sacks.
Compelling drama-documentary which tells the story of how, three years after the 7/7 attacks on London, a busy shopping centre in Bristol was the intended target of a devastating terrorist attack. However, the young man planning this attack was not your typical terrorist. Born to a middle-class, loving, Christian family, Andrew Ibrahim had a privileged upbringing and attended prestigious public schools. So how did this bright teenager turn into a would-be suicide bomber? This film starring Adam Deacon (Adulthood, Kidulthood) sets out to answer this very question. It plays alongside sensitive interviews with Andrew's friends, classmates and his mother. Police testimony of the race to find the plotter is cut against unprecedented CCTV footage that tracks his every move through the city. Most sinister, however, is the film's portrayal of the world of online extremism which turned Andrew into a terrorist, and the actual footage he viewed online is woven through the film in stark uncut form, surely leaving every mother wondering what her son is up to behind closed doors.
This one hour documentary, produced by Mentorn Media for BBC Four, follows Melvyn Bragg as he travels from Oklahoma to California to examine the enduring legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning author, John Steinbeck. In novels such as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row, Steinbeck gave voices to ordinary people who were battling poverty, drought and homelessness. Melvyn Bragg assesses why the work of one his favourite authors remains relevant in today's America, taking a fresh approach to John Steinbeck, his work and in particular Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath, one of the epic American novels of the 20th century. Bragg visits the site of the Thirties dust bowl in Oklahoma; the California orchards where bloody political battles were fought between migrant labourers and growers; and the Monterey coastline where Steinbeck developed his ideas on ecology, and makes a case for Steinbeck as one of the great voices of American literature.
The A303 is the road that passes Stonehenge on the way to the beaches of Devon and Cornwall. On the way, it whisks drivers through 5,000 years of remarkable moments in English history. And it's the star of this film made for armchair travellers and history lovers. Writer Tom Fort drives its 92-mile length in a lovingly-restored Morris Traveller. Along the way he has many adventures - he digs up the 1960s master plan for the A303's dreams of superhighway status; meets up with a Neolithic traveller who knew the road like the back of his hand; gets to know a section of the Roman 303; uncovers a medieval murder mystery; and discovers what lies at the end of the Highway to the Sun.
Comedian Rich Hall hits the road as he takes us on his personal journey through the road movie, which, from the earliest days of American cinema has been synonymous with American culture. With his customary wit and intelligence, Rich takes us through films such as Bonnie and Clyde, The Grapes of Wrath, Thelma and Louise, Vanishing Point, Five Easy Pieces and even The Wizard of Oz. He explores what makes a road movie and how the American social, economic and political landscape has defined the genre. Filmed on location in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, the film incorporates interviews, archive footage and clips of some of cinemas best-loved films as it gives us another of Rich Hall's unique insights into American culture.
This topical programme taps into the nation's obsession with the weather and asks whether we are heading for another 'snowmageddon' as experienced in the previous two years. Can forecasters give us warning this time around? How does the 'olde' weather lore compare with the supercomputers? And what are we doing across Britain to prepare ourselves as we head into winter? 'Will It Snow?' predicts what another extreme cold snap would spell for Britain's economy as it puts the science of weather forecasting to the test and asks the experts what we are in store for between now and spring.
Playing the ukulele and performing songs that keep the George Formby legend alive, Frank Skinner follows the music hall star's rise to fame and explores his continuing popularity
An intriguing investigation into the extraordinary life of Gershwin's classic composition, Summertime. One of the most covered songs in the world, it has been recorded in almost every style of music - from jazz to opera, rock to reggae, soul to samba. Its musical adaptability is breathtaking, but Summertime also resonates on a deep emotional level too. This visually and sonically engaging film explores the composition's magical properties, examining how this song has, with stealth, captured the imagination of the world. From its complex birth in 1935 as a lullaby in Gershwin's all-black opera Porgy and Bess, this film traces the hidden history of Summertime, focusing on key recordings, including those by Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Mahalia Jackson, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. It reveals how musicians have projected their own dreams and desires onto the song, re-imagining Summertime throughout the 20th century as a civil rights prayer, a hippie lullaby, an ode to seduction and a modern freedom song. Back in the 1930s, Gershwin never dreamt of the global impact Summertime would have. But as this film shows, it has magically tapped into something deep inside us all - nostalgia and innocence, sadness and joy, and our intrinsic desire for freedom. Full of evocative archive footage as well as a myriad versions of Summertime - from the celebrated to the obscure - Searching For Summertime tells the surprising and illuminating tale behind this world-famous song.
Documentary telling the story of how Pan American World Airways kickstarted the Jet Age and shrank the globe. Real-life 'Pan Am girls' recall a high-life of luxury and glamour; rubbing shoulders with celebrity passengers, international romances and having to wear the now infamous girdle. Stars of the Jet Age such as Robert Vaughn and Mary Quant remember the food, fashion and girls that made them regular Pan Am passengers. Pan Am's success was largely due to its visionary founder Juan Trippe, who transformed a small mail carrier into a global airline, pioneered flights for the masses and helped create the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Honor Blackman narrates the story of how Pan Am conquered the skies and left a legacy of affordable travel and a much smaller world.
An amazing story of a remarkable couple whose love is tested to the very edge of life. Kirstie is 21 years old, born with cystic fibrosis and has always known that her life would be short. In March 2011 she was put onto the transplant waiting list, having been told that she had end-stage lung disease and could be dead within six months. This film follows Kirstie's extraordinary experience of living on the transplant list, the fear and uncertainty, the realities of having constant pain, taking endless medications, relying on oxygen machines 24 hours a day to breathe and doing all of this whilst planning for her wedding. It follows Kirstie being rushed to hospital three days before the wedding before bravely making it down the aisle through sheer willpower and determination. As her condition becomes more critical and the chance of a lifesaving lung transplant seems more remote, we follow Kirstie's husband Stuart facing the very real possibility of his new wife dying - they had only been married for three weeks. Despite all the setbacks Kirstie continues to fight for her second chance at life till the very end.
Beneath the America we think we know lies a nation hidden from view - a nomadic nation, living on the roads, the rails and in the wild open spaces. In its deserts, forests, mountain ranges and on the plains, a huge population of modern nomads pursues its version of the American dream - to live free from the world of careers, mortgages and the white picket fence. When British writer Richard Grant moved to the USA more than 20 years ago it wasn't just a change of country. He soon found himself in a world of travellers and the culture of roadside America - existing alongside, but separate from, conventional society. In this film he takes to the road again, on a journey without destination. In a series of encounters and unplanned meetings, Richard is guided by his own instincts and experiences - and the serendipity of the road. Travelling with loners and groups, he encounters the different 'tribes' of nomads as he journeys across the deserts of America's south west.
Ever since the early 1960s, Rick Stein has been in love with the blues and years later he is fascinated by the dishes ingrained in its lyrics - fried chicken and turnip greens, catfish and black-eyed peas, and the rest. In this film, Rick pays homage to the musicians who created this music and to the great dishes of the Mississippi Delta that go hand in hand with the blues.
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith re-envisions the story of 20th century American culture through its most iconic institution - the diner. Whether Edward Hopper's Nighthawks or the infamous encounter between Pacino and de Niro in Heat, these gleaming, gawdy shacks are at the absolute heart of the American vision. Stephen embarks on a girth-busting road journey that takes him to some of America's most iconic diners. He meets the film-makers and singers who have immortalised them, and looks at the role diners have played not only in America's greatest paintings and movies, but also in the fight against racial oppression and the chain restaurants' global takeover. For Stephen, it is because the diner is the last vestige of a vital part of the American psyche - the frontier. Like the Dodge City saloon it is a place where strangers are thrown together, where normal rules are suspended and anything can happen. And it is this crackle of potentially violent and sexual energy that have drawn so many artists to the diner, and made it not a convenient setting but an engine room of 20th century American culture.
Life was an iconic weekly magazine that specialised in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through its most dynamic decades, - the 40s, 50s and 60s - Life caught the spirit of America as it blossomed into a world superpower. Read by over half the country, its influence on American people was unparalleled. No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem. At Life the pictures, not the words, did the talking. As a result, the Life photographer was king. In this film, leading UK fashion photographer Rankin celebrates the work of Life's legendary photographers including Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White, who went to outrageous lengths to get the best picture - moving armies, naval fleets and even the population of entire towns. He travels across the USA to meet photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson who, between them, have shot the big moments in American history - from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names in Hollywood. These photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism, living with and photographing their subjects for weeks, enabling them to capture compelling yet ordinary aspects of American life too. Rankin discovers that Life told the story of America in photographs, and also taught America how to be American.
In just seven years, Mark Zuckerberg has gone from his Harvard college dorm to running a business with 800 million users, and a possible value of $100 billion. His idea to 'make the world more open and connected' has sparked a revolution in communication, and now looks set to have a huge impact on business too. Emily Maitlis reports on life inside Facebook. Featuring a rare interview with Zuckerberg himself, the film tells the story of Facebook's creation, looks at the accuracy of The Social Network movie, and examines Facebook's plans to use the personal information it has collected to power a new kind of online advertising.
The Royal Bank of Scotland was once a famous Scottish institution; a bank with a reputation for prudence. But in October 2008, less than a decade after Fred Goodwin took over as chief executive, it came within hours of collapsing. RBS later posted the biggest loss in UK corporate history - 24 billion pounds - which damaged the bank's reputation for financial prudence and Scotland's image as a global financial centre. Using previously unbroadcast footage of the bank's top executives and interviews with bank insiders, this documentary tells the compelling story of a national catastrophe.
Documentary telling the story of Hidcote, the most influential English garden of the 20th century and Lawrence Johnston, the enigmatic genius behind it. Hidcote was the first garden ever taken on by the National Trust, who have spent 3.5 million pounds in a major programme of restoration. As part of this facelift, the garden team have been researching Johnston's original vision and in doing so have uncovered a compelling story that reveals how he created such an iconic garden. Yet until recently, little has been known about its secretive creator and self-taught gardener, Johnston. He kept few, if any, records on Hidcote's construction, but the head gardener at Hidcote, Glyn Jones, has embarked on a personal mission to discover as much about the man as possible to find out how, in the early 20th century, Johnston set about creating a garden regarded as the model of inspiration for designers all over the world.
Adil Ray investigates the controversial subject of on-street grooming of young girls for sex by Pakistani men in the UK. He speaks to members of his own community, the police and victims of abuse. For Adil, it is a 'deeply personal journey' and he is shocked by what he discovers.
Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay. For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old. Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.
For over 1,200 years church bells have called the faithful to worship, helping people celebrate triumph and commemorate tragedy. But the fact that they are one of the largest and loudest musical instruments in the world is often overlooked. This is something musical innovator Charles Hazlewood wants to change - he wants to see if church bells can be used to make original music in their own right. Choosing Cambridge for his musical experiment, Charles immerses himself in the world of bells and bell ringing. He tries his hand at ringing church bells, handbells and even a carillon - an instrument which resembles an organ made out of bells. He discovers why church bell ringing sounds the way it does and tries out some radical techniques - pushing the boundaries, he re-rigs a whole church tower so it can play a tune. At the culmination of his investigations Charles devises and performs an extraordinary piece of music which involves three separate church towers and 30 handbell ringers gathered from across the eastern counties.
Is it possible for professional musicians from the BBC Concert Orchestra to make beautiful sounds out of garbage? This documentary aims to find out. For the first time ever an entire orchestra of 44 instruments will be built from just scrap. The quest to build an orchestra of instruments out of rubbish is more than just a musical spectacle - in the construction of these instruments we delve into the history of instrument making and the science of music, why different instruments are made the way they are, why some designs have not changed for hundreds of years and why, when played together, the sound of an orchestra is unlike anything else on earth. Inspirational conductor Charles Hazlewood leads the challenge and charges a group of the UK's top instrument makers with the mission of transforming junk, broken furniture and the contents of roadside skips into an orchestra of instruments. The BBC Concert Orchestra - a team of virtuoso performers - will put their reputations on the line by using these instruments to stage what they hope will be a flawless performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture at the 2011 Proms. But will the scrapheap orchestra pass muster at the mother of all classical musical festivals?
Broadly considered a brand that inspires fervour and defines cool consumerism, Apple has become one of the biggest corporations in the world, fuelled by game-changing products that tap into modern desires. Its leader, Steve Jobs, was a long-haired college dropout with infinite ambition, and an inspirational perfectionist with a bully's temper. A man of contradictions, he fused a Californian counterculture attitude and a mastery of the art of hype with explosive advances in computer technology. Insiders including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the chairman who ousted Jobs from the company he founded, and Jobs' chief of software, tell extraordinary stories of the rise, fall and rise again of Apple with Steve Jobs at its helm. With Stephen Fry, world wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and branding guru Rita Clifton, Evan Davis decodes the formula that took Apple from suburban garage to global supremacy.
Professor Brian Cox takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics.
At 25, Ruth Ojadi had an amazing singing voice and a place to study music at university. She should have been on her way to the top. Instead, Ruth was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and her life fell apart. The blinks and twitches her GP had put down to nerves became worse and before long she started swearing and blurting out inappropriate comments, eventually dropping out of university and locking herself away. Now, three years on, Ruth has decided to take her life back and once again step up to the mic, but when a trip to the supermarket is such a struggle how will she cope with getting up on stage?
As the M25 celebrates its 25th birthday, Sally Boazman takes a road trip to see how the motorway has changed our economy, environment and living habits. The 117-mile orbital road took more than 11 years to build. It cost £1bn, and used more than 2m tons of concrete and 3.5m tons of asphalt. The final section was opened by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in October 1986 to a huge fanfare. Sally Boazman charts the M25's history, follows the team that keeps it moving, and meets a couple who even got married on it.
James Holland presents a fresh analysis of the legendary 1943 Dam Busters raid, a low-level night mission that took 19 Lancaster bombers deep into the heart of enemy territory to destroy German dams with a brand new weapon - the bouncing bomb. Of the many extraordinary things about the Dams raid, the biggest is that it almost never happened. When finally green lit, it set off an incredible race against time to form and train a new squadron. Their mission was to deliver a weapon that did not yet exist. Unprecedented by any scale, and even more remarkable because the crews were not the experienced elite that legend sometimes suggests, Holland believes this truly is the greatest raid of all time. Yet, whilst arguing that the true impact of the successful raid has been underestimated, he also sets out to investigate whether the results should have been even greater.
Roasts of Christmas Past explores television's changing relationship with the British Christmas dinner, looking at how TV cooks like Fanny Craddock, Gary Rhodes, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson have each put their stamp on our annual feast. How hard is it to give the same old ingredients a new twist every year? Why do so many of us turn to Delia at this special time of year? And why does it have to be turkey? The documentary looks at the pre-TV history of the meal, the pioneering work of post-war cook Marguerite Patten and the subsequent changes in the style of these shows, which began as lessons and have ended up as entertainment. Do we still follow the recipes - or just envy the lifestyle?
After his furniture store went up in flames during the London riots, 80-year-old Maurice Reeve came out of retirement to lead his family business through the crisis, and he also set out to find out how a town he had always thought so safe, could descend into arson and looting.
Spirograph, Fuzzy Felt, Barbie, Meccano - Robert Webb tells the story of our Christmases through the toys we played with and loved.
Rosalyn Ball reports on the art of political cartooning.
As a historian and unashamed fan, Professor Amanda Vickery is fascinated by how Jane Austen, an anonymous minor novelist in her lifetime, is 200 years later recognised as a unique British literary genius whose fame rivals Dickens and Shakespeare. From a convention centre in Texas to Princess Diana's family home, and from the trenches of World War I to the silver screen of Hollywood, Vickery explores how and why generations of readers have been won over by just six classic novels.
Darcey Bussell steps into the shoes of her Hollywood heroes to celebrate the enduring legacy of classic dance musicals. In the age of Strictly Come Dancing and Streetdance 3D, Darcey, one of Britain's greatest living dancers and Hollywood musical superfan, discovers that the key to understanding where this dance-mad culture comes from lies in classic movie musicals. She takes famous dance routines from her favourite Hollywood musicals and reveals how they cast their spell, paying tribute to the legends of the art form and discovering the legacy they left. Darcey pays homage to Fred Astaire in an interpretation of Puttin' on the Ritz; plays Ginger Rogers in a rendition of Cheek to Cheek; pays tribute to the exuberant Good Morning from Singin' in the Rain; and stars in a new routine inspired by Girl Hunt Ballet from The Band Wagon. Darcey works with leading choreographer Kim Gavin and expert conductor John Wilson, who has painstakingly reconstructed the original scores, as she discovers how dance in the movies reached a pinnacle of perfection and reveals how the legacy of the golden age lives on.
Jane Austen is one of the most celebrated writers of all time but apart from a rough sketch by her sister Cassandra, we have very little idea what she looked like. Biographer Dr Paula Byrne thinks that is about to change. She believes she has come across a possible portrait of the author, lost to the world for nearly two centuries. Can the picture stand up to forensic analysis and scrutiny by art historians and world leading Austen experts? How might it change our image of the author? And what might the portrait reveal about Jane Austen and her world? Martha Kearney seeks answers as she follows Dr Byrne on her quest.
David Tennant narrates a celebratory look at how an ogre with a Scottish accent single-handedly changed the face of animation. It features exclusive interviews with the creative geniuses behind the award-winning animation and the voices that brought the story to life, including Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Saunders and Shrek himself, Mike Myers.
Looking at the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife Catherine, Sue Perkins exposes the lesser known reality of the Dickens family Christmas - very different from the heart-warming versions he presented in A Christmas Carol. In this 60-minute film for BBC Two, Sue turns her attention to the woman behind the man, revealing parallels between the female characters he created and his changing affections for his wife, namely, in Dickens's mind, her transition from innocent virgin to middle-aged frump. Scrutinising Dickens's public defence in a national newspaper of his treatment toward Catherine, Sue seeks to set the record straight, promulgating her unconditional love for Dickens and support for his career. Along the way, she has plenty of laughs, evokes the realities of Victorian marriage, interviews many of today's leading biographers of Mr and Mrs Dickens, explores Charles's role in creating Christmas as we know it - and gets to make a twelfth night cake.
Terry Nutkins celebrates the 175th anniversary of Bristol Zoo. In this whistle-stop tour through the zoo's fascinating history, Terry reflects on his time presenting the BBC TV series 'Animal Magic' with Johnny Morris. The programme gave voices to the animals, turning Dotty the ringtailed lemur into a household name. Over the years, the zoo has been home to some notable residents including Alfred the gorilla who became a wartime symbol of resistance, and Rosie the elephant who used to give rides to children. Contributors to the programme include the Hollywood actor John Cleese who went to school nearby and Creature Comforts creator Nick Park who drew inspiration from the polar bears. The programme examines how the role of the zoo has evolved over the decades to reflect changing public attitudes. From an initial focus on amusement and entertainment, the modern zoo places more importance on education and conservation.
Tess Daly takes a nostalgic look back at TV classics that have come out of the BBC in the North West over the last 50 years. She is joined by a host of stars as they recall their favourite TV moments and celebrate the distinctly northern flavour. In his last BBC TV interview before his death, Sir Jimmy Savile talks about the magical beginnings of Top of the Pops, while Stuart Hall recalls his favourite memories of It's A Knockout. Debbie McGee explains why she enjoyed her famous appearance on the Mrs Merton Show when Caroline Aherne famously asked her 'what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?'. John Simm and Philip Glenister, alias Gene Hunt, reveal the secrets of Life On Mars, and Dragon Peter Jones lifts the lid on the famous Den.
Joan Bakewell talks to Sir David Frost about his landmark interviews with former United States president Richard Nixon. The Nixon Interviews, first broadcast in 1977, gained record audiences and the high drama which surrounded them later became the subject of both a West End play and an Oscar-nominated film, Frost/Nixon. Sir David tells Joan Bakewell about the fight to secure the interview and the struggle to raise the money to make it. He also recalls the negotiations with Hollywood super-agent Swifty Lazar, whom Nixon had retained to represent him, the intense discussions with Nixon's own team of advisers, and trying to come to terms with the hugely complicated personality of Richard Nixon himself. At times the contest between the two men verged on gladiatorial, at others Frost almost seemed to be Nixon's confessor. It ended with Nixon's momentous apology to the American people.
Medievalist Dr Stephen Baxter takes a fresh look at the Middle Ages through the eyes of children. At a time when half the population was under 18, he argues that although they had to grow up quickly and take on adult responsibility early, the experience of childhood could also be richly rewarding. Focusing on the three pillars of medieval society - religion, war and work - Baxter reveals how children played a vital role in creating the medieval world.
The Camorra, the Naples mafia, is Italy's bloodiest organised crime syndicate. It has killed thousands and despite suffering many setbacks is as strong as ever. It is into drug trafficking, racketeering, business, politics, toxic waste and even the garbage disposal industry. Naples's recent waste crisis was in part blamed on the crime syndicate. Its grip on the city is far reaching.
Millions of sales on both sides of the Atlantic, near bankruptcy, pills, thrills, spats, prats, successes, excesses, pick-me-ups and breakdowns - all spiralled together to create some of the most defining music of the 20th century. This is the definitive and fully-authorised documentary of the highs and lows of the UK's most inspired and dissolute independent record label - Creation Records. Over 25 years after Creation's first records, it follows the story from the days of the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Primal Scream and Teenage Fanclub to the Boo Radleys, the Super Furry Animals and of course Oasis, among many, many more. The label's enigmatic founder Alan McGee talks candidly of the trail which led from humble beginnings in Glasgow, via drink and drug dependency to being wined and dined at No 10 Downing Street by Tony Blair.
How has the sitcom responded to the sexual revolution? From Hancock's Half Hour in the 50s, through 70s sitcoms like Up Pompeii! and Reggie Perrin to contemporary comedies like Him & Her, this documentary explores sexual frustration as an enduring sitcom theme, the changing role of women and the British love of innuendo. Why did Butterflies cause such a stir in the 80s? Did Men Behaving Badly really capture the sexual politics of the 90s? And how did the permissive society affect Terry and June? The film looks at the changing language of sitcom, contrasts British comedy with its more liberal American counterpart, and asks whether the modern sitcom recognises any taboos at all. Contributors include sitcom stars Leslie Phillips, Leslie Joseph, Wendy Craig, and writers David Nobbs, Simon Nye and Jonathan Harvey
A special tribute to Sir Jimmy Savile, the eccentric DJ who hosted the legendary Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. The film includes classic footage of the man in action and interviews with close family and friends from the world of showbiz and his home city of Leeds, as well as representatives from the many charitable organisations for which he raised millions of pounds.
The cliché of classic rock guitar is one of riffs, solos and noise. But write a list of great guitarists and their finest moments and a quieter, more intense playing comes to the fore. The acoustic guitar is the secret weapon in the armoury of the guitar hero, when paradoxically they get more attention by playing quietly than being loud. This documentary takes an insightful and occasionally irreverent look at the love affair between rock and the humble acoustic guitar. Exploring a much less celebrated, yet crucial part of the rock musician's arsenal, contributors including Johnny Marr, Keith Richards, Ray Davies, James Dean Bradfield, Biffy Clyro, Joan Armatrading, Donovan and Roger McGuinn discuss why an instrument favoured by medieval minstrels and singing nuns is as important to rock 'n' roll as the drums, bass and its noisy sister, the electric guitar
This is the story of how we fell in love with regional telly. Contributors including Angela Rippon, Michael Parkinson and Martin Bell describe the excitement and sense of adventure that existed during the very early days of local TV. In the late 50s and early 60s viewers were offered a new vision of the places where they lived. ITV and the BBC took advantage of transmitter technology and battled for the attention of an emerging regional audience. The programme makers were an eclectic bunch but shared a common passion for a new form of TV that they were creating. For more than half a century they have reported on local stories. The early film-makers were granted freedom to experiment and create different shows and formats, including programmes that would later become huge hits. Regional TV also acted as a launch pad for presenters and reporters who would become household names. But just how real was this portrayal of regional life? And how will local life be reflected on our screens in the future?
The sound of bells ringing is deeply rooted in British culture. Bells provide the grand soundtrack to our historic moments, call out for our celebrations and toll sadly in empathy with our grief. No important event seems complete without their colourful ringing. In this film, Richard Taylor travels the country to unravel the 1,500 years of history that have made bells such a key British sound. He meets the people who work with bells and those who understand their significance in our past and present.
Scots adventurer Mark Beaumont (The Man who Cycled the Americas) joins polar veteran Jock Wishart on an expedition to row a boat to the 1996 north magnetic pole, a point only ever reached across solid ice. In their tiny boat, the six-man team navigate some of the world's most remote seaways, taking on fast-flowing sea ice that could crush their boat and roaming polar bears. Nobody has ever rowed so far into the Canadian high Arctic - a first in the world of exploration and adventure, only made possible by the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice in recent decades.
In 1979 the BBC's Everyman series broadcast a documentary about religious belief on the Isle of Lewis. This programme offers a unique opportunity to see The Last Stronghold of the Pure Gospel and also find out what happened to some of those featured in the original programme.
In 1990 they started a band, their first album went gold, then sold 13 million copies. The band would go on to sell more than 60 million records worldwide and perform in nearly every major city in the world. Now they have opened their vault, with 20 years of rare and never-before-seen footage to tell their extraordinary story. From one of the great directors of our generation.
Andrew Marr looks at life in Britain at the time of the 2011 Census, revealing unexpected trends and facts about a country we only think we know.
Alicia McCarthy examines why government after government has struggled with attempts to reform the House of Lords.
Although secretly filmed in a Leicestershire primary school, this documentary about disruptive behaviour in the classroom is not the sort of sensationalised headline-creating stuff beloved of the tabloids. There's no physical violence, spitting or screaming from the four children featured, just "low level disruption". Managing this sort of behaviour loses weeks of teaching time every year but it's not all down to the child.
Documentary following the fascinating, and at times turbulent, story of the Bee Gees, one of the most successful bands of all time. This is the story of three very close brothers, tied together by familial love and a natural aptitude and obsession for all things musical. Born on the Isle of Man but raised in Manchester, the Brothers Gibb - eldest brother Barry and twins Robin and Maurice - were whisked to Australia by their parents at an impressionable age in search of a better life. Australia, for the Gibb family, was the start of a new adventure and a new career. From childhood stardom to the first flashes of fame on the coat tails of 1960s Beatlemania, the Bee Gees enjoyed number one successes with hits like Massachusetts and I've Got to Get a Message to You. The early 1970s saw a spell in the musical wilderness, but eventually led to the Bee Gees discovering a whole new musical direction and, more importantly, Barry's unique falsetto voice. The phenomenon of Saturday Night Fever in 1977 brought the band worldwide success, and identified them as the band that defined disco. A career as songwriters, and success with Barbra Streisand and number one hits like Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, meant a brief hiatus for the Bee Gees as a group. But, true to form, they returned with number one successes in the late 1980s with hits such as You Win Again. The unexpected and sudden death of Maurice in 2003 meant the end of the Bee Gees as we know it, and the end of an era. And in May 2012 Robin passed away after losing his brave battle with caner. Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is the story of a consistently successful, talented and musically prolific band of brothers
Hip hop through the decades from the BBC archives, including the Sugarhill Gang in 1979, Run DMC, LL Cool J and Eric B & Rakim in the 80s, Ice T, Monie Love, Fugees and the Roots in the 90s and concluding with Dr Dre & Eminem, Dizzee Rascal and Jay-Z.
13-year-old Rosie takes viewers into her world to explain what it's like to grow up with autism; a condition which affects how children see life, and the way they relate to others around them. With the help of beautifully crafted animation, Rosie introduces other children who have the condition: Tony, who gets totally obsessed with things but struggles to make friends, Ben, who has suffered from terrible bullying, and Rosie's own little brother Lenny, who turns the house upside-down daily to try and make sense of things. These children tell their own stories in their own words to give a vivid and moving insight into what it's like to be autistic.
Focuses on the cyclical journey taken by all living creatures, from birth to having youngsters of their own.
Documentary telling the story of three young women who have each decided to give a childless couple the ultimate gift - a baby of their own.
Documentary showing how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionised the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as 1999, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and Alphabet Street. He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continues to this day.
This celebration of the history and aesthetic of country music tracks the evolution of the genre from the 1920s to the present, exploring country as both folk and pop music - a 20th century soundtrack to the lives of working-class Americans in the South, forever torn between their rural roots and a mostly urban future, between authenticity and showbiz. Exploring many of the great stars of country from Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams to Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, director Andy Humphries's meditation on the power and pull of country blends brilliant archive and contributions from a broad cast that includes Dolly Parton, the Handsome Family, Laura Cantrell, Hank Williams III, kd lang and many more.
The intellectual forces at work in the Tudor era ensured it was a pivotal period for children's education. Historian Dr Helen Castor reveals how the life and education of Margaret More, daughter of Thomas More, tell a story of the transforming power of knowledge. As a child in Tudor England, and educated to an exceptionally high level, Margaret embodies the intellectual spirit of the age - an era which embraced Humanism, the birth of the Church of England and the English Renaissance. This film reveals what a revolutionary intellectual spirit Margaret More was and how the ideas that shaped her education helped change the cultural life of England forever.
The 60th anniversary of Formula 1 is celebrated by a unique gathering of eighteen world champions at the season-opening Grand Prix of 2010. Bahrain's ultra-modern desert circuit is a world away from the post-war austerity of F1's first ever race at Silverstone in 1950 and yet, as legends such as Jackie Stewart, Michael Schumacher, Nigel Mansell and Lewis Hamilton share their racing experiences, it seems that some things never change.
When Hitler unleashed his bombing campaign over Britain, the people of Northern Ireland believed they were beyond the Nazis' reach. On the 70th anniversary of three deadly raids in 1941 which proved them wrong, the survivors of the Belfast Blitz remember the horror which devastated their lives and their city. Accompanied by state-of-the-art map graphics.
BBC One celebrates the love story of William and Kate in this special documentary that uncovers how they met, fell in love and how they got to where they are now: moments away from the biggest royal occasion for a generation - their wedding. Kate and William: A Royal Love Story has glamour - the paps, the palaces and parades - but at its heart it's an entertaining, warm and insightful look at the nation's favourite couple. The perfect appetiser for the week of the wedding and a unique perspective on this key moment in British history.
Antonio Pappano takes an in-depth look at one of the most famous and dramatic of all operas - Puccini's Tosca. This documentary goes behind the scenes of the recent production of Tosca by the Royal Opera House conducted by Pappano and starring some of the hottest names on the opera stage today - Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel and Jonas Kaufmann. Pappano examines the drama and musical language of Tosca and explores Puccini's creative genius in producing one of the greatest of theatrical experiences.
Babies born four months early -in the 23rd week of pregnancy- exist on the very edge of life. A few go on to become the 'miracle babies' of glossy magazines, but most die. Award-winning director Adam Wishart has unprecedented access to the babies born in such extreme prematurity on a Birmingham neonatal unit, and asks the difficult question: is it always right to keep them alive?
A charming spot from RKCR/Y&R celebrates David Attenborough's final BBC appearance. The two-minute film shows clips of wildlife footage, with Attenborough narrating the Louis Armstrong classic.
Documentary about Madison Avenue, home of the American advertising business, a semi-mythical place where the dreams of a new, affluent society were spun in the early 1960s. These were the 'days of heaven', when the country felt to many like a land of plenty and a land of hope - politics was reinvigorated thanks to a product known as new, improved JFK, consumerism was on the up and the challenges of Vietnam, feminism and the counter-culture still lay in the future.
During World War Two an army of performers from ballerinas to magicians, contortionists to impressionists, set out to help win the war by entertaining the troops far and wide. Risking their lives they ventured into war zones, dodging explosions and performing close to enemy lines. Featuring the memories of this intrepid band of entertainers and with contributions from Dame Vera Lynn, Eric Sykes and Tony Benn, this documentary tells the remarkable story of the World War Two performers and hears the memories of some of those troops who were entertained during the dark days of war.
A compilation of rarely screened Pink Floyd videos and performances, beginning with the Arnold Layne promo from 1967 and culminating with the reunited band's performance at Live 8 in 2005. Also including a newly-restored Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) and performances of Grantchester Meadows, Cymbeline and others.
Simon Russell Beale continues his Sacred Music journey in this special celebration marking the 400th anniversary of the death of the great Spanish Renaissance composer Tomas Luis de Victoria. In exploring the extraordinary world of this intensely spiritual man - musician, priest and mystic - Simon's travels take him to some of Spain's most stunning locations, from the ancient fortified city of Avila, with its medieval walls and glorious cathedral, to the magnificent El Escorial palace, where Philip II would listen to Victoria's music though a small door leading off his bedroom directly to the high altar of the Basilica. In Madrid, Simon explores the dramatic religious paintings of Victoria's contemporary El Greco in the Prado Museum and visits the convent of Las Descalzas Reales, named after the barefoot nuns who worshipped there and where Victoria spent the final three decades of his life as choirmaster and organist. The music is specially performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in the church of San Antonio de los Alemanes, a hidden baroque jewel built in Victoria's lifetime in the heart of Madrid.
The British have a love-hate relationship with the foreign pop song. For years they were frequent visitors to the charts and were bought in their millions. Once heard never forgotten, these international hits conjure instant memories of a holiday abroad, musical portraits of countries far away. This documentary tells the story of these musical imports from the Second World War to the present day. It reveals surprising stories behind some of the songs and asks what made them so popular.
Mark Knopfler is one of the most successful musicians in the world. During the past 30 years he has written and recorded over 300 songs including some of the most famous in popular music. In this in-depth documentary he talks about how these songs have defined him and how they have been influenced by his own life and roots. It features previously unseen photographs from his personal collection and comprehensive footage spanning his career from a struggling musician playing in pubs in Leeds in the 1970s, to the record-breaking success with Dire Straits and his world tour as a solo artist. Looking back over the 25 years since he wrote the iconic Brothers In Arms album, the film takes an affectionate look at how this formidable, creative man has operated as a musician for three decades and how he continues to do so as a solo artist who is as much in demand as ever.
David Coleman OBE was the face of BBC Sport for well over a quarter of a century. As he celebrates his 85th birthday this special documentary looks back at how he has left an indelible imprint on sports broadcasting from World Cup football to no less than 11 Olympic Games, with the Munich tragedy in 1972 undoubtedly his most challenging commentary. Coleman was a presenter, a commentator, an interviewer and quiz master. A pioneer in broadcasting who shaped it for generations to come, he was also affectionately known for his on-air gaffes. He was the king of live television, and not just sport, as he once even interviewed the Beatles. Yet sport was his true passion and he presented all the biggest shows and events like the Grand National, Sports Personality of the Year, Match of the Day, Sportsnight and Grandstand. He also hosted Question of Sport for 18 years and was famously joined by HRH Princess Anne for an episode watched by 18 million viewers in 1987.
Robert Webb hosts a countdown of the biggest dance crazes of the last forty years.
2011 marks the 40th anniversary of one of Belfast's most iconic buildings - the Europa Hotel. Famous for being one of the most bombed hotels in the world, its turbulent roller coaster history in many ways reflects the history of Northern Ireland's Troubles. This hour long documentary tracks those eventful 40 years through the eyes of a diverse array of contributors. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014vzyt
The story of Howard Wilson, a Glasgow police officer who shot three former colleagues in 1969, and has since been paroled from prison.
In a special film for Saint David's Day, Eddie Butler takes us on a romp through Welsh history to discover the origins of our very own Welsh icons. The Welsh dragon, the Welsh hat, leeks and daffs are amongst the rarebits of national identity we all take completely for granted. During his investigation, Eddie unearths some fascinating facts, debunks some myths and makes some surprising discoveries about the real story behind the national icons of Wales.
The Blitz on the industrial town of Clydebank, seven miles from the centre of Glasgow, was one of the most intense, deadly and remarkably unknown of the war. Well over 1,200 people were killed in the Clydeside area and at least the same again were seriously injured by the bombing on the nights of 13 and 14 March 1941. The destruction in Clydebank was so severe that only seven properties were left undamaged by the bombing and the population was reduced from almost 60,000 to little more than 2,000. The awful truth about the scale of destruction and the number of casualties never hit the headlines as wartime censorship meant that the whole event was effectively 'hushed up'. But the stories still live on in the minds of some of the children that survived the raid and in The Clydebank Blitz, they tell their own harrowing stories of what was one of Britain's worst bombing raids and Scotland's biggest civilian disaster.
In 2006, a New Zealand television company interviewed several people who planned to donate their bodies to the Otago Medical School for students to dissect. They were asked about their lives and their loves, their hopes, their fears and, of course, their bodies. The school is one of the last in the world whose students still do significant human dissection, and both they and the donors gave permission to be followed through the whole process. By intercutting the donors' interviews with their own bodies being dissected and the students' reactions for the first time on film, there is the chance to share the amazing journey of the students, the donors and their families.
Remarkable factual drama based on a true story, starring Ian Hart, Ed Stoppard and Bill Paterson. In the summer of 1931, with Germany on the brink of economic collapse, and the city of Berlin turning into a paramilitary war-zone, audacious young prosecutor Hans Litten (Stoppard) chose to summon a star witness to a trial of Nazi thugs. In spite of the risk to his own safety and against the advice of those who love him, Litten forced rising political star Adolf Hitler (Hart) to make a sensational appearance in the witness stand of Berlin's central criminal court. Litten aimed to expose the true character of Hitler and his politics to the German public, to reveal his hypocrisy and his violent ambitions, and in doing so, halt the electoral success of the Nazi Party. In a humiliating and hostile cross-examination, Hitler was forced to account for his political beliefs, his contempt for the law and his desire to destroy German democracy. For a brief moment, Hitler's political future was genuinely in the balance. Hitler survived the ordeal, but it was a close encounter which he never forgave and for which Litten paid a heavy price
Julien Temple's acclaimed film celebrating and documenting the history of the Glastonbury Festival. Concert footage, interviews, archive and home video combine to capture the essence and spirit of Glastonbury. Also features performances from throughout the history of the festival including David Bowie, Bjork, Pulp, Blur, Billy Bragg, Radiohead, Nick Cave, Richie Havens, The Prodigy and many more.
Presenter Huw Edwards returns to his home town to retell the story of the Llanelli riots. A century after the death and destruction that marred the town's history, he attempts to set the record straight and bring to an end 100 years of shame.
The nation grew up with Top of the Pops and it was always a talking point, but 35 years ago a particular kind of Top of the Pops programme and tone held sway. This documentary explores Top of the Pops in 1976 - as a barometer of the state of pop and light entertainment TV. It celebrates the power of the programme and observes British society of the mid 70s, British TV and the British pop scene. In 1976, glam was over and nothing had replaced it - the charts belonged to Showaddywaddy, Brotherhood of Man and the Wurzels, all to be found on Top of the Pops hosted by the Radio 1 DJs. If you wanted rock you looked to the Old Grey Whistle Test, while outside the charts a new scene was rumbling. Contributors include Tony Blackburn, David 'Diddy' Hamilton, Paul Morley, Toyah Willcox, Showaddywaddy, Brotherhood of Man, the Wurzels and Dave Haslam.
In the 60s and early 70s it was common for Grand Prix drivers to be killed while racing, often televised for millions to see. Mechanical failure, lethal track design, fire and incompetence snuffed out dozens of young drivers. They had become almost expendable as eager young wannabes queued up at the top teams' gates waiting to take their place. This is the story of when Grand Prix was out of control. Featuring many famous drivers, including three-time world champion Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, twice world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and John Surtees OBE, this exciting but shocking film explores how Grand Prix drivers grew sick of their closest friends being killed and finally took control of their destiny. After much waste of life, the prestigious Belgian and German Grands Prix would be boycotted, with drivers insisting that safety be put first. But it would be a long and painful time before anything would change, and a lot of talented young men would be cut down in their prime. This is their story.
Edward Burra (1905-76) was one of the most elusive British artists of the 20th century. Long underrated, his reputation has been suddenly rehabilitated, with the first major retrospective of his work for 25 years taking place in 2011 and record-breaking prices being paid for his work at auction. In this film, the first serious documentary about Edward Burra made for television, leading art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the remarkable story of his life. Crippled by a rare form of arthritis from an early age, Burra placed art at the centre of his life from his teenage years onwards. Although his illness meant that he would predominantly only be able to work in the physically undemanding medium of watercolour, he created unexpectedly monumental images peopled by the men and women who fascinated him. The follows Burra from his native town of Rye to the jazz clubs of prohibition-era New York, to the war-torn landscapes of the Spanish Civil War and back to England during the Blitz. It shows how Burra's increasingly disturbing and surreal work deepened and matured as he experienced at first hand some of the most tragic events of the century. Through letters and interviews with those who knew him, it paints an entertaining portrait of a true English eccentric.
Affectionate but honest portrait of Thin Lizzy, arguably the best hard rock band to come out of Ireland. Starting with the remix of the classic album Jailbreak by Scott Gorham and Brian Downey, the film takes us through the rollercoaster ride that is the story of Thin Lizzy. From early footage of singer Phil Lynott in Ireland in his pre-Lizzy bands the Black Eagles and Orphanage, it follows his progress as he, guitarist Eric Bell and drummer Brian Downey form the basic three-piece that was to become Thin Lizzy - a name taken from the Beano. Using original interviews with Bell, Downey, the man who signed them and their first manager, it traces the early years leading to the recruitment of guitarists Brian 'Robbo' Robertson and Scott Gorham - the classic line-up. The film uses a number of stills, some seen on TV for the first time, archive from contemporary TV shows and a range of tracks both well known and not so famous. There are hilarious self-deprecating anecdotes, from the stories behind the making of the Boys are Back in Town to the hiring of Midge Ure. We hear about the 'revolving door' as guitarist after guitarist was fired and hired, and the recording of Bad Reputation and Live and Dangerous - where producer Tony Visconti pulls no punches in talking about how he recorded the latter - putting the controversy to bed for the final time. Except that Downey and Robertson still disagree with him. Finally, we hear how drugs and alcohol impacted on the band and how the music suffered, how one member later substituted golf for heroin and how addiction and the related lifestyle led to the death of Phil Lynott. Contributors include Brian Downey, Scott Gorham, Eric Bell, Brian Robertson, Midge Ure, Bob Geldof, Tony Visconti, Joe Elliot and many others.
In the city of Newport in Wales, a 15-year-old schoolgirl is about to pass from a world of classrooms to one of caskets and coffins - dealing with death on a daily basis. This revealing documentary follows Rachael Ryan as she turns 16 and becomes Britain's youngest female undertaker. Dad Mike runs the family firm and hopes one day to pass the business on to Rachael and her sister Louise. Can Rachael be sure that a life of death is her destiny?
Lulu arrived on Top Of The Pops in 1964 with her raucous, belting rendition of Shout when she was just 15 years old. She is the only female artist who has had a UK Top 20 hit in every one of the last five decades. It's been almost 50 years since her first public performance as a schoolgirl in Scotland, named Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie. Since then, she's notched up 66 singles and 21 albums. She's enjoyed No.1 hits on both sides of the Atlantic, and also won a Eurovision Song Contest. Now 62 years old, Lulu opens the doors to her life - looking back across five decades at her remarkable career. This is also very much the story of Lulu now - following her into the studio with Jools Holland; rehearsing for shows; choreographing new dance routines; and exclusive access as Lulu prepares and performs for a huge concert on the banks of the River Clyde in her old home town of Glasgow. Featuring contributions from Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Cliff Richard, Robin Gibb, Barry Manilow, Bobby Womack and Jools Holland, along with family members, such as Lulu's brother and sister.
Farming - An investigation into the state of wildlife on farms and if species are in decline. This includes following a farmer who is giving up on government nature schemes to make more money from cash crops and those committed to wildlife friendly farming
Coast - Chris travels to Lundy to see how a no-take zone there has benefited undersea creatures and to Lyme Bay to see the impact of a scallop dredging ban. He also investigates both sides of an argument over a proposed new marine conservation zone that may help to protect wildlife in the future
In the final episode, Chris investigates Woodland and Heath species. He looks at non-native conifer plantations that do little to aid native wildlife and iconic places like the New Forest and Dartmoor that are suffering loss of habitat. He also asks whether we are spending too much on species like dormice and whether we should concentrate instead on connecting up important habitats like heathland that has been fragmented over the years.
The Old Grey Whistle Test was launched on 21st September 1971 from a tiny studio tucked behind a lift shaft on the fourth floor of BBC Television Centre. From humble beginnings it has gone on to provide some of the best and most treasured music archive that the BBC has to offer. This programme takes us on a journey and celebrates the musically mixed-up decade that was the 1970s and which is reflected in the OGWT archive. There are classic performances from the glam era by Elton John and David Bowie, an early UK TV appearance from Curtis Mayfield, the beginnings of heavy metal with Steppenwolf's iconic Born to be Wild anthem and the early punk machinations of the 'mock rock' New York Dolls. 1973 being the pinnacle year sees archive from Roxy Music, the Wailers and Vinegar Joe. The programme's finale celebrates the advent of punk and new wave with unforgettable performances from Patti Smith, Blondie, Iggy Pop and the Jam. Artists featured: Elton John, Lindisfarne, David Bowie, Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Steppenwolf, Vinegar Joe, Brinsley Schwarz, New York Dolls, Argent, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Captain Beefheart, Johnny Winter, Dr Feelgood, Gil Scott Heron, Patti Smith, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Cher & Greg Allman, Talking Heads, the Jam, Blondie, Iggy Pop and the Specials.
Mark D'Arcy looks back to the night of 10-11 May 1941 when the chamber of the House of Commons was destroyed by an enemy bomb in the London Blitz.
Carlos Santana, the legendary Mexican-American guitarist and songwriter, reveals his turbulent life story with astonishing intimacy, accompanied by previously unseen archive performances of many of his best-known tunes. These range from Evil Ways and Black Magic Woman to the massive hits from his later Supernatural album. Santana recounts to director Jeremy Marre the abuse and struggle of his early years, the invention of Latin rock in San Francisco, his triumph at Woodstock, his involvement with jealous guru Sri Chinmoy and guitarist John McLaughlin, and the rollercoaster years that followed.
With 19 murders between them, the Shankill Butchers were the most prolific gang of serial killers in UK history. During the dark days of the Troubles, their savagery stood apart, paralysing both communities in Northern Ireland with fear. With unique access to thousands of pages of evidence and exclusive interviews, Stephen Nolan goes back to the patch where he was brought up to ask how the Shankill Butchers got away with murder for so long.
Documentary looking back at the remarkable career of footballer Sir Bobby Charlton. Sir Bobby was a key member of the England team that won the World Cup on home soil in 1966 and part of a Manchester United team touched by success and tragedy in equal measure. Charlton survived the Munich Air disaster in 1958 which killed several of his teammates dubbed the 'Busby Babes'. He became a crucial figure in the club's resurgence, winning two league titles and the European Cup against Benfica in 1968. Renowned for his attacking instincts and ferocious long-range shot, he is still the record goalscorer for England and Manchester United. He received a knighthood in 1994 and was awarded the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. A fiercely proud Englishman, Charlton helped to promote London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, plus bids for the FIFA World Cup and Manchester's hosting of the 2002 Commonwealth Games. He remains a pivotal figure at Manchester United as an ambassador, club director and close confidante of manager Sir Alex Ferguson. The programme features incredible archive from Sir Bobby's life in football, plus poignant contributions on the Munich crash from survivors including Sir Bobby himself. We also hear from some of the biggest names in world football, such as Franz Beckenauer, Eusebio, David Beckham, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Geoff Hurst, Harry Greig, Gordon Banks, Ryan Giggs, Gary Lineker and Bobby's brother Jack Charlton
Michael Grade traces the raucous history of the music hall in a revelatory journey that takes him from venues such as Wilton's Music Hall in London to Glasgow's once-famous Britannia. Talking to enthusiasts and performers, Lord Grade discovers the origins of this uniquely British form of entertainment and revisits some of the great acts and impresarios, from Charles Morton and George Leybourne to Bessie Bellwood and Marie Lloyd. Featuring Jo Brand and Alexei Sayle, with performances from Barry Cryer and many more, Grade hears about dudes, swells, mashers and serio-comics and hears how, in many a house, no turn was left unstoned.
Inspired by Jesus's words on the cross, Bettany Hughes traces the history of this challenging virtue. What does it really ask of us? And how realistic is it to put into practice? She looks for forgiveness in the violence of the Crusades, the turmoil of the Reformation and the quest for peace in South Africa. At Ground Zero Bettany meets Cheryl McGuinness the widow of the co-pilot of the first plane to hit the Twin Towers, who in a remarkable gesture has chosen to forgive her husband's murderers.
What was the cause of the only dinosaur stampede to be discovered?
TV historian Dan Snow travels across the old Kingdom of Mercia unravelling the secrets of one of Britian's most significant discoveries - the Staffordshire Hoard. The Hoard offers 1500 new clues into the Dark Ages and Dan pieces together the lives of the people living in these long-forgotten kingdoms.
A journey through the arctic landscape with the Scots who worked for the Hudson's Bay Co.
Naturalist Mike Dilger explores Europe's longest chalk reef off the Norfolk coast. The North Sea may have a reputation as grey and murky, but this rare and important marine habitat lies within easy reach of the beaches of North Norfolk. Large areas of the North Sea remain undiscovered and the full extent of the reef was only revealed last year when local divers mapped its 20-mile length. This makes it the longest in Europe, maybe the world. A colourful underwater world complete with valleys and arches and teeming with life, it's got marine experts very excited. Proposals put forward to the Government would make the reef part of a new marine conservation zone. But some conservationists say the plans don't go far enough to safeguard its future.
Bristol has fascinated film-makers from the moment the camera was invented. From shipping, sherry and tobacco to Brunel, bridges and the blitz, this programme explores the visual archives that document this ancient city.
An archive celebration of great reggae performances filmed in the BBC Studios, drawn from programmes such as The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops and Later... with Jools Holland, and featuring the likes of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, Desmond Dekker, Burning Spear, Althea and Donna, Dennis Brown, Buju Banton and many more.
A powerful drama documentary to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Acclaimed actor John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones) leads us back into a darker time to discover this fascinating tale of saints and sinners, power and passion.
An edited version of a landmark series first broadcast in 1984. The distinguished BBC commentator John Arlott talks to former England cricket captain Brearley about growing up between the wars, his career as a helper in a mental hospital, a policeman, a poet, a wine and football correspondent, and a cricket writer and commentator. The interview provides a fascinating insight into the life experience and attitudes of a liberal thinker born almost a hundred years ago and who died in 1991.
A portrait of Carl Orff, who composed one of the most recorded works ever, Carmina Burana. But what is the true story of how this extraordinary work came about, and in particular the twisted and agonised life of its creator? At his death in 1982, very little was known or understood about his association with the Nazi Party in Germany, for instance. Although Bavarian and living only a stone's throw from Hitler's Munich apartment, it was clear that Orff had never been an active member of the Nazi Party. But he had been arrested after the war, and although cleared by a de-Nazification tribunal the suspicion remained that he had been manoeuvring himself to become Reichsminister for Music after the 'final victory'. The film uncovers for the first time the tragedy that befell Orff and the nightmare he endured by way of expiation. Drawing extensively on Orff's personal reminiscences and correspondence, plus exclusive interviews with three of his wives and his only daughter, a tale of almost unbelievable sadness emerges. Except that it is true. Filmed in Germany, China, Japan, South Africa, Austria, Greece and England, the film paints a deeply moving portrait of a tormented soul wracked by guilt, whose music nonetheless shines through with undeniable sexual power.
According to some, Christianity in the UK has no future. Closure of churches and falling attendances in the last few decades appear to show that the Christian faith is in terminal decline. Ann Widdecombe examines the evidence, and discovers at least three areas of Christian growth which are bucking the trend - immigration into the Catholic Church, the Alpha course and the Black Pentecostalist Churches. But even if these do arrest the decline, what about the very long term? Can Christianity survive in a world in which the young seem even less interested in Christianity than their parents? And in such a world, how is it possible to justify an established Church of England and all its privileges?
Jono Lancaster, 26, (featured in BBC3's Love Me Love My Face documentary) has suffered rejection and discrimination his entire life - all because of the way he looks. Born with a rare genetic condition, Treacher-Collins syndrome, Jono has no cheekbones or external ears and has endured years of bullying and countless hospital appointments. The nature of the condition means that any child Jono fathers will have a 50 per cent chance of contracting Treacher-Collins. Now Jono has an important question he wants answered - what if my baby was born like me? The film follows Jono and his girlfriend Laura as they go on a quest to find out the options available to them should they decide to start a family. Jono meets a variety of families who have faced or are facing this very conundrum. He also meets with youngsters affected by Treacher-Collins to see if attitudes have changed since his days at school. Confronted by all the options, what will they decide? And will the decisions they make draw them closer together?
From Dad's Army to 'Allo 'Allo!, Are You Being Served? to It Ain't Half Hot, Mum - David Croft had a hand in them all. This programme pays tribute to his comedy genius through the friends, family and colleagues who knew him.
An affectionate tribute to Jimmy Savile via the BBC archive courtesy of Top of the Pops, plus rarely seen footage of Clunk Click, the Saturday night entertainment show which eventually made way for his series Jim'll Fix It.
Cath Speight looks at the gargoyles and grotesques in the architecture of the Palace of Westminster.
With first-hand accounts from patients, shocking statistics about sexually transmitted infections, and a trip to an STI museum in Paris, Raymond Maw reflects on 35 years as a consultant in Genitourinary Medicine at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital.
Tony Palmer's 1998 documentary, shot in Russia, Switzerland and America, which profiles the great composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, features music conducted by Valery Gergiev and was made with the full participation of the composer's grandson, Alexander Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff's romantic, passionate music has been used in films such as Brief Encounter and Shine and includes some of the most famous melodies of the 20th century. The film features Rachmaninoff's letters and other reminiscences spoken by Sir John Gielgud.
A journey through some of the finest moments of acoustic guitar performances from the BBC archives - from Jimmy Page's television debut in 1958 to Oasis and Biffy Clyro. Highlights include: Neil Young - Heart of Gold David Bowie - Starman Oasis - Wonderwall Donovan - Mellow Yellow Joan Armatrading - Woncha Come on Home Bert Jansch, Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler - The River Bank Joni Mitchell - Chelsea Morning Biffy Clyro - Mountains
An alphabetical look at the dark, featuring everything from bats to vampires. The night comes alive in this unusual mixture of music and archive.
Feature film which documents a single day on earth through a multitude of perspectives - ordinary and extraordinary - all shot on 24 July 2010. It brings together the most compelling footage from more than 80,000 videos submitted, totalling 4500 hours of content, and combines 331 clips into a 95-minute film crafted by Kevin Macdonald, executive producer Ridley Scott, producer Liza Marshall and their team, in association with YouTube. Contributions poured in from 192 countries from Australia to Zambia, Peru to Ukraine, UK to Japan - from the heart of bustling cities to the furthest and most remote reaches of the earth. Many of the entries were submitted via YouTube, while a number came from cameras that were handed out by contacts in the developing world.
In 1728, 12-year-old James Annesley was snatched from the streets of Dublin and sold into slavery in America - the victim of a wicked uncle hell-bent on stealing his massive inheritance. Dan Cruickshank traces James's astonishing journey from the top table of 18th century society to its murky depths. The story, which helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped, reveals some disturbing home truths that cast a shadow over the century of the Enlightenment.
Five young Eastern Europeans reveal the harsh realities and culture shocks of life as an immigrant coming to Britain and hoping to stay. They think they know what to expect, but have they got it all wrong? As they get to grips with their new home, the immigrants join special bus trips laid on for the tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans who flock to Britain every year. On and off the bus, they'll decide if this really is a land of opportunity or a land of riots, bed bugs and fat people eating bad food. As their money runs out, some of the group are forced into jobs they would never have considered back home. Will they succeed in starting a new life in a country that won't always make them welcome? Or could some of them find themselves on the next plane home?
Dónall Mac Ruairí investigates the events surrounding the explosion of a World War Two sea mine in the Gaeltacht village of Ballymanus in 1943, in which 19 young local men lost their lives. In interviewing the few remaining eye witnesses, Dónall asks the critical questions - what exactly happened on 10 May on Ballymanus Strand? Could it have been prevented? And is there any truth in the local view that an independent inquiry into the incident was actively suppressed?
Documentary tracing the life of John Hume from his early days in the civil rights movement to his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. Interviewees include John Hume, Bono and Tony Blair.
A celebration of one of the UK's most loved broadcasters.
Programme featuring footage of Simon and Garfunkel on stage, in the studio and on tour, which also integrates video montages of key events of the turbulent times in the late 60s. [S]
David Croft, the comedy writer, director and producer whose hand was felt on shows as diverse as Dad's Army, Steptoe & Son, Up Pompeii!, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Are You Being Served?, died in September at the age of 89. This special programme pays tribute to one of the true greats of British comedy. His name may not have been as well-known as those of the stars he made in his series, but his words and creativity have brought laughter to billions across the globe for more than 7 decades.
Internationally-renowned chef Yotam Ottolenghi returns to his home town of Jerusalem to discover the hidden treasures of its extraordinarily rich and diverse food culture. He meets and cooks with both Arabs and Jews in restaurants and at home who draw on hundreds of years of tradition to create the dishes that define the city, and explores the flavours and recipes that have influenced his palate. From the humble street foods of hummus and falafel to the cutting edge of Jerusalem cuisine, Yotam uncovers the essence of what makes the food of Jerusalem so great. Starting in the Old City, Yotam samples the Palestinian fast foods like falafel and hummus that he remembers from his childhood. This is the food that has been feeding the throngs of pilgrims who have visited the city for centuries - loved alike by Jew, Arab and Christian. In the west of the city, Yotam discovers how waves of immigration from the Jewish diaspora from such varying origns as Poland, Hungary, Morocco and Turkey have each brought with them a different flavour, ingredient or technique that adds to the ever-evolving Jerusalem cuisine, keeping it fresh, varied and exciting. Here he eats stuffed aubergine with cinnamon, tries fiery zhoug from Yemen and learns how to make kibbeh soup, a staple of the Sephardic Jewish kitchen. In both Arab and Jewish homes he discovers the family recipes that have been passed down through generations - recipes such as kollage, a sweet sheep's cheese pastry, or swiss chard with cracked wheat and pomegranate molasses. Finally, he visits some of Jerusalem's trailblazing chefs, discovering how modern Jerusalem cuisine is drawing from all of these influences to create food that is both locally sourced and true to its culinary roots, and at the same time truly innovative. Collaborating with these chefs in the kitchens, Yotam adds his own distinctive flair to the dishes they create. Through Yotam's eyes we are given an insight into the depth and breadth of the food of
A tribute to John Sullivan who died in April 2011, creator of Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith, Just Good Friends and many more.
Archaeological documentary. Having used satellites to discover cities, temples and pyramids beneath the sands, Dr Sarah Parcak heads to Egypt to find out if they are really there.
Armando Iannucci presents a personal argument in praise of the genius of Charles Dickens. Through the prism of the author's most autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, Armando looks beyond Dickens - the national institution - and instead explores the qualities of Dickens's work which still make him one of the best British writers. While Dickens is often celebrated for his powerful depictions of Victorian England and his role as a social reformer, this programme foregrounds the elements of his writing which make him worth reading, as much for what he tells us about ourselves in the twenty-first century as our ancestors in the nineteenth. Armando argues that Dickens's remarkable use of language and his extraordinary gift for creating characters make him a startlingly experimental and psychologically penetrating writer who demands not just to be adapted for television but to be read and read again.
A two-part portrait of Elizabeth II's grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, which examines the lasting legacy of the couple who rescued the monarchy from potential disaster, and whose influence persists to this day. Episode one focuses on King George V. George could not have been a more unlikely moderniser. Born and brought up in the Victorian age he was conservative to his fingertips. Yet in the face of unstoppable social change after the First World War he turned out to be a remarkable innovator, creating the House of Windsor, embracing democratic reform, and reinventing many of the royal traditions that we know today. When he celebrated his silver jubilee in 1935 the monarchy was more popular than ever. But as a parent King George V was far less successful - he bullied his children and alienated his eldest son and heir, Prince Edward. As one courtier remarked at the time, 'the royal family are like ducks, they sit on their children'. By contrast, King George had a loving relationship with his granddaughter, and much of Queen Elizabeth's style and commitment to duty can be traced back to this early influence.
A two-part portrait of Elizabeth II's grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, which examines the lasting legacy of the couple who rescued the monarchy from potential disaster, and whose influence persists to this day. Episode two focuses on Queen Mary, who came from a relatively humble royal background, but was picked as a future queen consort by Queen Victoria. At first she was betrothed to Prince Eddy, heir to the throne. But when Eddy died she was unceremoniously passed to his brother George. Despite the arranged marriage, King George and Queen Mary had a loving relationship. Mary revered the monarchy and obeyed her husband in all things - even the length of her dresses. She always put duty and service first. But when King George died in 1935, this once rigidly formal character emerged as a determined if eccentric royal matriarch with a mind of her own. When the abdication crisis threatened the future of the House of Windsor she was the rock to which the nation turned as a symbol of stability and continuity. Queen Mary died in 1953, having lived to see her granddaughter, Elizabeth, ascend to the throne.
A special spin off programme of the BBC Four programme After Life for learners aged 7 - 11 years. A team of young science detectives investigate rot and decay through a series of experiments and activities, assisted by Dr George McGavin. The team find out not just about the bacteria all around us, but the bacteria on our skin, in our mouths and in our stomachs. They look at the life cycle of flies and how they play an important part in the natural process of recycling and composting. They even make their very own rot boxes which they fill with food and leave for six weeks.
The First Time: This episode seeks to understand what's going on in our minds and bodies on the road to losing our virginity and to find out just what happens when we fall in love.
Jeff Leach is the archetypal ladies' man - ask him what the most important thing in the world is and he will say women. His innate charisma has made him a stand-up comedy sensation, but viewers will soon see he is equally talented off stage. He has got stats to back it up too - at just 27 he has slept with nearly 300 women and has even kept a list of every single one of them. But now he wants to settle down. This hilarious but heartfelt documentary sees Jeff taking a long-overdue look at his sexual exploits. Asking for help from the plethora of exes who have helped him build this Don Juan reputation, he tries to understand what it is that keeps him notching his bedpost and why he cannot be a one-woman man. Will Jeff finally uncover the route to emotional fulfilment and, for once, go home alone?
Nathalie Emmanuel investigates how the internet is changing the sex lives of 16-24 year-olds across Britain. Nathalie meets young people who rely on social networking sites, the latest mobile technology and webcams. For the first time she reveals figures from an academic study which shows how many people have taken their sex lives online, and exactly what they are doing.
Cricket star Andrew (Freddie) Flintoff talks to sporting professionals about the serious effects of depression. He confronts his own issues as captain of England - under pressure and under fire at the top of his game. Freddie reveals the stigma attached to talking about depression in the face of an often unforgiving public. Freddie discovers that many suffer in silence or hide behind irresponsible behaviour, until it all becomes too much. The film includes moving interviews with Steve Harmison, Vinnie Jones, Ricky Hatton and a host of sporting heroes. We hear from Journalist Piers Morgan, coaches and managers about this hidden side of sport.
As Steven Spielberg's movie version of War Horse arrives on UK cinema screens, the author of the novel on which it is based is among the contributors to How to Write. Michael Morpurgo reveals the sources of his inspiration and the techniques he uses to 'just get the stupid thing down on paper'. Philip Pullman, writer of the His Dark Materials trilogy, discusses the need for discipline, the importance of memory, and how it is crucial to stand inside a scene and imagine what is seen and not seen. Also taking part are poets Caroline Bird and Kate Clanchy, and novelists Rebecca Abrams and Charles Cummins. They are among a group of top authors gathered at Broughton Castle in Oxfordshire to share the secrets of creative writing with almost 400 young people
Alastair Sooke explores the mysterious appeal of unfinished works of art. From Dickens's unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Jane Austen's Sanditon to Coleridge's Kubla Khan, he talks to those who have attempted to finish these literary enigmas and those who believe that any such task is impossible. In a film that picks through literature's leftovers, Sooke explores the moral dilemmas as well as the commercial opportunities finishing presents. And he considers how, in the modern era, artists have purposefully left their work unfinished. Paul Morley, Mark Lawson, John Mullan, Robert McKee, Sarah Churchwell, Gwyneth Hughes, Andrew Motion and Mike Figgis amongst others, help Sooke work his way through a never-ending story.
Following the recent death of Ken Russell, Alan Yentob looks back over the career of the flamboyant film director responsible for Women In Love, Tommy and The Devils. Friends and admirers - including Glenda Jackson, Terry Gilliam, Twiggy, Melvyn Bragg, Robert Powell and Roger Daltrey - recall a pioneering documentary-maker, talented photographer and fearless film director. When at the BBC in the Sixties, Russell first established his name with brilliant documentaries on Elgar, Delius and Debussy. Not only did he bring alive their music with inspiring images, he also humanised them by using actors, something unthinkable in factual film-making at the time. His unfettered imagination soon led to feature films. Women In Love earned Glenda Jackson an Oscar and notoriety for a nude wrestling scene featuring Oliver Reed and Alan Bates. Although infamy dogged him with The Devils, he enjoyed considerable commercial success with The Boyfriend and his extravagant take on The Who's Tommy. Furiously creative to the end, Russell showed himself determined to pursue his original ideas, sometimes regardless of the personal cost.
Coming Out Diaries follows the conflicts and dilemmas faced by three young people as they navigate their way through telling their family and friends that they are gay or transgender. 17-year-old Natalie was born a boy, but now wants to dress and live fully as a girl. Her mum Arlene is reeling from the shock of the news and is finding it very difficult to accept that her 'son' is now her 'daughter'. Arlene will not allow Natalie to dress as a girl at home and still calls her Kieran, Natalie's birth name. Natalie can only wear female clothes away from home so she gets changed in public toilets when she is out in town. The film follows Natalie's battle for acceptance and her mum's attempt to understand. 17-year-old Tori feels she was bullied at school for being a lesbian. She wants to come out to her new friends at beauty college so she can become closer to them, but she is terrified after her previous experiences. This is compounded by the fact that at beauty school all the treatments are intimate and she is worried that the other girls will not want her to practice beauty treatments on them in class. 19-year-old Jamie has not told his uni course-mates that he was born a girl. He loves being accepted as one of the lads and is thrilled that for the first time no-one has guessed his secret. But on the flip side, Jamie worries all the time that he is deceiving his course-mates and is thinking about coming out so he can stop feeling like he is living a lie.
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th century Gothic Revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Presenter Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today.
At a time when the lap dancing industry is expanding onto every British high street, Table Dancing Diaries is a documentary that unflinchingly explores this world. In December 2011, Secrets, London's largest chain of table dancing clubs, opened its doors to give unprecedented access to the dancers, customers and the backroom staff of their venues. The film offers a direct, intelligent approach that tells fascinating human stories of young women within the industry. Featuring predominantly young female characters, it tells its stories from the perspective of the industry's girls themselves. Their hopes, dreams, beliefs, values, experiences and views reveal the real people behind the make-up and lights. There is no such thing as a typical stripper, and the young women at Secrets are multi-dimensional. Amongst them are university undergraduates, mothers, a world champion kick boxer and recent immigrants, and together they describe themselves as a family, led by their formidable 'house mothers' - the older women who run the day-to-day goings-on in the clubs. A club's house mother is disciplinarian, bodyguard, quality controller and therapist all rolled into one. They have seen it all before and keep all 600 girls across the six clubs on the straight and narrow. The film gives the girls and the 'girls that run the girls' a voice and in doing so explores their lives beyond the stage. Just as Young Doctors gave a fresh, doctor's-eye perspective on the seemingly familiar hospital precinct, this film gives a revealing look at a profession viewed by many as a glamorous career option. Does the reality match the perception?
To mark Muhammad Ali's 70th birthday, David Frost charts the life and career of the world's greatest sportsman through a series of interviews and meets Ali at his Michigan ranch. [S]
A factual programme taking a journey into the future of television, from Silicon Valley to Vegas, meeting the people battling to shape it - from the software giants at Google to the hardware designers at Sony.
TV historian Dan Snow travels across the old Kingdom of Mercia unravelling the secrets of one of Britian's most significant discoveries - the Staffordshire Hoard. The Hoard offers 1500 new clues into the Dark Ages and Dan pieces together the lives of the people living in these long-forgotten kingdoms.
From Vogue magazine fashion photographer to filmmaker, painter and sculptor, David Bailey is a cultural icon who has been at the cutting edge of contemporary art for 50 years. A working-class Londoner, he befriended the stars, married his muses and still captures the spirit and elegance of his times with his refreshingly simple approach and razor-sharp eye. Approaching his 73rd year, Bailey is showing no sign of slowing up. In his London studio and his country home in Devon, he continues to create one of the most varied and pertinent collections of any modern artist. Featuring interviews with art critic Martin Harrison, former wife Catherine Deneuve, current wife Catherine Dyer and close friend Jerry Hall, this is a portrait of a private man who bared the soul of the swinging sixties and seventies with his photographs and films. Grounded, honest, open and ferociously creative, Bailey makes art the way Count Basie played jazz - four beats to the bar and no cheating.
Amal Fashanu goes on a mission to discover why no professional football player has followed in her late uncle Justin's boots in over twenty years and come out publicly as gay.
Lives lived through music, lives saved by music. Toni and Rosi Grunschlag were piano prodigies in Vienna in the 1920s. In this documentary made over ten years, they tell their story: of the German takeover of Austria; of being pushed out of their apartment by a local Nazi - 'He came with his concubine. They had a German shepherd dog and I can tell you he was the nicest of them'; and of escaping the Nazis together, fleeing to England and then the United States, where they forged a career as a two-piano team. Neither married, so they practised, performed and lived together for 80 years. 'There were suitors', says Rosi, 'But you have to be strong.' In the apartment building in New York where they have lived since 1943 and in their summer home on Cape Cod they play and show how music saved them, inspired them, bound them together, and was their living. Rosi has advice for the young: 'When you have to run for your life, you leave everything behind. But your education is yours to keep. It is your transportable asset.' It is an inspirational story of two talented, determined and funny women.
Special programme telling the dramatic story of Cutty Sark, the world famous clipper ship, from her launch in 1869 to the modern-day conservation work to save her.
2011 marks 30 years since AIDS descended. In 1981, the flourishing gay community in San Franscisco was hit with an unimaginable disaster. Through the eyes of those whose lives changed in unimaginable ways, this film tells how their beloved city was changed from a hotbed of sexual freedom and social experimentation into the epicentre of a terrible sexually transmitted 'gay plague'. From their different vantage points as caregivers, activists, researchers, friends and lovers of the afflicted and as people with AIDS themselves, it shares stories which are intensely personal. Speaking to our capacity as individuals to rise to the occasion, this is the story of the incredible power of a community coming together with love, compassion and determination.
In the early 1960s British pop groups conquered the world. But as the Beatles, the Stones, the Shadows, the Dave Clark Five, the Yardbirds and many others took to the stage they had one thing in common - they shared the platform with Vox amplifiers. Some of the nation's top professional musicians including Queen's Brian May and Bruce Welch of the Shadows, along with the factory workers of the time, recount the story of how an unlikely small company in unglamorous Dartford hit the big time and defined the sound of the 60s in Britain. Presented by Iain Lee.
Brothers Colin and Ewan McGregor follow up their documentary The Battle of Britain with a film exploring Bomber Command, a rarely-told story from the Second World War. The film focuses primarily on the men who fought and died in the skies above occupied Europe, with numerous examples of individual heroism and extraordinary collective spirit, and Colin learns to fly the key aircraft of the campaign: the Lancaster bomber. But this is also the story of a controversy that has lasted almost 70 years. The programme covers six years of wartime operations, and traces the obstacles and challenges that were overcome as the RAF developed and deployed the awesome fighting force that was Bomber Command.
This film follows the story of giant pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang, who arrived in the UK to great fanfare in December 2011. David Tennant narrates as Edinburgh Zoo's vet and head keeper travel to China to see how giant pandas are looked after in their homeland. Head keeper Alison also visits a remote panda reserve in Wolong to witness the efforts to reintroduce giant pandas back into the wild.
Painted Life explores the life and work of Lucian Freud, undoubtedly one of Britain's greatest artists. Freud gave his full backing to the documentary shortly before his death. Uniquely, he was filmed painting his last work, a portrait of his assistant David Dawson. Lucian Freud: Painted Life also includes frank testimony from those who knew and loved this extraordinary personality. Members of his large family (he had at least fourteen children by a number of different women), close friends including David Hockney and Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, his dealers, his sitters and his former lovers recall for the first time a complex man who dedicated his life to his art and who always sought to transmute paint into a vibrant living representation of humanity. The film shows how Freud never swam with the flow and only achieved celebrity in older age. He rejected the artistic fashions of his time, sticking to figurative art and exploring portraiture, especially with regards to nude portraiture, which he explored with a depth of scrutiny that produced some of the greatest works of our time. This documentary is both a definitive biography and a revelatory exploration of the creative process.
Documentary showcasing how the latest forensic science is used to bring some of the most dangerous criminals to justice. Officers use fingerprint and ballistics analysis when they are called to a shooting on the streets of Luton, and the painstaking examination of the scene of an assault leads to a gang of attackers being arrested.
Jo Brand is outraged and appalled by the latest outburst of public crying. It is happening on X Factor, Who Do You Think You Are and even the politicans are at it. It would appear we are awash with tears. Jo is particularly baffled by this outpouring of weepiness as crying is something she rarely does. In this documentary, Jo decides it's time to get to the bottom of crying: why we do it, who does it and whether we have always done it. And once she discovers crying is in fact good for you, she has no choice but to see if she can actually make a handkerchief soggy too. To find out more about crying she talks to friends Phill Jupitus, Shappi Khorsandi and Richard E Grant; interviews crying historians, psychologists and biochemists; and, in her quest to discover her own tears, visits Moorfields Eye Hospital to check her tear ducts are in good working order. She subjects herself to joining a class of crying drama students, discovers the world's weirdest crybabies at the Loss Club and finally opens up to Princess Diana's psychotherapist, Susie Orbach.
Following on from her popular exploration of crying, Jo Brand is back - and this time she has got a bee in her bonnet about kissing. Jo is convinced that the kiss has lost its value - we are either air kissing people we have never even met before or snogging each other's faces off in public. Either way Jo has had enough of it and decides it is time to find out whether the kiss really is 'kisstory'. Along the way she meets some voracious kissers in our closest animal relatives, the bonobo monkeys, learns a bit about the history and science of 'locking lips' and discovers the beauty of the kiss in some rather extraordinary oral sculptures. Then Jo starts to realise that she needs to figure out her own relationship with the kiss. Visiting her mother uncovers some clues as to Jo's phobia of public kissing. Maybe the key is to find someone she really wants to kiss - and perfect her technique a bit while she's at it. A drama workshop proves decidedly awkward, but a few tips from an American kissing guru and Jo is well on her way to tracking down her mystery man. But what then?
On March 11th 2011 Japan was hit by the greatest tsunami in a thousand years. Through compelling testimony from 7-10 year-old survivors, this film reveals how the deadly wave and the Fukushima nuclear accident have changed children's lives forever. The story unfolds at two key locations: a primary school where 74 children were killed by the tsunami; and a school close to the Fukushima nuclear plant, attended by children evacuated from the nuclear exclusion zone.
We're used to hearing the bad news about our food. What's the good news? Cherry Healey puts some favourite supermarket staples to the test and uncovers the surprising secrets and unexpected powers of the food that people take for granted. With the help of members of the public from around the country, plus a team of experts, she investigates how milk can help muscles recover from exercise; what effect the way tea is brewed has on its health benefits; why there is more to baked beans than meets the eye; and whether it's really possible to be addicted to chocolate.
Documentary about how a much-derided music actually changed the world. Between 1969 and 1979 disco soundtracked gay liberation, foregrounded female desire in the age of feminism and led to the birth of modern club culture as we know it today, before taking the world by storm. With contributions from Nile Rogers, Robin Gibb, Kathy Sledge and Ian Schrager.
Phil Agland revisits the Baka Pygmy family he filmed 25 years ago in his Bafta-winning documentary Baka – People Of The Rainforest. He explores how life has changed for the new generation: the children of the old film are now parents; Camera, who was born at the end of the first film and named after Phil’s film camera, now has a seven-year-old daughter, Ambi. Camera’s brother Ali also has a young daughter, who is disabled. For the first time the Baka watch themselves in the original film on a huge screen in the forest. Seeing how their parents used to live prompts an epic journey deep into the forest to rediscover the old life of their fathers. The story that unfolds is a tragic one of a family caught helplessly between the world of the forest and the outside world that rejects them. But it is also a story of redemption inspired by the children, especially Ambi, who attends school for the first time.
In 2011, 19-year old Nic Hamilton dreamed of following his brother Lewis in to motor racing. But as well as the pressure of being a Hamilton and never having raced a car in his life, Nic also has a disability that had him using a wheelchair until he was 16. This powerful and intimate film follows the family as they try to help Nic achieve his dream. With unprecedented access we see Nic embark on a season that will determine whether he has what it takes to make a career of his own in the glamorous and dangerous world of motorsport.
Graham Norton profiles the leading ladies of the disco era, including Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Madonna and 'honourary disco queen' Sylvester. Includes contributions from the queens themselves, plus Antonio 'Huggy Bear' Fargas, choreographer Arlene Phillips, songwriters Ashford and Simpson, and disco artists Verdine White from Earth Wind and Fire, Bonnie Pointer of the the Pointer Sisters and Nile Rodgers of Chic.
A footstomping return to the BBC vaults of Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Later with Jools as the programme spins itself to a time when disco ruled the floor, the airwaves and our minds. The visual floorfillers include classics from luminaries such as Chic, Labelle and Rose Royce to glitterball surprises by the Village People and Gladys Knight.
Phil Agland's acclaimed double BAFTA award-winning documentary first shown on Channel Four in 1987. Now 25 years old, the film has prompted Phil's return to CameroOn to shoot the update, Baka: A Cry from the Rainforest, for BBC Two. Baka is the extraordinarily intimate story of a Baka family living a traditional life in the rainforests of Cameroun. The Bakas' special understanding of the ecology of the forest is shown in great detail, including how they use the natural chemicals of the trees as medicines and truth drugs - together with the great animals of the forest, elephant, gorilla and golden cat. But the charm of the film is the soap opera in the forest, where the film follows the twists and turns of everyday family drama building to the exciting climax of the birth of Ali's sister, Camera - much to Ali's instant jealousy when he asks his father to throw her out with the rubbish.
Chris Packham, Kate Humble and Martin Hughes-Games are at the Brecon Beacons National Park to reveal how the UK's wildlife is faring this winter. The mild start followed by plummeting temperatures are setting a real challenge. The team find out how plants and animals are managing to survive, and what viewers can do to help.
Television interviews seem to have been around forever - but that's not the case. They evolved in confidence and diversity as television gradually came of age. So how did it all begin? With the help of some of its greatest exponents, Sir David Frost looks back over nearly sixty years of the television interview. He looks at political interviews, from the earliest examples in the post-war period to the forensic questioning that we now take for granted, and celebrity interviews, from the birth of the chat show in the United States with Jack Paar and Johnny Carson to the emergence of our own peak time British performers like Sir Michael Parkinson and Sir David himself. Melvyn Bragg, Joan Bakewell, Tony Benn, Clive Anderson, Ruby Wax, Andrew Neil, Stephen Fry, AA Gill, Alastair Campbell and Michael Parkinson all help trace the development of the television interview. What is its enduring appeal and where does the balance of power actually lie - with the interviewer or the interviewee?
In 2007 Queens Park Rangers Football Club, facing relegation and bankruptcy, was rescued by four high-profile billionaires. The new owners, risking ridicule and commercial failure, allowed cameras unprecedented access to record the roller-coaster ride. Though they paid for much of the filming they did not control where the cameras pointed or what ended up in the film.
Anger over votes for prisoners and the release of Abu Qatada shows just what a toxic issue human rights law has become. In this provocative film, Andrew Neil travels to Europe and across Britain to find out why Britain follows these laws and asks can anything be done to restore our faith in them?
In 2008 Pedigree Dogs Exposed lifted the lid on the true extent of the health and welfare problems faced by pedigree dogs in the UK. The startling expose of harmful breeding practices generated a massive reaction from the public and from those involved in dog breeding. Now the programme's producer Jemima Harrison returns to explore what has happened since she made the original film. Deeply affected by the issues that she uncovered, Jemima has become a campaigner on dog welfare. In this programme, she takes a personal look at the positive changes that have been introduced since the first film and investigates areas of continuing concern, particularly among breeds like the Pug, the Bulldog and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Jemima hears from dog breeders and a range of experts, many of whom express grave worries about the future of some of our best loved breeds.
At the British Museum, a collection of artefacts from the Muslim world is on show which tells the history of a journey to Mecca always forbidden to non-Muslims. It features a succession of examples of the rich visual language of Islamic culture past and present, artwork created to reflect the powerful experience for any Muslim making the Hajj pilgrimage to Islam's most sacred city and its most sacred building, the Ka'aba. However, an artform not usually associated with Islam is also on show, a form many believe is prohibited by Islam - portraits, depictions of human figures and whole tableaux showing pilgrims performing the most important pillar of the Muslim faith. In this documentary, Rageh Omaar sets out to find out that if human depiction is the source of such controversy, how is it that the art displayed here shows a tradition of figurative art at the heart of Islam for century after century? He explores what forms of art are acceptable for a Muslim - and why this artistic tradition has thrived - in the hidden art of the muslim world
The smallpox outbreak in South Wales in 1962 led to the vaccination of nearly a million people, claimed 19 lives and forced the quarantine of thousands. On the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak, this programme tells the full story of how the deadly virus brought South Wales to a standstill.
Broadcaster Richard Bacon has been targeted by an obsessive tirade of anonymous online abuse over the last two years, aimed not just at him but at his wife, mother and baby son. Motivated by his own experience, in this documentary Richard attempts to hunt down and confront three online bullies, including his own, only to learn that unmasking these so-called trolls can be a dangerous pursuit.
Star of BBC Three's hugely popular The Real Hustle, Alexis Conran is definitely someone you don't want to be playing cards with. An expert poker player and a man thoroughly at home in a casino, Alexis enjoys the thrill that comes with gambling. But what for Alexis is a pleasurable pastime and part of a lucrative career, ruined his father. In this documentary, Alexis travels around Britain, to Las Vegas and to Athens, meeting gambling addicts, experts and members of his own family to try and understand what makes gambling, for some, a compulsion that can end in ruin.
They are constantly circling hundreds of miles above our heads, driving our daily lives - yet we barely give satellites a second thought. Satellite engineer Maggie Aderin Pocock wants to change all that. She wants to make us realise and appreciate what these unsung heroes of the modern world have done for us. Maggie reveals how satellites have revolutionised exploration, communication, location-finding and spying. She discovers how they have transformed not only the way we see our planet but our understanding of the dangers within it, like volcanoes and earthquakes. Plus, she discovers the jaw-dropping power of the technology used by satellites to make our lives run smoothly.
As a kid growing up on a council estate, government benefits and negative distractions were a huge part of his childhood. Today, Reggie Yates is a successful TV and radio presenter. Setting off with the belief that with enough hard work and determination, teenagers can escape a life of crime, Reggie meets people who have been inside some of Britain's notorious teen gangs. He learns what drives them to join the gangs at a young age, and the challenges some of them now face trying to stay on the straight and narrow.
Documentary laying bare the joys and hurdles of disabled parenting over a six month period, following comedian Laurence Clark and his wife Adele, who both have cerebral palsy.
Ancient Egypt was vandalised by tomb raiders and treasure hunters until one Victorian adventurer took them on. Most of us have never heard of Flinders Petrie, but this maverick genius underook a scientific survey of the pyramids, discovered the oldest portraits in the world, unearthed Egypt's prehistoric roots - and in the process invented modern field archaeology, giving meaning to a whole civilisation.
Charles Dickens began his literary career while a journalist at Westminster. In his bicentenary year, Carolyn Quinn reports on how his time at Parliament inspired him.
In the 1980s rallying was more popular than Formula 1. 'Group B' machines had taken the world by storm. De-regulation opened the way for the most exciting cars ever to hit the motorsport scene. Nothing like it has ever happened since. 'This is the fastest rallying there has ever been' - Peter Foubister. For four wild and crazy years manufacturers scrambled to build ever more powerful cars to be driven by fearless mavericks who could handle the extreme power. The sport was heading out of control and the unregulated mayhem ended abruptly in 1986 after a series of horrific tragedies. This is the story of when fans, ambition, politics and cars collided. 'The fans were crazy. As the cars sped by the spectators ran into the road!' - Ari Vatanen 'They were playing with their lives'. 'To go rallying is madness. This was refined madness' - John Davenport Featuring world champions Ari Vatanen, Walter Rohrl, Stig Blomqvist, plus Michel Mouton, Cesar Fiorio, Jean Todt and many many more
Professor Alice Roberts reveals the natural history of the most famous of Ice Age animals - the woolly mammoth. Mammoths have transfixed humans since the depths of the last Ice Age, when their herds roamed across what is now Europe and Asia. Although these curious members of the elephant family have now been extinct for thousands of years, scientists can now paint an incredibly detailed picture of their lives thanks to whole carcasses that have been beautifully preserved in the Siberian permafrost. Alice meets the scientists who are using the latest genetic, chemical and molecular tests to reveal the adaptations that allowed mammoths to evolve from their origins in the tropics, to surviving the extremes of Siberia. And in a dramatic end to the film, she helps unveil a brand new woolly mammoth carcass that may shed new light on our own ancestors' role in their extinction.
An affectionate look at the Queen's relationship with Scotland and the Scots. It is an association that has grown in strength throughout her sixty-year reign. What is the nature of that rapport and what does the future hold for the Royal family and Elizabeth - Queen of Scots
Lloyd Coleman is a 19-year old student composer. He's been asked to write a thirty minute piece for full orchestra - a tough job for any composer, but Lloyd is partially sighted and has severe hearing loss. Can he break through the wall and rise to the challenge?
Featuring exclusive interviews with surviving band members Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Kreiger and their closest colleagues and collaborators, along with exclusive performances, archive footage and examination of the original multi-track recording tapes with producer Bruce Botnick, this film tells the amazing story of landmark album LA Woman by one of the most influential bands on the planet.
Once every two minutes someone in Britain is mugged. What does it feel like for someone to hold a knife to your throat and demand your cash, to punch you to the ground and wrench your bag from your hands? If it happened to you, would you fight back, try to run or hand over your prized possessions? This documentary hears both victim's and mugger's powerful stories.
Gabby Logan explores sexism in football, hearing stories from influential women working across the men's game. Just how bad is it? From Karren Brady in the boardroom to the most powerful woman in football, UEFA's Karen Espelund, one thing is common - they have all experienced discrimination.
A woman is raped every ten minutes in the UK yet thousands of rapes go unreported and conviction rates remain low. Presenter Pips Taylor explores why in powerful interviews with young rape survivors. She confronts those in authority about the failures in the system and speaks to young men about their views of the crime. Ultimately Pips asks - who is really to blame for rape?
Three former bomb disposal officers who served at the height of the Northern Ireland conflict, return for the first time in 30 years to revisit the defining moments of their careers, and the moments when they almost lost their lives.
Three Welsh veterans of the Falklands War return to the South Atlantic three decades on, to make peace with their past and lay their ghosts to rest. Contributions from Dilwyn Rogers, David Jones and Stephen Dawkins.
Thirty years after the Falkland's War, journalist and military historian Max Hastings explores the conflict's impact and its legacy. Hastings, who sailed with the Task Force in 1982 and reported on the Falklands campaign first-hand, looks at how victory in the South Atlantic revived the reputation of our armed forces and renewed Britain's sense of pride and its image abroad after years of decline as an imperial and military power.
Documentary tracing the fortunes of boys who were filmed in the residential school Ballikinrain, where children aged from 10 to 16 are placed by social work departments. Seven years ago, one unit of seven boys was filmed over the course of a year. The boys had to leave at the age of 16, and many still do not have stable environments to return to. The programme tells the stories of these boys, now men, and examines how the system has helped or damned them.
Bench presses, barbells, rowing machines and electric shock mittens - just some of the tortures revealed by Mark Benton in this funny look at the British way of keeping fit.
Wales rugby legend Shane Williams reveals the inside story of his rollercoaster rugby career. This candid portrait of one of Wales's most treasured stars follows the ups and downs of his life, culminating in his emotional retirement at the Millennium Stadium. Featuring interviews with Shane Williams, Martyn Williams, Lyn Jones and Bryan Habana.
Yorkshireman Frank Wild was the unsung hero of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. He was Sir Ernest Shackleton's loyal companion, following him to the very ends of the Earth. Now, 90 years after Shackleton's death, Frank Wild's newly discovered remains are heading back to Antarctica to be laid beside his beloved boss in the icy lands they both loved so much.
Dr Yan sets primary-aged children a series of challenges that explore the science behind the exciting Bloodhound project to build the fastest car in the world. What makes it move? What will it be like to drive? How does it slow down?
In September 2011, Sikhs from all over Britain gathered in Parliament Square to protest. The focus of their concern was the turban. Since the terrorist attacks of the 21st century Sikhs believe their turbans have singled them out for discrimination and subjected to increased airport security searches. This documentary traces the history of the turban in the Sikh religion, from its roots in Moghul India, through the battlefields of Europe, to the fight for British Sikhs to wear it without fear. It reveals that the turban is a crucial symbol of the Sikh faith - one that Sikhs will even risk their lives for.
In 1981 the BBC series The Self Help Society looked at the co-operative movement run by communities in the Western Isles and in particular its impact on Eriskay. This programme offers the opportunity to view the excerpts original version and also find out what impact the co-operative and the many other changes which have taken place since have had on the island and the residents.
Matthew Pinsent catches up with athletes from across the globe as they prepare for London 2012. Belgian twin brothers Jonathan and Kevin Borlee endure a gruelling trek across an Icelandic glacier in their attempt to be selected for their national relay squad at London 2012.
With so few survivors of the Holocaust left to share their first-hand testimony, what is the right approach to those with accounts that can it be proved? Ninety-three-year-old Denis Avey is a British hero of the Holocaust who helped save the life of an Auschwitz inmate. He wrote about this heroic act, verified by the man he saved, in a best-selling book. But its publication generated a heated debate. That's because Denis also claimed to have broken in to the Nazi concentration camp itself. Why would anyone do such a thing and was it even possible? Witness to Auschwitz examines the controversy surrounding this latest Holocaust account and asks why is it so important to know the truth?
A unique blend of music and documentary, the show features special performances from Bryan Ferry, Joss Stone, Nicola Benedetti, Alfie Boe, Charlie Siem, Maverick Sabre and the Ulster Orchestra. The performances wrap around a documentary which tells the story of the ill-fated ship, those who built her, the people who sailed on her and the enduring legacy of the tragedy.
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic, actor Bernard Hill who played Captain Smith in the 1997 Oscar-winning film, discovers the impact the tragedy had on the port of Southampton. Around 550 crew from Southampton died in the disaster. The unwritten rule of the sea 'women and children first' ensured the loss of husbands, fathers, sons. It plunged streets and houses into weeks of mourning and changed lives forever.
An epic 1970s tale about a group of rebel rock bands who rose up from one of the most unpopular, marginalised parts of the USA - the Deep South - and conquered the world. The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others that followed did this entirely on their own terms, blending the music of the region - blues, country, rock and roll - with a gung-ho attitude that set the South, and then America, on fire. Their diverse styles, from juke joint boogie and country-rock honks to cosmic blues blasts, had a huge cultural and political impact, even helping to elect Jimmy Carter as president in 1976. Their extraordinary adventure is brought to life through vivid period archive and contributions from the survivors of those crazy times, including Gregg Allman, REM's Mike Mills, Doug Gray, Al Kooper, Bonnie Bramlett, Charlie Daniels and other key figures in the movement.
The story the company behind Titanic didn't want you to know. On the 20th June 1913 a sensational court case opened in London. It pitted an ordinary farmer from County Limerick against the might and power of the company which built the Titanic, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, better known as the White Star Line. Heartbroken father Thomas Ryan's single ambition was to hold the company to account for the death of his son Patrick. Their story has been lost under the weight of Titanic's romantic folklore, but in Ryan Versus The White Star Line, BBC Northern Ireland uncovers the truth with the help of Thomas's descendants. Reporter Julie McCullough tracks down Thomas's grandson and follows the family's journey of discovery as they learn more about their ancestor's place in the story of Titanic.
Chris Birch is a Welsh lad who claims a stroke turned him gay.
It's the nation's most cherished and respected children's hospital, but senior consultants are now claiming that all is not well at Great Ormond Street. Through a series of exclusive interviews, Freedom of Information requests and a surprising paper trail, BBC London's Political Editor Tim Donovan asks: just how far will this world-famous hospital go to protect its unblemished reputation?
Actor David Harewood has just five days to take a group of inner city teenagers and turn them into Shakespearean actors. David, currently starring in the hit television drama Homeland, returns to his old school to select his cast and prepare for a final showcase performance in Stratford-upon-Avon. Can he inspire them to put on a passionate and polished production from one of the Bard's greatest works?
Stammering or stuttering is a debilitating affliction which can impact on a person's life every single day. Finding the right words to say how you feel can be hard for anyone, but for Britain's 600,000 stammerers it can be impossible. This documentary follows a group of young people who have taken that important decision to tackle their stammers by enrolling on an intense speech therapy course led by pop star Gareth Gates. At the end of the course, they have to face an audience and deliver a speech. Can Gareth help them take control of their stammers?
Michael Palin, Clive Dunn and Ian Lavender are among those who contribute to this candid portrait of actor John Le Mesurier, from his turbulent marriage to Hattie Jacques to his life-changing role as Sergeant Wilson in Dad's Army.
Samira Hashi is a 21 year old model living in London. After 18 years away Samira is going back to her birthplace, Somalia.
Film which follows Salisbury Cathedral's current child choristers over Easter and through the summer term of 2011. The separate boy and girl choirs each contain 16 of the most musically gifted eight-to-13 year-olds in the country. Their role, now as always, is to sing some of the most sublime music ever written in one of Britain's most beautiful buildings. Indeed there are many who believe the chorister's pure, clear, treble voice is the finest instrument in all music. The film spends four months with the choristers as they go about their day-to-day lives, discovering their own history and singing some of the most loved music from a sacred canon spanning six centuries from medieval plainsong to the present day. Under the direction of indefatigable choir master David Halls, they rehearse and perform works by Sheppard, Byrd, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Stanford, Parry, Alcock and Rutter.
In 1978, the BBC television series The British Connection visited the district of Ness on the Isle of Lewis, speaking to residents about their sense of identity and what it meant to them. This programme offers the opportunity to watch the original version, discover how locals feel the community has changed in the intervening years and what their identity means to them in 2012.
One of the legends of Welsh sport, Ray Reardon, is 80 this year. The tough competitor with the twinkling eyes returns to his home town of Tredegar and visits the Welsh Open championship in Newport, where he reflects on a glittering career that brought him six World titles.
The true story of May McMurray, the little girl whose Titanic letter inspired a giant to find her. Three days, three giants - the Sea Odyssey extravaganza which brought Liverpool to a standstill.
Sir David Jason narrates a revealing and intimate insight into the life of Barry Hearn, one of the most powerful and colourful characters in sport. Featuring contributions from former snooker world champions Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Stephen Hendry, darts legend Phil 'The Power' Taylor as well as Greg Dyke, boxing promoter Frank Maloney and son and daughter Eddie and Katie Hearn.
What is it about subtitled Danish TV dramas that make them such compulsive viewing? Emma Jane Kirby talks on set to Danish stars, writers and creators of the shows.
In 1901, a group of divers excavating an ancient Roman shipwreck near the island of Antikythera, off the southern coast of Greece, found a mysterious object - a lump of calcified stone that contained within it several gearwheels welded together after years under the sea. The 2,000-year-old object, no bigger than a modern laptop, is now regarded as the world's oldest computer, devised to predict solar eclipses and, according to recent findings, calculate the timing of the ancient Olympics. Following the efforts of an international team of scientists, the mysteries of the Antikythera Mechanism are uncovered, revealing surprising and awe-inspiring details of the object that continues to mystify.
In 2004, Cyntoia Brown was arrested for the murder of a 43-year-old man. Cyntoia was a prostitute and he was her client. Film-maker Daniel Birman was granted unique access to Cyntoia from the week of her arrest, throughout her trial and over a period of six years. His documentary explores the tragic events in her life that led up to the murder, and Cyntoia's biological mother meets he daughter for the first time since giving her up for adoption 14 years earlier. The film explores the history of abuse, violence, drugs and prostitution back through three generations. As Cyntoia faces a lifetime in prison, the programme asks difficult questions about her treatment by the American justice system.
Michael Cockerell sheds new light on the tragi-comedy of the 1970s by focusing on some of its most controversial characters. With fresh filming and new interviews, along with a treasure trove of rare archive, the film presents the inside story of giant personalities who make today's public figures look sadly dull in comparison.
Part 1 of Francesco da Mosto's documentary series Shakespeare in Italy.
Part 2 of Francesco da Mosto's documentary series Shakespeare in Italy.
In the middle of the 17th century, Britain was devastated by a civil war that divided the nation into two tribes - the Roundheads and the Cavaliers. In this programme, celebrities and historians reveal that modern Britain is still defined by the battle between the two tribes. The Cavaliers represent a Britain of panache, pleasure and individuality. They are confronted by the Roundheads, who stand for modesty, discipline, equality and state intervention.
As Facebook heads for its 100 billion dollar flotation, Emily Maitlis updates her recent documentary on the prospects for Mark Zuckerberg's social network phenomenon. She examines how Facebook, now with 900 million users, plans to earn the billions its new investors will expect from it. With exclusive access to Mark Zuckerberg and senior executives, Emily tells the Facebook story, and reports on its challenge - to build its advertising business from the personal information its users provide, without losing their trust
Their family name alone evokes horror: Himmler, Frank, Goering, Hoess. This film looks at the descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime: men and women who were left a legacy that indelibly associates them with one of the greatest abominations in history. What is it like to have grown up with a name that immediately raises images of genocide? How do they live with the weight of their ancestors' crimes? Is it possible to move on from the crimes of their ancestors?
Pearl Harbor and the Fall of Singapore: 70 years ago these huge military disasters shook both Britain and America, but they conceal a secret so shocking it has remained hidden ever since. This landmark film by Paul Elston tells the incredible story of how it was the British who gave the Japanese the knowhow to take out Pearl Harbor and capture Singapore. For 19 years before the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, British officers were spying for Japan. Worse still, the Japanese had infiltrated the very heart of the British establishment - through a mole who was a peer of the realm known to Churchill himself.
Former Miss Great Britain, Gemma Garrett, investigates how she - and 50,000 other British women - ended up with toxic breast implants made by the French company PIP. After her own implants ruptured and the silicone pieces had to be tweezered out, Gemma wants to know not just what the long-term effects will be on her body, but also why such high numbers of women remain so desperate to make their breasts bigger - and what risks they face as a result. Can they be confident about the other products on the market, or even breast surgery itself? As she explores the implant industry as a whole, she meets the first woman to ever have them and some of the women with PIPs now terrified they have been left with 'ticking timebombs' in their chest. And with her own experience still painfully raw, Gemma challenges a friend who is still dead set on having implants - but is a boob job really the best way to boost her assets?
For more than two years Europe has teetered on the edge of an economic precipice - one of the factors that has pushed Britain back into recession. How exactly did Europe get itself into the current financial mess? Talking to historians, economists and politicians, BBC business editor Robert Peston takes a long view of the euro - from Churchill's vision of a United States of Europe to the bail-outs of Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Meeting a property developer in Ireland, a taxi driver in Rome and a German manufacturing worker, the film exposes the high cost being paid by European workers today for the dream of monetary union - and how close Europe came to a complete banking meltdown. The crisis could yet claim another victim - Britain, with its vast financial sector, would be dragged down by the collapse of the euro. The cost for saving the euro may be high, but the alternative would be a return to the economic mayhem of the 1930s
Documentary which recalls the heyday of one of Britain's most iconic buildings, BBC Television Centre, through the memories of stars and staff. A rich variety of archive includes moments from studio recordings of classic programmes and vintage behind-the-scenes footage from the home of many of the most celebrated programmes in British TV history.
John Edginton's documentary explores the making of Pink Floyd's ninth studio album, "Wish You Were Here." Featuring new interviews with band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason alongside contributions from the likes of guest vocalist Roy Harper, sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson and photographer Jill Furmanovsky, the film is a forensic study of the making of the follow-up to 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon."
This documentary evokes London as seen by painters, photographers, film-makers and writers through the ages; the perspectives of Dickens, Hogarth, Turner, Virginia Wolfe, Monet and Alfred Hitchcock alongside those of contemporary Londoners who tread the streets of the city every day. All these people have found beauty and inspiration in London's dirt and grime. Architects and social engineers have strived to organise London, but painters, writers and many more have revelled in its labyrinthine unruliness. This is the story of a city that tried to impose order on its streets, but actually discovered time after time that its true character lay in an unplanned, chaotic nature.
The composer Frederick Delius is often pictured as the blind, paralysed and caustic old man he eventually became, but in his youth he was tall, handsome, charming and energetic - not Frederick at all for most of his life, but Fritz. He was a contemporary of Elgar and Mahler, yet forged his own musical language, with which he always tried to capture the pleasure of the moment. Using evidence from his friend, the Australian composer Percy Grainger, who reported that Delius 'practised immorality with puritanical stubbornness', this film by John Bridcut explores the multiple contradictions of his colourful life. Delius has long been renowned for his depiction of the natural environment, with pieces such as On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, yet his music is usually steeped in the sensuality and eroticism that he himself experienced. The documentary features specially-filmed performances by the widely-acclaimed Danish interpreters of Delius, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bo Holten, as well as the chamber choir, Schola Cantorum of Oxford.
Documentary about the greatest public ceremony of the twentieth century. As well as recounting the events of Coronation Day, 2nd June 1953, the film focuses on the months of meticulous planning beforehand. What took place behind the scenes is told using diaries, letters, official records and government papers, together with much rare, evocative archive. There are interviews with historians and experts on royal ceremonial as well as participants in the ceremony. The Coronation was an immense challenge - the views of forceful personalities from die-hard traditionalists to forward-thinking innovators had to be reconciled, the movements of thousands had to be marshalled like clockwork, and the BBC had to mount its most ambitious television outside broadcast to date in the teeth of prime minister Winston Churchill's opposition. At the centre of it all was the 27-year-old Queen, bearing an immense responsibility while remaining apparently calm and unperturbed throughout. This is a story of precision planning, last minute nerves and an ancient ceremony which brought together church, state, aristocracy and monarchy in a glorious panoply - the like of which will never be seen again.
To launch the diamond jubilee weekend, BBC One is broadcasting a personal tribute to Her Majesty the Queen by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Through previously-unseen photographs and cine films from Her Majesty's private collection - many of them shot by the Queen herself - the prince reflects on various public events and private family moments during the sixty years of the Queen's reign. In some cases, the prince himself has never seen the footage before. The prince is filmed in the private quarters of Windsor Castle and Balmoral, as well as at Buckingham Palace and Highgrove.
Huw Edwards, Matt Baker and Sophie Raworth host live coverage of one of the biggest events of the year, the diamond jubilee Thames pageant. For the first time in 350 years, a flotilla of 1,000 boats will sail down the River Thames from Battersea to Tower Bridge in celebration of Her Majesty the Queen's 60-year reign. The Queen will lead the floating procession in an ornately-decorated royal barge. A team of presenters will be reporting on this historic event from bridges, banks and boats along the seven-mile route. Special guests include Sue Johnston, Omid Djalili, Griff Rhys Jones, Frank Skinner, Richard E Grant, the Horrible Histories team, and some of the many people from across the UK and the Commonwealth who have made their way to London to take part in this extraordinary pageant.
Documentary telling the double-edged story of the grave risks we pose to our own survival in the name of progress. With rich imagery the film connects financial collapse, growing inequality and global oligarchy with the sustainability of mankind itself. The film explores how we are repeatedly destroyed by 'progress traps' - alluring technologies which serve immediate need but rob us of our long term future. Featuring contributions from those at the forefront of evolutionary thinking such as Stephen Hawking and economic historian Michael Hudson. With Martin Scorsese as executive producer, the film leaves us with a challenge - to prove that civilisation and survival is not the biggest progress trap of them all.
It's one of the most corrupt countries in the world and widely criticised for its human rights record but this year Azerbaijan is hosting Eurovision.
A look at how a British invasion led by the Beatles conquered the US in the 1960s.
How Led Zeppelin spearheaded a British stadium rock assault on the States in the 70s.
How the Sex Pistols and Duran Duran led new rock and pop invasions in the 70s and 80s.
Huw Edwards introduces full, uninterrupted live coverage of the final day of Her Majesty the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations. To mark this special occasion, the Queen together with other members of the royal family, attend a national service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral. Throughout the morning a team of BBC reporters consisting of Fiona Bruce, Sophie Raworth, Jake Humphrey, Fearne Cotton, Chris Hollins, Sonali Shah and Clare Balding, will be capturing all the stories, reactions and celebrations on a day of unadulterated national celebration. 09.30 As the members of the congregation take their seats in St Paul's Cathedral, Sophie Raworth will be inviting some of the people involved in the service to share their thoughts and feelings about the day. At the Palace of Westminster, Fiona Bruce mingles with the people who've travelled from all over the country to share lunch with the Queen. 10.00 All eyes will be on the cathedral for the arrivals of the royal family, the prime minister and other leading dignitaries, whilst at Buckingham Palace Huw Edwards will be joined by expert guests to give their perspective on this momentous day. 10.30 The national service of thanksgiving begins, and James Naughtie provides commentary on the service presided over by the dean of St Paul's Cathedral. 11.30 The streets of London will be lined with jubilant spectators as the Queen travels to Mansion House to begin the next stage of the day's celebrations. Chris Hollins and Sonali Shah will be on the route to meet the royal fans who have the prized front row seats. 12.00 Join Fearne Cotton and Jake Humphrey as they host their own exclusive jubilee party with some special guests. Meanwhile, at Knightsbridge Barracks, Clare Balding gets a first-hand glimpse of the household cavalry preparations for the big afternoon ahead. 12.30 The Queen travels to the Palace of Westminster to have lunch with over 700 people in the stunning setting of Westminster H
In the presence of HM the Queen and the royal family, an array of stars from the last sixty years of rock, pop and classical music perform on a spectacular stage built around the Queen Victoria Memorial, right in front of Buckingham Palace. Hit songs and show stopping performances are promised, with hosts including Rob Brydon, Miranda Hart, Lenny Henry and Lee Mack. Proceedings conclude with HM the Queen lighting the National Beacon
The diamond jubilee celebrations continue with a stunning display of pomp and pageantry. Huw Edwards is joined by celebrities, historians and royal commentators at the majestic setting of Buckingham Palace to present live coverage of the afternoon's events. Senior members of the royal family will travel by magnificent carriage procession from the Palace of Westminster to Buckingham Palace to mark 60 years of the Queen's reign. At the end of the afternoon, all eyes will be turned on Buckingham Palace for the climactic balcony appearance and fly-past.
A diamond jubilee message from HM the Queen
Jools Holland embarks on a personal journey through the streets, historical landmarks, pubs, music halls and rock 'n' roll venues of London to uncover a history of the city through its songs, the people who wrote them and the Londoners who joined in the chorus. Unlike Chicago blues or Memphis soul, London has no one definitive sound. Its noisy history is full of grime, clamour, industry and countless different voices demanding to be heard. But there is a strain of street-wise realism that is forever present, from its world-famous nursery rhymes to its music hall traditions, and from the Broadside Ballad through to punk and beyond. Jools's investigation - at once probing and humorous - identifies the many ingredients of a salty tone that could be called 'the London sound' as he tracks through the centuries from the ballads of Tyburn Gallows to Broadside publishing in Seven Dials in the 18th century, to Wilton's Music Hall in the late 19th century, to the Caribbean sounds and styles that first docked at Tilbury with the Windrush in 1948, to his own conception to the strains of Humphrey Lyttelton at the 100 Club in 1957. Along the way, he meets musicians such as Ray Davies, Damon Albarn, Suggs, Roy Hudd, Lisa Hannigan, Joe Brown and Eliza Carthy who perform and talk about such classic songs as London Bridge is Falling Down, While London Sleeps, Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road, St James Infirmary Blues and Oranges and Lemons.
Internationally acclaimed ventriloquist Nina Conti, takes the bereaved puppets of her mentor and erstwhile lover Ken Campbell on a pilgrimage to Venthaven, the resting place for puppets of dead ventriloquists. She gets to know her latex and wooden travelling partners along the way, and with them deconstructs herself and her lost love in this ventriloquial docu-mocumentary requiem. Ken Campbell was a hugely respected maverick of the British theatre, an eccentric genius who would snort out forgotten artforms. Nina was his prodigy in ventriloquism and has been said to have reinvented the artform. This film is truly unique in genre and style. No one has seen ventriloquism like this before. Nina Conti's funny, highly original and poignant documentary, takes us on two journeys. A personal journey, and a professional one, through the strange, surprising and often hilarious world of ventriloquism. When Nina was just another twenty-something wannabe actress, Ken presented her with a teach-yourself ventriloquism kit. This set her on a path to becoming a sell-out act in Britain and abroad, with a clutch of major awards. On the road, Nina brings all the puppets to life as struggles to meet the conflicting demands of her old acerbic partner Monkey, and the new characters she has been bequeathed. But one puppet remains silent. Ken's doll of himself sits mournful and judgemental in the hotel bedroom. Nina cannot find her master's voice and until she does, she will not be able to lay her old life to rest. Never has watching someone talk to themselves been this interesting.
On Saturday 12 November 2011 an eclectic range of British people turned the camera on themselves, capturing the entertaining and mundane, the exciting and unusual, the poignant and the everyday. The result, Britain in a Day tells the fascinating story of the British public in their own words. Following on from the feature film Life in a Day, this 90-minute film directed by BAFTA winner Morgan Matthews offers an extraordinarily candid look at 21st century life across the UK, crafted from over 750 hours of footage, including 11,526 clips submitted to YouTube. The documentary offers remarkable insight into the lives, loves, fears and hopes of people living in Britain today. This captivating self-portrait of Britain forms part of the BBC's Cultural Olympiad.
Dan Cruickshank follows in the footsteps of John Stow and John Strype, two of London's greatest chroniclers, to explore one of the most dramatic centuries in the history of London. The 17th century saw London plunged into a series of devastating disasters. The Civil War, a murderous plague and the destruction that was the great fire should have seen the small medieval City all but destroyed. Yet somehow, London not only survived but emerged as one of the wealthiest and most influential cities in Europe.
In this documentary, the presenter and art critic Matthew Collings explores how Turner, the artist of light, makes light the vehicle of feeling in his work, and how he found inspiration for that feeling in the waters of the River Thames. JMW Turner is the most famous of English landscape painters. Throughout a lifetime of travel, he returned time and again to paint and draw scenes of the Thames, the lifeblood of London. This documentary reveals the Thames in all its diverse glory, from its beauty in west London, to its heartland in the City of London and its former docks, out to the vast emptiness and drama of the Thames estuary near Margate. Turner was among the first to pioneer painting directly from nature, turning a boat into a floating studio from which he sketched the Thames. The river and his unique relationship with it had a powerful impact upon his use of materials, as he sought to find an equivalent in paint for the visual surprise and delight he found in the reality of its waters. By pursuing this ever-changing tale of light, Turner also documented and reflected upon key moments in British history in the early 19th century; the Napoleonic wars, social unrest and the onset of the industrial revolution. His paintings of the river Thames communicate the fears and exultations of the time. Turner's greatness as a painter is often attributed to his modern use of colour. Many of his paintings are loved by the British public and regularly celebrated as the nation's greatest art. This film reveals for the first time on television a key inspiration for that modernity and celebrity; a stretch of water of immense importance to the nation in the early 19th century but which today is often taken for granted - the River Thames.
Dan Cruickshank explores the mysteries and secrets of the bridges that have made London what it is. He uncovers stories of bronze-age relics emerging from the Vauxhall shore, of why London Bridge was falling down, of midnight corpses splashing beneath Waterloo Bridge, and above all, of the sublime ambition of London's bridgebuilders themselves.
In this personal film, Julien Temple, who directed the definitive documentary history of the Glastonbury Festival, explores the alternative side of the festival away from the spotlight of the main stages with their global pop superstars. In fields known as Shangri La, Arcadia, the Unfair Ground, Strummerville, Block 9 and the Common, every year an unlikely attempt at utopia takes shape. Here, the festival reconnects with its radical, countercultural origins combining underground music, performance art and some of the funniest and most provocative sights of the festival with a dark, urgent 21st century spontaneity. Filmed at the 2011 festival, this 75 minute documentary features Michael Eavis, the creators of, and visitors to the true heart of the Glastonbury, and, fuelled by the music of tomorrow, explores the hopes, dreams and personal utopias of those who, for one weekend in June, come together as the tribes of 21st Century Albion.
Ten times as many children are in institutional care in Ukraine as in England. In this disturbing investigation, film-maker Kate Blewett finds out what a lifetime in the care of the state really means for Ukraine's forgotten children. Shot over six months in an institute for disabled and abandoned children, the film takes us inside the lives of a handful of children who were abandoned by their parents - with a simple signature - to state care. The institute houses 126 children, of whom all but four still have living parents. The vast majority are what are called 'social orphans' in Ukraine, signed over to institutional care in a society that still clings to the Soviet-era ideal that the state knows best. But what Kate finds is that children of widely varying abilities are warehoused together, leading inevitably to institutionalisation, repetitive behaviour, self-stimulation and self-harm, even amongst those with very minor disabilities. Lyosha is ten, and has no arms and legs. But with a fighting spirit and lively intelligence, he uses his balance and powerful neck muscles to propel himself around the room, along corridors and even up and down stairs, almost as quickly as those around him with four limbs. He is proud of the fact that he makes his own bed every morning, and will not allow carers to help him do so. Lyosha is just one of a group of boys for whom Nikolai, the institute director, has great ambitions. Nikolai has seen too many of the children he has cared for leave at 18, to be transferred to psychiatric or geriatric homes, labelled as incapacitated and effectively robbed of their human rights and their future. He has gained funding from Russia for a small group home for boys like Lyosha whom he feels have the greatest unrealised potential. Once in this home they will get the education and rehabilitation they need to avoid a future without hope or freedom. Kate also meets young men in their 20s and 30s who were not so lucky. Despite clear evidenc
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is arguably the most important album in the mind-blowing career of David Bowie. Released in 1972, it's the record that set the mercurial musician on course to becoming one of the best-known pop stars on the planet. In just over a year, Bowie's messianic Martian invaded the minds of the nation's youth with a killer combination of extraterrestrial rock 'n' roll and outrageous sexuality, all delivered in high-heeled boots, multi-coloured dresses and extravagant make-up. In Bowie's own words, Ziggy was 'a cross between Nijinsky and Woolworths', but this unlikely culture clash worked - Ziggy turned Bowie into stardust. This documentary tells the story of how Bowie arrived at one of the most iconic creations in the history of pop music. The songs, the hairstyles, the fashion and the theatrical stage presentation that merged together to turn David Bowie into the biggest craze since the Beatles. Ziggy's instant success gave the impression that he was the perfectly-planned pop star. But, as the film reveals, it had been a momentous struggle for David Bowie to hit on just the right formula that would take him to the top. Narrated by fan Jarvis Cocker, it reveals Bowie's mission to the stars through the musicians and colleagues who helped him in his unwavering quest for fame - a musical voyage that led Bowie to doubt his true identity, eventually forcing the sudden demise of his alien alter ego, Ziggy. Contributors include Trevor Bolder (bass player, Spiders from Mars), Woody Woodmansey (drummer, Spider from Mars), Mike Garson (Spiders' keyboardist), Suzi Ronson (Mick Ronson's widow, who gave Bowie that haircut), Ken Scott (producer), Elton John (contemporary and fan), Lindsay Kemp (Bowie's mime teacher), Leee Black Childers (worked for Mainman, Bowie's production company), Cherry Vanilla (Bowie's PA/press officer), George Underwood (Bowie's friend), Mick Rock (Ziggy's official photographer), Steve Harley,
Documentary presented by actor/rapper Adam Deacon, who wants to know if the mistrust that many people in inner cities feel towards the police has spread to all parts of Britain.
In his home studio and revisiting old haunts in Shepherds Bush and Battersea, Pete Townshend opens his heart and his personal archive to revisit 'the last great album the Who ever made', one that took the Who full circle back to their earliest days via the adventures of a pill-popping mod on an epic journey of self-discovery. But in 1973 Quadrophenia was an album that almost never was. Beset by money problems, a studio in construction, heroin-taking managers, a lunatic drummer and a culture of heavy drinking, Townshend took on an album that nearly broke him and one that within a year the band had turned their back on and would ignore for nearly three decades. With unseen archive and in-depth interviews from Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, John Entwistle and those in the studio and behind the lens who made the album and thirty page photo booklet. Contributors include: Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Ethan Russell, Ron Nevison, Richard Barnes, Irish Jack Lyons, Bill Curbishley, John Woolf, Howie Edelson, Mark Kermode and Georgiana Steele Waller.
The day after London won the Olympic bid, terrorists attacked the public transport network killing 52 people and injuring over 700. Seven years later, as the eyes of the world are once again focused on the capital, '7/7: One Day in London' gathers the testimony of over 50 people directly affected by the bombings, exploring the long lasting effects as they reflect on their experiences and how their lives have changed. After the conclusion of the public inquest in 2011, a multitude of previously untold stories emerged of the bravery, difficulties and horror that people experienced on that day in 2005; many of these have been included in this film as well as testimony from people who have never spoken publically before. This is an ambitious retelling of the story of what happened on that day, with contributions from commuters, emergency service workers, TFL staff and families of victims. With enormous compassion for one another, ordinary people tell extraordinary stories of the day when they were thrown together, and their struggle to cope in the wake of the blasts that shook London.
The story of D-Day has been told from the point of view of the soldiers who fought in it, the tacticians who planned it and the generals who led it. But that epic event in world history has never been told before through the perspective of the strange handful of spies who made it possible. D-Day was a great victory of arms, a tactical coup, and a moral crusade. But it was also a triumph for espionage, deceit, and thinking of the most twisted sort. Following on from his hugely successful BBC Two documentaries, Operation Mincemeat and Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story (Agent Zigzag), writer and presenter Ben Macintyre returns to the small screen to bring to life his third best-selling book - Double Cross The True Story of the D-Day Spies. Macintyre reveals the gripping true story of five of the double agents who helped to make D-day such a success.
What's really going on inside your stomach? In this documentary, Michael Mosley offers up his own guts to find out. Spending the day as an exhibit at the Science Museum in London, he swallows a tiny camera and uses the latest in imaging technology to get a unique view of his innards digesting his food. He discovers pools of concentrated acid and metres of writhing tubing which is home to its own ecosystem. Michael lays bare the mysteries of the digestive system - and reveals a complexity and intelligence in the human gut that science is only just beginning to uncover.
Documentary which records and celebrates the life and works of 'punk poet' John Cooper Clarke, looking at his life as a poet, a comedian, a recording artist and revealing how he has remained a significant influence on contemporary culture over four decades.
We Who Wait tells the story of punk band the Adverts and the continuing music career of their former frontman TV Smith, one of the most talented, literate and passionate - yet curiously overlooked - songwriters to emerge from London's vibrant '77 new wave scene.
Gary Barlow is on a mission to record a special song to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee. He writes the melody with Lord Lloyd Webber, but he wants performers from around the Commonwealth to play on it. Prince Charles gives Gary some suggestions, and Gary then embarks on an extraordinary trip, recording all manner of musicians on their home turfs to make the unique record, Sing.
We each spend three years of our lives on the toilet, but how happy are we talking about this essential part of our lives? This film challenges that mindset by uncovering its role in our culture and exploring the social history of the toilet in Britain and abroad - as well as exploring many of our cultural toilet taboos. Starting in Merida, Spain with some of the the earliest surviving Roman toilets, we journey around the world - from the UK to China, Japan and Bangladesh - visiting toilets, ranging from the historically significant to the beautiful, from the functional and sometimes not-so-functional to the downright bizarre. Leading our journey is Everyman figure, Welsh poet and presenter Ifor ap Glyn, who has a passionate interest in the toilet, its history and how it has evolved over the centuries, right up to the development of the current design. Finally, there's a glimpse of the future and a possible solution to the global sanitation issues we now face.
An intimate portrait of athlete Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. In the London 2012 Olympics, Bolt will try to retain his three Olympic titles and his three world records. On the night of the 100m final, over four billion viewers will watch him as he attempts to enter the history books by becoming the first man ever to retain the 100m gold medal. French producer/director Gael Leiblang secured exclusive access to Usain Bolt, and has been filming up close and personal with him over the last 12 months as he prepares for the biggest race of his life. Made with his complete co-operation, it features Bolt in his home environment away from the cameras. It also features all the people who have helped get Bolt to the top of his profession - his relatives, his best friends and the Jamaican national coach.
Former Irish athlete and 5,000m world champion Eamonn Coghlan travels to Kenya's highlands to uncover a little-known story - the role of Irish missionaries in securing Kenya's dominance in world athletics. He meets Brother Colm O'Connell, a modest priest who played a major role in fostering Kenyan distance running and who is now considered one of the world's top athletics coaches. Watching him train the 800m world-record holder David Rudisha, Eamonn observes at first-hand his unlikely but lasting legacy. Part travelogue, part tribute, the documentary also features an interview with Eamonn's childhood hero, the great Olympic athlete Kip Keino.
Having spent 40 years designing one innovative car after another, his portfolio includes the most successful F1 car ever raced and what is widely considered to be the greatest sports car of all time. But today Professor Murray has set himself even more challenging goals as his focus turns from racetrack to public road. Murray aims to transfer F1 technology to an inexpensive, lightweight city car for the masses. But is the industry at large prepared for the radical overhaul that Murray plans?
In 2007 former Bond girl Maryam d'Abo suffered a brain hemorrhage. The experience inspired her to make a film on survivors of brain injuries. As she guides us through her personal journey of recovery, she talks to others who have suffered brain injury along the way. Alongside the testimony of eminent neurosurgeons, neurologists and neuro-psychologists, their first-hand stories celebrate the human will to survive.
Victoria Pendleton is the most compelling sportswoman in Britain. As brutally honest and revelatory on camera as she is driven and competitive when flying around a steeply banked bowl of a cycling track, Pendleton offers a rare insight into the way an otherwise ordinary life has been consumed by the sacrifice and intensity required to win an Olympic event. The 30 year-old sprint cyclist is already an Olympic champion, having won gold in Beijing in 2008, but in Victoria Pendleton: Cycling's Golden Girl she takes us on a bruising and intimate personal journey.
On July 21st 1972 the IRA planned the biggest car bomb blitz ever seen. 40 years on we tell the story of that day through the eyes of people who were there.
Documentary examining the significance of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, which was celebrated in 1897 with an unprecedented display of pomp and pageantry. Drawing on archive film, contemporary interviews and expert analysis, the programme reveals why Queen Victoria herself was surprisingly reluctant to take part in the celebration.
There are 80,000 kids in the UK growing up in care - the vast majority will never be adopted and spend their childhoods with no permanent home, being moved from foster placements to children's homes. Ashley John-Baptiste is best known for leaving boyband The Risk, who were tipped as potential winners of the X-Factor. A talented singer-songwriter, Ashley has a very strong sense of his being in charge of his own destiny. Aged two, he was placed in care, where he remained until adulthood. Unlike most children in care, for whom life chances are bleak, Ashley bucked the odds, doing well in school and eventually graduating from Cambridge. In this documentary, he goes back to look at the children who are growing up in the care system in the same way he did - with no chance of adoption and with no permanent home throughout childhood.
Zoe Smith, Hannah Powell and Helen Jewell have dedicated their lives to the ultimate Olympic dream of representing Team GB at London 2012. BBC Three has been following these young teammates as they hone their skills, resist temptations and watch their weight in order to secure one of the two female spots on the British weightlifting squad.
Documentary following Tom Daley, Britain's Olympic poster boy, as he prepares for the London 2012 Olympics. He has dreamt of competing for most of his young life, but the final year of preparations has been his most challenging.
Ireland's economic recession has caused a boom in one of the unlikeliest sectors of the music industry - Irish rap. This no-holds-barred film follows bands such as the Class A'z as they tour Dublin's working-class clubs trying to find an audience amongst the country's disaffected youth. Despite millions of internet hits the band remain unsigned and competition for dwindling audiences has led to feuds and fights amongst rival rappers. This is a warm-hearted film about growing up as a rapper in Ireland and the struggle to find fame in a genre that is frequently ridiculed.
As London 2012 gets under way, the Paralympic games are moving centre stage. But almost unknown to the millions who will watch the 2012 Olympics there is a third Olympic movement. The Special Olympics is for people with learning difficulties, and for the athletes, just taking part is a major achievement. This film follows a dancer with Down's syndrome, a judo fighter with autism, a bowler who has brain damage and a basketball player with Asperger's syndrome. As they prepare for the games, held in Leicester in 2009, they overcome their difficulties to compete on a world stage.
Simon Vaughan looks at the assassination of serving prime minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812.
This is the story of a group of Afghan actors bringing a production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors to an international festival at London's Globe theatre. Over 30 years of war have virtually destroyed Afghan theatre. Women can be harassed for performing on stage. Yet in just a few months the actors are expected to perform in front of an audience of thousands at one of the most prestigious theatres in the world.
Documentary about judo fighter Ashley McKenzie, who is trying to win a place at the London Olympics despite suffering from ADHD which has got him into trouble all his life.
Ian McBride embarks on a journey to discover the global significance of a little-known Ulster thinker, whose radical ideas about human nature and human rights helped shape the modern world.
Over the last three summers conductor Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra have been performing all nine Beethoven symphonies across the world. Formed in 1999, this is no ordinary orchestra. Its members include Israelis and Arabs. The idealism of Beethoven's music makes it the perfect choice of repertoire. The three-year tour - called Beethoven for All - finishes this summer at the BBC Proms, in the Royal Albert Hall - the first time in 70 years that all nine symphonies have been played there. Two centuries after they were written, Beethoven's nine symphonies are a landmark in western music. Each sets a new challenge to conductor, orchestra and audience. In the summer of 2011 the orchestra toured China and South Korea - where all nine symphonies were performed together for the first time. The BBC joined the tour to discover why they are regarded as one of the pinnacles of classical music.
An intimate portrait of Amish family life and faith - this film opens up a world usually kept private. Miriam and David are Old Order Amish and photography is not permitted under the strict rules of the Amish church. So when they agree to open their home and their lives to the cameras, they embark on a journey which is not without risk. As the film unfolds, we learn exactly what is at stake for this family - and why they wanted to share their lives and risk all.
Daniel Gordon's documentary looks at the legacy of the men's 100-metre final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when gold medallist Ben Johnson tested positive for anabolic steroids and scandal reigned. For the first time ever, the eight athletes who ran in that infamous race tell their story.
A wartime Spitfire is unearthed from an Irish bog, while divers explore sunken U-boats and merchant ships littering the seabed offshore. Dan Snow tells how, during World War II, Northern Ireland was thrust to the heart of the Battle of the Atlantic, and how excavations in Italy reveal just how Northern Irish troops took the fight to the battlegrounds of Europe.
The story of how Russell Brand battled to stay clean of drugs is at the heart of this honest, personal film in which he challenges how our society deals with addicts and addiction.
The dark heart of the Nazi holocaust, Treblinka was an extermination camp where over 800,000 Polish Jews perished from 1942. Only two men can bear final witness to its terrible crimes. Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman were slave labourers who escaped in a dramatic revolt in August 1943. One would seek vengeance in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, while the other would appear in the sensational trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961. This film documents their amazing survivor stories and the tragic fate of their families, and offers new insights into a forgotten death camp.
Julien Temple's epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown. From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and above all ordinary people, this is the story of London's immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever. Reaching back to the dawn of film in London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive, voices of Londoners past and present and the flow of popular music across the century; a stream of urban consciousness, like the river which flows through its heart. It ends now, as London prepares to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympics.
Documentary in which Amal Fashanu meets survivors of the Colorado shootings and examines issues surrounding US gun massacres.
Insightful documentary by director Claire Braden about five deaf teenagers as they take their first steps into the hearing world.
EastEnders actress Rita Simons has five-year old twin daughters, Maiya and Jaimee. Maiya was diagnosed with hearing loss at six-months old. Rita and husband Theo have just had the shocking news that, one day, she will probably lose her hearing completely.
In 1978 the Undertones released Teenage Kicks, one of the most perfect and enduring pop records of all time - an adolescent anthem that spoke to teenagers all over the globe. It was the first in a string of hits that created a timeless soundtrack to growing up, making the Undertones one of punk rock's most prolific and popular bands. Unlike the anarchic ragings of the Sex Pistols or the overt politics of the Clash, the Undertones sang of mummy's boys, girls - or the lack of them - and their irritating cousin Kevin. But their gems of pop music were revolutionary nonetheless - startlingly positive protest songs that demanded a life more ordinary. Because The Undertones came from Derry, epicentre of the violent troubles that tore Northern Ireland apart during the 1970s. Featuring interviews with band members, their friends, family, colleagues and contemporaries, alongside archive and music, this documentary is the remarkable, funny and moving story of one of Britain's favourite bands - the most improbable pop stars who emerged from one of the darkest, most violent places on the planet.
For more than two decades, the families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster have claimed that South Yorkshire Police covered up the full story of what happened on 15th April 1989. Now, Lucy Hester speaks to police officers, Hillsborough victims' family members and the author of an infamous article in the Sun newspaper which blamed Liverpool fans for the disaster.
In 1976 a new high-speed train, the Inter-City 125, helped save British Rail, an unfashionable nationalised industry suffering from a financial crisis, industrial relations problems and a poor public image. The train was launched with the help of a memorable advertising campaign, fronted by Sir Jimmy Savile, which announced that the 1980s would be the 'age of the train'. BR had an energetic new boss, Sir Peter Parker, who was determined to revive the railways. The result was a typically British success story, full of surprises and setbacks, as this documentary shows.
Dame Diana Rigg explores the enduring popularity of The Lark Ascending by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The programme culminates in a new performance of the work by 15-year-old violin prodigy Julia Hwang and pianist Charles Matthews using the original arrangement for violin and piano.
A programme celebrating the first screening of the 'Billy' plays, 30 years after their first network broadcast. Filmed in early 1980s Belfast, the dramas were a first for many involved, including Kenneth Branagh and writer Graham Reid. In this documentary, the cast - including James Ellis and Brid Brennan - share their memories of the landmark dramas that will always remain close to their hearts.
For his entire life, one man has nursed the dream of putting mankind into space. He started his career working on Britain's Blue Streak rocket, then HOTOL - the world's first attempt to build a 'single-stage-to-orbit' spacecraft. Each time thwarted by lack of funding from the UK government, so, together with two colleagues, Richard Varvill and John Scott-Scott, he decided to go it alone. This documentary tells the story of how the three rocketeers defeated the Official Secrets Act, shrugged off government intransigence and defied all conventional wisdom to build a revolutionary new spacecraft - Skylon.
Religion and science are frequently set up as polar opposites; incompatible ways of thinking. The Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks begs to differ. For him, science and religion can, and should, work together. To mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, he puts his position to the test. He meets three non-believing scientists, each at the top of their field: neurologist Baroness Susan Greenfield, theoretical physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili, and the person best known for leading the scientific attack on religion, Professor Richard Dawkins. Will the Chief Rabbi succeed in convincing the militant defender of atheism that science and religion need not be at war?
Movies were a wonder of the Edwardian age, but they were only in black and white. With a fortune waiting for whoever could invent moving colour images, a desperate race began to be the first, with back stabbing businessmen, amazing engineering and a tragic death all involved. Now, researchers at the National Media Museum in Bradford have made a remarkable discovery that rewrites film history. Brighton may have been the Hollywood of the Edwardian age, but the question is: who actually came first in the race for colour? Broadcaster, journalist and film critic Antonia Quirke follows the National Media Museum's astonishing discovery, and looks back at the history of the colour film industry.
Personal portrait of the critically-acclaimed and enigmatic British folk rock singer Richard Thompson, providing an insight into his fascinating life alongside exclusive footage. Contributors include Billy Connolly, Bonnie Raitt, ex-wife Linda Thompson, Harry Shearer and Richard's wife Nancy Covey. The documentary visits him at home in both London and Los Angeles - the first time such intimate access has been granted to this private and complex artist. In the 60s whilst still a teenager, Thompson wrote generation-defining songs like Meet on the Ledge. As founder member of Fairport Convention, as a duo with then-wife Linda and more recently as a solo artist, Thompson's unique mix of rock and traditional music has ironically become more popular now in America than in the UK. At their height, tragedy struck Fairport Convention when a motorway accident killed their engineer, drummer and Richard's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn. Galvanised by grief they created stark new music, adapting traditional songs for a young electric band and spearheading folk rock. Richard and Linda Thompson's songs of spiritual yearning culminated in their becoming Sufi Muslims. Alternative living and devotional music gave way to the 80s success Shoot out the Lights. Good fortune coincided with the duo's messy divorce, painfully played out on their legendary US tour. The documentary captures this tension and highly-charged atmosphere with exclusive footage recorded at one of the last concerts by a fan in America, which has never been seen on television before. Since then Richard's solo career has burgeoned, especially in America, with such resolutely English-themed songs as Vincent Black Lightning 1952, celebrating a classic British motorbike. As well as featuring powerful performances of songs such as Over the Rainbow and A Heart Needs a Home, the documentary includes Solitary Life and Kidzz, neither of which appear on his recent album The Old Kit Bag.
In September 1912, nearly half a million Unionist men and women signed the Ulster Covenant. Now, 100 years on from this historic moment, a new Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund documentary from DoubleBand Films explores the dramatic story behind this event which laid the foundations of the political landscape we live in today.
This celebration of the history and aesthetic of country music tracks the evolution of the genre from the 1920s to the present, exploring country as both folk and pop music - a 20th century soundtrack to the lives of working-class Americans in the South, forever torn between their rural roots and a mostly urban future, between authenticity and showbiz. Exploring many of the great stars of country from Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams to Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, director Andy Humphries's meditation on the power and pull of country blends brilliant archive and contributions from a broad cast that includes Dolly Parton, the Handsome Family, Laura Cantrell, Hank Williams III, kd lang and many more. If you have ever wondered about the sound of a train in the distance, the keening of a pedal steel guitar, the lure of rhinestone or the blue Kentucky hills, and if you want to know why twang matters, this is the documentary for you
The case of Oscar Slater - widely held to be the biggest miscarriage of justice in Scottish history.
After a new report about Hillsborough was published, Judith Moritz reports on a 23 year battle for the truth about Britain's worst sporting disaster, in which 96 people were killed.
In September 1862, Paisley-born photographer Alexander Gardner took a series of battlefield photographs that shocked America. His images of dead soldiers at Antietam revolutionised the way Americans saw their Civil War. Gardner would also capture the most revealing portraits of President Abraham Lincoln. Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly looks back at Gardner's work.
World-renowned, shamanistic artist Barry Flanagan was one of the world's foremost figurative sculptors, with his work exhibited in streetscapes such as Park Avenue in New York, the Champs Elysées in Paris and O'Connell Street in Dublin. His trademark hare sculptures marked him out as an innovator and he once described himself as an English-speaking itinerant European sculptor. In this documentary, one-man filmmaker Peter Bach embarks on a personal journey by making a vow to Flanagan, who at the time is wrestling with motor neurone disease on the island of Ibiza, that he will travel the world and bring back footage of strangers by his public works and film the artist watching them as he wrestles with his disease. This journey of discovery takes us across Europe and the United States and is a celebration and homage to Flanagan's work.
Documentary which gets to the heart of who Jeff Lynne is and how he has had such a tremendous musical influence on our world. The story is told by the British artist himself and such distinguished collaborators and friends of Jeff as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Barbara Orbison and Eric Idle. The film reveals that Lynne is a true man of music, for whom the recording studio is his greatest instrument.
On October 5th 1962 the Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do. It was a moment that changed music history and popular culture forever. It was also an extraordinary year in social and cultural history, not just for Liverpool but for the world, with the Cuban missile crisis, John Glenn in space and beer at a shilling a pint. Stuart Maconie explores how the Beatles changed from leather and slicked back hair to suits and Beatle mops, and how their fashion set the pace for the sixties to follow. Pop artist Sir Peter Blake, Bob Harris and former Beatles drummer Pete Best join friends to reflect on how the Beatles evolved into John, Paul, George and Ringo - the most famous band in the world.
The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy? Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill. Reynolds reveals a prime minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940 - a leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France. The film marks the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein in 1942.
Seductive, fearless, and outrageous, Marina Abramovic has been redefining what art is for nearly 40 years. In this documentary, Marina prepares for what may be the most important moment of her life - a major new retrospective of her work, taking place at the Museum of Modern Art. For Marina, it is far more - it is the chance to finally silence the question she has been hearing over and over again for four decades: 'But why is this art?'.
Peter Capaldi embarks upon a personal journey to discover the shocking history of the stars of north London's famous film studios. Including clips from rarely seen films and interviews with Marcia Warren and Terry Gilliam.
Smart and witty, jam-packed with augmented-reality graphics and fascinating history, this film, presented by Professor David Spiegelhalter, tries to pin down what chance is and how it works in the real world. For once this really is 'risky' television. The film follows in the footsteps of The Joy of Stats, which won the prestigious Grierson Award for Best Science/Natural History programme of 2011. Now the same blend of wit and wisdom, animation, graphics and gleeful nerdery is applied to the joys of chance and the mysteries of probability, the vital branch of mathematics that gives us a handle on what might happen in the future. Professor Spiegelhalter is ideally suited to that task, being Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University, as well as being a recent Winter Wipeout contestant on BBC TV. How can you maximise your chances of living till you're 100? Why do many of us experience so many spooky coincidences? Should I take an umbrella? These are just some of the everyday questions the film tackles as it moves between Cambridge, Las Vegas, San Francisco and... Reading. Yet the film isn't shy of some rather loftier questions. After all, our lives are pulled about and pushed around by the mysterious workings of chance, fate, luck, call it what you will. But what actually is chance? Is it something fundamental to the fabric of the universe? Or rather, as the French 18th century scientist Pierre Laplace put it, 'merely a measure of our ignorance'. Along the way Spiegelhalter is thrilled to discover One Million Random Digits, probably the most boring book in the world, but one full of hidden patterns and shapes. He introduces us to the cheery little unit called the micromort (a one-in-a-million chance of dying), taking the rational decision to go sky-diving because doing so only increases his risk of dying this year from 7000 to 7007 micromorts. And in one sequence he uses the latest infographics to demonstrate how life exp
There is a battle playing out inside your body right now. It started billions of years ago and it is still being fought in every one of us every minute of every day. It is the story of a viral infection - the battle for the cell. This film reveals the exquisite machinery of the human cell system from within the inner world of the cell itself - from the frenetic membrane surface that acts as a security system for everything passing in and out of the cell, the dynamic highways that transport cargo across the cell and the remarkable turbines that power the whole cellular world to the amazing nucleus housing DNA and the construction of thousands of different proteins all with unique tasks. The virus intends to commandeer this system to one selfish end: to make more viruses. And they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. Exploring the very latest ideas about the evolution of life on earth and the bio-chemical processes at the heart of every one of us, and revealing a world smaller than it is possible to comprehend, in a story large enough to fill the biggest imaginations. With contributions from Professor Bonnie L Bassler of Princeton University, Dr Nick Lane and Professor Steve Jones of University College London and Cambridge University's Susanna Bidgood.
Anthony Baxter's film on the David and Goliath-style conflict between a group of proud Scottish homeowners and American tycoon Donald Trump, as he gets set to build a huge golf resort on an environmentally protected site in Aberdeenshire. Baxter follows the local residents as they make their last stand in the face of security harassments, legal threats and the loss of their water and electricity supplies. Baxter himself becomes international news after being thrown in jail following an interview with Mr Trump's green keeper. Told entirely without narration, the film captures the cultural chasm between the glamorous, jet-setting and media-savvy Donald Trump and a deeply rooted Scottish community. For the tycoon, the golf course is just another deal, with a possible billion dollar payoff. For the residents, it represents the destruction of a globally unique landscape that has been the backdrop for their lives.
Pages From Ceefax, which shows pages from the BBC's teletext news service accompanied by background music, has been shown on BBC Two in the gaps between shows since 1982, making it one of the longest-running features on the channel. But with the full text service ending on Tuesday 23 October 2012, the feature - broadcast overnight in recent years - was shown for the final time on the morning of Monday 22 October. A special countdown in the top-left hand corner and a final screen of classic Ceefax graphics marked the final moments on air. The playlist of music for this final programme was tracks 1-14 of the compilation album "Great Ocean Road" featuring music by Grossart, Burns and Williams of Funtastik Music, followed by the instrumental "BART" by Tom Fogerty from his album "Ruby".
This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by NASA, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. On the way the Voyagers would be bombarded by space dust, fried by radiation and discover many of the remarkable wonders of the solar system. Now, at the end of 2012, 35 years and 11 billion miles later, they are leaving the area of the sun's influence. As they journey out into the galaxy beyond they carry a message from Earth, a golden record bolted to the side of each craft describing our civilisation in case of discovery by another. This is the definitive account of the most intrepid explorers in Earth's history.
This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe. Once we thought the sun and stars were gods and giants. Now we know, in a way, our instincts were right. The stars do all have their own characters, histories and role in the cosmos. Not least, they played a vital part in creating us. There are old, bloated red giants, capable of gobbling up planets in their orbit; explosive deaths - supernovae - that forge the building blocks of life; and black holes, the most mysterious stellar tombstones. And, of course, stars in their prime, like our own sun. Leading astronomers reveal how the grandest drama on tonight is the one playing above our heads.
During a presidential election campaign, it is easy to think that Americans are all at each other's throats. Historian and journalist Tim Stanley, for whom America is a second home, believes there's another America out there and the best guide to the country is its sitcoms. With the help of top sitcom writers and some of the best examples of their work, he uncovers a fast-changing nation that can often leave the politicians scrabbling to catch up. Ranging from South Park to The Cosby Show, Family Guy to Will and Grace, The Simpsons to Ellen, Tim explores how sitcoms mirror American life, and shows how they can help us understand what Americans think on issues like race, religion, gay rights, abortion and the economy. The current smash hit Modern Family has got teen sex, a mixed race marriage and a gay couple bringing up an adopted baby. While hilarious, it also reflects real life and the attitudes of modern Americans. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney say they're fighting for rival visions of America, yet the sitcoms and their writers reveal a country that's far more complex, surprising - and funny.
Comedian Rich Hall goes in search of the real American Indian, a people who have too often been stereotyped. This image portrayed through cinema and literature is not a true representation of the Native American, giving Rich the opportunity to redress the balance.
Art historian and critic Alastair Sooke reveals how the Devil's image was created by artists of the Middle Ages. He explores how, in the centuries between the birth of Christ and the Renaissance, visual interpretations of the Devil evolved, with the embodiment of evil appearing in different guises - tempter, tyrant, and rebellious angel. Alastair shows how artists used their imaginations to give form to Satan, whose description is absent from the Bible. Exploring some of the most remarkable art in Europe, he tells the stories behind that art and examines the religious texts and thinking which inspired and influenced the artists. The result is a rich and unique picture of how art and religion have combined to define images of good and evil.
Eddie Izzard is among those paying tribute to a comic genius, a man who blasted his way through six decades of comedy with his unique brand of surreal, classless humour.
In this one-off documentary, Space Dive tells the behind-the-scenes story of Felix Baumgartner's historic, record-breaking freefall from the edge of space to Earth. The world watched with bated breath when Felix became the first person to freefall through the sound barrier on 15 October 2012, after jumping from 128,100ft (24 miles) from the edge of space. Space Dive features footage, which until now has been kept closely under wraps, from cameras attached to Felix, as he broke through the sound barrier. The documentary follows Felix as he underwent years of training under the watchful eye of 82-year-old colonel Joe Kittinger, the man who set the original record when he fell 19 miles to Earth (102,000 feet) 50 years ago, since which two men died in similar attempts. During Felix's intense physical training, the cameras capture the basejumper as he struggles to overcome a severe claustrophic reaction to the movement-restricting pressure suit, and how the mission came close to aborting in the final stages of the ascent, and saw just how close Felix came to spinning and tumbling to unconsciousness during the jump.
Care-leaver Charlotte eats just one meal a day. It's all she can afford, so she starves herself till evening. Sandra, middle class mother of five, is embarrassed that all she can give her son for his school packed lunch is bread and butter. Middle manager Kelly, mother of two, hasn't eaten for two days. Meet Britain's hidden hungry - and they're not what you'd expect.
Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling voyage through European horror cinema. From the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the wake of World War I to lesbian vampires in 1970s Belgium, from the black-gloved killers of Italy's bloody Giallo thrillers to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, Mark reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition.
Chocolate limes, buttered brazils, sherbert dib-dabs and marshmallows - as part of the Food, Glorious Food season, food writer Nigel Slater charts the origins of British sweets and chocolates from medicinal, medieval boiled sweets to the chocolate bars that line the supermarket shelves today. With adverts of the sweets everyone remembers and loves, this nostalgic, emotional and heart-warming journey transports Nigel back to his childhood by the powerful resonance of the sweets he used to buy with his pocket money. Nigel recalls the curiously small toffee that inspired him to write his memoir, the marshmallow, which he associates with his mother, and the travel sweet, which conjures up memories of his father. He marvels at the power of something as incidental as a sweet to reveal emotions, character and the past.
As part of the Food, Glorious Food season, historian Lucy Worsley journeys across England and Wales in search of Dorothy Hartley, the long-forgotten writer of what is today considered to be one of the masterpieces of food writing, Food in England, published in 1954. Hartley, these days a lost figure and forgotten author, spent her life between the two world wars travelling the length and breadth of the country in search of a rapidly vanishing rural Britain. She had the imagination to document and record, to photograph and illustrate (she was an accomplished artist and photographer as well as writer) the ways of life and the craft skills of farmers, labourers, village craftspeople, and itinerant workers. She recorded the way they worked, the tools they used, the techniques they adopted and the food they produced and prepared. Most of Hartley's writing is out of print and only half-remembered, but one of her published works, her magnum opus Food in England, was first published in 1954 and these days is considered to be a masterpiece on the subject of the history of what we ate. Lucy Worsley traces the life of Dorothy Hartley (Dee to her friends) to try to discover something about the woman behind the book, what she was like, why she wrote in the way she did about the British rural landscape between the wars and why Food in England has had such a growing reputation amongst the hundreds of books published about food in Britain each year.
Pound shops are one of the fastest growing retail sectors, boosted by consumers keen to bag a bargain in economic hard times. This warm and witty documentary follows the extremely rapid expansion of two family-run retail businesses, as they both race to dominate the high street. 99p Stores Ltd is run by the dynamic Hussein Lalani and is based in Northampton. The family-run firm has 160 shops at the start of filming in February 2012, predominantly situated in the south. Hussein is determined to expand north, bringing him into direct competition with Yorkshire-based pound shop chain Poundworld. Charismatic MD Chris Edwards began his family business with a single market stall in Wakefield, and his elderly mother Alice still pops into HQ each morning to make him toast. At the beginning of the documentary, Poundworld has 130 shops, mostly in the north, and Chris is keen to open more stores in the south. Meanwhile both companies have to compete with the UK's largest pound store chain, private equity-funded Poundland. Whenever 99p Stores opens a new shop, they put on a show with entertainment, balloons and a 99-second trolley dash - but Hussein discovers that supermarket sweeps aren't going to attract the posh customers of Chester. In Salford it's a different story, with one new customer thrilled to be able to buy a handbag for her wedding for just 99p. Poundworld's customer service trainer Denise sees her company as 'the Harrods of pound shops', but will shoppers in the south feel the same way? Can the 99p Stores expand quickly enough to retain their market position, or will Chris's Poundworld chain catch up? The two family businesses are in direct competition - even opening some stores right next door to each other - but who will come out on top?
On 13 September 1940, 80,000 Italian troops marched into Egypt to threaten the epicentre of the British Empire at a critical point in the Second World War. By 1942, the desert skirmish in North Africa had become pivotal to what was by then a truly global conflict, with hundreds of thousands of men from over ten nations fighting on one of the most inhospitable battlefields on earth, culminating in the Battle of El Alamein, seventy years ago. It was a triumph that marked, in Churchill's famous words, 'the end of the beginning'. This is the story of how the men who fought and died here were players in a volatile drama scripted by Churchill, Roosevelt, Mussolini and Hitler in the war capitals of London, Washington, Rome and Berlin. Jonathan Dimbleby travels to all the key locations, among them the Cabinet War Rooms deep beneath Whitehall, Hitler's vast bunker in Poland, the tunnels under Malta where civilians sheltered from the Nazi bombs and the Brenner Pass, where Hitler and Mussolini met to decide the world's fate. Based on Dimbleby's new book, Destiny in the Desert, the film sheds new light on the significance of this key campaign, on which Churchill gambled both his own future and that of Britain itself.
Documentary following English folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention as they celebrate their 45th anniversary in 2012. Fairport's iconic 1969 album Liege and Lief featured some of folk music's biggest names - including singer Sandy Denny, guitarist Richard Thompson and fiddler Dave Swarbrick - and was voted by Radio 2 listeners as the most influential folk album of all time. Today, having struggled for years with numerous line-up changes (26 members to date) and shifting musical fashions, these ageing folk-rockers host their annual festival in Cropredy, Oxfordshire in front of a passionate 20,000 crowd. Comedian Frank Skinner, who played the ukulele on Fairport's 2010 album Festival Bell, narrates this tale of the rise and fall - and rise again - of the original English folk-rockers.
Georg Solti was one of the most charismatic and controversial conductors of the twentieth century, one who dominated classical music for nearly fifty years through a winning, if not always endearing, combination of ambition, technique, sheer bloody-mindedness and genius. This film marks the centenary of his birth and re-examines the Solti legend and legacy, using rare archive footage and contemporary interviews with some of the biggest names in classical music.
In 2011 Belfast City Council elected its youngest ever Lord Mayor, Sinn Fein's Niall O Donnghaile. At just twenty-five and with little political experience, he was thrust into the limelight for one of the biggest years in Belfast's history. In The Belfast Mayor - A Year in Chains, cameras follow the ups and downs of Niall's tenure, from the highs of hosting the MTV European Music Awards and opening Titanic Belfast, to the low point when his refusal to present an army cadet with a Duke of Edinburgh Award resulted in widespread vilification. We reveal the man behind the headlines.
Shakin' Stevens holds the distinction of being the most successful UK singles chart performer of a decade (beating Michael Jackson, Duran Duran and Madonna); an honour shared with The Beatles (1960s) and Elton John (1970s). He charted no fewer than 30 top 30 hit singles in ten years and, to date, has spent nearly 9 years in the UK charts. But despite his incredible UK and international achievements, a biographical documentary on his life and career has never been made. This documentary tells his story for the first time.
It's the 1970s and Australian wine is a joke - not for drinking, as Monty Python put it, but for 'laying down and avoiding'. The idea that a wine made Down Under could ever challenge the august products of Burgundy or Tuscany has wine buffs and snobby sommeliers sniggering into their tasting spoons. But little more than 40 years later, Australian winemaking is leading the world. London merchants sell more wine from Australia than from any other country, while the chastened French wine industry reluctantly take note of how modern winemaking - and wine marketing - is really done. Chateau Chunder is both a social history of wine and wine drinking and an in-depth examination of how a small group of enterprising Australian winemakers took on the world and won, changing the way that wine is made and marketed.
Crossfire Hurricane, directed by Brett Morgen, provides a remarkable new perspective on the Stones' unparalleled journey from blues-obsessed teenagers in the early 60s to rock royalty. It's all here in panoramic candour, from the Marquee Club to Hyde Park, from Altamont to 'Exile, from club gigs to stadium extravaganzas. With never-before-seen footage and fresh insights from the band themselves, Crossfire Hurricane places the viewer on the frontline of the band's most legendary escapades. Taking its title from a lyric in Jumping Jack Flash, Crossfire Hurricane gives the audience an intimate insight, for the first time, into exactly what it's like to be part of the Rolling Stones, as they overcame denunciation, drugs, dissensions and death to become the definitive survivors. The odyssey includes film from the Stones' initial road trips and first controversies as they became the anti-Beatles, the group despised by authority because they connected and communicated with their own generation as no-one ever had. 'When we got together,' says Wyman, 'something magical happened, and no one could ever copy that'. Riots and the chaos of early tours are graphically depicted, as is the birth of the Jagger-Richards songwriting partnership. The many dramas they encountered are also fully addressed, including the Redlands drug bust, the descent of Brian Jones into what Richards calls 'bye-bye land', and the terror and disillusionment of 1969's Altamont Festival. The film illustrates the Stones' evolution from being, as Mick vividly describes it, 'the band everybody hated to the band everybody loves': through the hedonistic 1970s and Keith's turning-point bust in Canada, to the spectacular touring phenomenon we know today. Richards also reveals the song that he believes defines the 'essence' of his writing relationship with Jagger more than any other. The film combines extensive historical footage, much of it widely unseen, with contemporary commentaries by Mick Ja
How young people took to social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to record Superstorm Sandy, from first dark warnings to devastating reality and chaotic aftermath. The first great natural disaster documented and shared on the social network, we speak to those who captured history with mobile phones and mini-cameras.
Over the last five years an independent record shop has closed in the UK every three days. This film is documentary portrait of one of the very last still trading - a vinyl record shop in Teesside, a cultural haven in one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Filmmaker Jeanie Finlay, who grew up three miles from the shop, follows daily life in a place that is thriving against the odds, ensured of survival by the local community that keeps it alive. A distinctive, funny and intimate film about men, the North and the irreplaceable role music plays in our lives.
A dramatic minute-by-minute account of the superstorm that brought New York State to its knees. Using satellite imagery, CGI mapping and the powerful personal testimony of those who lived through it, this is a forensic analysis of the meteorological, engineering and human devastation wreaked by Sandy.
Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, the men behind Squeeze, have been called everything from the new Lennon and McCartney to the godfathers of Britpop. Now, 35 years after their first record, this documentary reappraises the songwriting genius of Difford and Tilbrook and shows why Squeeze hold a special place in British pop music. Difford and Tilbrook, two working class kids from south east London, formed Squeeze in 1974 with the dream of one day appearing on Top of the Pops. In 1978, they achieved that dream when the single Take Me I'm Yours gave the band the first of a string of top 20 hits. The period from 1978 to 1982 saw the group release a run of classic singles, timeless gems such as Cool for Cats, Up the Junction, Labelled with Love, Tempted and Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) to name but a few. Although the line-up of Squeeze would go through various changes of personnel (another founder member Jools Holland left in 1980 and then rejoined the group in 1985) it is Difford and Tilbrook's songs that have remained the constant throughout the lifetime of the band. The duo explain how they came to write and record many of their greatest songs. Although their relationship at times has often been tenuous at best, the mutual admiration for each other's talent has produced some of the best songs of the past 40 years. With contributions from former band members Jools Holland and Paul Carrack, together with testament from Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler and Aimee Mann to Difford and Tilbrook's songwriting talent and why they deserve to be placed alongside such renowned songwriting partnerships as Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards and Elton John and Bernie Taupin
Documentary chronicling our ever-changing love affair with the British singles chart on the occasion of its 60th anniversary. From the first NME chart in 1952, via Pick and Top of the Pops to home-taping the Radio One chart show and beyond, we have measured out our lives to a wonderful churn of pop driven, unbeknownst to us, by a clandestine world of music biz hustle. Featuring contributions by 60 years of BBC chart custodians from David Jacobs to Reggie Yates, chart fans Grace Dent and Pete Paphides and music biz veterans Jon Webster and Rob Dickins.
In 2010, the ash cloud from an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano brought Europe to a standstill. In this Volcano Live special, Kate Humble heads for the source of the ash to ask whether we should now be preparing for more of the same. On her journey, Kate meets the scientists monitoring the country's most dangerous volcanoes, and investigates the biggest eruptions in Iceland's past - including a catastrophic 18th-century event that killed thousands in Iceland and also appears to have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people across Britain and Europe. In 2010, it became clear that Britain is well within the reach of big Icelandic eruptions. To help prepare for the next one, what can we learn from the people who live right alongside them?
Young body-obsessed Brits turn the cameras on themselves. Diving beneath the surface of Britain's body confidence crisis, this film follows up to 30 young people who are unhappy with their appearance as they attempt to transform their bodies and their lives forever. Using handheld cameras, the diverse characters from across Britain film their extraordinary journeys over six months. From extreme weight loss surgery to boob jobs and hair transplants, they take us with them on the roller-coaster ride of anxiety, emotion, excitement and pressure they experience on their quest for perfection. This is the real story of body-obsessed Britain, told through their eyes.
Following the world's youngest transsexual as she attempts to win Miss England and draw attention to the challenges she's faced to become her true self. From bullying to suicide attempts, surgery to the catwalk, follow one girl's brave attempt to achieve acceptance for who she really is.
In this innovative observational documentary, four young men who are all unhappy with their bodies and feel that their size and shape is negatively impacting their lives attempt to achieve their dream physiques. Two of them are skinny men who are going to be pumping up and two are bodybuilders desperate to come down in size. Helping them achieve their transformation is celebrity trainer Mark Anthony and elite sports doctor Kay Brennan. At the end of three months, will these young men have achieved their dream bodies? And more importantly will a new physique make them happy? Or will they realise muscles don't necessarily make a man?
Documentary packed with memories, images and insights into the power of pop and rock's first and most abiding artefact - the seven inch, vinyl 45 rpm record; a small, perfectly-formed object that seems to contain the hopes, fears, sounds and experiences of our different generations. The viewer is invited on a journey of celebration from the 1950s rock n roll generation to the download kids of today, taking in classic singles from all manner of artists in each decade - from the smell of vinyl to the delights of the record label; from the importance of the record shop to the bittersweet brevity of the song itself; from stacking singles on a Dansette spindle to dropping the needle and thrilling to the intro. With contributions from Noddy Holder, Jack White, Richard Hawley, Suzi Quatro, Holly Johnson, Jimmy Webb, Pete Waterman, Norah Jones, Mike Batt, Graham Gouldman, Miranda Sawyer, Norman Cook, Trevor Horn, Neil Sedaka, Paul Morley, Rob Davies, Brian Wilson and Mike Love.
Documentary which highlights cockney duo Chas & Dave's rich, unsung pedigree in the music world and a career spanning 50 years, almost the entire history of UK pop. They played with everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to Gene Vincent, toured with the Beatles, opened for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth - and yet are known mainly just for their cheery singalongs and novelty records about snooker and Spurs. The film also looks at the pair's place among the great musical commentators on London life - and in particular the influence of music hall on their songs and lyrics. The film crew followed Chas & Dave on their final tour, having called it a day after the death of Dave's wife, and blends live concert footage with archive backstory, including some astonishing early performances and duets with the likes of Eric Clapton. Among the experts and zealous fans talking about their love of the duo are Pete Doherty, Jools Holland and Phill Jupitus. Narrated by Arthur Smith.
In 2011 24-year-old Jesse Jones went missing. After five days his body was found at a local beauty spot in Dorset. During the search for Jesse it emerged that unbeknownst to his family, he was suffering from acute depression and believed a commonly prescribed acne drug, was largely to blame. 85% of young people get spots but for some, bad skin can take over their lives. Jesse's story provides the backbone for this moving and revealing film as Gemma Cairney and Jesse's father, Derek Jones, the director go on an emotional journey to look at how acne impacts on young people in the UK. In her search to find out just how bad this battle can be Gemma meets people all over Britain who are fighting their own war with acne and asks how far some people will go for clear skin. Along the way they meet sufferers who are battling with their skin and the doctors and dermatologists who are helping them fight it. They examine what treatments are available. With side effects that can be as minor as dry lips but as extreme as liver damage and depression, Gemma speaks to people who have used the same acne drug and looks into some of the pros and cons of taking it.
Contestants in the Miss Big Beautiful Woman pageant have big bodies and big personalities to match. This is a movement which has thrived in the US for years and has now burst into Britain, thanks to Linda Koch - the driving force behind the pageant. Linda insists she's not promoting obesity, but wants girls to be proud of their bodies - even if they weight over 20 stones. With exclusive access, this film focuses on four pageant finalists. Behind the diva moments, mascara and bling, each young woman has an extraordinary personal story. They've struggled against discrimination, bullying, difficult relationships and young parenthood. Now they squeeze into swimwear and glam-up in evening gowns bravely baring their plus size curves to the world. The documentary culminates in the pageant at a London Hotel on 10th November, where 19 anxious beauty queens battle for the Miss BBW 2012 crown.
With tales from old binmen and film archive that has never been broadcast before, this two-part series offers an original view of the history of modern Britain - from the back end where the rubbish comes out. The first programme deals with the decades immediately after the Second World War. 90-year-old Ernie Sharp started on the bins when he was demobbed from the army in 1947, and household rubbish in those days was mostly ash raked out of the fire-grate. That's why men like Ernie were called 'dust'men. But the rubbish soon changed. The Clean Air Act got rid of coal fires so there was less ash. Then supermarkets arrived, with displays of packaged goods. And all that packaging went in the bin. In the 1960s consumerism emerged. Shopping for new things became a national enthusiasm. It gave people the sense that their lives were improving and kept the economy going. And as the binmen recall, the waste stream became a flood. As the programme sifts through the rubbish of the mid-20th century, we discover how the Britain of Make Do and Mend became a consumer society
With tales from old binmen and film archive that has never been broadcast before, this two-part series offers an original view of the history of modern Britain - from the back end where the rubbish comes out. The second programme deals with the 1970s and 1980s, when two big ideas emerged in the waste management industry. The first was privatisation of public services. We meet Ian Ross, who made millions by taking over the refuse collection contract from the council that had once employed him as a binman. 'It was scary', Ian Ross admits, 'but you have one chance don't you, and you've got to take it.' The other idea that emerged was environmentalism. Ron England goes back to the supermarket car park in Barnsley, South Yorkshire where he set up the world's first bottle bank. 'Everyone said I was a crank', recalls Ron. But the waste stream continued to expand. This was great news for the Earls of Aylesford. The present Earl shows how his palace was saved with money earned from the enormous landfill in the grounds. This is the story of a society hooked on wastefulness - and of the people who clear up the mess.
Dan Snow attempts to use the latest satellite technology to reveal the secrets of the Roman Empire. Together with space archaeologist Sarah Parcak, Dan sets out to identify and then track down lost cities, amphitheatres and forts in an adventure that sees him travel through some of the most spectacular parts of the vast empire. Cutting-edge technology and traditional archaeology help build a better understanding of how Rome held such a large empire together for so long. The investigation potentially identifies several possibly significant sites including the arena at Portus; the lighthouse and a canal alongside the river Tiber near Rome.
The heart is the most symbolic organ of the human body. Throughout history it has been seen as the site of our emotions, the very centre of our being. But modern medicine has come to see the heart as just a pump; a brilliant pump, but nothing more. And we see ourselves as ruled by our heads and not our hearts. In this documentary, filmmaker David Malone asks whether we are right to take this view. He explores the heart's conflicting histories as an emotional symbol and a physical organ, and investigates what the latest science is learning about its structures, its capacities and its role. In the age-old battle of hearts and minds, will these new discoveries alter the balance and allow the heart to reclaim something of its traditional place at the centre of our humanity?
Life on Britain's roads can now be seen from a whole new perspective - thanks to the cycle helmet camera. As thirty four million vehicles and thirteen million bikes all try to share the same crowded space, this footage gives us a dramatic and unique insight into the unfolding tension and conflict. From everyday incidents that get out of hand between cyclists and motorists, to stories of near-death experiences and fatal collisions, this timely documentary shows the battle between two wheels and four has never been so intense. The programme shows both sides of the story, retelling dramatic incidents from both the cyclist's and driver's point of view. It follows the police on bikes as they chase down errant road users and record more than three thousand offences every year from car and bike users alike. We even see a cyclist who is attempting to police the roads himself, handing out his own 'tickets' for anything from texting behind the wheel, to jumping a red light. A mother who lost her cyclist daughter in a fatal collision with a cement mixer tells us the extraordinary story of what she did to change cycle safety on our roads, while a black cab driver's own loss changed his opinion about cyclists forever.
Were the ancient Scottish tribes too much for the Roman Empire? Or was Scotland simply not worth conquering? Archaeologist Dr Fraser Hunter looks back on three centuries of contact and conflict with the Roman invaders. The first Tay Bridge, the first depiction of tartan and forgotten Roman camps that once held thirty-five thousand men. A story of a superpower pitted against tribesmen and warlords, and one with fascinating modern parallels.
Two-part documentary telling the remarkable story of a band of visionaries who rescued some of the little narrow gauge railways that once served Britain's industries. These small railways and the steam engines that ran on them were once the driving force of Britain's mines, quarries, factories and docks. Then, as they disappeared after 1945, volunteers set to work to bring the lines and the steam engines back to life and started a movement which spread throughout the world. Their home movies tell the story of how they helped millions reconnect with a past they thought had gone forever.
Two-part documentary telling the remarkable story of a band of visionaries who rescued some of the little narrow gauge railways that once served Britain's industries. These small railways and the steam engines that ran on them were once the driving force of Britain's mines, quarries, factories and docks. Then, as they disappeared after 1945, volunteers set to work to bring the lines and the steam engines back to life and started a movement which spread throughout the world. Their home movies tell the story of how they helped millions reconnect with a past they thought had gone forever.
Nowhere in the British Isles was the Viking connection longer-lasting or deeper than in Scotland. Hundreds of years after their first hit-and-run raids, the Norsemen still dominated huge swathes of the country. But storm clouds were gathering. In 1263 the Norwegian king Haakon IV assembled a fleet of 120 longships to counter Scottish raids on the Norse Hebrides. It was a force comparable in size to the Spanish Armada over three centuries later. But like the Armada, the Norse fleet was eventually defeated by a powerful storm. Driven ashore near present-day Largs, the beleaguered Norsemen were attacked by a Scottish army. The outcome of this vicious encounter would mark the beginning of the end of Norse power in Scotland. Marine archeologist Dr Jon Henderson tells the incredible story of the the Norsemen in Scotland. Visiting fascinating archeological sites across Scotland and Norway, he reveals that, although the battle at Largs marked the end of an era for the Norsemen, their presence continued to shape the identity and culture of the Scottish nation to the present day.
Rachel and Becky Unthank continue their journey around England's hidden customs and dance traditions and into the dark heart of its winter pastimes. The follow-up to Still Folk Dancing After All These Years, which explored English folk dances from spring to harvest, this film explores English folk customs around the country though the other six months of the year. 200 years of political intrigue and clashes with police authorities in Lewes on Guy Fawkes Night have created an awe-inspiring procession of burning popes and other effigies of the enemies of the bonfire, not to mention a heavy police presence to this day. Throwing the Yorkshire carols of Sheffield out of the church repertoire has only served to enhance the heart-stopping show of unrestrained joy found in the powerful singing at the Royal Hotel pub in Dungworth. The longsword dancers of the North East and molly dancers of East Anglia, who have gone collecting funds each year, are a reminder that no higher power puts food on the plate. Just as these customs rely on the communities themselves to mark each point with song, remembrance and a gathering together, the very need to survive lies in the hands of your neighbour. The Unthanks discover these stories through singing, dancing, meeting people who have grown up with these traditions and trying not to get set on fire.
In this new documentary film, Jools Holland, who began his television career 30 years ago, takes us on a journey of his life that has made him the doyen of the music scene. Growing up in the East End, joining the hit band Squeeze and landing the job of presenting the iconic TV show The Tube, all contributed to him becoming BBC Two's music man. Including special behind-the-scenes access to the critically acclaimed programme Later... with Jools Holland and to Jools's own recording studio in Greenwich, designed by the man himself. Featuring interviews with Sir Tom Jones, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Paul Weller, Sir Bob Geldof and Vic Reeves.
Biologist George McGavin goes on a journey around the British Isles to show us the extraordinary little things that are vital to our land. With a revolutionary new microscope camera seven thousand times more powerful than the human eye, George reveals the surprising beauty of Britain close-up. Caterpillars' feet have hooks that anchor them to leaves even upside down, the wings of butterflies and moths are a kaleidoscope of colourful scales that keep them safe from predators, bee stings have barbs that make them stick deep in your skin, and feathers have thousands of hooks that zip together keeping birds airborne. Our cities are full of invisible miniature life too: millions of cute 'water bears' graze pavement mosses, and our homes have legions of dust mites scavenging for food in our carpets. This is Britain as you've never seen it before.
Caroline Quentin narrates this heart-warming tale of a special group of baby animals born in some of the coldest and harshest places on Earth. We follow the ups and downs of impossibly cute yet plucky baby emperor penguins, snow monkeys, polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer and otters and find out just what it takes to survive the first year of life in a world of snow and ice, with a little help from family and friends.
Michael Grade explores the rich history of the very British pantomime dame. From the extravagant productions in Drury Lane in the 19th century to the vintage performances by Terry Scott and Arthur Askey, the dame has always been anarchic, witty, vulgar, affectionate and good box office. Berwick Kaler, who has played the panto dame for 30 years at York's Theatre Royal, and The Good Life star Richard Briers, offer their insights into why the role has remained such a favourite. Presenter and TV mogul Grade bravely tries on the full make-up and frock to explore what it is that has made the pantomime dame such an enduring feature of British life.
Top pop documentary, narrated by Radio One's Mark Radcliffe, about one of Britain's greatest and best-loved bands. Slade scored six number ones in the 70s, a feat rivalled only by Abba. Formed in Wolverhampton and led by Noddy Holder, Slade sold over 50 million records worldwide during a 20-year career which saw them re-invent themselves as skinhead yobs, then mirror-hatted platform-shoe-pioneering glam gods, before finally re-emerging as hard rock heroes. Their poorly-spelled, self-written selection of terrace anthems included Cum on Feel the Noize, Coz I Luv You, Take Me Bak Ome, Mama Weer All Crazee Now and, unforgettably, Merry Xmas Everybody. Apart from Noddy and his bandmates - Dave Hill, Jim Lea and Don Powell - the cast here also includes Noel Gallagher of Oasis (who covered Cum On Feel the Noize), Status Quo, Toyah Wilcox, Suzi Quatro and Ozzy Osbourne.
Moomintroll and the Moomin family are characters loved by children and parents worldwide who have grown up listening to Finnish writer Tove Jansson's delightful stories about a group of philosophical trolls who face a range of adventures in Moominland. This documentary reveals the strong autobiographical slant in the Moomins series as it traces the author's own extraordinary story from living the bohemian life of an artist in war-torn Helsinki to becoming a recluse on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland. Enjoying unprecedented access to Jansson's personal archive, the film reveals an unconventional, brave and compelling woman whose creative genius extended beyond Moominland to satire, fine art and masterful adult fiction - not least her highly-regarded The Summer Book. With home movie footage shot by her long-term female lover and companion, it offers a unique glimpse of an uncompromising fun-loving woman who developed love as the central theme of her work.
Len Goodman takes to the dance floor to discover the golden age of ballroom, as the head judge of Strictly Come Dancing recalls the time when Britain went ballroom barmy. In the early 20th century millions enjoyed dancing. Graceful movement was everything as we grappled with the waltz, the tango and each other. Len also reveals a surprising world of scandal and outrage - a time when ballroom was considered radical and trendy. What was it about ballroom that people enjoyed so much and why did we eventually turn our backs on what Len considers the greatest dance form of all? Len visits Blackpool, the spiritual home of ballroom, and demonstrates some popular steps with professional dancer Erin Boag. He discovers how the smart set danced the night away at the Café de Paris and returns to a favourite dance hall from his youth, the Rivoli in south London. Len talks to dancers, singers and musicians who remember the golden age and discovers the people who introduced 'rules' to ballroom - the dance leaders and teachers who were concerned that ballroom was out of control and needed new regulations to govern steps, movement and music.
This hour-long documentary takes us on a journey back through 60 years of British Christmases via the pop songs we put at the top of the most important chart of the year. From The Beatles to Mr Blobby, Harry Belafonte to the Human League and Benny Hill to the Military Wives, the Christmas number one is unpredictable to say the least and tells its own unique story of the past half-century of British pop culture. This show looks back through the decades at the personalities and circumstances that gave rise to these, songs immortalised by their competition in the race for Christmas number one. Expect wars, charity, stupidity, nostalgia and some cracking good tunes jingling along the way... With contributions from the artists themselves including Rolf Harris, Noddy Holder, Roy Wood, Boney M, Johnny Mathis, Midge Ure, Shakin' Stevens, Sir Cliff Richard, Jason Donovan, East 17 and Alexandra Burke. Also featuring a select cast of commentators including Pete Waterman, Rev. Richard Coles, Tony Blackburn and Edith Bowman
Sue Perkins tells the true story behind the von Trapp family, portrayed on the big screen almost 50 years ago in The Sound Of Music. She heads to Austria to discover why Salzburg seems to resent the film that put it on the map, meeting locals with memories of Maria von Trapp and finding that actor Nicholas Hammond's life has continued to be defined by his role as Friedrich. Sue travels to New York and Vermont, where the family settled and meets 98-year-old Maria, who is the only one of the seven children still alive. Including rare footage from the 1950s, as well as home movies shot during the filming of The Sound of Music itself.
Neil Armstrong's family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, tell the story of the first man to set foot on the moon. Drawing heavily on unbroadcast archive footage and the unique perspectives of the contributors, this is an exclusive account of Neil Armstrong's extraordinary life story. From his childhood during America's Great Depression to the heady days of the space programme, his historic first step on the Moon and his famously private later life. Seen through the eyes of those who were with him, discover the man behind the myth, a man who was very much a product of his time. The film focuses goes beyond his days as an astronaut and shows that his life after the flight of Apollo 11 was, in many ways equally challenging, as Armstrong came to terms with life outside of NASA and the relentless demands of fame until his death in August 2012. From the producers of 'In the Shadow of the Moon'. Featuring interviews with Armstrong's first wife Janet, their two sons, Rick and Mark, Neil's brother and sister Dean and June, his best friend Kotcho Solacoff and second wife Carol. Fellow astronauts Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke and Dave Scott also feature in this revealing biopic.
Exploring Blackpool's history as the beating heart of British entertainment. The Lancashire coastal town launched the careers of Morecambe and Wise, attracted stars as big as Sinatra and is still the spiritual home of the likes of Ken Dodd, Cannon and Ball and many others. A town through the eyes of the people who played there.
Documentary about Clara Bow, a cinema sensation who broke box office records and became one of the greatest stars of the silent screen. Amid scandal and ill health she retired for good at the age of just 28. Once the Queen of Hollywood, now largely forgotten - whatever happened to Clara Bow?
Basejumper Felix Baumgartner became the first person to free-fall through the sound barrier when, in October 2012, he fell 26 miles (125,000 feet) to Earth from the edge of space. Felix underwent years of training under the watchful eye of 82-year-old Colonel Joe Kittinger, the man who set the original record when he fell 19 miles to Earth (102,000 feet) 52 years ago. Apart from the usual dangers of free-falling, the near vacuum of the stratosphere and the perils of travelling faster than the speed of sound made Felix's attempt all the more audacious. Since Joe's jump in 1960 two men have died in similar attempts. During Felix's intense physical training the cameras also capture the basejumper as he struggled to overcome a severe claustrophic reaction to the movement restricting pressure suit. Felix's issues with the suit could have jeopardised the mission and ultimately cost him his life if he was unable to conquer his fears. Finally with breath-taking footage of the curvature of the earth, BBC cameras followed Felix as he stepped out of the capsule, suspended by a giant balloon 26 miles above the earth. They followed his spectacular leap through the stratosphere at over 700 miles per hour and his triumphant landing in the New Mexico Desert. This programme for the Learning Zone features new interviews with the scientists and engineers working on the mission and intercuts them with material already shot to create a resource for Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils that will make the STEM subjects accessible, engaging and exciting.
45 years ago a group of young men and women set out to make the world a better place. They wanted to bring aid to those in dire need. These idealists would help create a new mass movement - humanitarianism. Its core belief is a simple one - that it is our duty to help those in desperate need, wherever they are. But trying to do good in the world's worst conflict zones is filled with danger and compromise. The Trouble with Aid tells the story of what really happened during the major humanitarian disasters of the last 50 years: from the Biafran War, through to the Ethiopian famine and Live Aid, to the military intervention in Somalia and to present-day Afghanistan. Despite the best intentions, aid can have some unintended and terrible consequences. Using the testimony of key players from the world's largest aid agencies, the film looks at what happens when good people try to help in a bad world. Today, any humanitarian crisis leads to cries that we must 'do something'. The Trouble with Aid challenges this fundamental assumption by asking the question few us are prepared to face: can aid sometimes do more harm than good?
Passionate England fan Tim Lovejoy pulls together advice from former England managers, players and celebrity fans to offer Roy Hodgson the best possible support as he takes on the challenge of the country's second most important job. Contributions come from Sven Goran-Eriksson, Graham Taylor, John Gorman, John Barnes and many more.
In January 1942, the historic Achnacarry Estate was transformed into a wartime paramilitary academy. In four years of operation, 25,000 men came to the Scottish Highlands to endure the world's toughest infantry training course. Narrated by Rory Bremner, Castle Commando looks back on the larger-than-life characters that helped shape Winston Churchill's legendary raiding troops. Veterans remember how the ferocious Highland landscape was the perfect environment for the most exacting, most gruelling military training of World War II.
Stefan Gates discovers the cradle of contemporary English cuisine. The film argues that the current renaissance of British food has its origins in a golden age, some 300 years ago.
Long before she set foot on stage in England, Felicity Kendal launched her acting career in India, where her parents ran an eccentric touring theatre company called Shakespeareana. In this film she returns to the land of her childhood to discover the full story of India's enduring love-affair with Shakespeare - from the first days of Empire to Bollywood and beyond. Shaped by her enthusiasm to discover more about a drama in which her own family played a role, Felicity's emotional journey takes her to India's iconic cities and to other places far off the beaten track. Along the way she meets film stars and prison inmates, kings and market traders, schoolchildren, historians and her own Indian relatives, in a quest to understand how and why Shakespeare's plays made the transition from being symbols of British cultural dominance to inspiring a new generation of artists and film-makers in modern India. Full of surprises, personal revelations and historical insights, this compelling film reveals an unexpected side to one of the UK's favourite performers as she uncovers the story of how England's national dramatist became an iconic figure in a land far removed from the country of his birth.
Derek Scott, Professor of Musicology, analyses Mrs Mills' rise in popularity coinciding with the unrest between Mods and Rockers.
Michel Roux Jr explores the life and influence of his great culinary hero, Georges Auguste Escoffier - the man who turned eating into dining. The first great restaurant chef, Escoffier established restaurants in grand hotels all over the world and in these centres of luxury and decadence the world's most glamorous figures of the day would mix - actresses and princes, duchesses and opera singers. Catering to this international jet set, Escoffier produced fabulous dishes that combined luxury and theatricality, elevating restaurant food to an art form.
Directed by Academy Award-nominee Hubert Davis, this film follows the renowned Toronto painter Phil Richards as he is asked by the Canadian government to create a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her diamond jubilee.
St Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band, one of the world's leading grade one bands comes to the Western Isles of Scotland to meet and play with the local bands of the islands of Lewis, Uist and Skye. No roll call of the great pipebands of all times would miss out St Laurence O'Toole of Dublin. Founded in 1910 they are frequent winners at all the major competitions such as European, British, Scottish and Cowal Championships. They were crowned world championships in 2010 in their centenary year. In a break from their usual competition circuit the Irish superstars came to the Western Isles on a sunny but blustery weekend at the end of March 2012 for two days of performances, concluding in a meeting with the local bands at the stunning location of Macleod's Stone in South Harris. This historic location, the site of the megalithic standing stone is high above the white sands of Horgabost beach. Both English and Gaelic are spoken, displaying English subtitles when needed.
Fearghal Mac Uiginn looks at the story behind the construction of Derry's 400-year-old walls - a unique, sometimes controversial cultural treasure that has shaped history both within and beyond the walled city itself.
Every two minutes a house in Britain is burgled, and for years Nottingham has suffered the highest burglary rates in the UK. But the city's police are fighting back, and are now capturing the burglars on camera. They are installing hidden minicams inside ordinary homes, which record the thieves in action. They call them 'capture houses', Nottingham's new weapon in the fight against crime. But is this new technology as reliable as the police think? And should the police be allowed to set traps for burglars? Part of the Modern Crime season, this gripping documentary takes viewers to the frontline of a surburban crime-wave, witnessing first-hand the cat-and-mouse battle currently being played out across Nottingham. The film shows heart-stopping footage of burglars breaking into homes, and follows the intelligence and burglary teams as they hunt the burglars down. And cameras are there in the interview room as the burglar is shown the damning footage. Many burglars protest their innocence at first, but once they see the capture house footage, the game is up.
Film-maker Rhys Thomas's full-length director's cut of his film exploring the solo career and private life of one of British rock and roll's great frontmen, Freddie Mercury. Renowned as the bravura front man of one of Britain's greatest rock bands, Freddie Mercury's life outside Queen is rarely celebrated or explored. In a touching portrait, this film explores Mercury's solo projects and interests, including a previously unheard collaboration with Michael Jackson and the triumphant Barcelona project with Dame Montserrat Caballe as well as the life of a gay man who was not yet publicly out. Rare interviews reveal a shy man in search of love, and a driven artist living behind the protection of his stage persona.
An intimate half-hour of Jeff Lynne and long-time collaborator Richard Tandy on piano, playing acoustic versions of many of Jeff's greatest songs including such ELO hits as Evil Woman, Telephone Line and Showdown. Filmed in Lynne's LA studio.
Comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti explores the world of new age and alternative therapies in a quest for self-knowledge, enlightenment and happiness. With her puppet Monkey as the voice of scepticism, Nina undergoes naked yoga, laughter therapy and shamanic ritual, before taking part in primal screaming and rebirth at a three-day retreat in the wilds of Scotland.
Ford Kiernan celebrates the anarchic humour of The Dandy that has kept kids of all ages giggling for three quarters of a century. This classic Scottish comic has just ceased publication - but Ford discovers that there is still life left in Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat. Ford meets Dandy artists and writers, past and present, and an entire gang of fans including comedians Frank Skinner and Sanjeev Kohli, actors Brian Cox and Bill Paterson, writer Alan Bissett, veteran musicians Jimmie Macgregor and Tom Alexander, indie rocker Kyle Falconer from The View, and four-times Oscar-winning animator Nick Park. The Dandy was launched in December 1937, and - priced at just two old pence, less than a modern penny - quickly became a hit with children in an era of recession and hardship. Despite shortages of manpower and paper, The Dandy continued to publish during World War II to help keep children's morale up, and its writers and artists mercilessly lampooned Hitler and his Nazi regime.
From Dad's Army's Corporal Jones to "Grandad", Clive Dunn created some of Britain's most memorable old men. Family, colleagues and friends pay tribute to this much loved actor who died in November 2012.
Eric Liddell was one of Scotland's great Olympic champions and an inspiration for the film Chariots of Fire. In 1924 he was the fastest man in Britain and was picked to run in the 100m at that year's Olympic Games. As a Christian he would not run in the qualifying heats, which were scheduled for a Sunday. Eric changed events and picked up the gold medal in the 400m. It made him a national hero. However, this remarkable sporting achievement was only part of his story. Eric's faith led to him turning his back on running and fame and he returned to the country of his birth, China, where he followed his parents into missionary work. He would give the rest of his life to the Chinese people. When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Liddell refused to leave and he died in a Japanese internment camp in 1945, aged just 43. The programme tells Eric's story through the testimony of those whose lives he touched, from his daughters, to those he helped in the internment camp, and people who are still inspired by his values. Glenn Campbell travels to China, visits the places where Eric lived and died, and hears how Liddell is a celebrated national hero on the other side of the world.
This week Wales will yet again try to beat the All Blacks for the first time in nearly sixty years. We Beat the All Blacks looks at a game that made Welsh rugby history, a day that brought Llanelli to a standstill... Players and fans celebrate the Scarlets' epic 1972 victory over New Zealand. Forty years on, the memories are undimmed, the joy still overflows and the tall tales just get taller.
A compilation of short-form videos which give students studying computer science an insight into how computers actually work. Filmed in real life work settings, the videos look closely at what a computer consists of, how the various components work, how it processes data, and how it is used in robotics and software development. Part of the BBC Learning Zone.
Blue Peter presenters Helen Skelton and Barney Harwood want to learn more about the solar system so they challenge scientists Helen Czerski and Jem Stansfield to find out more. They look at how to make telescopes and rockets, and use a toilet roll to measure the distances between planets.
In December 2005 Scotland tragically lost one of its most innovative musicians and composers of the age of 41. Gordon Duncan, from Perthshire, was quite simply unique as a Piper of his generation. He was a multi instrumentalist and prolific composer, whose music is played the world over
The 40th anniversary of Idi Amin's expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972 coincides with the festival of Dussehra in which Hindus celebrate the victory of good over evil. Victims of this forced migration to Great Britain relive the shock and dangers of their escape, the hardship and heartbreak of their journey, arrival and first desperate days, to the turning points as they began to make new lives for themselves.
Colmcille specialist Brian Lacey explores the cult of Derry's patron saint. As Brian travels around Ireland and Scotland unearthing the truth about Columba, we follow a team of rowers making the same journey that Columba made from Derry to Iona in 563AD.
Recorded coverage from the RE:Think religion and ethics festival, where Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks and scientist Richard Dawkins debate the relationship between science and religion.
Runrig's songwriters Calum and Rory Macdonald share the very personal story of their first solo album project. Part video diary and part music performance, this is an intimate account of the making of the album and of the recording process, a journey that offers an insight into the creative inspiration for their songwriting and the musical ethos behind the recording.
Richard Burton's talent, presence and unforgettable voice made him a superstar of stage and screen. The Welsh actor was equally famous for his hellraising, womanising private life and his two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor. Now private diaries he wrote at the height of his fame have been published in their entirety for the first time and present a unique opportunity to reassess the man behind the myth. Narrated by Mali Harries. Extract readings by Josh Richards.
Still Bill: The Bill Withers Story You know the music - now meet the man. Still Bill is an intimate portrait of soul legend Bill Withers, best known for his classics Ain't No Sunshine, Lean on Me, Lovely Day, Grandma's Hands and Just the Two of Us. With his soulful delivery and warm, heartfelt sincerity, Withers has written songs that resonate within the fabric of our times. Through concert footage, journeys to his birthplace and interviews with music legends, his family and closest friends, this documentary presents the story of an artist who has written some of the most beloved songs of our time and who truly understands the heart and soul of a man.
Mark Radcliffe presents a countdown of the ten songs which have earned the most money of all time - ten classic songs each with an extraordinary story behind them. Radcliffe lifts the lid on how music royalties work and reveals the biggest winners and losers in the history of popular music.
Meet 16-year-old UK student Georgia. Her mum, topless model Alicia, is addicted to plastic surgery. Georgia wants to study for exams, but her mum's just announced she's pregnant. Will Georgia be left holding the baby? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jy11v
Author and broadcaster Father Brian D'Arcy was censured by the Vatican after challenging some of the Catholic Church's core teachings. In this frank and personal documentary, filmmaker Natalie Maynes follows him on a journey across Europe as he confronts the biggest dilemma of his life - can he continue as a priest?
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UK chart, from the vaults of the BBC archive comes a selection of hits that attained the toppermost of the poppermost prize and made it to number 1 in the hit parade. From across the decades we applaud the most coveted of all chart positions with smash hits and classics from the Bee Gees, T-Rex, Donna Summer, John Lennon, Culture Club, Spice Girls, James Blunt, Rihanna, Adele and many more.
A century ago, 1.5 million British people worked as servants – astonishingly, more than worked in factories or farms. But while servants are often portrayed as characters in period dramas, the real stories of Britain’s servants have largely been forgotten. Presented by social historian Dr Pamela Cox – herself the great-granddaughter of servants – this three-part series uncovers the reality of servants’ lives from the Victorian era through to the Second World War.
As a renowned teacher and founder and chair of the Leeds International Piano Competition, Dame Fanny Waterman is one of the most influential figures in British music. At the tender age of 92, she remains as energetic as ever, teaching children as young as six and in demand all over the world as a mentor and jury member. In this candid conversation with Petroc Trelawney, Waterman sheds light on her humble beginnings in Leeds as the daughter of a Russian emigre jeweller. Her life was transformed when she heard Rachmaninov perform at Leeds Town Hall in the 1920s - and her love affair with the piano has lasted eight decades. As a concert pianist, highlights included a Proms performance during the Second World War with Sir Henry Wood at the Royal Albert Hall, before returning to her home city of Leeds with husband Geoffrey de Kaiser to become a piano teacher. However, being known as the 'local piano teacher' was never enough and with the help of her lifelong friend, local aristocrat Marion Harewood, they set up the first Leeds International Piano Competition in 1963. Fifty years on Dame Fanny remains the mastermind behind 'The Leeds', a competition regarded as the most coveted prize in the piano world and having first showcased such talents as Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Andras Schiff and Noriko Ogawa. Outspoken, passionate and still full of vitality, Waterman shares her views on teaching, the great pianists of the past and present, music and love. When asked if she would ever retire from her hectic schedule this remarkable nonagenarian simply replies 'No, never!'.
There are over 12,000 100-year-olds in the country, and over the next twenty-five years that number is expected to rise to almost 90,000. A quarter of all children born today are expected to live beyond one hundred. But what is it like to live one hundred years? How to Live Beyond 100 meets centenarians across the country who explain what it means to have watched the world change around them; how their own attitudes, thoughts and feelings have changed through the years; and what it has been like to grow older than old. An uplifting look at what it is really like to live to 100 and beyond.
From the Staffordshire hills to the Humber estuary, spirited explorer Tom Fort embarks on a 170-mile journey down Britain's third longest river, the Trent. Beginning on foot, he soon transfers to his own custom-built punt, the Trent Otter, and rows many miles downstream. Along the way he encounters the power stations that generate much of the nation's electricity, veterans of the catastrophic floods of 1947, the 19th-century brewers of Burton and a Bronze Age boatman who once made a life along the river.
Dr Jack Kreindler and Professor Greg Whyte tackle pain - one of the most common complaints in Britain. To reveal key facts about chronic back pain, osteoarthritis and acute pain, and give insight into how these debilitating conditions can be treated, these medical mavericks use each other as human guinea pigs in fun and often painful experiments.
This affectionate insight into being old today sees three Golden Oldies pass on their astute and humorous insights on becoming old and poor, and the stark choices they now face in their twilight years. Full of wisdom, independent spirit and hard-earned perspective, their stories make you ask, 'Could this happen to me?' Doris is 84, and won't let a living soul (including the film-maker) inside her chaotic Clacton home - for fear that social services will take it away from her. Feisty Kitty in Exeter is also 84. She shows us her Kate Moss-inspired knicker and bra collection, and dreams of a miracle cure to an illness like most dream of winning the lottery. And then there's relatively youthful and charismatic Frank from Liverpool, who at 72 has lost his family to emigration. With no-one left, he has lost the will to carry on - but not his intelligence or tragic humour. Self-imprisoned in his own home like a character from a Samuel Beckett play, his neighbours rarely see him. He hasn't had a bath in years - mainly because he doesn't have one. He's reminiscent of an older, helpless Boo Radley from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
The BBC delves into its archive for the best romantic duets performed at the BBC over the last fifty years. Whether it is Robbie and Kylie dancing together on Top of the Pops or Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge singing into each other's eyes on the Whistle Test, there is plenty of chemistry. Highlights include Nina and Frederik's Baby It's Cold Outside, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Sonny and Cher, Shirley Bassey and Neil Diamond, Peaches and Herb and a rare performance from Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.
Unveiling of the RAF Bomber Command Memorial in London. The Queen and eight members of the Royal Family were also present at the event, which featured a fly-over by one of the world’s two remaining Lancaster bombers.
The Titanic sank on April 14, 1912 - Or did it? This documentary explores the conspiracy that in fact it was Titanic's sister ship the Olympic that sank on that fateful night.
It's The Way He Told Them is a tribute to the late Frank Carson with contributions from some of Frank's biggest fans including Eamonn Holmes, Patrick Kielty, Barry McGuigan, Jackie Fullerton and John Linehan.
Dusty Springfield narrates a documentary profile of the songwriter who won an Oscar for the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid score, enjoyed stage success with Promises, Promises and whose classic songs continue to influence modern music. Featuring interviews with Dionne Warwick, Noel Gallager, Hal David, Herb Alpert, Elvis Costello, Cilla Black, Richard Carpenter, Carol Bayer Sager and Gillian Lynne.
Following BBC Four's Top of the Pops 1976, the next stop is 1977 - in some ways a year zero for Britain's most iconic music programme. As the country veered between strikes and street parties, pop bastion Top of the Pops was stormed by punk and new wave acts such as the Stranglers and the Jam. Yet Top of the Pops at first seemed unaware of the changes afoot and the way in which the show is made was beset by working practices that are perhaps symptoms of the way in which Britain could be said 'not to be working'. Jeans were getting tighter, hair shorter and the tunes louder, but it was an incredibly diverse year. Disco was also a dominant force with Donna Summer's I Feel Love, alongside the reggae of Bob Marley and the Wailers, the pub rock of Eddie and the Hot Rods and the plastic pop of Boney M. British pop that year was in a state of flux - unpredictable and exciting. Appearing on Top of the Pops in 1977 is explored in the documentary by artists such as the Adverts, John Otway, members of Darts, JJ Burnel from the Stranglers and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols, with insights from the Top of the Pops production team, Nicky Wire from the Manics and journalists Alexis Petridis and Pete Paphides.
Revealing how James Graham, the 1st Marquis of Montrose and a poet and military genius, won six successive battles against the odds during the 17th-century civil wars - but ultimately died a martyr for his faithless kings on an Edinburgh scaffold. Montrose's campaign - in which the devastating 'Highland charge' was developed - has astounded soldiers and historians for centuries.
Tajikistan, in central Asia, was once one of the smallest and poorest republics of the USSR. In the last twenty years it has moved from communism to capitalism, from atheism to a rediscovery of Islam. Reporter Khayrulla Fayz returns to his village to discover what life is like for people there now. He talks to cotton farmers in the fields where he picked cotton as a child, meets migrant workers forced to leave their families to find work in Russia and asks the new entrepreneurs about the challenges of doing business there. When Khayrulla was a boy he spoke Russian and looked up to Lenin as the father of the nation. He finds out who the new heroes are for the younger generation carving out an identity for this newly-independent country.
A journey into the history, pageantry and characters that have shaped a Scottish phenomenon. Acclaimed actor Bill Paterson narrates the astonishing story of the Highland Games. From the battling clans to Queen Victoria's infatuation with her Highland subjects. The Games have become a symbol of community and identity in Scotland and all across the world.
In 1962 three Ulstermen travelled overland from Belfast to Singapore in a Mini. It was an epic adventure through countries not usually visited, giving us a fascinating insight through unique film taken by the intrepid trio.
Documentary about the creation of the BBC's London 2012 promotional campaign and title sequence and Elbow's BBC Olympic theme. Featuring interviews with Elbow, behind-the-scenes footage shot during recordings with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and NovaVox Gospel Choir, plus an interview with animation director Pete Candeland at Passion Pictures.
When she was 19, Mercury Prize-winning rap artist Speech Debelle walked out of her family home and became homeless for three years. In this moving documentary, she shows that being homeless isn't just about down and outs sleeping in cardboard boxes, but is a problem which affects more and more young people in Britain today. Speech gets to know four young people from very different backgrounds - all of them sofa surfing or sleeping rough - as they try to find a more permanent roof over their heads. She discovers that councils and charities are struggling to cope with this growing crisis and she investigates the impact on young people's lives.
He is the fastest man who has ever lived and on 5th August the world will be watching and expecting Usain Bolt to reclaim the greatest prize in the Olympic Games, the men's 100 metres title. But there are five men who have been thinking the unthinkable, five men preparing and plotting to defeat the man they say cannot be downed. Five men devoted to beating Bolt. They are: Jamaica's Yohan Blake, the current world champion, who is Bolt's training partner and strongest challenger; Asafa Powell, often the forgotten man of Jamaican sprinting, but still the last man to hold the world record before Bolt; Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin, who lead the American charge hitting top form when it matters most; and Europe's best hope, the Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, who is proving that white men can sprint and take on the very best. This film follows the fortunes of the world's best sprinters as they prepare for that ultimate showdown at London 2012, from the supremely confident superstar Bolt to his focused, sometimes shy, rivals, determined to prove that Bolt is just a man. We witness the sacrifice and growing self-belief of these athletes as they push themselves to the limit physically and mentally to claim the greatest prize in sport. All the time obsessed with their quarry, the tall Jamaican who rewrote what was possible in human speed. Can they really beat Bolt when it matters most? Do the five strongest contenders have what it takes? What will it take? Will Bolt beat himself? Narrated by Reggie Yates and with expert contribution from sprinting icon Michael Johnson, Can Anyone Beat Bolt? is a fascinating examination of five super-fast men and one undisputed king.
Following a season in which football has been rocked by allegations of racism, former Premier league defender Clarke Carlisle explores how far his profession has really progressed since the dark days of banana throwing on the terraces in this documentary. Nicknamed 'Britain's brainiest footballer', Clarke has played at all levels from the Premiership to the fourth division, and as the chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association he feels he has a good grasp of the issues confronting football today. Setting out with the belief that racism has been largely eradicated from the game and that the frenzy surrounding the recent allegations shows the issue is being taken seriously by the authorities, Clarke begins to face a stark realisation on a journey which sees the issue of racism in football come very close to home.
Eighty-five-year-old EastEnders actress June Brown thinks the way we treat older people in this country lacks respect. She thinks they are undervalued, pushed aside and ignored. In this programme, June tries to find out what's gone wrong and what can be done about it. On her journey, she talks to elderly people about what it is like to be in the care system. She even visits her former on-screen husband John Bardon, who had a stroke five years ago and now needs 24-hour care. June's personal views come to the fore when her own family challenge her to say what she wants to happen if she ever needed care. June's first response is to dismiss the notion but, as the film progresses, she comes to a surprising decision.
Having a child leave home is difficult enough for any parent, but when your teenage daughter has Down's syndrome it is even harder. Domenica Lawson, nearly sixteen, is unsettled at the prospect of growing up and of having to leave a warm and supportive home. But it is her mother, Rosa Monckton, who is faced with the challenge of planning for the future, knowing that her daughter must eventually leave home and start an independent life without her. Letting Go follows Rosa and her daughter as she leaves school and takes her first steps into a more adult world. And as Domenica prepares for the challenges of independent life, Rosa meets three other young people with learning disabilities, and discovers how they are managing their transition to greater independence. Jess Hiles has a rare genetic disorder. With the encouragement of her parents, she has moved in to her own flat. But as she and her parents have discovered, living alone does not mean living independently. Richard Sherratt's learning disabilities meant that despite having significant support from carers he was unable to cope with neighbourhood hostility and has had to return home to be looked after once again by his mother, Dawn. Jack Hale, from Devon, is a year older than Rosa's daughter and also has Down's syndrome. There is a happy and well-run care home very nearby, but his mother Ronni has never really considered it. Her sparky son has ambitions to be a DJ and to be famous, and she is reluctant to limit his horizons.
Documentary telling the shocking story of how a 23-year-old British girl was drugged and kidnapped by members of her family after refusing to go through with a marriage arranged by them, and secretly marrying someone else. With unique access to a specialist unit of Lancashire Police, cameras follow the investigation of a crime that split a family apart.
William Shakespeare is hardly a name that you would expect to thrill Britain's teenagers, but over the last year thousands have taken part in a nationwide competition to learn some of his greatest speeches off by heart. Now, nine finalists, aged between 13 and 15, and from all over the United Kingdom, are off to Stratford-upon-Avon to take part in a life changing series of workshops with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Over a single week, they learn how to perform some of Shakespeare's greatest soliloquies from Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Hamlet, before taking part in a dramatically different and closely fought grand final, hosted by Jeremy Paxman, to find the BBC Shakespeare Schools Champion.
Tests how close we can get to geological formations and geographic process while hanging from a cliff face. Geologist and keen climber Dr Tom Challands challenges three pairs of young people each to climb a different rock face and see just what can be revealed from this unique vantage point, on the rock face rather than observing from the ground. The climbs in Snowdonia and the Peak District are not only technically demanding but throw up different field study challenges for the teams to solve. The programme looks at volcanic activity, glaciation, how human activity shapes a landscape and formations created as a result of massive river deltas.
Featuring the voices of Greg McHugh and Lucy Montgomery, this is an informative and amusing look at the development of mathematical knowledge. The guides are 'human man' Alan and Praxis the robot. They take viewers back through time to visit Stone Age mathematicians, the Bond-villainesque Pythagoras and even to Mount Olympus where Jupiter is getting to grips with Roman numerals. It's the history of maths - approximately.
Radio 1's Gemma Cairney investigates how last year's UK riots changed the lives of those who got caught up in them. Over nine months the film follows three young people who were arrested on those anarchic nights in August 2011, as well as some of the young victims of the riots. With intimate access, we find out how their lives changed as they went through the court process or, for some, the prison system as each began the challenge of building a new life after the riots.
Gerry Rafferty, who died in January 2011, was one of Scotland's best loved singer/songwriters, famous around the world for hits such as Baker Street and Stuck in the Middle With You. This ArtWorks Scotland film, narrated by David Tennant, tells the story of Rafferty's life through his often autobiographical songs and includes contributions from Gerry's daughter Martha and brother Jim, friends and colleagues including Billy Connolly, John Byrne and Joe Egan, admirers such as Tom Robinson and La Roux, and words and music from Rafferty himself.
Britain in Bed is the ultimate history of sex, a documentary which reveals how our attitudes, knowledge and experience has changed and grown over the last 50 years. This entertaining rundown of the sexiest stories, headline-making scandals and key events shows how the nation's sexual behaviour has grown in confidence over the years. Featuring revealing archive and frank celebrity interviews, it brings you the inside track on sex in Britain - how sex has moved from the clandestine to the mainstream and become accepted, celebrated, explored and shared, from the birth of the Pill to the rise of sex toys, from celebrity sex tapes to the explosion in internet porn. Presented by Jessica Jane Clement, Britain in Bed is an explicit history and celebration of sex in Britain - from our tentative first sexual steps in the the Swinging Sixties and climaxing with the latest sex stories for 2012.
Documentary looking back on the eight day swim that comedian David Walliams undertook for Sport Relief 2012. Providing the inside story and exclusive behind the scenes access, the documentary takes in all the highs and lows of the outstanding challenge that saw David pass through seven counties, make 111,352 strokes, burn 68,000 calories, battle a serious bacterial infection and even save a dog from drowning as well as enjoy visits from fellow comedians Miranda Hart, Rob Brydon and Jimmy Carr.
As Ramadan approaches, this documentary tells the little-known story of three English gentlemen who embraced Islam at a time when to be a Muslim was to be seen to be a traitor to your country. Through personal journeys of still surviving relatives, the programme looks at their achievements and how their legacy lives on today.
Kicked Out Kids follows the stories of four young people whose relationships with their parents have become so bad that they risk being kicked out for good. Enter the mediators, intent on helping these families resolve their problems before it is too late. Charlotte, 16, was kicked out by her dad after she threw a party which turned out to be the final straw. Tyler, 14, was taken away by social services at his mum's request. She insists she will do it again if his behaviour does not change. Sisters Viviana, 15, and Stephanie, 14, cannot go a day without a fight, and risk being taken into foster care. The mediators step in to unearth what the real issues are beneath petty squabbles over housework and manners, and restore harmony between teenagers and their parents. But will their efforts come in time to keep these young families together?
Dan Snow uses the latest satellite technology to reveal the secrets of the Roman Empire. Together with space archaeologist Sarah Parcak, Dan sets out to identify and then track down lost cities, amphitheatres and forts in an adventure that sees him travel through some of the most spectacular parts of the vast empire. Cutting-edge technology and traditional archaeology help build a better understanding of how Rome held such a large empire together for so long.
Filmed at the Barbican in London, this tribute concert to the singer-songwriter Sandy Denny spans her career with Fairport Convention, Fotheringay and as a solo artist. Her most famous song, Who Knows Where the Time Goes, has been covered by everyone from Judy Collins to Nina Simone, but when she died in 1978 aged 31, Sandy left behind a rich songbook and here an eclectic cast from the folk world and beyond set out to explore and reinterpret it. English folk queen and Sandy contemporary Maddy Prior performs the menacing John the Gun and the courtly Fotheringay. Veteran Sandy cohorts are represented by Fotheringay and Fairport guitarist Jerry Donahue and fiddler extraordinaire Dave Swarbrick. Fine young troubadours Sam Carter and Blair Dunlop - son of Fairport's Ashley Hutchings - show the tradition is in safe hands. With a house band featuring members of Bellowhead, the line-up also includes former Scritti Politti singer Green Gartside, Joan Wasser aka Joan as Policewoman (with a heartbreaking No More Sad Refrains), Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and American soul singer PP Arnold (with a roof-raising Take Me Away), plus Thea Gilmore, who was asked by Sandy's estate to put some of her unset lyrics to music. The performances on stage are interspersed with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage that shed light on how the concert came together, plus rare archive of Sandy herself. The show is evidence that, even without the magic of her singing voice, the songs still shine. Role Contributor Performer Lavinia Blackwall Performer Green Gartside Performer Thea Gilmore Performer Dave Swarbrick Performer Jerry Donahue Performer Blair Dunlop Performer Joan Wasser Performer Sam Carter Music Director Andrew Batt Director Janet Fraser Crook Producer Serena Cross
A selection of the band's performances from the BBC archives, with contributions by Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood.
Simon Vaughan looks at the assassination of serving prime minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812.
The BBC archive uncovers performances of some of the finest Bond theme tunes from its top secret vaults and pays a TV tribute to a classic British icon. Prepare to be shaken and stirred by Tina Turner and her GoldenEye, Dame Shirley Bassey with her Diamonds, Tom Jones rampaging with Thunderball, Matt Monro romancing in Russia, The Fun Lovin' Criminals taking all the time in the world, Adele's sky-high contribution to 007 and much more from Sheena Easton, Garbage, A-ha and others, from all manner of BBC shows. Sit back and marvel at our selection of the greatest Bond songs in history - a tuxedo and a dry vodka martini is optional.
Losing one's virginity is one of those life-defining moments that can be intimate, exciting and nerve-wracking all rolled into one. But good or bad, Cherry Healey wants to find out if that one simple little act really does have a lasting impact. From a girl's first time in the back of a Fiat Panda to a guy who has popped his cherry three times, Cherry looks for essential truths amongst the tales of sex and debauchery to see if losing your virginity is about more than just having sex for the first time.
Eddie Butler looks back at some of the great moments that have captured the imagination during the two weeks of the London 2012 Olympics, the stories that have dominated the headlines and the achievements of the sportsmen and sportswomen who have earned a place in the annals of Olympic history. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m880f
Sheffield's Paul Carrack has slowly and subtly become a national institution who can spend nearly three months touring around the UK as he will this winter around his latest album, Good Feeling. The golden voice of Ace's 1974 blue-eyed soul hit How Long, Squeeze's Tempted and Mike and the Mechanics' The Living Years, Carrack is a journeyman of British rock, soul and pop whose career has unfolded slowly and steadily until he has become something of a national treasure. This affectionate documentary traces Carrack's musical journey from Warm Dust and Ace through Squeeze, Roxy Music and Mike and the Mechanics to his successful latter-day solo career, with intimate access to the likeable, somewhat diffident yet determined Carrack and thoughtful contributions from friends, family and peers including Nick Lowe, Chris Difford and others.
For Norman MacArthur and his family, there was always an area of his grandfather Johnny's life that was never discussed: his years spent as a prisoner of war during the Second World War. He had been part of the ill-fated 51st Highland Division captured at St Valery, but while his fellow prisoners returned home at the end of the war, Johnny didn't. His family were only made aware of snippets of his story: being taken prisoner by the Red Army and brutally treated, transported to the Black Sea, finally making his way home from Odessa in the Soviet Union, after which he had to be hospitalised whilst recovering from trauma. His family had more questions than answers. Now, we accompany Norman as he follows his grandfather's wartime journey. From the bloody French battlefield of Hedgehog Wood, to the forgotten prison cells of Poland and on to the camps of Odessa, Norman attempts to discover new evidence in order to be able to piece together and tell his grandfather Johnny's incredible untold story.
Lecture by Professor Vernon Bogdanor on the events leading up to World War 1. Originally shown on BBC Parliament
Revealing for the first time what has been described as 'the photographic discovery of the century', this documentary uncovers the remarkable story of the Belfast soldier who took his camera to war in 1915 and how his experiences were to have a dramatic and unexpected outcome many years later.
Len Goodman takes to the dance floor to discover the golden age of ballroom, as the head judge of Strictly Come Dancing recalls the time when Britain went ballroom barmy. In the early 20th century millions enjoyed dancing. Graceful movement was everything as we grappled with the waltz, the tango and each other. Len also reveals a surprising world of scandal and outrage - a time when ballroom was considered radical and trendy. What was it about ballroom that people enjoyed so much and why did we eventually turn our backs on what Len considers the greatest dance form of all? Len visits Blackpool, the spiritual home of ballroom, and demonstrates some popular steps with professional dancer Erin Boag. He discovers how the smart set danced the night away at the Café de Paris and returns to a favourite dance hall from his youth, the Rivoli in south London. Len talks to dancers, singers and musicians who remember the golden age and discovers the people who introduced 'rules' to ballroom - the dance leaders and teachers who were concerned that ballroom was out of control and needed new regulations to govern steps, movement and music.
For over forty years, virtuoso saxophonist/composer Barbara Thompson has been Britain's most brilliant and best-known female jazz musician. Her original compositions and soaring flute and saxophone improvisations have attracted large and enthusiastic audiences beyond the confines of contemporary jazz. She has released many albums and toured regularly throughout Europe, mainly with her own band Paraphernalia. But in 1997, the same year that she received an MBE for her services to music, disaster struck. Barbara was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Playing Against Time is a feature-length documentary about Barbara's inspiring and creative struggle with this disease, whose physical effects are particularly cruel, and visible, in the life of an improvising jazz musician. Funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust, the film has been made at intervals across a period of five years, beginning in 2005 with Barbara still performing with Paraphernalia on a 'farewell' European tour. After whi
A charismatic leader founds a commune in Los Angeles in the early '70s based on natural food, spiritual practices and psychedelic rock. This short-lived era is recreated with archival material and the memories of participants.
There are 120,000 people in Scotland with a learning disability. But how do you find love when your disabilities get in the way? We follow three young people with learning disabilities as they struggle to assert their independence, fight loneliness and get their heads round the dating scene.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams reveals the hidden corners of the cathedral.
In the 1950s, Britain looked back on its epic war effort in films such as The Dam Busters, The Cruel Sea and The Colditz Story. However, even at the time these productions were criticised for being class-bound and living in the past. Journalist and historian Simon Heffer argues that these films have real cinematic merit and a genuine cultural importance, that they tell us something significant not only about the 1950s Britain from which they emerged but also about what it means to be British today. His case is supported by interviews with stars including Virginia McKenna, Sylvia Syms and Sir Donald Sinden, with further contributions from directors Guy Hamilton (The Colditz Story) and Michael Anderson (The Dam Busters).
Like many seaside resorts, Blackpool has been through hard times but it remains Britain's number one holiday destination. This film goes behind the scenes with the people working hard to keep Blackpool ahead of the game through one of the wettest summers on record. We follow car park entrepreneur and businessman Howard Plant as he attempts to open a new cabaret venue in time for the summer season. We meet Claire Smith who runs the family guesthouse business. Faced with the prospect of her only son leaving town, and dashing her hopes of him joining the family firm, what can she do to persuade him to stay? We also follow variety promoter Tony Jo, he as puts together the acts he hopes will pull in the crowds at Blackpool's Grand Theatre.
Historian James Holland presents a fresh analysis of the World War Two battle for the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta. The Battle for Malta is one of the most vicious and violent episodes of the Second World War. The tiny Mediterranean island is smaller than the Isle of Wight, yet between 1940 and 1942 more bombs fell on Malta than fell on Britain during the entire Blitz. As Axis forces threw all they had at the island, those on Malta were forced to endure a sustained attack from the air and a rapidly deteriorating condition on the ground. Beyond any form of austerity that we might understand, little Malta was close to starving. The struggle of the Maltese people against oppression was recognised personally by King George VI, who awarded the George Cross to the entire island. Yet the Siege of Malta is only half of the story. In this documentary, Holland argues that the real importance of Malta's position was its offensive role, which has been largely undervalued. Caught in the crosshairs of a massive struggle between Britain and Germany to control the shipping waters of the Mediterranean, by 1942 Malta had become the most bombed place on Earth. Whilst the level of brutal attacks may seem out of all proportion to the islands size it actually only serves to underline its importance - for Malta held the key to the entire war in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Britain is in the grip of a fertility crisis, with more and more people seeking treatment to help them get that elusive, dream baby. But what is it like to work on the frontline of fertility treatment? Award-winning filmmaker Richard Macer spends three months in the Hewitt Fertility Centre in Liverpool, one of the largest fertility clinics in Britain. He meets gynaecologist Professor Charles Kingsland, who believes that not being able to have a child is a disease that blights society. Every day Kingsland and his team harvest women's eggs, whilst the men are sent to the 'masterbatorium'. In the lab, Macer finds the scientists who perform the profound act of conception every day, bringing together eggs and sperm in tiny plastic petri dishes. The film follows the stories of four couples as they pursue their dream of getting pregnant, but from the perspective of the staff. What is it like for the staff to be involved everyday in the creation of new life? Does anyone come closer to playing God?
Documentary about people who fight their parking tickets, following the stories of both the council parking enforcement departments who issue tickets - and the motorists who have decided to fight back against the system. Aside from the stories of the ordinary motorists fighting their individual tickets, the film also follows 'parking campaigners', dedicated amateurs who insist that the councils are unjustly punishing motorists and using parking as a way to raise revenues. Some get tickets deliberately to prove their point, others take their parking tickets to the High Court, whilst one group have even formed a masked motorcycle gang to take their fight to the streets. The film also hears from the other side of the issue - the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the legally-binding national body that has the final say on whether motorists must pay their parking tickets or not.
Professor Jeremy Black examines one of the most extraordinary periods in British history: the Industrial Revolution. He explains the unique economic, social and political conditions that by the 19th century, led to Britain becoming the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. It was a time that transformed the way people think, work and play forever.
A look back at the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Moore, focusing on his work as an astronomer and broadcaster. His keen interest in the night sky inspired generations. With contributions from Brian May, Sir Tim Rice and Heather Couper.
Stacey Dooley travels to Magaluf, on the Spanish island of Mallorca, to get under the skin of this popular resort. The resort is famous for the drunken antics of the British tourists who go there, but Stacey wants to find out what it's like for the thousands of Spanish workers who serve, police and clear up. What starts out as a regular shift at a bar or cleaning hotel rooms often ends up with Stacey uncovering a darker side that only the workers and residents get to see. Working in a bar Stacey is not only surprised to learn how much free alcohol is on offer to young British tourists, but she's horrified when she witnesses the sexually explicit drinking games the drunk tourists are encouraged to play. When she spends a morning cleaning hotel rooms, not only does she learn about the vandalism and mess tourists leave behind, but she meets one member of staff who's been left traumatised after he saw a young girl fall to her death at the hotel earlier this year, leaving him constantly worried about the safety of inebriated guests. Stacey discovers that the high numbers of tourists who die or are badly injured every year is linked to heavy drinking. But it's when Stacey rides along with an ambulance crew and a police patrol car over a busy weekend that she discovers things are really getting out of control in Magaluf. She hears how the emergency services have seen their worst year ever, cases of violent fights and rape are on the rise, women posing as prostitutes are ganging up on young, and often British, tourists and robbing them. Sadly this year, they've seen more deaths in the resort than ever before, mainly due to a craze called balconing.
Mark Radcliffe presents a countdown of the ten songs which have earned the most money of all time - ten classic songs each with an extraordinary story behind them. Radcliffe lifts the lid on how music royalties work and reveals the biggest winners and losers in the history of popular music
Britain's drug culture is changing - fast. Cocaine and ecstasy are out and mephedrone, ketamine and GHB are in. Shot in Leeds over the biggest party weekend of the year - Halloween and Bonfire Night - this film gets under the skin of the new party drugs. We follow Holly, Tony and Oliver from the dancefloor to the morning after and, with unique access to the first specialist 'club drug clinic' outside London, we find out what happens to those who want to keep going even when the party's over.
Winter was not always beautiful. Until Pieter Bruegel painted Hunters in the Snow, the long bitter months had never been transformed into a thing of beauty. This documentary charts how mankind's ever-changing struggle with winter has been reflected in western art throughout the ages, resulting in images that are now amongst the greatest paintings of all time. With contributions from Grayson Perry, Will Self, Don McCullin and many others, the film takes an eclectic group of people from all walks of life out into the cold to reflect on the paintings that have come to define the art of snow and ice.
Five members of the same platoon were killed on the 10th July 2009 in what remains the worst incident for a British foot patrol in the history of the Afghan campaign. Through powerful and touching interviews with some of the young soldiers who survived the attack, this film reveals how their lives are still haunted by the horrors of Helmand.
Dishing the dirt on the battles being fought on plots across the UK. Filmed over seven months, during the planting, growing and harvesting seasons, Allotment Wars shows what happens when strangers are thrust together on the land with too much time on their hands and too many sharp tools. Plotholders often face attacks from outsiders. In Kent, following a series of break-ins, two brave gardeners hunt a suspect in the local woods. However in Devon, there is a civil war brewing between the plotholders themselves. Prize vegetables are being snatched and sheds ransacked, and it looks like an inside job. What can the site committee do to combat the saboteurs? Nearly 100,000 Britons are on allotment waiting lists. This high demand means that the pressure to maintain plots is equally high. If allotmenteers fail, eviction looms. A young plotholder in Manchester struggles to avoid such a fate. In Newcastle, two men fight for the title of Champion City Gardener. Regular participants in the fiercely competitive vegetable shows, these rivals have not spoken for years and tension mounts as they face each other at the annual City Allotment and Garden Show.
The German invasion of Poland in 1939 marked the beginning of the Second World War and the escalation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. It also was the beginning of one of the war's truly inspiring and remarkable stories. Prisoner A26188 tells the story of a young Polish girl Henia. Born into a middle class Jewish family, she lost her father, brother and sister during the German occupation, survived four concentration camps, and went on to bear witness to the creation of Israel in 1948. Now in her eighties, Henia's harrowing personal testimony starts with her family's removal from their home in Radom, Poland, to the ghetto, then Plaszow concentration camp, made famous by Schindler's list, onto Majdanek then Auschwitz and finally Bergen-Belsen. Henia describes with calm and dignity the terrors of the camps, the cruelty of the SS, the Death March and how, through a combination of her own resourcefulness and luck, she survived. In this extraordinary testament Henia explains, how after being reunited with her mother and brother, she makes her way to Palestine, sees in the birth of Israel, falls in love with a young South African and moves to Africa to start a new life. Filmed by her niece, this is her story of survival, and a legacy to her family and other survivors of genocide.
Every winter, millions of us come down with colds, flu and stomach problems caused by viruses like Norovirus - the highly contagious vomiting bug which has swept the country this year. It has closed hundreds of hospital wards and infected well over a million people. Flu figures are also higher than last year and are still climbing, plus we have seen high cases of a little known but extremely nasty respiratory virus called RSV which affects babies and young children. So why does winter makes us ill? And what can we do to protect ourselves against these normally routine illnesses that have the potential to turn lethal and cost the economy billions of pounds every year? Professor Alice Roberts and Dr Michael Mosley report from a pop up studio close to many of London's leading hospitals and medical research institutions on the latest virus outbreaks across the country. With the help of leading virologists, they will be finding out what viruses do to our bodies, explaining what viruses are, examining how they spread and advising what we can do to stay fit and healthy for the rest of the winter.
For better or for worse: the vows may be the same, but in our increasingly diverse society, popular wedding traditions are far from what you would expect. Married In Britain provides a portal into the lives of Britain's newest arrivals facing the everyday challenges of establishing a new life in the UK, as they prepare for one of the biggest days of their lives. We are invited to celebrate a diverse array of customs and cultures as couples embrace their new home while seeking to hold on to familiar traditions. They offer us a fresh look at Britain, sharing their experiences of getting married in one of the most exciting nations on earth
Jonathan Meades is unleashed on the county of Essex. Contrary to its caricature as a bling-filled land of breast-enhanced footballer's wives and self-made millionaires, Meades argues that this is a county that defies definition - at once the home of picturesque villages, pre-war modernism and 19th-century social experiments. Shaped by its closeness to London, Meades points out that this is where 19th-century do-gooders attempted to reform London's outcasts with manual labour and fresh air, from brewing magnate Frederick Charrington's Temperance Colony on Osea Island to the Christian socialist programmes run by Salvation Army founder William Booth. Meades also discovers a land which abounds in all strains of architecture, from the modernist village created by paternalistic shoe giant Thomas Bata to Oliver Hill's masterplan to re-imagine Frinton-on-Sea and the bizarre but prescient work of Arthur Mackmurdo, whose exceptionally odd buildings were conceived in the full blown language of the 1930s some fifty years earlier. In a visually impressive and typically idiosyncratic programme, Meades provides a historical and architectural tour of a county that typically challenges everything you thought you knew and offers so much you didn't.
Every year, over a thousand climbers try to reach the summit of Mount Everest, with the annual record for successful attempts currently standing at 633. But of that number, nearly half were Sherpas - the mountain's unsung heroes. Yet the Sherpa community has remained secretive about their nation, culture and experiences living in the shadow of the world's highest mountain. Now, for the first time, they open the door into their world. Without the expertise of the Sherpas, only the hardiest and most skilful climbers would succeed. Every day they risk their lives for the safety of others, yet they seek neither glory nor reward, preferring to stay in the background. Following the stories of four such Sherpas - Phurba, Ngima, Ngima Tenji and Gelu - this film reveals the reality of their daily lives, not just up the mountain, but with their families after they return home.
For one night only, Professor Brian Cox goes unplugged in a specially recorded programme from the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his own inimitable style, Brian takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics. With the help of Jonathan Ross, Simon Pegg, Sarah Millican and James May, Brian shows how diamonds - the hardest material in nature - are made up of nothingness; how things can be in an infinite number of places at once; why everything we see or touch in the universe exists; and how a diamond in the heart of London is in communication with the largest diamond in the cosmos.
Growing numbers of young British women are converting to Islam. Shanna Bukhari, a 26-year-old Muslim from Manchester, sets out to find out why girls are giving up partying, drinking and wearing whatever they want for a religion some people associate with the oppression of women. This warm documentary follows the highs and lows of five girls as they embrace their new faith. From adapting to a religion that allows a man to marry up to four wives to the acceptance of friends and family, it isn't always easy.
With unprecedented access, this film uncovers the hidden world of public protection. Through the personal stories of probation officers, it explores how offenders are monitored, controlled and rehabilitated in everyday life, and how the public are protected from them. This is the story of our protectors; the extraordinary professionals in the probation service who work with some of society's most troubled, damaged and dangerous people. They keep tabs on murderers and paedophiles, robbers and rapists, burglars and domestic abusers. It is their responsibility to stop them from hurting us. But these offenders aren't behind bars; they're out and about, living free among us. So how are they controlled, and how are we kept safe?
Between the mid 1960s and the late 1970s, the long-playing record and the albums that graced its grooves changed popular music for ever. For the first time, musicians could escape the confines of the three-minute pop single and express themselves as never before across the expanded artistic canvas of the album. The LP allowed popular music become an art form - from the glorious artwork adorning gatefold sleeves, to the ideas and concepts that bound the songs together, to the unforgettable music itself. Built on stratospheric sales of albums, these were the years when the music industry exploded to become bigger than Hollywood. From pop to rock, from country to soul, from jazz to punk, all of music embraced what 'the album' could offer. But with the collapse of vinyl sales at the end of the 70s and the arrival of new technologies and formats, the golden era of the album couldn't last forever. With contributions from Roger Taylor, Ray Manzarek, Noel Gallagher, Guy Garvey, Nile Rodgers, Grace Slick, Mike Oldfield, Slash and a host of others, this is the story of When Albums Ruled the World.
Across Britain police are dealing with a new crime wave, metal theft. The high price of metal has led organised criminal gangs to tear apart Britain's infrastructure, stripping metal from railways, power stations, churches and even war memorials. This documentary shows British Transport Police fighting back and reveals the consequences of metal theft, from the risk of electrocution to thieves, the emotional distress caused to victims and even an explosion.
On the 50th anniversary of the famous 12-hour session at Abbey Road which resulted in the Beatles' iconic album Please Please Me, leading artists such as Stereophonics, Graham Coxon, Gabrielle Aplin, Joss Stone, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, Paul Carrack, Mick Hucknall and I Am Kloot attempt to record the same songs, in the same timescale, in the same studio. The results will be captured in this programme, presented by Stuart Maconie. Amongst those paying their own tribute to the album's success are Burt Bacharach and Guy Chambers, as well as people lucky enough to have been there 50 years ago telling the remarkable story of what happened that day, including engineer Richard Langham and Beatles' press officer Tony Barrow.
Documentary following the men and women who are passionate about clearing their local streets of litter and dog fouling, as they confront the litterers and roll up their sleeves to clear up other people's mess. 30 million tonnes of litter are dumped on British streets every year. It costs a billion pounds a year to clear up, and hard-pressed councils cannot always cope with the daily tide of dog mess, drinks cans, sweet wrappers and cigarette ends. Some vigilantes, like retired teacher and soldier John, prefer to confront litterers head-on; others, like Adrian in Leicester, deal with the problem by picking up the rubbish themselves - Adrian has harvested more than 50,000 drinks tins from his local streets. And Jill, in North Yorkshire, mounts one of Britain's most unusual dog fouling campaigns - highlighting every dog mess on a popular footpath with a pink flag. After marking 72 of them, she runs out of flags.
Forget fingerprints and DNA matching – in London in 1864 the best evidence the police had to work with to track down a killer was a half-crushed beaver hat. In this forensic exhumation of the nation’s ‘first railway murder’, reconstructions flesh out archive accounts to review the conviction of German-born tailor Franz Müller for the murder of 69-year-old banker Thomas Briggs, tracked down by Detective Dick Tanner (Robert Whitelock). By today’s standards, the verdict seems as shaky as a line in dire need of engineering works.
Documentary telling the story of the world's craziest race. In 1977 French motorcyclist Thierry Sabine was in serious trouble, lost in the Libyan desert and dying from thirst. Whilst most men would weep and think back over their lives, Thierry thought about coming back - to do a rally across the Sahara Desert. The 9,000km Paris-Dakar rally was born. The rally became a beacon for eccentric adventurers battling the terrain in customised vehicles, seduced by the romance of the desert and the extreme challenge. It soon became a victim of its own rapid success. Caught up in controversy and with a total of over 60 deaths, in 2008 this incredible event was brought to an end in Africa by terrorism. Featuring winners Cyril Neveu, Hubert Auriol, Jean Louis Schlesser, Ari Vatanen, Stephane Peterhansel, Martine De Cortanze, former participant Sir Mark Thatcher and many more, this is the story of the biggest motorsport event the world has ever seen and one of the greatest challenges of human endeavour ever conceived, told by those that took part. How the West took on a landscape of incredible beauty and scale. And lost.
Documentary telling the story of Britain's first hand transplant, carried out by surgeons at Leeds Infirmary on Boxing Day night 2012, from the moment Professor Simon Kay and his team decided to go ahead to the moment the patient was able to move the transplanted hand. During that time, candidates came forward from all over the UK and beyond - including a hairdresser, an IT consultant, a former pub landlord, a DJ and a retired housewife - all of whom had lost the use of at least one of their hands. But before they could go ahead, the doctors had to be sure they were physically and psychologically prepared. Some decided that the risks - including the potentially life-shortening drugs that would need to be taken for the rest of their life - weren't worthwhile. Others decided that the misery of living without a hand outweighed everything else. This thought-provoking film is with them as they make their decisions - and with the surgeons as the patient who comes through the process is finally taken into the operating theatre.
With Italy going to the polls on 24th and 25th February, Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist and a man with a special passion for Italy and Italians since his teenage years, asks where has Italy gone wrong and examines the good sides about Italy as well as the disasters.
Johnny Kingdom, the wild man of Exmoor, is back and going further than he's ever been before - the trip of a lifetime to Kodiak Island in Alaska in search of brown bears. As a lad, amateur wildlife filmmaker Johnny would poach salmon from the rivers on Exmoor with his bare hands, but his lifelong ambition has been to see how the real experts - brown bears - do it, as they fish for sockeye salmon in the remote rivers of Kodiak Island off the southwest coast of Alaska. It is also the biggest challenge he has faced as an amateur cameraman. In characteristic style, Johnny finds himself struggling to keep his camera still without a tripod and because his hands are shaking so much when faced with a 'hooge' bear less than 30 metres away. The other challenge he faces, which he cannot control, is the weather. In the summer, although the snow has melted this part of Alaska is plagued by heavy mists and fog, which makes the journey by seaplane to the remote areas where the bears live even harder to achieve. Fortunately Johnny is able to take advantage of being grounded and heads out on a boat into the rich waters around Kodiak Island to film humpback whales, tufted puffins and an enchantingly close encounter with sea otters. But it's the bears he's come for and Johnny finally gets the shots he wanted - bears catching salmon. He can hardly believe it. This is Johnny Kingdom at his best - infectiously enthusiastic, madly exuberant and never less than hugely enjoyable.
Danny Leigh explores the elemental drama of the boxing movie. For over 120 years, boxing and film have been entwined and the fight film has been used to address powerful themes such as redemption, race and corruption. Film writer Leigh examines how each generation's fight films have reflected their times and asks why filmmakers from Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese have returned time and again to tales of the ring. Interviewees include former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, Rocky director John G Avildsen and Thelma Schoonmaker, editor of Raging Bull.
As it celebrates its 90th birthday, Barbara Flynn narrates the story of the nation's love affair with the steam locomotive that symbolises all that was great about British engineering, the Flying Scotsman.
Michael Grade goes on the trail of the world's oldest joke as he sets out to discover whether jokes come and go with the passing of time or whether we are still laughing at the same things our ancestors did.
Paris-based writer Andrew Hussey travels through the glorious art and surprising history of an extraordinary French institution to show that the story of the Louvre is the story of France. As well as exploring the masterpieces of painters such as Veronese, Rubens, David, Chardin, Gericault and Delacroix, he examines the changing face of the Louvre itself through its architecture and design. Medieval fortress, Renaissance palace, luxurious home to kings, emperors and more recently civil servants, today it attracts eight million visitors a year. The documentary also reflects the very latest transformation of the Louvre - the museum's recently-opened Islamic Gallery.
John Adams is the living composer who is most widely performed today. This visually rich portrait of the composer by award-winning film maker Mark Kidel explores the influences that have shaped Adams's unique music, from minimalism to jazz and from the Indian raga to the European classical tradition.
Documentary telling the bruised and battered, but triumphant, tale of one of the UK's most cherished rock 'n' roll bands, Mott the Hoople. Originating from Herefordshire, the band were thrown together in 1969 and signed to Island Records by the increasingly erratic manager/producer Guy Stevens, in a bid to find a band that would combine The Rolling Stones rhythmic power with the melody and lyricism of 'Blonde on Blonde' era Bob Dylan. The documentary charts their journey from cult struggling touring band to their successful transformation into 'glam rock players' thanks to the intervention of David Bowie who gave them their biggest hit, 'All The Young Dudes', and their subsequent collapse after the addition of Mick Ronson to their line-up. Mott the Hoople's story is brought to life through a combination of rare and unseen archive footage, their magnificent music and the testimony of band members Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Verden Allen, Dale Griffin, Luther Grosvenor aka Ariel Bender and various other associates and witnesses, including boyhood fan Mick Jones of The Clash and Queen's Roger Taylor.
An intimate insight into the world of the Hutterites, a Christian community who believe living communally and separate from what they call 'the world' is the route to heaven. But living like this is not easy. With exclusive access, the film follows one young man secretly running away from his community.
Police say the death of Reeva Steenkamp was premeditated murder. The accused, her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, says it was an innocent accident. A documentary team has been in Pretoria, South Africa, digging deeper into a death that shocked the world. Presented by Rick Edwards, who covered Pistorius's gold-medal winning, world record-breaking achievements at the London 2012 Paralympics, the programme features interviews with friends of both the victim and the accused. Aged 26, Oscar Pistorius is the poster boy of the Paralympics movement and his prosthetic lower legs have given him the nickname Blade Runner. So fast and powerful, he became the first the first double leg amputee to participate in the Olympics, competing in the 400m and 4x400m relay. But since that glorious summer, reports have emerged of a different side of Oscar Pistorius - involved in brawls and late night fracas. Observers note that when setting bail, the judge made it conditional that until he returns to court in June, Pistorius must not consume alcohol and will be randomly tested to ensure he complies. Featuring special 3-D graphics, sworn testimony and exclusive interviews, the film attempts to give the most complete picture yet of what may have happened in Oscar Pistorius's apartment in the early hours of February 14th.
Ant colonies are one of the wonders of nature - complex, organised and mysterious. This programme reveals the secret, underground world of the ant colony in a way that's never been seen before. At its heart is a massive, full-scale ant nest, specially-designed and built to allow cameras to see its inner workings. The nest is a new home for a million-strong colony of leafcutter ants from Trinidad. For a month, entomologist Dr George McGavin and leafcutter expert Professor Adam Hart capture every aspect of the life of the colony, using time-lapse cameras, microscopes, microphones and radio tracking technology. The ants instantly begin to forage, farm, mine and build. Within weeks, the colony has established everything from nurseries to gardens to graveyards. The programme explores how these tiny insects can achieve such spectacular feats of collective organisation. This unique project reveals the workings of one of the most complex and mysterious societies in the natural world and shows the surprising ways in which ants are helping us solve global problems.
Filmmaker David Malone explores the science behind metamorphosis, the ultimate evolutionary magic trick - the transformation of one creature into a totally different being: one life, two bodies.
When the space shuttle Challenger blew up in 1986, it was the most shocking event in the history of American spaceflight. The deaths of seven astronauts, including the first teacher in space Christa McAuliffe, were watched live on television by millions of viewers. But what was more shocking was that the cause of the disaster might never be uncovered. The Challenger is the story of how Richard Feynman, one of America's most famous scientists, helped to discover the cause of a tragedy that stunned America
Alastair Sooke takes us on an exclusive personal tour of the Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at Tate Modern. Together with fans, critics, artists and those who knew Lichtenstein, Alastair leads an entertaining and provocative discussion about the work and legacy of one of the most celebrated and instantly recognisable artists of the 20th century. Renowned for his works based on comic strips and advertising imagery, Lichtenstein's chisel-jawed action men and love-lorn women made him the hero of the Pop Art movement. When the pictures first appeared in the 1960s they caused a sensation - but also outrage and controversy, with many questioning whether his re-workings of other people's images could really be called art. As the exhibition reveals, however, there was more to Lichtenstein than simply the famous comic book images and also on display are many of his less familiar works - nudes, landscapes, sculpture and his own take on the work of modern art masters such as Picasso and Matisse. Offering an in-depth look at one of the year's most talked about exhibitions, Alastair and guests explore the enduring appeal of Lichtenstein's imagery, debate the controversies around his work and his influence on today's generation of artists and tackle the big question - was Lichtenstein a Pop Art genius and one of the defining image-makers of the 20th century, or a one-trick wonder whose big idea was so powerful he could never let it go?
Every autumn a miracle happens. A Monarch butterfly born in Canada will fly 5,000 km to the rainforests of Mexico, across land it has never seen. It is a journey filled with peril. Many never make it, and those that do will never return. It takes three more generations to make the journey back to Canada the following spring. No butterfly has ever made the journey before and none of them will ever make it again. Based on the critically-acclaimed book by Sue Halpern and narrated by Kristin Scott Thomas, the migration of the Monarch butterfly from its birthplace in Canada to its wintering site in the rainforests of Mexico is an epic struggle for survival: an astonishing story of scientific marvel and awesome beauty.
n 1908 amateur naturalist Percy Smith stunned cinema goers with his surreal film The Acrobatic Fly. Featuring a bluebottle juggling a series of objects, the film became front page news. Now wildlife cameraman Charlie Hamilton-James attempts to recreate this fascinating film. Along the way, Hamilton-James (helped by Sir David Attenborough who saw Smith's films as a boy) tells the story of Percy's remarkable career and reveals the genius behind this forgotten pioneer of British film.
How would you feel about eating deep fried locusts, ant egg salad or barbequed tarantulas? This documentary sees presenter and food writer Stefan Gates immerse himself in the extraordinary world of hardcore insect-eating in a bid to conquer his lingering revulsion of bugs and discover if they really could save the planet. With 40 tonnes of insects to every human, perhaps insects could offer a real solution to the global food crisis - where billions go hungry every day whilst the meat consumption of the rich draws vast amounts of grain out of the global food chain. Stefan's on a mission to meet the people in Thailand and Cambodia that hunt, eat and sell edible insects for a living. But nothing quite prepares him for bug farming on this terrifying scale, from stalking grasshoppers at night to catching fiercely-biting ants. And it's not just insects on the menu. Stefan also goes hunting for the hairiest, scariest spider on the planet - the tarantula. Stefan asks if the solution is for everyone - the British included - to start eating insects too.
After 53 years Television Centre, the BBC's TV headquarters, is closing its doors and Michael Grade gathers together many of its best-loved faces to stroll down memory lane.
Boris Johnson is the biggest star in British politics. Nobody connects to the public like Boris, some even see him as a future Prime Minister. So what really makes him tick and is he a serious contender for the top job? With unprecedented access to Johnson himself, candid interviews and previously unseen archive, Michael Cockerell unlocks the secrets of the real Boris Johnson.
Insects outnumber us by 200 million to one. They thrive in environments where humans wouldn't last minutes. We mostly perceive them as pests - yet without bugs, entire ecosystems would collapse, crops would disappear and waste would pile high. The secret of their success? Their incredible alien anatomy. To reveal this extraordinary hidden world, entomologists Dr James Logan and Brendan Dunphy carry out a complete insect dissection. Cutting-edge imaging technology shows us the beauty and precision of the natural engineering inside even the simplest insects. Stripping back the layers, they uncover ingenious body systems and finely-tuned senses - a bug body plan that is the hidden blueprint behind insects' 'global domination'. They also discover how science is now using the secrets of insect anatomy to inspire technology that could save human lives.
Not since 1976 has a woman raced in Formula 1; Susie Wolff is determined to change that. A documentary filmed by her brother charts highs and lows of her year racing and the life-changing moment when she is tested for the Williams F1 team. Featuring interviews with Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher.
Best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett, diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007, has one last adventure he wants to go on. Eighteen years ago Terry had a life-changing experience in the jungles of Borneo, where he encountered orangutans in the wild for the first time. Now he is going back to find out what the future holds for these endangered species, and discover a new threat to their habitat that could push them to the brink of extinction. His Alzheimer's will make the trip an incredible challenge both physically and mentally, as he contemplates the role of mankind in the eradication of the planet's species, and considers his own inevitable extinction. Terry is accompanied by his friend and assistant Rob Wilkins, as they investigate an Indonesian street market where endangered species are reportedly on sale, meet the world expert on orangutans, Dr Birute Galdikas, and journey into the rainforest in search of the former king of the orangutans, Kusasi.
In a one off landmark drama documentary for BBC One, Dr Margaret Mountford presents Pompeii: The Mystery Of The People Frozen In Time. The city of Pompeii uniquely captures the public's imagination; in 79AD a legendary volcanic disaster left its citizens preserved in ashes to this very day. Yet no-one has been able to unravel the full story that is at the heart of our fascination: how did those bodies become frozen in time? For the first time the BBC has been granted unique access to these strange, ghost-like body casts that populate the ruins and, using the latest forensic technology, the chance to peer beneath the surface of the plaster in order to rebuild the faces of two of the people who were killed in this terrible tragedy. Margaret turns detective to tell a new story at the heart of one of history's most iconic moments; she looks at the unique set of circumstances that led to the remarkable preservation of the people of Pompeii. By applying modern day forensic analysis to this age-old mystery, Margaret dispels the myths surrounding the events in 79AD. She also explores the lives of the individuals who once lived in this vibrant and enigmatic city, as well as recreating the last moments of the people caught up in this tragedy.
Documentary which tells the story of the first major charity rock concert, the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh organised by former Beatle George Harrison at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Filmed over six months in Britain’s biggest Young Offenders Institution, Prison Dads follows fathers on the inside and their partners on the outside, struggling to keep together their fledgling families. Glen Parva in Leicester houses up to 808 prisoners aged 18-21 years-old. These young men are 5 times more likely to be dads than others their age. From hearing their baby being born on the other end of the phone to meeting their son for the first time in the visit hall, the film explores the experiences of prisoners grappling with the demands of being dad behind bars. We also meet the mums who are left home alone to fend for themselves with a newborn baby or demanding toddler. Some choose to bring their child into prison to visit where they must face searches and sniffer dogs, while others decide to shield them from this experience by telling them Daddy is on a ‘naughty holiday’. For all of them, the impact of prison life on parenthood is profound. With privileged access, and intimate stories as these young men open up about their experiences, Prison Dads is a moving film charting the successes and failures of young parents, coming to terms with bringing up their babies in extremely challenging circumstances.
Using rare archive and first hand testimony from those who knew him intimately, this film explores the life of Donald Campbell, one of Britain's most compelling but doomed heroes. Despite his triumphs, setting several world speed records on land and water, he remained a haunted man. His father Sir Malcolm Campbell had been a prolific record-breaker but an indifferent parent and all his life Donald felt driven to emulate his father. But instead of endless success his career was dogged by bad luck, bad weather and the growing apathy of the British public. In 1967 he took his Bluebird boat to Coniston in the Lake District for an attempt on the water speed record. With the eyes of the world upon him, he crashed and was killed instantly, his body and boat lost for thirty years.Told from the point of view of the children themselves, this one-hour documentary offers a unique perspective on the nation's flagging economy and the impact of unemployment, foreclosure and financial distress as seen through the eyes of the children affected.
Written and presented by John Eliot Gardiner, one of the world’s leading interpreters of Bach’s music, Bach: A Passionate Life takes us on a physical, musical and intellectual journey in search of Bach the man and the musician. The most famous portrait of Bach shows him aged 62, a rather miserable looking old man in wig and formal coat, yet his greatest works were composed in his late 30s and early 40s in an almost unrivalled decade-long blaze of creativity. This conservative image of Bach also conflicts with evidence of clashes with authority from an early age. There are accounts of public brawls, periods in jail, and the smuggling of girls into his organ loft. Gardiner draws upon his lifelong fascination and passion for the composer to shed light on Bach’s personality and music. In the documentary, made by Leopard Films, John Eliot Gardiner conducts his award-winning Monteverdi choir and orchestra in specially shot performances from Bach’s masterworks: the St Matthew Passion, the St John Passion and the B Minor Mass, as well as extracts from some of his secular and sacred cantatas. The programme reveals a complex and passionate artist, a warm and convivial family man who shows a rebellious spirit while struggling with the hierarchies of state and church. Despite the cramped conditions of his life in Leipzig, and despite rarely venturing outside a 60-mile radius of the city, he wrote timeless music that today enjoys world-wide fame.
A celebration of the late, great Richard Briers. From The Good Life to King Lear, Briers' unique talents gave him a versatility and breadth enjoyed by only a few. Friends and colleagues gather to pay tribute to this much loved and multi-talented actor.
When Patton's went bust last November the impact reached far beyond their Ballymena offices. The fallout from their crash left many workers, sub-contractors and small businesses in dire financial straits. This is the story of some of the collateral damage caused by the demise of Northern Ireland's oldest and largest construction firm.
Film about the architect John Portman, capturing his approach in an intimate portrait that, by turn, assesses and appreciates his work, using dramatic time-lapse footage to show off his buildings at their best. Once a maverick who was nearly run out of the American Institute of Architects, Portman is now recognized as one of the most innovative and imitated architects ever. Over 45 years, his iconic urban statements and eye-popping interiors have risen in 60 cities on four continents to redefine cityscapes in America and skylines in China and the rest of Asia.
To mark Good Friday, Melvyn Bragg sets out to unravel the many questions surrounding one of the Bible’s most vivid and, to some, controversial figures: Mary Magdalene. In the gospel accounts, Mary Magdalene plays a key role in the Easter story. She is there at the cross when Jesus is crucified and she’s a key witness to the resurrection. So why, despite any reference to it in the Bible, is Mary Magdalene remembered primarily as the sinner or even prostitute whom Christ redeems? Melvyn uncovers the real story behind Mary’s legendary status: from her vital role in the first centuries of Christianity to her portrayal in Jesus Christ Superstar and the Da Vinci Code.
Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill presents a documentary following the scientific investigation that aims to lift the lid on what life was like in the small Roman town of Herculaneum, moments before it was destroyed by a volcanic erruption. Just 10 miles from Pompeii, 12 arched vaults are telling a whole new story about what life was like before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They contain the skeletons of no less than 340 people, just 10% of the local population, killed by the volcano. Amongst them are the first new skeletons to be found in the area for 30 years which are now the subject of a ground-breaking scientific investigation. The finds included a toddler clutching his pet dog, a two-year-old girl with silver earrings and a boy staring into the eyes of his mother as they embraced in their last moment. Those found inside the vaults were nearly all women and children. Those found outside on the shoreline were nearly all men. Why? The Other Pompeii: Life and Death In Herculaneum unravels a surprising story of resilience, courage and humanity, with the local population going to their deaths not in the apocalyptic orgy of sex and self-destruction often portrayed in Pompeii's popular myth, but, much more like the passengers of the Titanic, it seems that like their British counterparts, the ancient inhabitants of Herculaneum put women and children first. Presenting the film is Britain's greatest Pompeianist, Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill of the University of Cambridge, and Director of the Herculaneum Conservation Project. He takes us to meet the scientists leading the forensic project - Luca Bondioli and Luciano Fattore - and then on a tour of the incredible town where the skeletons once lived. On this journey he uncovers their houses, their wooden furniture (including their beds and the only surviving baby's cradle from the Roman world), their food and even their waste (that's human waste), perfectly preserved by a layer of ash up to five times deepe
From the Staffordshire hills to the Humber estuary, spirited explorer Tom Fort embarks on a 170-mile journey down Britain's third longest river, the Trent. Beginning on foot, he soon transfers to his own custom-built punt, the Trent Otter, and rows many miles downstream. Along the way he encounters the power stations that generate much of the nation's electricity, veterans of the catastrophic floods of 1947, the 19th-century brewers of Burton and a Bronze Age boatman who once made a life along the river.
While the Victorians confronted the challenges of ruling an empire, perhaps the most dangerous environment they faced was in their own homes. Householders lapped up the latest products, gadgets and conveniences, but in an era with no health and safety standards they were unwittingly turning their homes into hazardous death traps. In a genuine horror story, Dr Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the killers that lurked in every room of the Victorian home and shows how they were unmasked. What new innovation killed thousands of babies? And what turned the domestic haven into a ticking time bomb?
Physicist Dr Helen Czerski takes us on an amazing journey into the science of bubbles. Bubbles may seem to be just fun toys, but they are also powerful tools that push back the boundaries of science. The soap bubble with its delicate, fragile skin tells us about how nature works on scales as large as solar system and as small as a single wavelength of light. Then there are underwater bubbles, which matter because they are part of the how the planet works. Out at sea, breaking waves generate huge plumes of bubbles which help the oceans breathe. From the way animals behave to the way drinks taste, Dr Czerski shows how bubbles affect our world in all sorts of unexpected ways. Whether it's the future of ship design or innovative new forms of medical treatment, bubbles play a vital role.
Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first and only woman Prime Minister. In her eleven years in office she defeated Argentina in the Falklands War and at home she battled the unions into submission. Under her guidance, the Conservative government brought in privatisation and deregulated the City. In this special programme to mark her passing, family, friends and former colleagues - as well as political opponents - recall her life, her extraordinary personality and her tumultuous years in power.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner returns for the first time to Riyadh, the city in Saudi Arabia where he was shot by Al Qaeda in 2004 and left dependent upon a wheelchair. Travelling in this important and mysterious country, he explores how it has so far avoided an Arab Spring revolution.
Robin Day interviews Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street. From 9 April 1984 As the election campaign draws to a close, Sir Robin Day talks to the prime minister, The Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, about her bid for a third term at No 10 and about the pledges made in the Conservative manifesto. What is her vision of Thatcher's Britain?
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher addresses a motion of no confidence in her final speech at the despatch box. From 22 November 1990.
Baroness Thatcher makes her maiden speech to the House of Lords. From 2 July 1992.
This biography reveals Newton as both a hermit and a tyrant, a heretic and an alchemist. Magical images mix with actors and experts to bring alive Britain's greatest scientific genius in his own words.
BBC presenter Martha Kearney, who became a political correspondent when Margaret Thatcher was at the height of her political power, charts the unlikely rise of the grocer's daughter who became Britain's most famous prime minister. She also reflects on Thatcher's bitter downfall at the hands of her colleagues in government, a betrayal she never recovered from.
Paleontologist Professor Richard Fortey embarks on a quest to discover the extraordinary lives of rock pool creatures. To help explore this unusual environment he is joined by some of the UK's leading marine biologists in a dedicated laboratory at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Here and on the beach in various locations around the UK, startling behaviour is revealed and new insights are given into how these animals cope with intertidal life. Many popular rock pool species have survived hundreds of millions of years of Earth's history, but humans may be their biggest challenge yet.
David Dimbleby introduces live coverage of the funeral service of Baroness Thatcher. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, together with the Thatcher family and representatives from British and world politics, attend the service at St Paul's Cathedral. Sophie Raworth and Mishal Husain report from the route.
John Ware journeys to Israel for a fresh look at how it has responded to the changes sweeping the region in the wake of the Arab Spring. He meets Israelis from all walks of life to go beyond the news clichés and analyse what is next for the world’s only Jewish state as both the religious and the secular battle over its future.
Peter Higgs is the man behind one of the most remarkable scientific ideas of the past fifty years. He proposed the existence of a new particle, which would become known as the Higgs Boson. It took almost fifty years, and the construction of the world's largest machine, to prove his theory correct. Peter Higgs: Particle Man tells his story.
Starting off a kilometre high, travelling at the speed of a jet aircraft, and heading for us. It doesn't make for a good outcome. Hollywood-style graphics and real-life archive brings home an imagined near-future scenario, all based on cutting-edge science.
Historian and author AN Wilson explores the life of Josiah Wedgwood, a self-made, self-educated creative giant famous for his pottery.
A film that looks at the genius of JMW Turner in a new light. There is more to Turner than his sublime landscapes - he also painted machines, science, technology and industry. Turner's life spans the Industrial Revolution, he witnessed it as it unfolded and he painted it. In the process he created a whole new kind of art. The programme examines nine key Turner paintings and shows how we should re-think them in the light of the scientific and Industrial Revolution. Includes interviews with historian Simon Schama and artist Tracey Emin.
Andrew Graham-Dixon goes behind the scenes at the Rijksmuseum as the staff prepare to open the doors following a ten-year renovation, the most significant ever undertaken by a museum. Featuring over 8,000 works of art, Holland's national museum tells the story of 800 years of Dutch history and houses a world-famous collection including masterpieces by artists from Vermeer to Rembrandt. So, as the final paintings are rehung and objects settle into their new home, has the long wait been worth it?
Documentary following actor and writer Maureen Lipman on a personal journey as she explores through her own recollections how memory works. With the help of family, friends and experts, Maureen traces the development of memory, from cradle to grave.
Documentary based on Charles Moore's official biography looking at Britain's first female Prime Minister, looking at the childhood influences that shaped her and drove her to the unique place she holds in this country and in the history books. Including unprecedented and exclusive access to unseen correspondence and intimate interviews with close family members, including former admirers and a highly personal interview with her son Mark. Overall they give a unique insight into her childhood, loves and early political life.
After her own accident left her unable to walk, Sophie Morgan wants to know why traffic collisions are the single biggest killer of young people - and how that can be stopped. With exclusive access and insight into a number of high profile cases from the moment of the crash through to resolution in the courts, she meets people who, like her, have seen their lives changed forever in a single instant - whether they were injured or they were driving the car. As she follows the progress of families like the Singhs, devastated by an accident caused by a footballer from one of the country's biggest clubs, she hears emotional stories of regret and recovery, finds out what it means to be responsible for a death on the roads and discovers one way that the rate of accidents involving young drivers could be brought down. Sophie also encounters drivers who race illegally on public roads with no thought for anyone's safety and, after a reunion with the passengers she could have killed, is forced to think again about her actions - and her driving - back on the night that she crashed.
Rick Edwards presents a live controversial experiment which is set to challenge peoples prejudices as a chef cooks a banquet made with the core ingredient of horse-meat.
Told by family and friends, with rare unseen archive, this documentary reflects on the career of Dave Allen, relative of poet Katharine Tynan, and a natural performer who cut his teeth at Butlins. He became a TV star in Australia in his twenties, before returning home to dominate the schedules here in Britain with his unique blend of sketches and stories in a career that took in films, plays, documentaries and chat shows, alongside award winning comedy series. Respected, admired and with unshakeable integrity, Dave Allen fought for what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. He was driven by simple honesty. It was this solitary and determined path that made his talents special and unusual and inspired a generation of comics that were to follow. For the first time ever this rich and compelling career is celebrated on screen, giving a chance to reflect on his many achievements and on the private life that went alongside it. With contributions from Stephen Berkoff, Stephen Frears, and Dame Maggie Smith, among others.
In the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch has been accused of corrupting British media and contaminating politics. Yet the caricature image of him as the 'Dirty Digger', the sinister head of a global media empire, in fact obscures deeper, more significant truths - not least about Britain itself. Rupert Murdoch can be seen as an agent of change, a revolutionary almost, who has been a vital part of the transformation of Britain over the last 45 years. He rode the wave of social change that swept a gloomy postwar country into the modern world and his ability to understand what people wanted and give it to them made him rich and powerful. Yet his part in this cultural, political and industrial revolution also brought Rupert Murdoch into conflict with the establishment and vested interests in all their guises. It may even have ultimately cost him his life's ambition - to see the business he has built carried on inside the family by one of his children. Steve Hewlett tells the story of Rupert Murdoch's 40-year battle with Britain.
Human bones found on an idyllic beach in Antigua trigger an investigation by naval historian Sam Willis into one of the darkest chapters of Britain's imperial past. As archaeologists excavate a mass grave of British sailors, Willis explores Antigua's ruins and discovers how the sugar islands of the Caribbean were a kind of hell in the age of Nelson. Sun, sea, war, tropical diseases and poisoned rum.
Author and mafia historian John Dickie uncovers the truth about Italy's most powerful mafia, the 'Ndrangheta', believed to be Europe's biggest cocaine traffickers.
Polish physicist and chemist Marie Curie became a celebrity during her lifetime, attracting media attention for being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. This docu-drama looks at the woman behind the science, revealing a tenacious mother who had to survive the pain of the loss of husband and collaborator Pierre and the public humiliation of a doomed love affair, but who also discovered two elements and coined the term radioactivity.
Superstar opera tenor Rolando Villazón reveals an insider's view on performing music by one of the greatest opera composers, Giuseppe Verdi, who celebrates his bicentenary in 2013. By looking at some of Verdi's most well-known works including the operas Macbeth, Rigoletto, La Traviata, as well as his Requiem, Villazón shares his unique and passionate insight on Verdi's consummate skill - how he constructed dramatic episodes of searing reality, as well as the historical context in which the operas are set. Along with interviews with some of the world's leading Verdi singers, conductors and theatre directors, Villazón tells us why he thinks Verdi is a genius.
The epic, feel-good story of a modern rebellion. The campaign against the tolls on the Skye bridge pitted plucky Scottish islanders against the might of the government and the Bank of America, over the building of a privately funded toll bridge which became the only way on or off the island. This film tells an untold, bittersweet story of passion, legal challenge and financial wrangling through the testimony of some of those who took part.
Amanda Vickery and Alastair Sooke oversee proceedings as a group of experts stage a Regency ball at Chawton House, Hampshire, to mark the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Jane Austen's classic novel. The team uses music from the Austen family archives and dances and dishes mentioned in the author's novels and letters to recreate the experience, and Amanda is joined by literary historian John Mullan to reflect on the importance of the ball and its role in 19th-century society.
Queens of Jazz is a celebration of some of the greatest female jazz singers of the 20th century. It takes an unflinching and revealing look at what it actually took to be a jazz diva during a turbulent time in America's social history - a time when battle lines were being constantly drawn around issues of race, gender and popular culture. This is a documentary about how these women triumphed - always at some personal cost - to become some of the greatest artists of the 20th century; women who chose singing above life itself because singing was their life.
A profile of American physicist Richard Feynman, featuring interviews with the man himself as well as his friends, colleagues and family. Feynman was part of the team that designed the atomic bomb, helped to solve the mystery of the Challenger space shuttle catastrophe and won a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics, and is seen as one of the most influential and inspiring scientists of the 20th century.
Nile Rodgers has sold over 100 million records. As the co-founder, songwriter, producer and guitarist of Chic he helped define the sound of the '70s, as disco took the world by storm. Nile and musical partner Bernard Edwards captured the essence of New York's iconic Studio 54 creating hits like Dance Dance Dance, Le Freak and Good Times for Chic and We Are Family and Lost In Music for struggling vocal group Sister Sledge. But the music that had made Chic would also break them, thanks to the 'Disco Sucks' backlash. What could have been the end for Nile Rodgers would actually be a new beginning as a producer, helping create some of the biggest hits of the 80s for the likes of Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran. The ever-charismatic Rodgers contributes an engaging and often frank interview to tell the tale of how, born to Beatnik, heroin-addict parents in New York, he picked up a guitar as a teenager and embarked on a journey to learn his craft as a musician, before becoming one of disco's most successful artists
Many of Britain's biggest comedy stars cut their teeth on sketch shows and many of our most loved comedy series began as sketches. Sir David Frost traces the development of the sketch show over the last fifty years - from the variety theatre to peak-time television, from Arthur Haynes to Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies, from Monty Python to Not the Nine o'Clock News and Catherine Tate. He is joined by TV comedy greats including Ronnie Corbett, Stephen Fry and Michael Palin as they look back on the highs and lows of their own sketch show experiences. And together with comedy veterans Michael Grade and Richard Curtis they ask if, in an age dominated by stand-up and sitcoms, the sketch show can continue to flourish and survive.
Minna Kane and her team of young hackers explore the world of computer programming. They meet the visual effects artists who work on Doctor Who, test out Formula One racing simulators, play football with robots, and meet a man who has sent his miniature computer into space. Back in the classroom, Minna tries out a range of exciting programming activities linked to these real world coding adventures.
To celebrate the bicentenary of Wagner's birth, Sir Antonio Pappano, the charismatic music director of the Royal Opera House, guides us through the epic composition which changed opera and the theatre for ever - the Ring of the Nibelungen. Pappano shares his insights into Wagner's music and the mythical world the composer created, visiting the extraordinary theatre at Bayreuth which was created for its performance. He also explores the life of Richard Wagner the man - the political, cultural and social forces that influenced him - and shows how the composer's personal convictions and experiences can be seen within the Ring Cycle. Filmed in Germany and London, it features expert comment from artists who took part in the recent production of the Ring at the Royal Opera House directed by Keith Warner, including Bryn Terfel, Sir John Tomlinson, Susan Bullock and Sarah Connolly.
Over fourteen days in March 1988, a sequence of traumatic events shook Northern Ireland to its core and shocked the world. But it was also 14 days that compelled one man, Redemptorist priest Fr Alec Reid, to find a way out of the deadly cycle of violence.
A documentary exploring the cultural impact of Star Trek and chronicling the history of one of the world's most successful television series. There have been four incarnations of the TV series, and seven films; the merchandise franchise is worth an estimated four billion dollars. Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Nichelle Nichols and other stars reflect on the programme's significance and contemplate its future on
Children accused of witchcraft. This is not just medieval history, it's happening now... and here in Britain. Kevani Kanda explores the dark and secretive world of faith-based child abuse which, in the last few years, has seen an upsurge in children being abused and even murdered by relatives - all in the name of witchcraft. Journeying from her home in London to her birthplace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kevani tries to discover how ancient traditions have been hijacked in the name of Jesus, why families are singling out vulnerable children and hurting them and why toddlers are having to endure excruciating rituals in order to 'rid them of demons'. While in Africa she uncovers the shocking truth that even her own cousin has been accused of witchcraft - setting Kevani on a path to find her and confront her accusers.
Beneath the Somme battlefield lies one of the great secrets of the First World War, a recently-discovered network of deep tunnels thought to extend over several kilometres. This lost underground battlefield, centred on the small French village of La Boisselle in Picardy, was constructed largely by British troops between 1914 and 1916. Over 120 men died here in ongoing attempts to undermine the nearby German lines and these galleries still serve as a tomb for many of those men. This documentary follows historian Peter Barton and a team of archaeologists as they become the first people in nearly a hundred years to enter this hidden, and still dangerous, labyrinth. Military mines were the original weapons of shock and awe - with nowhere to hide from a mine explosion, these huge explosive charges could destroy a heavily-fortified trench in an instant. In order to get under the German lines to plant their mines, British tunnellers had to play a terrifying game of subterranean cat and mouse - constantly listening out for enemy digging and trying to intercept the German tunnels without being detected. To lose this game probably meant death. As well uncovering the grim reality of this strange underground war, Peter discovers the story of the men who served here, including the tunnelling companies' special military units made up of ordinary civillian sewer workers and miners. He reveals their top secret mission that launched the Battle of the Somme's first day and discovers why British high command failed to capitalise on a crucial tactical advantage they had been given by the tunnellers.
On Friday 19 May, 1536, one of the most infamous periods in Tudor history came to a gruesome conclusion: Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, became the first British queen to be executed. Anne is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British court, but the circumstances of her death remain shrouded in mystery and contradiction. Who was the real Anne Boleyn, and why did Henry have her killed? The Last Days Of Anne Boleyn brings together leading authors and historians (including Hilary Mantel, Philippa Gregory and David Starkey) to unpick the extraordinary evidence surrounding Anne Boleyn’s journey to the executioner.
Thomas Cromwell has gone down in history as one of the most corrupt and manipulative ruffians ever to hold power in England. A chief minister who used his position to smash the Roman Catholic church in England and loot the monasteries for his own gain. A man who used torture to bring about the execution of the woman who had once been his friend and supporter - Anne Boleyn. Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the church at Oxford University, reveals a very different image of Cromwell. The award-winning novels of Hilary Mantel began the revival of Cromwell's reputation, and now Professor MacCulloch presents Henry VIII's chief minister as a principled and pioneering statesman who was driven by radical evangelism.
Dan Snow presents from RAF Scampton, a tribute to the daring Dambusters raid. On the night of 16th May 1943, nineteen Lancaster Bombers took off on a mission of courage and ingenuity, their plan was to drop the newly invented bouncing bombs on to German dams in order to flood the industrial heart of the Nazi war machine. Seventy years on, veterans and their families gather to remember the raid and the bravery of the 133 men who undertook it. Tributes include Tornado jets from the current 617 Squadron, Spitfires and a Lancaster Bomber from the Battle of Britain flying in to RAF Scampton, the home of the Dambusters, plus the Queen's Colour Squadron and the College Band of the RAF end the commemoration with a Sunset Ceremony
An intimate portrait of five key years in David Bowie's career. Featuring a wealth of previously unseen archive this film looks at how Bowie continually evolved, from Ziggy Stardust, to the Soul Star of Young Americans, to the 'Thin White Duke'. It explores his regeneration in Berlin with the critically acclaimed album Heroes, his triumph with Scary Monsters and his global success with Let's Dance. With interviews with all his closest collaborators, this film investigates how Bowie has become an 'icon of our times'.
A heartwarming and heartbreaking tale about how Belfast people experience the biggest things in life - birth, marriage and death. Located largely within the majestic surrounds of the register office of Belfast City Hall.
Documentary telling the gripping and shocking story of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld, who survived two world wars to become one of the world's most highly-paid fashion photographers and a key influence on the development of photography as an art form. Yet after a mysterious death in Rome in 1969 his name is little-known today, the reasons for which lie in his unconventional lifestyle. The first ever film about his life and work uses exclusive access to Blumenfeld's extensive archive of stunning photographs, fashion films, home-movies and self-portraits to tell of a man obsessed by the pursuit of beautiful women, but also by the endless possibilities of photography itself. With contributions from leading photographers Rankin, Nick Knight and Solve Sundsbo and 82-year-old supermodel Carmen Dell'Orefice, it uncovers the richly complex story of one of the 20th century's most original photographic artists.
Author Thomas Penn takes an extraordinary journey into the dark and chilling world of the first Tudor, Henry VII. His investigations reveal the ruthless tactics this monarch used.
Documentary looking at the life cycle of the crimson-winged flamingoes that arrive in great numbers on Lake Natron in Tanzania every year. They come to seek the unique sulphurous algae which turn their feathers pink and aid them in finding a mate for breeding. In these seemingly idyllic surroundings, the beautiful birds are threatened by predators from the moment they hatch.
Rick Edwards investigates how three girls could disappear from the same area and be held prisoners in the basement of a house with no-one knowing anything about it for a decade.
Documentary presented by Professor Simon Schaffer which charts the amazing and untold story of automata - extraordinary clockwork machines designed hundreds of years ago to mimic and recreate life.
To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, David Dimbleby tells the story of a ceremony which for centuries had been the preserve of the privileged. But in 1953, after initial resistance, the coronation would, for the first time, be televised and witnessed by millions. Dimbleby, then a teenager, was at the heart of the London festivities; he recalls how a Britain still in the grip of post-war rationing celebrated that momentous day.
First-ever TV documentary about the legendary soul singer Otis Redding, following him from childhood and marriage to the Memphis studios and segregated Southern clubs where he honed his unique stage act and voice. Through unseen home movies, the film reveals how Otis's 1967 tour of Britain dramatically changed his life and music. After bringing soul to Europe he returned to conquer America, first with the 'love-crowd' at the Monterey Festival and then with Dock of the Bay, which topped the charts only after his death at just 26. Includes rare and unseen performances, intimate interviews with Otis's wife and daughter, and with original band members Steve Cropper and Booker T Jones. Also featured are British fans whose lives were changed by seeing him, among them Rod Stewart, Tom Jones and Bryan Ferry.
Melvyn Bragg explores the dramatic story of William Tyndale and his mission to translate the Bible into English. Melvyn reveals the story of a man whose life and legacy have been hidden from history but whose impact on Christianity in Britain and on the English language endures today. His radical translation of the Bible into English made him a profound threat to the authority of the church and state, and set him on a fateful collision course with Henry VIII's heretic hunters and those of the pope.
This film explores rape in a way that has never been seen on British television before: from forensic medical to police investigation, court and beyond. Juliet was attacked by a stranger on New Year's Eve, while Kellie had known and trusted her attacker for over a decade. In 2012 St Mary's, the UK's leading sexual assault referral centre, allowed exclusive access, opening its doors to cameras as they supported Juliet and Kellie as well as over 1,000 other victims of rape seeking justice or attempting to move forward with their lives. Through the experiences of the victims, the specialists at St Mary's, Greater Manchester Police's Serious Sexual Offences Unit and the Crown Prosecution Service, this film offers a unique and revealing perspective on rape in Britain today.
Broadcaster Peter Sissons reveals how a secret command bunker in the heart of Liverpool played a key role in winning The Battle of the Atlantic. He also hears untold stories of heroism and tragedy from veterans of the Battle, as Liverpool commemorates the 70th anniversary.
Her Majesty was given a pony for her fourth birthday and today, aged 87, still rides; and she’s also one of the country’s leading breeders. With her team, who speak here about their work, she’s bred the winners of more than 1,600 races. This film follows a spring season, from the birth of foals (which she names herself) at Sandringham to race day at Newbury.
The inside story of the plan to salvage a rare survival of World War Two from the bottom of the English Channel.
Historian Jerry Brotton explores Northern Ireland's vivid origins, tracing the arrival and impact of Scots and English migrants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, through a unique collection of extraordinary maps. Before this moment, the land was wild and sparsely populated. Afterwards, the land, her peoples, politics and faiths, were completely transformed. Jerry reveals the role of maps and economics at the heart of the plantation of Ulster with help from experts and animation bringing rarely-seen primary sources to life.
Bobby Womack's musical career has been an almost unprecedented rollercoaster ride. Starting off on the streets of segregated America, Womack launched himself into what became an epic adventure. In the 1950s as a youngster he was travelling the gospel highway with the Womack Brothers. By the 1960s, he was being mentored by Sam Cooke who schooled him in the ways of R&B, while James Brown also drilled him into shape. Soon, the Rolling Stones and Wilson Pickett were queuing up to record his songs. In the early 1970s, not long after Janis Joplin covered one of his compositions, Bobby was with her just hours before she died. He played rhythm guitar on Sly & the Family Stone's Family Affair before becoming a major soul star in his own right with hits like Across 110th Street, Woman's Gotta Have It and Harry Hippie. In the second half of the 1970s, his disastrous country and western album, as well as disco mania, savaged his career. But Bobby rose again in the 1980s with his famed 'Poet' trilogy of albums. Then, after semi-retirement and a stint with the Gorillaz, he recorded 2012's The Bravest Man in the Universe album with Damon Albarn. It was the start of a magnificent Indian summer for one of soul music's greatest artists. With incredible access to Bobby Womack himself, plus contributions from Ronnie Wood, Damon Albarn, Bill Withers, Chuck D, Antonio Fargas, as well as close family and friends, this film brings one of the most diverse and fascinating post-war musical careers vividly to life.
Iain Banks, one of Scotland's most popular and critically acclaimed authors, died in June 2013. He had revealed in April that he had terminal cancer and subsequently gave a television interview in which he talked in depth to Kirsty Wark about his career, life and facing up to death.
In this documentary the BBC have exclusive access to Agnetha Fältskog, 'The Girl with the Golden Hair' as the song goes, celebrating her extraordinary singing career which began in the mid-60s when she was just 15. Within just two years, she was a singing sensation at the top of the charts in Sweden. Along came husband Björn Ulvaeus and the phenomenal band Abba that engulfed the world in the 70s, featuring Agnetha's touching voice and striking looks. Agnetha lacked confidence on stage as the global demand for the group grew and grew, while being away from her young children caused her great turmoil. With special behind-the-scenes access to the making of her comeback album, the film follows this reluctant star - the subject of much tabloid speculation since she retreated from the stage post-Abba - as she returns to recording aged 63. Included in the film is her first meeting with Gary Barlow, who contributes a duet to the new album. The programme features interviews with Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Gary Barlow, Tony Blackburn, Sir Tim Rice and record producers, Peter Nordahl and Jörgen Elofsson.
Documentary in which Ros Savill, former director and curator at the Wallace Collection, tells the story of some incredible and misunderstood objects - the opulent, intricate, gold-crested and often much-maligned Sevres porcelain of the 18th century. Ros brings us up close to a personal choice of Sevres masterpieces in the Wallace Collection, viewing them in intricate and intimate detail. She engages us with the beauty and brilliance in the designs, revelling in what is now often viewed as unfashionably pretty or ostentatious. These objects represent the unbelievable skills of 18th-century France, as well as the desires and demands of an autocratic regime that was heading for revolution. As valuable now as they were when first produced, Sevres' intricacies and opulence speak of wealth, sophistication and prestige and have always been sought after by collectors eager to associate themselves with Sevres' power. Often the whims and capricious demands of monumentally rich patrons were the catalysts for these beautiful and incredible artistic innovations. The film explores the stories of some of history's most outrageous patrons - Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as their foreign counterparts like Catherine the Great, who willingly copied the French court's capricious ways. Ros tells how the French Revolutionaries actually preserved and adapted the Sevres tradition to their new order, and how the English aristocracy collected these huge dinner services out of nostalgia for the ancient regime. In fact, they are still used by the British Royal Family today. Like the iPads of their day, these objects, ostentatious to modernist eyes, were the product of art and science coming together and creating something beautiful yet functional. Ros re-connects us with the fascinating lives and stories of the artists, artisans, painters and sculptors whose ingenuity, innovation and creativity went into making some of the most incredible an
Documentary telling the inside story of low-cost airlines - a tale of big characters and big money. Ryanair's Michael O'Leary and EasyJet's Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou opened up new frontiers in the aviation industry as their airlines offered cheap flights to a vast range of popular and alternative destinations. The programme follows O'Leary as he flies to Poland, takes an EasyJet flight to Moscow and a joins a group of lads travelling to Riga to sample the low-cost airline experience. As the cost of flying keeps increasing, how much further can these companies grow? Stelios, EasyJet's biggest shareholder, is trying to halt its expansion, while O'Leary has just placed a massive order for new planes.
Using the latest satellite images, and the expertise of Britain's leading solar scientists, Kate Humble and Helen Czerski reveal the inner workings of our very own star, and the influence its mysterious cycles of activity have on our planet. They discover why the light reaching us from the Sun can be up to a million years old: they meet the teams who protect us by keeping a round-the-clock vigil on the Sun; and investigate why some scientists think longer term changes in the Sun's behaviour may have powerful effects on our climate.
Stephen Smith explores the extraordinary life and work of the virtuoso jeweller Carl Faberge. He talks to HRH Prince Michael of Kent about Faberge items in the Royal Collection and to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who spent a hundred million dollars acquiring nine exquisite Faberge eggs. The bejewelled trinkets Faberge made for the last tsars of Russia in the twilight of their rule have become some of the most sought-after treasures in the world, sometimes worth millions. Smith follows in Faberge's footsteps, from the legendary Green Vaults in Dresden to the palaces of the tsars and the corridors of the Kremlin museum, as he discovers how this fin de siècle genius transformed his father's modest business into the world's most famous supplier of luxury items.
Comedian Rich Hall goes to the Lone Star state in search of the real Texas and asks what it means to be a Texan. From the Alamo to the oil industry and everything in between, Rich explores the landscape, the people and the true heart of this historic state.
Ludwig II of Bavaria, more commonly known by his nicknames the Swan King or the Dream King, is a legendary figure - the handsome boy-king, loved by his people, betrayed by his cabinet and found dead in tragic and mysterious circumstances. He spent his life in pursuit of the ideal of beauty, an ideal that found expression in three of the most extraordinary, ornate architectural schemes imaginable - the castle of Neuschwanstein and the palaces of Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee. Today, these three buildings are among Germany's biggest tourist attractions. In this documentary Dan Cruickshank explores the rich aesthetic of Ludwig II - from the mock-medievalism of Neuschwanstein the iconic fairytale castle, which became the inspiration for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle, to the rich Baroque splendour of Herrenchiemsee, Ludwig's answer to Versailles. Dan argues that Ludwig's castles are more than flamboyant kitsch and are, in fact, the key to unravelling the eternal enigma of Ludwig II.
Schoolgirl Malala Yousafi was just 14 when she was shot for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan. Nel Hedayat travels to the areas where the Taliban are targeting schools to report Malala's story and meet other schoolgirls who have been attacked for wanting an education.
For thousands of years Syria has been one of the most strategically important regions on Earth. Dan Snow visits Roman temples, the centre of the world’s greatest Islamic empire, crusader castles and today’s battlegrounds to piece together the complex history of a country at the heart of the Middle East. To understand what's happening in Syria and this region at the moment, there's only one place to start, and that's in the past. In an hour-long documentary for BBC Two’s This World, Dan finds that the influence of history has been complicating Syria’s civil war. What started as peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian regime have turned increasingly into a struggle along sectarian lines fuelled by historic tensions, involving global and regional powers. From the historic split between Sunni and Shia Islam, the divide-and-rule tactics of the French colonial rulers, and the struggle between secular and religious political parties, Syria’s history is a living and crucial element of the war. Dan meets those fighting on both sides of the conflict and hears grievances stretching back centuries. He also spends time with ordinary Syrians who are bearing the brunt of the casualties. They’re asking what the future for them and their country, which has often borne the brunt of history, now holds.
We buy a staggering 90% of our food from supermarkets, and they have a huge influence over our lives. Gregg Wallace goes behind the scenes with Britain's biggest food retailers over the course of a year to discover how they source, make and move the food we find on the supermarket shelves. He has exclusive access to the buyers, product developers, food technologists and backroom teams, and gets the insider's guide to how much they know about us and our tastes.
Twenty years ago there were no Muslims in the Premier League. Now there are nearly forty - enough for three football teams. To mark the start of Ramadan this programme, narrated by Colin Murray, speaks to star players and top managers to find out what impact Muslims are having on the English game.
Alice Walker made history as the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her groundbreaking novel The Color Purple, in 1983. It was transformed into a Hollywood movie nominated for 11 Oscars and more recently to a successful Broadway musical. This film follows this extraordinary woman's journey from her birth in a shack in the cotton fields of Georgia to her recognition as a key writer of the 20th century. The Color Purple's theme of triumph against the odds is not that different from Alice's own experience. Her early life unfolded in the midst of violent racism and poverty during some of the most turbulent years of profound social and political upheaval in North American history. Her writing was a vital voice at a time when the personal became the political. Featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones, this is a penetrating insight into the life and work of an artist, a self-confessed renegade and passionate human rights activist.
Documentary following tennis star Andy Murray, a US Open, Olympic and now Wimbledon champion, revealing just what it takes to be a global sports icon. The programme looks at Murray's life off the court, filled with a comprehensive list of commitments and responsibilities, including fashion shoots and charity and media work. Cameras follow the Scot as he takes an open-top bus ride in his home town of Dunblane, does Pilates in Miami, takes ice baths in Monte Carlo and undergoes rehabilitation for an injury in Surrey. A private and shy man, Murray won the hearts of many with his raw emotion on the court, but in 2012 he earned a place in history by winning the US Open, becoming Britain's first male Grand Slam champion in 76 years, and followed that up with a monumental victory at Wimbledon. There are contributions from Murray's girlfriend Kim Sears, mother Judy, brother Jamie and coach Ivan Lendl as well as his rivals Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer and tennis greats Andre Agassi and John McEnroe.
Documentary chronicling the tragic events that occurred in the North Sea on board the Piper Alpha rig in July 1988, in what was the world's deadliest offshore oil disaster. It was a cataclysm that killed 167 men and left only 61 survivors. Emotional testimonies, archive footage and dramatic reconstructions show how survivors, against all odds, escaped the inferno - including those who were forced to jump from the 175ft high Helideck into the sea below.
For centuries the West has been enthralled by flamboyant blue and white ceramics from China, but were unaware that all the time the Chinese were making porcelains for themselves that were completely different - subtle monochromes for the Imperial court, beautiful objects for the scholar's table and delicate domestic wares. Ceramics expert Lars Tharp, Antiques Roadshow resident and presenter of Treasures of Chinese Porcelain, has picked his six favourite pieces representing Chinese taste. He's goes on a journey through a thousand years of Chinese history, travelling from the ancient capital of Huangzhou in the south to Beijing's Forbidden City in the north, to uncover what these six pieces tell us about Chinese emperors, scholars, workers, merchants and artists. To him, they are China in ceramic form. But can they help us to understand China today?
Apart from a few fragmentary stories, Griff Rhys Jones' father never talked about his war. Yet as a medical officer to a West African division he travelled 15000 miles from Wales, to Ghana and the jungles of Burma. He and his men were part of an army of a million raised in Africa and Asia to fight the Japanese. To understand their story Griff travels first to Ghana and then accompanied by 90-year-old veteran Joshua he goes to jungles of Burma. It is known as the forgotten war but Griff discovers how it transformed these West Africans from children of the empire into masters of their own destiny.
Documentary which journeys into the life and work of an artist widely recognised as one of the pioneers of modernism in Britain. In a life that has spanned horse-drawn transport to the internet, the film chronicles William Turnbull's intimate involvement in the critical developments of modern art. Exploring his experiences in Paris, London and New York where he befriended and worked alongside artists like Alberto Giacometti, Richard Hamilton, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, the film gives an insightful account into the life of one of the great masters of 20th-century art.
Sir David Attenborough recalls key moments from his early broadcasting career and shares the stories behind them. Among the highlights featured are Sir David's first encounter with Elsa the lioness immortalised by the Born Free book, and the logistics behind being the first to film indri lemurs, using a recording of their loud, distinctive calls to entice the animals out of hiding. Having recently completed the landmark natural history series Africa (2012), Sir David also reflects on his first trip to the continent while filming Zoo Quest to West Africa in 1955.
In the first of a two-part series, historian Dan Snow examines how two years of meticulous planning, espionage and the analysis of millions of three-dimensional aerial photographs helped the Allied forces gain a foothold in northern France.
The concluding part of historian Dan Snow's documentary series tells the powerful and heroic stories of those who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy to save the world from Nazi Germany.
Before stepping on stage for his first ever live comedy show about Scottish politics, satirist and impressionist Rory Bremner explores the debate surrounding the approaching vote on Scottish Independence. Rory journeys around Scotland to interview journalists, politicians, commentators and comedians, using their insight to create comedy material to perform to an eager audience at The Assembly Hall, Edinburgh.
James Hunt has never been equalled. Could swashbuckling Hunt catch the scientific Lauda? Could Niki overcome an appalling crash to come back from the dead and fight James all the way to the last race of the season? This powerful story captures the heart of the 1970s - told through unseen footage and exclusive interviews with the people who were really there - the team managers, families, journalists and friends who were in the front row of the season that changed Formula 1 forever.
Sophie Raworth and Gareth Malone host highlights of a gala event staged in the gardens of Buckingham Palace to mark the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen's coronation.
Keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman pays tribute to his friend, Deep Purple's Jon Lord, the man who put the rock into the Hammond organ. Lord, who died last year, was always proud of his Leicester roots and went on to become not just a rock star but also a classical composer in his own right.
Stacey Dooley investigates what is going on in her hometown of Luton and finds out why it is known as the extremist capital of Britain. Stacey has spent her whole life in Luton. Media commentators all have their theories about what is happening there, but Stacey is uniquely placed to tell the story through the generation she grew up with - the people who are now shaping one of the most controversial towns in Britain. Stacey meets friends - some wearing veils and others who are fully fledged EDL supporters. She goes to the heart of the Muslim community, dominated by one of the country's most extreme Muslim groups, meeting both self-proclaimed radicals and those trying to counter them. Is it all hype? Or is 'L-town' such a pick-and-mix of culture that extremists are attracted here like no other town in Britain?
In 2013 London Underground is 150 years old. The world's first underground railway is spending its anniversary year celebrating its own history. They're sending a steam train back underground, and there's a Royal visit to prepare for. On the tube, history is everywhere - it's down every tunnel, in every tunnel, in every sign and design, and in the lives of the unsung people who built it and run it today. Following on from BBC2's The Tube series, this programme tells the story of the underground through the eyes of the people who work for it. Farringdon station supervisor Iain MacPherson reveals why his station - the original terminus - was constructed in the 1860s, and recalls the dark days of Kings Cross in the 1980s. Piccadilly line driver Dylan Glenister explains why every Edwardian station on his line has its own unique tiling pattern and how, in the 1930s, the construction of new stations expanded the borders of London. And there's Head of Design and Heritage, Mike Ashworth, whose predecessor pioneered the art of branding in the 1920s and Customer Service Assistant Steve Parkinson, who was part of a wave of new recruits from the Caribbean from the 50s. With privileged access to disused stations and rare archive footage, this is the tube's hidden history, revealing why it was first built and how it has shaped London ever since.
Uri Geller, the controversial mentalist, paranormal expert and spoon bender, has had a life in front of the cameras, a life surrounded by controversy, a life dotted with amazing psychic demonstrations. But most people didn't know that, away from the bent cutlery and broken watches, he had been leading a second, covert, life as a 'psychic spy', working secretly, and without recognition for nearly thirty years. This 'secret life' has included work for the military and intelligence agencies on three continents - indeed, the scientists who first did rigorous research on Geller more than forty years ago (and concluded that he has a phenomenal gift) were funded by the CIA. Now, for the first time, this incredible story is going to be explored in a new television documentary, with unique and compelling interviews from Uri himself as well as those who knew and worked closely with him.
8.5 million of us now rent our homes - as fewer of us can afford to buy. This generation has been called generation rent. In this film we meet the new army of private landlords who are riding this rental boom, who own one in every five properties. Some landlords like Jim Haliburton AKA 'The HMO Daddy' have found there is serious money to be made. His property empire stretches across the West Midlands and he houses around 800 tenants. His property portfolio is worth £26 million. Many tenants rely on housing benefit to pay the rent. But the government is trying to cut the £26 billion housing benefit bill and more and more tenants can't cover the rent. This is what it is really like on the sharp end/frontline of the new property divide when times are tough. We follow the tenants who are getting behind and risk losing their homes and the landlords; amateurs as well as the professional, who are owed £282 million. We see landlords struggle to get rid of non-paying tenants, some like first-time landlord Anna have only one property and the arrears mean they can no longer cover their mortgage. She's selling everything she owns while her tenant refuses to budge. And we follow the story of single mum Nikki, a tenant who's facing eviction and homelessness despite her diagnosis of cancer. Her landlord has worked out that he can make more money from sub-dividing her home into multi-lets and he wants her out.
In the heart of South London, the real life Del Boys are on the make. For these wheelers and dealers, every item, no matter how unlikely, is for sale. When it is time for fresh stock, they head for a very special auction house - Greasby's in Tooting - which holds fortnightly 'Trash or Treasure' auctions. Sifting through lost property, repossessed goods and house clearances, the wheeler dealers dream of discovering the lot that can transform them into millionaires. But will they have that Only Fools and Horses moment? Richie has been playing the game for the last decade, trading in everything but specialising in gold. At a pre-auction viewing day, he spots what he thinks is a priceless Japanese print. Can he win the lot? And what is the artwork actually worth? Toni first started trading in low-value watches two years ago, as she tried to rebuild her life after a devastating illness. Now she dreams of becoming a bona fide dealer of high-end merchandise. Auction addict Sharon has given up a steady job working in a chemist to become a professional trader. Alongside long suffering husband Al, she has now turned their house into a stock room filled with all manner of junk because, in Sharon's words, 'sh*t sells.'.
Bold, intimate and thought-provoking, this documentary explores what life is really like living with a mental health disorder. Using handheld cameras to film themselves over six months, 25 young people take us with them on a journey as they navigate the rocky road of growing up with mental health issues. Told from their own unique perspective, they show us the everyday challenges of relationships, education, work and uncomprehending parents, along with the stigma they face along the way. Highlighting a broad spectrum of mental health disorders - from multiple personalities to agoraphobia, anorexia to bipolar - this is their story in their own words.
Historian Dr Michael Scott and a team of archaeologists unlock the secrets of a mysterious tomb containing over 2,000 bodies unearthed within the catacombs of Rome.
Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus - better known as Caligula - was said to have made his horse a consul, proclaimed himself a living God and indulged in scandalous orgies. In this documentary, classical scholar Mary Beard attempts to peel away some of the myths surrounding him, sifting through surviving evidence to paint a portrait of the real Caligula.
26-year-old Jonny Benjamin, who has schizoaffective disorder - a combination of schizophrenia and depression - investigates why many young people with mental illness are failing to get the right treatment from the NHS. In this investigation, Jonny travels the country meeting other young people with mental health problems who feel equally angry about their NHS treatment. He raises concerns about the quality of mental health care provided by GPs, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), eating disorder units and A&E departments. He also joins some of the documentary's contributors, who decide to try a mindfulness course - a non-invasive treatment for depression and anxiety which is available on the NHS, but rarely prescribed.
February 2013, Allahabad, India. Over the next 55 days, nearly a hundred million people will come here, to the Great Kumbh Mela. This incredible and awe-inspiring celebration of the world's oldest religion happens every 12 years at the place where Hindus believe two sacred rivers meet. For many Hindus this is their most important pilgrimage, and it happens at one of the most holy sites in India. Hindus come to cleanse themselves in the sacred waters of the river Ganges, to pray and emerge purified and renewed. This follows British pilgrims as they embark on a once-in-a-lifetime spiritual journey. A journey that will take them into the heart of Hinduism - its philosophy, its beliefs and its traditions. A journey that will culminate in the largest ever gathering of humans in one place.
Drama-documentary about Winston Churchill's extraordinary experiences during the Great War, with intimate letters to his wife Clementine allowing the story to be told largely in his own words. Just 39 and at the peak of his powers running the Royal Navy, Churchill in 1914 dreamt of Napoleonic glory, but suffered a catastrophic fall into disgrace and humiliation over the Dardanelles disaster. The film follows his road to redemption, beginning in the trenches of Flanders in 1916, revealing how he became the 'godfather' of the tank and his forgotten contribution to final victory in 1918 as Minister of Munitions. Dark political intrigue, a passionate love story and remarkable military adventures on land, sea and air combine to show how the Churchill of 1940 was shaped and forged by his experience of the First World War.
Documentary examining Germany's economic power and the automobile industry at the heart of it. Across the world, the badges of Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes inspire immediate awe. Even in Britain, where memories of Second World War run deep, we can't resist the appeal of a German car. By contrast, our own industry is a shadow of its former self. Historian Dominic Sandbrook asks what it is we got wrong, and what the Germans got so right.
Lucy Worsley gets into bed with our past monarchs to uncover the Tales from the Royal Bedchamber. She reveals that our obsession with royal bedrooms, births and succession is nothing new. In fact, the rise and fall of their magnificent beds reflects the changing fortunes of the monarchy itself.
Just what makes Germans so successful? They work fewer hours, yet they are more productive and their economy is the most successful in Europe. Even David Cameron says we should strive to be more like them. In a bid to discover their secret, Justin and Bee Rowlatt head to the manufacturing city of Nuremberg with two of their children. Under the tuition of advertising expert PJ, whose company has done detailed research into the typical German, they set out to live, work and socialise the German way. Justin starts work in a pencil factory, Bee learns how the German housewife organises the home and they set about saving a portion of their income. Trying to make themselves German involves hard work, fun and some entertaining surprises
Leading up to the first anniversary since the Hillsborough Independent Review published its findings, this film describes the impact on the survivors and families of Hillsborough of living under the shadow of a lie for a generation.
A team of scientists from Imperial College London takes on the challenge of designing the crafts which would be needed to get a crew to Mars and safely back to Earth.
Back in 1980, a teenage Steve Cram was part of a team of British athletes who defied their government to go behind the iron curtain and compete in the Olympic Games. Steve Cram returns to the Russian capital to relive the story of the most controversial Olympics of modern times. An Olympics boycotted by the United States because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and blighted by allegations of cheating and state sponsored doping. But these were also the games of Daley Thompson, Duncan Goodhew, Alan Wells and the incredible rivalry between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. It's a fascinating story in which we hear how the games that threatened the very existence of the Olympic movement actually changed it for the better and, decades later, provided an unexpected bonus for the whole of British sport.
Dan Cruickshank tells the story of how the art collection of Britain's first prime minister was sold to Russia in the 1770s and how it is returning to hang in its original home.
Documentary about dieting by critically acclaimed director Vanessa Engle. Filmed over three months, it follows the diverse members of three different slimming clubs as they try to lose weight. Filmed in a Weight Watchers group, a Slimming World group and a Rosemary Conley group, it explores why we have such a complicated relationship with food and why so many of us struggle to stay in control of what we eat. Does dieting help?
William Burrell made a fortune out of shipping and spent it on art. Over his long life, he assembled one of the most remarkable private collections of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, ceramics and stained glass in the world and in 1944 he donated it all - over 9,000 objects - to the city of Glasgow. The Burrell Collection finally opened to the public in 1983 but the building that bears his name contains no tribute to Burrell and he never commissioned a portrait of himself. Kirsty Wark tells the story of the self-effacing collector and tours the highlights of his collection in the company of its curators.
In November last year the American state of Colorado voted to legalise the recreational use of cannabis. It is the most radical experiment in drugs policy for generations and the world will be looking to see what happens, particularly to drug use amongst teenagers. In this hour long documentary for This World, clinical psychologist and addiction expert Professor John Marsden heads to Denver, the state capital, to assess the likely impact of legalisation on a country already suffering an epidemic of teenage marijuana use.
Zoologist and explorer George McGavin goes in search of some of the world's most impressive swarms. By getting right to the heart of these natural spectacles, he finds out why swarms are the ultimate solution to surviving against all odds and discovers how unlocking the secrets to how animals swarm could be crucial to understanding our own increasingly crowded lives.
The story of the how the march for jobs and freedom began, speaking to the people who organized and participated in it. Using rarely seen archive footage the film reveals the background stories surrounding the build up to the march as well as the fierce opposition it faced from the JFK administration, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and widespread claims that it would incite racial violence, chaos and disturbance. The film follows the unfolding drama as the march reaches its ultimate triumphs, gaining acceptance from the state, successfully raising funds and in the end, organized and executed peacefully - and creating a landmark moment in the struggle for civil rights and racial equality in the United States.
Engineer Jem Stansfield investigates how the crash test dummy has become an icon for safety. For 65 years he has been crashed, smashed and impaled, evolving from a simple military mannequin into a highly sophisticated measuring tool. Jem meets a whole range of dummies from the past, present and future at crash laboratories in Sweden, the UK and US to discover how their evolution has mirrored car safety improvements. An affectionate look at a unique feat of engineering which makes you laugh, gasp and wince all at once.
In 2010, 38-year-old Sarah Colwill's life was changed forever. She was rushed to hospital suffering from what she thought was a severe migraine, but when she woke up her local Plymouth accent had disappeared, leaving her sounding Chinese. She was diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome, a rare condition with no clear cause. For the past three years, Sarah has had to deal with other people's puzzled reactions and the huge impact her new voice has had on her life and her family. Now, Sarah is determined to find out what happened inside her head. Can science give her any answers? And will she ever get back to the person she used to be?
April 4, 1968, and Martin Luther King is gunned down on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The catalyst that would lead to his assassination began three months before his death, when the city's sanitation workers went on strike. Realising that this might be a seminal moment in the civil rights movement, scholars at the University of Memphis started to collect every piece of media they could find - television, radio and print. Unbelievably, most of this remarkable footage hasn't been seen since 1968. Now, for the first time, it has been chronologically reassembled, bringing to life as never before the tumultuous events surrounding one of the most shocking assassinations in America.
Gibraltar has been at the centre of a fiercely-contested diplomatic dispute that has stretched over the centuries. In the summer of 2010, director Ana Garcia returned home to Gibraltar to get married. Coming back to this most unique of British territories, she found herself compelled to find out more about the history of her family and her birthplace. As she prepares for her wedding, we are taken on a very personal journey that uncovers the inspiring story of how a small community has fought for its home and identity.
When Captain Fred Roberts discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium in 1916, he decided to publish a satirical magazine called The Wipers Times - "Wipers" being army slang for Ypres. Full of gallows humour, The Wipers Times was poignant, subversive and very funny. Produced literally under enemy fire and defying both authority and gas attacks, the magazine proved a huge success with the troops on the western front. It was, above all, a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. In his spare time, Roberts also managed to win the Military Cross for gallantry.
On the eve of the German federal elections, Andrew Marr examines the life and career of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The broadcaster investigates her childhood and formative years in East Germany to learn what shaped her political vision and style, with Merkel only entering politics in her mid-thirties after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He looks at how her journey has been marked by caution and compromise, but with occasional flashes of ruthlessness and an unyielding commitment to the European Union.
Steve Backshall travels across the world to encounter the most charismatic super giant animals and discovers the remarkable things that their size enables them to do. Highlights include Steve swimming with Nile crocodiles in Botswana, dodging two-tonne elephant seals in California and diving with sperm whales in the Caribbean.
In many of Hollywood's greatest movie musicals the stars did not sing their own songs. This documentary pulls back the curtain to reveal the secret world of the 'ghost singers' who provided the vocals, the screen legends who were dubbed and the classic movies in which the songs were ghosted.
Dr Nayna Patel runs a clinic in rural India that attracts childless couples from all over the world. For a fee, they can pay for local women to act as surrogates, spending their entire pregnancy away from home in dorms with up to 80 other pregnant surrogates living alongside them. There are three babies delivered every month at the clinic, but that's not the end of the story - Westerners can have to stay up to eight weeks in India after the baby is born waiting for the paperwork they need to take their baby home and many of them choose to have their surrogate look after and wet-nurse the baby for them until then. While critics accuse Dr Patel of exploiting the poor, she believes that she is empowering the local women with life-changing amounts of money. An intimate film in an extraordinary setting.
In 1973, an album was released that against all odds and expectations went to the top of the UK charts. The fact the album launched a record label that became one of the most recognisable brand names in the world (Virgin), formed the soundtrack to one of the biggest movies of the decade (The Exorcist), became the biggest selling instrumental album of all time, would eventually go on to sell over 16 million copies and was performed almost single-handedly by a 19-year-old makes the story all the more incredible. That album was Tubular Bells, and the young and painfully shy musician was Mike Oldfield.
Mental illness affects us all and often strikes in the late teens and early 20s. In this one hour we’ll use CGI and personal stories to explain the science behind the most common mental illnesses that affect young people - why they develop, what’s going on inside our bodies and what we can do to treat them.
26-year-old Rachel Bruno lives at home with her brother and sister and works as a waitress in a pizza restaurant. But Rachel is also the daughter of Frank Bruno, ex-heavyweight world boxing champion and much-loved national treasure. Since being sectioned for the first time ten years ago, Frank is now one of Britain's most famous sufferers of bipolar affective disorder - an illness that's more commonly known as manic depression. In this personal, authored documentary Rachel sets out to discover the truth about her dad's illness. Through talking to Frank about his condition and spending time with other sufferers, Rachel explores this potentially devastating illness that affects around 1 in 100 people and discovers whether she herself is at risk of developing it too.
Richard Burton's talent, presence and unforgettable voice made him a superstar of stage and screen. The Welsh actor was equally famous for his hellraising, womanising private life and his two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor. Now private diaries he wrote at the height of his fame have been published in their entirety for the first time and present a unique opportunity to reassess the man behind the myth. Narrated by Mali Harries. Extract readings by Josh Richards.
Since 2002, Ian Tibbetts, a 42-year-old former forklift truck driver from Telford in Shropshire, has been slowly going blind. He has never seen the faces of his twin four-year-old boys. Despite numerous treatments to save his eyesight, nothing has worked - until now. Over several months, this film follows Ian as he undergoes a series of radical operations in a last attempt to restore his sight. The procedure involves inserting a tiny lens in one of the patient's own teeth and then implanting the tooth in his eye. Christopher Liu, at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton, is the only surgeon in Britain who performs this remarkable procedure. The success rate is high, but it is not guaranteed. Will Ian ever see his wife again - and will he finally see his twin sons for the first time in his life?
A one-off documentary following Prince Harry into action during his second tour of Afghanistan. It sees Harry up close as an attack helicopter co-pilot and features revealing interviews. Presented by Richard Bacon.
Love them or hate them, there are 33,000 urban foxes roaming Britain's suburbia. For the residents of the Copse in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire - as for so many other suburbanites - the urban fox provides evenings of enchantment. A cul-de-sac of neighbours compete to offer the tastiest snacks for their bushy-tailed visitors, with one couple even setting up their own CCTV system to provide happy evenings of Fox TV.
When Tommy Robinson, then leader of the EDL, met Mo Ansar, the Muslim who campaigned to ban the EDL, on BBC One's The Big Questions, it turned out to be the encounter that changed everything. Ansar challenged Robinson's knowledge of Islam and offered to show him how real British Muslims live and what they actually believe in. Following the pair as each shows the other his view of British Islam, the film reveals that Ansar was present at an EDL street protest in May and was also the first Muslim to address the EDL. It shows Robinson as he visits Walsall Mosque and meets with one of Britain's leading Muslim scholars, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra. The former leader of the EDL also debates the burqa and niqab with Muslim politician Salma Yaqoob, and discusses the Qur'an with noted Islamic commentators including Islamic scholar Dr Usama Hasan and historian Tom Holland. The programme uncovers the full story of how Robinson came to his decision to leave the organisation he founded; the moment he first met Maajid Nawaz from Quilliam; the counter-extremism think tank who helped facilitate his stepping down; and it questions whether this is just a change of tactics or the beginning of a new Tommy Robinson.
The British public school is an institution renowned the world over. In 1979, the BBC made a documentary series about life inside Radley College, one of the UK's most privileged and traditional boys' boarding schools. In 2013, BBC director Hannah Berryman caught up with some of the boys who featured in the series to find out how their lives panned out after they left Radley. As boys, they had left home to board at prep school at around eight years old, then moved on to Radley to acquire what the school head calls 'the right habits for life'. But did their lives turn out to be as successful as their parents had hoped - and what kind of men did they become? The film explores the pain and the pleasure of growing up, as well as the unique advantages and difficulties of a quintessentially English education.
A Russian girl learns to love her adoptive American family with the help of a psychologist whose program draws on 100 years of scientific discoveries into love.
A spectacular concert film from Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. Filmed at New York's Nassau Coliseum in 1989 using 27 cameras, it sees David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason on fine form, performing classic after classic including Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Time, Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here.
In the week when Hindus celebrate the holy festival of Diwali, this documentary tells the story of one of their faith's most sacred symbols - the swastika. For many, the swastika has become a symbol synonymous with the Nazis and fascism. But this film reveals the fascinating and complex history of an emblem that is, in fact, a religious symbol, with a sacred past. For the almost one billion Hindus around the world, the swastika lies at the heart of religious practices and beliefs, as an emblem of benevolence, luck and good fortune.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen returns to a derelict Llanelly House, a UK finalist in the BBC's Restoration series, to follow the twists and turns of a �6 million renovation. Can the project team revive the glory of Wales's finest Georgian townhouse while also creating a profitable high-tech visitor experience fit for the 21st century?
Documentary which explores the controversy around ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis), an intensive intervention used to treat autism. Parents who want ABA for their children passionately believe that it is the best way to teach a child new skills and to help them function in mainstream society, but critics of ABA argue that it is dehumanising and abusive to try to eliminate autistic behaviour. The film follows three-year-old Jack and four-year-old Jeremiah through their first term at Treetops School in Essex - the only state school in the UK which offers a full ABA programme. Neither boy has any language, Jeremiah finds it hard to engage with the world around him and Jack has severe issues with food. Both their parents have high hopes of the 'tough love' support that Treetops offers, but will struggle with their child's progress. We also meet Gunnar Frederiksen, a passionate and charismatic ABA consultant who works with families all over Europe. His view of autism - that it is a condition that can be cured and that families must work with their child as intensively and as early as possible if they want to take the child 'out of the condition' - is at odds with the way that many view autism today. Gunnar is working with three-year-old Tobias in Norway and has trained the parents so that they can work with him at home as his ABA tutors. He also introduces us to Richard, a 16-year-old from Sweden who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three and whose parents were told that he would be unlikely ever to speak. Today, Richard is 'indistinguishable from his peers' and plays badminton for the Swedish national team. In an emotional scene, Richard and his family look back at video recordings of the early ABA treatment and we are confronted both by the harshness of the method and the result of the intervention. These and other stories are intercut with the views and experiences from those who oppose ABA and who argue that at the heart of ABA is a drive to make child
Poet Simon Armitage dissects what makes a perfect speech by examining famous speeches that provoked radical change, surprised pundits or shocked listeners.
In a once-in-a-lifetime performance, some of the greatest stars ever seen on stage come together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Theatre. The National Theatre first opened its doors in 1963 at the Old Vic, under Laurence Olivier. Now, 800 productions later, a cast of 100 perform live some of the most memorable, ground-breaking, controversial and best-loved scenes from those brilliant plays. From Hamlet to The History Boys, from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to Jerry Springer the Opera, from Guys and Dolls to War Horse, this unique event will combine rare glimpses from the archive and live scenes starring many of the most acclaimed actors who have ever performed at the National Theatre. Under the direction of Sir Nicholas Hytner the remarkable cast take us on a thrilling journey through the last five decades in an extraordinary evening of theatre.
1968 was a time of soul searching for the band - with three badly performing singles behind them they needed a big new idea to put them back at the top and crucially to hold them together as a band. Inspired by Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, Pete Townshend created the character of Tommy, the 'deaf, dumb and blind boy'. Broke and fragmenting when they started recording, the album went on to sell over 20 million copies. In this film, the Who speak for the first time about the making of the iconic album and how its success changed their lives. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03f7z78
They are young, all-American girls who enjoy horse riding, karate and Sherlock Holmes. But there's more to Brynne, Tess and Savannah than wholesome pursuits - they're exorcists. The girls believe much of the world's population is possessed by evil spirits which are causing addiction, depression and suffering. In a fight against the devil's army, they have been touring America performing public exorcisms on their believers. Now they are taking the fight to a city they think of as one of the most spiritually corrupt in the world - London. But what will Brits make of these evangelical American exorcists?
Elvis Costello is one of the uncontested geniuses of the rock world. 33 albums and dozens of hit songs have established him as one of the most versatile and intelligent songwriters and performers of his generation. This film provides a definitive account of one of Britain's greatest living songwriters - the first portrait of its kind - directed by Mark Kidel, who was won numerous awards for his music documentaries, including portraits of Rod Stewart, Boy George, Tricky, Alfred Brendel, Ravi Shankar, John Adams and Robert Wyatt. Elvis is a master of melody, but what distinguishes him above all is an almost uncanny way with words, from the playful use of the well-worn cliché to daring poetic associations, whether he is writing about the sorrow of love or the burning fire of desire, the power play of the bedroom or the world of politics. The film tells the story of Elvis Costello - a childhood under the influence of his father RossMcManus, the singer with Joe Loss's popular dance band; a Catholic education which has clearly marked him deeply; his overnight success with the Attractions and subsequent disenchantment with the formatted pressures of the music business; a disillusionment which led him to reinvent himself a number of times; and writing and recording songs in various styles, including country, jazz, soul and classical. The film focuses in particular on his collaborations with Paul McCartney and Allen Toussaint, who both contribute. It also features exclusive access to unreleased demos of songs written by McCartney and Costello. Elvis was interviewed in Liverpool, London and New York, revisiting the places in which he grew up. The main interview, shot over two days at the famed Avatar Studios in NYC, is characterised by unusual intimacy. Elvis talks for the first time at great length about his career, songwriting and music, and often breaks into song with relevant examples from his repertoire.
Authored documentary by Ilan Ziv which sets out to explore the historical and archaeological evidence for the Exile of the Jews after their defeat in Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman Empire, and its relevance to today. Tracing the story of Exile from the contemporary commentator Josephus, to 1960s Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, to the modern city of Rome and finally to the ruins of a Palestinian village, Ziv asks where the roots of this story lie and what evidence there is for it. At the centre of the film is the ancient town of Sepphoris (on whose ruins stood the Palestinian village of Saffuriya until 1948) and the lessons its multi-layered history may have to offer.
Ed Stourton chairs a discussion which examines the historical and archaeological evidence portrayed in the film Searching for Exile: Truth or Myth? A panel debates what this could mean for Judaism and what impact it could have for other religions.
For one night only, Professor Brian Cox takes an audience of celebrity guests, including Charles Dance and Rufus Hound, and members of the public on a journey into the wonderful universe of the Doctor, from the lecture hall of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Drawing on the latest theories as well as 200 years of scientific discoveries and the genius of Einstein, Brian tries to answer the classic questions raised by the Doctor - can you really travel in time? Does extra-terrestrial life exist in our galaxy? And how do you build something as fantastical as the TARDIS?
You don't sell 128 million albums worldwide without putting in the graft and Status Quo are, quite possibly, the hardest working band in Britain. Alan G Parker's documentary Hello Quo, specially re-edited for the BBC, recounts the band's epic story from the beginning - when south London schoolmates Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster formed their first band with big ambitions of rock 'n' roll domination, quickly adding drummer John Coghlan and guitarist Rick Parfitt. The film tells the story of Quo's hits from their unusually psychedelic early hit, Pictures of Matchstick Men, followed by a run through their classics Down Down to Whatever You Want. The band laughs off the constant ribbing about only using three chords and the film explores how Quo's heads-down boogie defined UK rock in the early 70s. Fender Stratocaster in hand, Quo have stood their ground and never shifted, but they have managed to adapt to scoring pop hits over five decades. The original members of the 'frantic four' tell their story of a life in rock 'n' roll, alongside interviews from some prominent Quo fans, such as Paul Weller, whose first gig was the Quo at Guildford Civic hall, to Brian May, who waxes lyrically about the opening riff to Pictures of Matchstick Men, even Sir Cliff plays homage to the denim clad rockers.
Documentary exploring the dynamic relationship that developed between British composer Benjamin Britten and the BBC as they worked together to broadcast modern classical music further and wider. Through this collaboration, Britten's music reached television audiences, from elaborately staged studio operas, intimate duets featuring his partner Peter Pears, to the massive Proms performance of his War Requiem. The programme features interviews with Britten's collaborators and singers as well as those working behind the scenes including Michael Crawford, David Attenborough, Humphrey Burton and soprano April Cantelo. James Naughtie narrates.
Documentary about an inseparable mother and daughter otter living on the idyllic west coast of Scotland. With the young cub never more than a few feet from her mum, a very special relationship is intimately observed as the cub grows up, learning how to fish and fend for herself. As the cub faces the dangers of her first Scottish winter, mum has to work hard to make sure that both survive.
With unique access to police archive records Glen Campbell uncovers the real events behind President John F Kennedy's last visit to Britain, to Harold Macmillan in his country home in Sussex, four months before the assassination in Dallas. Containing interviews with former PM Gordon Brown, Macmillan's grandson The Earl of Stockton as well as the US Secret Service man who was also in charge of the President's advance security that fateful day in Dallas on November 22nd 1963.
Documentary exploring the private life and public legacy of John Denver, America's original country boy. With exclusive accounts from those closest to him, the man behind the music is revealed in an intimate profile in his 70th birthday anniversary year.
CS Lewis's biographer AN Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia - bestselling children's author and famous Christian writer, but an under-appreciated Oxford academic and an aspiring poet who never achieved the same success in writing verse as he did prose. Although his public life was spent in the all-male world of Oxford colleges, his private life was marked by secrecy and even his best friend JRR Tolkien didn't know of his marriage to an American divorcee late in life. Lewis died on the same day as the assassination of John F Kennedy and few were at his burial; his alcoholic brother was too drunk to tell people the time of the funeral. Fifty years on, his life as a writer is now being remembered alongside other national literary heroes in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner. In this personal and insightful film, Wilson paints a psychological portrait of a man who experienced fame in the public arena, but whose personal life was marked by the loss of the three women he most loved
Documentary following the discovery and investigation of a 4,000-year-old body that was found preserved in an Irish peat bog, one of hundreds of bodies found mummified in the boglands of Northern Europe. To scientists and historians, it could offer brand new clues to solve an ancient mystery. Can the bog bodies of Europe offer to explain our ancestors' most macabre tradition - ritual murder, or might these deaths be explained by prehistoric climate change?
A sharp, witty, mind-expanding and exuberant foray into the world of logic with computer scientist Professor Dave Cliff. Following in the footsteps of the award-winning 'The Joy of Stats' and its sequel, 'Tails You Win - The Science of Chance', this film takes viewers on a new rollercoaster ride through philosophy, maths, science and technology- all of which, under the bonnet, run on logic. Wielding the same wit and wisdom, animation and gleeful nerdery as its predecessors, this film journeys from Aristotle to Alice in Wonderland, sci-fi to supercomputers to tell the fascinating story of the quest for certainty and the fundamentals of sound reasoning itself. Dave Cliff, professor of computer science and engineering at Bristol University, is no abstract theoretician. 15 years ago he combined logic and a bit of maths to write one of the first computer programs to outperform humans at trading stocks and shares. Giving away the software for free, he says, was not his most logical move... With the help of 25 seven-year-olds, Professor Cliff creates, for the first time ever, a computer made entirely of children, running on nothing but logic. We also meet the world's brainiest whizz-kids, competing at the International Olympiad of Informatics in Brisbane, Australia. 'The Joy of Logic' also hails logic's all-time heroes: George Boole who moved logic beyond philosophy to mathematics; Bertrand Russell, who took 360+ pages but heroically proved that 1 + 1 = 2; Kurt Godel, who brought logic to its knees by demonstrating that some truths are unprovable; and Alan Turing, who, with what Cliff calls an 'almost exquisite paradox', was inspired by this huge setback to logic to conceive the computer. Ultimately, the film asks, can humans really stay ahead? Could today's generation of logical computing machines be smarter than us? What does that tell us about our own brains, and just how 'logical' we really are...?
With a million people set to use payday loans to pay for Christmas this year, Miquita Oliver goes undercover to find out the truth about Britain's most controversial type of borrowing and meets people whose loans have spiralled out of control, sometimes with devastating results. But for every person she talks to who is desperate for cash to survive, there are others just after money for new clothes and parties. So how much do people really understand about how these loans work, and what they are getting into? Miquita, who has had her own financial troubles, opens up her own payday loans shop rigged with secret cameras and hears startling stories of how these loans both exploit and are exploited by the people rushing to take them out. With the industry under scrutiny like never before, she tests whether lenders have cleaned up their act or whether some are still lending irresponsibly, creating big problems for the very people they are supposed to help.
Canadian James Cullingham's documentary celebrates the iconoclastic American guitarist, composer and provocateur John Fahey, 1939-2001. Fahey is often considered the godfather of 'American primitive guitar', a style forged in the 60s from blues and old-time music that draws on the past without mimicking it. Fahey rediscovered forgotten blues legends like Bukka White and Skip James in the early 60s before setting up his own independent label Takoma to release his own acoustic guitar music. He was a prankster mythologist who wove playful mythic stories around his albums and was dismissive of many folk revivalists. In later life Fahey was prone to depression and alcohol and lived in a motel for some time before enjoying a new lease of life in his last decade exploring 'industrial' music. This cinematic exploration of Fahey's life, times and music features Pete Townshend, Chris Funk of the Decemberists and Joey Burns of Calexico. These stellar musicians, along with Fahey associates and friends such as the famous 'Dr Demento' and radio broadcaster Barry Hansen, explore the legacy of this profoundly influential artist. The film was recorded in the Washington DC area where Fahey was born, along the Mississippi Delta from Memphis to New Orleans, in Los Angeles, Toronto, Austin, New York and in Oregon, where Fahey spent his last two decades.
My £9.50 Holiday explores the growing phenomenon of the newspaper voucher holiday, and the British families from all walks of life who are taking advantage of these low cost breaks. The film joins four families/groups who have paid just £9.50 to holiday at home on Park Resorts caravan sites in Skegness and Great Yarmouth. What will they make of their £9.50 holiday? And, in these cash-strapped times, will they think their bargain break is worth it?
From Life of Brian to Rev, our country holds a strong tradition of Christian based comedy. To mark Holy Week, Ann Widdecombe looks at some of our favourite comedies to see why Christianity is such ripe material for comedy. Comedians and commentators - including Marcus Brigstocke and Monty Python's Terry Jones - join Ann to help shed light on what comedy can reveal about how we view this country's major religion.
Documentary telling the larger-than-life story of Lionel Bart, the composer of Oliver! - one of the greatest musicals of the last fifty years. Drawing on his unseen personal archive and interviews with Barbara Windsor, Roy Hudd, Cameron Mackintosh, Marty Wilde and Ray Davies, it paints a vivid, poignant picture of the rise and fall of one of Britain's favourite songwriters.
Stephen Fry tells the story of the man who became the face of British satire at the age of twenty-three and then went on to confront an American president in the Nixon Interviews. Sir David Frost's remarkable life story is told in special interviews with his three sons and with his friends - Sir Michael Caine, Sir Michael Parkinson, Ronnie Corbett, Michael Palin and Barry Cryer. Plus insights from former prime ministers, Tony Blair and Sir John Major, who remember the man they knew and who they faced in interviews.
How did an obscure Irish melody become one of the greatest songs of all time, recorded by music's biggest names? One hundred years after 'Danny Boy' was first published, the true story of its astonishing past is uncovered, while contributors including Gabriel Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Brian Kennedy and Barry McGuigan explain its enduring appeal and what it has come to symbolise.
Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013) was a freedom fighter, loved and respected around the world. In his struggle against apartheid, Mandela felt violence was justified. He was considered by the South African government, and many others, to be a terrorist. He was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. During his 27 years in jail, world leaders, pop stars and the public called for his freedom and an end to apartheid. Finally in 1990, at the age of 72, he was freed. Forgiving his oppressors, Mandela negotiated with the South African government, and in 1994 the country held its first free election. Twenty-three million people voted and Mandela won by an overwhelming majority, becoming the first black president of a new South Africa. In his retirement he worked ceaselessly to combat poverty, injustice and HIV. David Dimbleby presents a look back at Nelson Mandela's life - including interviews Dimbleby conducted with Mandela in 2003. World leaders and well-known artists commenting on Mandela's life include Bill Clinton, Archbishop Tutu, Bob Geldof, Annie Lennox and Lenny Henry.
Historian Bettany Hughes explores what made Britain so attractive to the ancient Romans that they made it a province of their great empire. Bettany visits the Roman fort at Vindolanda, the sacred baths at Aquae Sulis and the Corinium Museum, to find out what life was like for the Roman soldiers, women and children who lived in Roman Britain. Looking at stunning artefacts, from a ring inscribed with 'mum and dad', to pieces of lead inscribed with sadistic curses and a beautiful piece of painted glass depicting gladiatorial fights, Bettany unravels how people lived at this time. We see archaeologists in action and find out what Romano-British homes of the wealthy would have looked like, and learn how their elaborate under floor heating systems - known as hypocausts - worked, and were also a daily potential hazard. Bettany has a go at writing on a wax tablet, just like the ones children would have practised on in Roman Britain, and nearly gags when she sniffs the fermented fish sauce that the Romans loved so much. We learn about the unusual delicacies the Romans loved to eat such as dormouse sprinkled with honey and poppyseeds, as well as the foods they brought to our country, which we now think of as being so typically British - apples, peas and cabbage. The highlight of the films is undoubtedly the postcards from the past - the Vindolanda letters. Written on slivers of birch or alder wood, these letters to and by the Roman soldiers and their families tell us of birthday celebrations and the need for underpants - the actual words of the people who lived in Britain around 2,000 years ago. This fascinating compilation of films builds a picture of not only what life was like in Roman Britain, but also the lasting legacies of the Roman Empire.
Documentary in which Michel Roux Jr goes back to his own beginnings to explore the art, science and eternal attraction of the perfect sweet delicacy. Part history, part gastronomy but completely seductive, the film looks at our love affair with pastry and patisserie. From childhood favourites to incredible gravitydefying greats like wedding croquembouche, and reconstructed historic pieces-montées, strange ancient recipes and incredible modern creations, Michel bears witness to the creation of sweet perfection. It begins with Michel delving into the sweet world of high fashion, discovering how patissiers are positioning themselves as luxury brands, food fashion houses. He talks to Pierre Hermé, dubbed the 'Dior of Desserts', the man behind this marriage of fashion and patisserie and find out how cakes have become haute couture and what it is about the jewel-like macaroons that Paris creates that has so captivated the world. He visits Hermé's kitchens as well as Philippe Conticini with his 'Pastry Shop of Dreams', where he discovers the precision, personality and brilliance that go into their gourmet triumphs. Michel traces the history of French patisserie from the first great chef Antoine Carême, who created incredible scale models of Parisian landmarks out of marzipan, spun sugar and pastry, to the magic and myth of the croissant, a single breakfast staple whose origins are shrouded in symbolism and still keenly fought over. Michel also explores how the innovative pastry chefs in France have been influential in the UK. William Curley is a master patissier and chocolatier. Just like the pastry chefs or Paris, Curley is a true innovator, pushing the boundaries of flavour and texture in his creations. His Japanese wife and collaborator has influenced many of the flavours in his recipes. Most recently Curley created a collection of cakes inspired by designer dresses. Just like in France, patisserie is being seen in terms of style, fashion an
John Nettles explores the late naturalist Gerald Durrell's legacy through the work of a small group of people trying to save endangered orangutans on two contrasting islands, Jersey and Sumatra.
Gregg reveals how the supermarkets gear up for the biggest challenge of their year - Christmas. He sees what it takes to deliver millions of turkeys, finds out about the battle to make sprouts a crowd pleaser, and discovers how the supermarkets make sure we have got enough of our favourite Christmas tipple.
Teya Sepinuck's pioneering Theatre of Witness puts marginalised people at the core of a performance in which they tell their own, sometimes shocking, stories to the public. The film explores her engagement with a cast of women drawn from politically diverse backgrounds and views. It includes Kathleen whose husband was blown up by the IRA in 1990 and Anne, a former member of the IRA, whose uncle was killed by the Army on Bloody Sunday in 1972. Their process is an adventure in collaboration and creativity that surprises even the performers of this unusual form of theatre.
Art critic Alastair Sooke delves into the murky world of art theft. Despite the high stakes - and often daring - involved, many cases are shrouded in mystery and go unnoticed by the media. Around 47,000 works of art are reported missing each year, yet it is only the heists involving the world's most valuable paintings that hit the headlines. But high-profile or not - once gone, the works are rarely recovered. Alastair meets one of America’s most notorious art thieves, Myles Connor. Connor was one of the FBI’s earliest suspects in the Gardner heist – but he had the perfect alibi: he was in jail in Chicago on the day of the heist. Nevertheless, Connor claims inside knowledge of the heist and Alastair is keen to hear what he has to say.
Ten Oscar nominees, five Oscar winners, one dame, seven knights and two friends will change the way you feel about Shakespeare forever. This documentary follows actors Giles Terera and Dan Poole around the world as they try to conquer their fear of Shakespeare. In a clapped-out car, with spiralling debts and a single-minded determination to meet some of the world's biggest stars, their chaotic journey takes them from Elsinore in Denmark to London's Globe Theatre to Hollywood. Starring Judi Dench, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Steven Berkoff, Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Alan Rickman, James Earl Jones, Mark Rylance, Dominic West and Baz Luhrmann, Muse of Fire is a smart, subversive, idiosyncratic road movie in search of the enduring power of one of the greatest playwrights of all time
Nigel Slater takes us on a nostalgic, funny and heart-warming journey back in time - through the biscuit tins of mum and dad, the doilies and saucers of aunties and grannies, the lunch boxes of friends and siblings. Nigel charts the origins of the humble biscuit, from its vital contribution to Britain's nautical dominance of the globe, through to the biscuit tin becoming that most ubiquitous of household items. He explores the history of our most famous brands, uncovering the Georgian and Quaker origins of the biscuits we love and eat today, meeting eccentric biscuit anoraks who have dedicated their lives to a love of these simple baked treats and meeting scientists who squash, dunk and ignite biscuits for research purposes. Nigel recalls the biscuits he found in his lunch box, the ones he cherished and the ones that would shape his formative years. He asks why it is, that of all the treats we indulge in on a regular basis, the biscuit has become such a dependable culinary companion. What makes Britain a nation of ardent biscuit eaters like no other in the world, with a £2.3 billion industry to match?
Alex Norton discovers how showbusiness has handled the portrayal of the Scottish accent. For over 100 years audiences have struggled to understand our braw brogue: silent Harry Lauder films attempted an accent in the captions, and in Hollywood's golden era , everyone wanted to paint their tonsils tartan- but as examples from Katharine Hepburn, Orson Welles and Richard Chamberlain show, they couldnae. Then Disney made Brave and proved that it disnae have to be all bad.
Brothers-in-law and drinking buddies Alexander Armstrong and Giles Coren choose the booze that will give them their Christmas spirit. From mulled wine and fizz, eggnog and sloe gin to brandy and Boxing Day hangover cures, together these 12 drinks are the festive selection pack that will ensure their family's Christmas is full of good cheer For Alexander Armstrong and Giles Coren Christmas is about enjoying time with their families. In their case, that means each other since they are brothers-in-law. Just like the rest of us, they spend much of the festive season indoors eating and drinking. Every year Britons spend over £10 billion on alcohol at Christmas. And every year, exactly what is drunk in the Armstrong-Coren family is the subject of some debate. Alexander is usually hosting and he likes to push the boat out, spoiling his guests with the finest booze he can get his hands on. Giles does not really see the point of splashing out on wine since everyone's already a bit squiffy by the time they sit down for lunch. As far as he is concerned a bottle or four of something cheaper would do just as well. This year Giles and Alexander intend to settle this controversy once and for all. They are going to put together their definitive Christmas selection pack. But theirs will not come in a net stocking with a cardboard Santa at the top. It will come in bottles. However, just like the traditional selection pack, overconsumption may cause nausea. They look for twelve different festive drinks they can agree on. Sometimes they find the winner in a category together, other times they champion different things. In some categories they source their contenders, in others they make their own creations from scratch. Together their festive dozen represents everything they need to ensure they are brimming over with the spirit of Christmas.
Inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale, this remarkable Danish film tells the story of a Christmas tree from a most unusual angle - through the 'voice' of the tree itself. The tree has big ambitions, doing everything it can to grow so tall that it reaches the sky. Featuring extraordinary photography, the film follows the adventures of its life from sapling to maturity, culminating in a triumphal Christmas Day. Along the way, viewers experience the natural - and human - world from a strangely moving perspective.
The story of 2013 told through the high-impact images of the year, exploring how photography has changed in the age of smartphones, social media and the selfie. From the helicopter crash in London to the bush fires in Tasmania and the Boston Marathon bombing, this was a year in which the best camera was the one you had in your hand and saw ordinary people taking some of the most striking pictures of 2013. Meeting photographers, news editors and members of the public who were in the right place at the right time, this film reveals how these extraordinary pictures were taken and argues that the image remains as powerful as ever in the modern world.
The winter of 2012 was one of the coldest, longest and busiest on record in the Scottish mountains. It was also one of the deadliest, with 14 lives lost as extreme weather and a series of lethal avalanches hit the Highlands. Blending dramatic archive material and footage recorded by people who live, work and play in this environment, this film reveals what really happened on the mountains and shows how a major meteorological phenomenon helped shape what was truly a unique winter.
Young farmers will compete at just about anything. From the coveted categories of stock judging and tug of war, to the dafter contests of pillow fighting and best decorated toilet - you name it, there's a trophy for it. This year the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs celebrates it's 75th anniversary, and three ambitious young farmers attempt to make their mark in the farming world. Tractors and Trophies offers a unique insight into Scotland's Young Farmers Clubs, past and present, and reveals what's behind the social phenomenon that is Scotland's Young Farmers Club - a strange mixture of competition, dating agency, and rural university.
On December 10 2013, the Edinburgh-based Peter Higgs receives the Nobel Prize for Physics, 50 years after he predicted the existence of a sub-atomic particle which gives mass to all the matter in the universe. BBC Scotland's Science Correspondent Kenneth Macdonald tells the story of how this modest 84-year-old became a physics superstar, and speaks to those who have awarded the prize.
Mark Gatiss steps into the mind of MR James, the enigmatic English master of the supernatural story. How did this donnish Victorian bachelor, conservative by nature and a devout Anglican, come to create tales that continue to chill readers more than a century on? Mark attempts to uncover the secrets of James's inspiration, taking an atmospheric journey from James's childhood home in Suffolk to Eton, Cambridge and France, venturing into ancient churches, dark cloisters and echoing libraries along the way.
Some of the most dramatic video of the year has been brought to us by freelance journalists covering hostile environments around the world. Firing Line pays tribute to an international field of nominees in the 2013 Rory Peck Awards.
It's the sound of the heartland, of the midwest and the industrial cities, born in the early 70s by kids who had grown up in the 60s and were now ready to make their own noise, to come of age in the bars, arenas and stadiums of the US of A. Out of blues and prog and glam and early metal a distinct American rock hybrid started to emerge across the country courtesy of Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad et al, and at its very heart is the Great American Rock Anthem. At the dawn of the 70s American rock stopped looking for a revolution and started looking for a good time - enter the classic American rock anthem with big drums, a soaring guitar, a huge chorus and screaming solos. This film celebrates the evolution of the American rock anthem during its glory years between 1970 and 1990, as it became a staple of the emerging stadium rock and AOR radio and then MTV. From Schools Out to Smells Like Teen Spirit, these are the songs that were the soundtrack to teenage lives in the US and around the world, anthems that had people singing out loud with arms and lighters aloft. To track the emergence of this distinct American rock of the 70s and 80s, Huey Morgan narrates the story of some of the greatest American rock anthems including Schools Out, We're an American Band, Don't Fear the Reaper, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, Don't Stop Believin', I Love Rock n Roll, Eye of the Tiger, I Want to Know What Love Is, Livin' on a Prayer and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Contributors include: Alice Cooper, Dave Grohl, Butch Vig, Meat Loaf, Todd Rundgren, Richie Sambora, Blue Oyster Cult, Journey, Survivor, Toto and Foreigner.
Nic Jones is a legend of British folk music. His 1980 record Penguin Eggs is regarded as a classic. In a poll by the Observer a few years ago, Penguin Eggs was rated number 79 of the 100 Best Records of All Time, just above Station to Station by David Bowie and just below Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones - amazing for an LP that never actually charted. His iconic song Canadee-i-o has even been covered by Bob Dylan.
As Henry VIII's world famous warship, the Mary Rose, is unveiled to the public in a new museum, Robert Hall tells the extraordinary story of the restoration of the ship
Combining European musical influences, perfect production and lyrics of love and loss, ABBA made us fall in love with the sound of Swedish melancholy. This documentary explores the music of ABBA and chronicles how they conquered both Sweden and Britain in the face of constant criticism.
Film tribute to Lou Reed, who died in October, which looks at the extraordinarily transgressive life and career of one of rock 'n' roll's true originals. With the help of friends, fellow musicians, critics and those who have been inspired not only by his music but also by his famously contrary approach to almost everything, the documentary looks at how Reed not only helped to shape a generation but also helped to create a truly alternative, independent rock scene, while also providing New York with its most provocative and potent soundtrack. With contributions from Mick Rock, Maureen Tucker, Boy George, Thurston Moore, Debbie Harry, Holly Woodlawn, Doug Yule, Steve Hunter and Paul Auster.
Michael Palin heads for rural Pennsylvania and Maine to explore the extraordinary life and work of one of America's most popular and controversial painters, Andrew Wyeth. Fascinated by his iconic painting Christina's World, Palin goes in search of the real life stories that inspired this and Wyeth's other depictions of the American landscape and its hard grafting inhabitants. Tracking down the farmers, friends and family featured in Wyeth's magically real work, Palin builds a picture of an eccentric, enigmatic and driven painter. He also gets a rare interview with Helga, the woman who put Wyeth back in the headlines when the press discovered he had been painting her nude, compulsively but secretly for 15 years.
A tribute to British comedian Mel Smith, who died in July 2013, aged 60, featuring home video footage, rare archive material and many classic sketches. Far more than a comic actor, Smith also wrote and edited a host of celebrated TV comedies in the 1980s and 90s. He was a theatre and film director, and as a TV producer he was responsible for several innovative comedy series. Friends and colleagues, including Griff Rhys Jones, John Lloyd and Richard Curtis, talk about Smith's talents, both in front of- and behind the camera. The programme also traces his time at Oxford and, before that, Latymer Upper School, where Smith's talents were first spotted.
Documentary telling the story of some of the most important scientific thinkers of the modern age - an epic tale of men and women obsessed by intellectual challenges but dogged by their human failings; of bitter personal rivalries, clashes of ideology and unlikely collaboration. These are the people who discovered the structure of DNA and worked out how our genes work, who changed our view of life forever. The film is an unvarnished account of the scientists who dared to discover the secret of life - told through fascinating and revealing archive - in their own words. Contributors interviewed include: Sir Paul Nurse, biologist, Nobel laureate and President of the Royal Society; Prof Lisa Jardine, historian of science, daughter of Jacob Bronowski, and hence knew many of the Cambridge scientists involved with the DNA story as a child and an undergraduate; Prof Steve Jones, geneticist, UCL.
This is Christmas dinner Tom Kerridge style with everything pushed that little bit further to make it a real celebration feast. Tom likes to keep it traditional at Christmas and always cooks Turkey. But this is Turkey with a twist as he's not roasting it, he's rolling it. He fills a turkey breast with his amazing sage and onion stuffing and rolls it and then steams it to ensure it stays nice and moist. Once cooked he covers it in a delicious crumble topping made from pistachios and dried cranberries. To accompany his turkey roll he demonstrates how to make the ultimate rye bread sauce, and then shows us how to liven up our veg by cooking glazed carrots with star anise, and sprout tops with chestnuts. To finish, Tom serves a seasonal spiced orange cake with plum sauce and Christmas pudding ice cream, all washed down with his festive mulled cider.
Fran Scott meets brilliant young inventors from around the country and gets top tips on how to come up with a great invention.
Looking back to Christmas 1977 with an irreverent portrait of the times, featuring unseen footage of the Sex Pistols. Never mind the baubles, director Julien Temple presents a unique insight into the tradition and transgression of Christmas. Featuring interviews and 70s archive, framing the Sex Pistols' last UK concert with Sid Vicious, for the children of striking firemen in Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1977.
Dougie Vipond will take you on a trip to discover how Scotland's best-known musical export became a worldwide phenomenon. From Ayrshire to Tokyo, via New York City, we'll look at how Auld Lang Syne has been adopted around the world. With some fantastic archive and commentary from well-known faces including Alan Cumming, Sir Cliff Richard and Clare Grogan, we will find out just how Auld Lang Syne became a globe-conquering song.
Scotsman Donald Mackenzie was hunting for the remains of Noah's ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey when he vanished. His family has heard nothing since and several searches by Turkish authorities have failed to find any trace of him. His younger brother Derick, a widowed father of five, travels from Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, across Europe to Dogubayazit, a Kurdish town at the foot of Mount Ararat. The film follows Derick on his journey as he meets many of those who knew his brother who have their own ideas about what might have happened to him. Donald could have fallen or succumbed to the extreme weather. He could have been attacked by wild animals, robbed by bandits, or crossed the paths of the Turkish army or the Kurdish separatists, who both operate on the mountain. He could also have been targeted because of his Christian beliefs or by rogue guides keen to exploit the story of the Ark. Derick goes in search of answers, but in whom can he trust and how close will he come to the truth? The film is a moving story of kinship, friendship, trust and coming to terms with loss.
75 years after the British government sanctioned a mission to bring 10,000 Jewish children to the UK, some of those who came to Britain speak about their memories.
Documentary looking at the enduring appeal of the classic comedy series Open All Hours and following the cast and crew as they return to film a new Christmas special at Arkwright's original shop in Doncaster. The film includes interviews with cast and crew including Sir David Jason, Lynda Baron and writer Roy Clarke, and captures the excitement in Doncaster and Manchester as Open All Hours returns to town.
The inside story of the midsummer highlight of City of Culture 2013 when writer Frank Cottrell Boyce joins with the people of Derry-Londonderry to stage an epic confrontation on the River Foyle between the Loch Ness monster and Colmcille.
In 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa erupted without warning. Within a day the island had virtually disappeared in the loudest explosion ever recorded. The eruption generated a succession of massive tsunamis that wiped out the Indonesian coastline and killed over 30,000 people. These waves were three times higher than those seen on Boxing Day in 2004. And over thirty miles from the volcano, across open ocean, thousands more were killed by hot ash. For over a century geologists have been unable to explain how so many people died. But today through field studies, experiments and analysis of historical records they think they have finally found the answers. And these answers are hugely important because the volcano is back. Since 1927 the volcano Anak Krakatoa, the child of Krakatoa, has been growing. It is now over half the size of the original volcano. And geologists are certain that it will erupt again. The only questions that remain are how and when.
Gregg Wallace reveals how the supermarkets get us in the mood for autumn. He finds out what it takes to bring us millions of Halloween pumpkins, learns how own-label pies are made and is let into the hidden world of online supermarkets.
The winter of 2012 was one of the coldest, longest and busiest on record in the Scottish mountains. It was also one of the deadliest, with 14 lives lost as extreme weather and a series of lethal avalanches hit the Highlands. Blending dramatic archive material and footage recorded by people who live, work and play in this environment, this film reveals what really happened on the mountains and shows how a major meteorological phenomenon helped shape what was truly a unique winter.
Documentary about Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human.
Christmas can make a hole in your pocket seem enormous. With one in five young people in the UK unemployed, BBC Radio 1 DJ Phil Taggart - once unemployed and living on benefits himself - presents an essential guide to Christmas for the young and broke. Phil travels to Bristol to meet a group of young jobseekers in the position he used to be in, and sets them the mission of organising a cracker of a Christmas party on a benefits budget.
In December 2012 a young medical student was brutally gang-raped on board a bus in Delhi. Horrified by the attack, 28-year-old British Asian Radha Bedi travels to India to uncover the reality of life for young women there.
Made in collaboration with the National Theatre, this one hour special examines how one of Britain's best loved books was turned into a multi award-winning theatre production. Specially shot interviews, combined with clips from the show and exclusive behind the scenes rehearsal footage, reveal the thinking and process behind the adaptation.
Biography of British film pioneer William Friese-Greene, who designed and patented a working cinematic camera. His life was dogged by tragedy because of hardship and lack of recognition. Moving from Bristol to London, he spends all his time and money on his new invention, but is largely ignored. Featuring a dazzling array of some of Britain's finest actors in cameo roles.
Interview with Angela Pope (producer) and David Dimbleby (presenter) of the 1971 documentary. Shown as part of Harold Wilson Night.
'My siblings refused to open my father's memoir after his death', recalls filmmaker David Fisher. 'I opened it, uncovering his demons'. Fisher's father Joseph, a Hungarian Jew, was interned in the Gusen and Gunskirchen concentration camps in Austria during the Second World War. His memoir detailed the horrendous ordeal that he survived and prompted David, dragging his reluctant siblings along with him, to retrace their father's footsteps. This resulting film is a bittersweet account of their journey into their father's past.
On 21st December 1988, a bomb exploded on board Pan Am Flight 103 above Lockerbie. Two hundred and seventy people on the plane and on the ground were killed. To mark the 25th anniversary of the deadliest act of terrorism in British history, Glenn Campbell explores the profound impact this enduring tragedy has had on some victims' relatives on both sides of the Atlantic, and on witnesses, emergency responders, and investigators.
The truly miraculous story of how a young girl from Mountain Ash battled heart disease, and how the lessons learned from her case have led to medical breakthroughs that could save millions of lives around the world.
In September 2011, Bangor barley farmer Alan Graham hit headlines across the world when he threw a topless Rihanna off his field during a video shoot. Horrified by the rise of explicit videos and their easy availability to our children, Alan is now on a mission to get the music industry to clean up its act. On his fascinating journey through the pop music world, Alan rubs shoulders with music industry stalwarts, activists and campaigners like Louis Walsh, Sinitta, Mica Paris and the Rev Jesse Jackson. Can he make a difference?
On March 25 2013, Britain's 300,000-strong Jewish community will start their celebrations for Passover, the best-loved holiday in their festival calendar. To mark this, Giles Coren helps host a special seder, with guests including philosopher Alain de Botton, comedienne Olivia Lee and experts Rabbi Naftali Brawer, Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner and chef Linda Dangoor. Why is this Night Different? is an engaging, entertaining and warm look at the meaning of Passover, captured in one unforgettable evening.
What's it like to be homeless? This powerful documentary records the stories of the dispossessed, the people living on the streets, sleeping on friends sofas, or housed in temporary accommodation, in Scotland today. The 2012 Commitment, the Scottish Government's pledge to eradicate homelessness, came in to force on December 31st 2012. Will it make any difference to the 45,000 individuals currently without a home? Filmed in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow over the winter months, this documentary puts a human face to the grim statistics.
Saul Leiter could have been lauded as the great pioneer of colour photography, but was never driven by the lure of success. Instead he preferred to drink coffee and photograph in his own way, amassing an archive of beautiful work that is now piled high in his New York apartment. This intimate and personal film follows Saul as he deals with the triple burden of cleaning an apartment full of memories, becoming world famous in the 80s and fending off a pesky filmmaker.
Rick Stein sets out on his German voyage with his usual appetite to unearth some of the country's hidden culinary gems.
Peter Snow presents a studio panel discussion looking at the political legacy of Harold Wilson. Guests include Shirley Williams, a former minister in Wilson's government and now a Liberal Democrat peer, Bernard Donoughue, head of Wilson's policy unit during the 1970s and now a Labour peer, and Douglas Hurd, private secretary to the Conservative leader Edward Heath, and now a Tory peer.
Ardoyne - Our Lives is an illuminating and surprising observational documentary of teenage life in north Belfast. The film follows the lives of three teenagers over a period of five months. We see their ordinary hopes and dreams - shaped by an area which has seen its fair share of trouble and by the adults who live there. How do they fare when social and economic difficulties are a daily reality?
Stephen Nolan lifts the curtain on the stigma surrounding depression and gains a better understanding of this illness. He meets people whose life is a constant battle against it and examines the science behind this potentially life-threatening condition.
In 2013 Belfast experienced one of its most violent summers in recent years. Alys Harte is on the frontline with a notorious Loyalist band who are marching into the eye of a storm.
In 2011, Glen Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that he would be bowing out with a final album and farewell tour across Britain and America. This documentary tells Campbell's remarkable life story, from impoverished childhood in Arkansas through huge success first as a guitarist and then as a singer, with great records like Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy.
Len Goodman takes a step back in time to the heyday of British dance bands, a golden age of music that laid the foundations for 20th century pop. In the years between the wars, band leaders such as Bert Ambrose and Jack Hylton were household names and the country danced its socks off. It was a time of radio and records, when Britain absorbed black American music and gave it a unique twist. Many of the bands played in the posh society hotels of London's West End. Some were making big money and enjoying the high life. They were also keen to broadcast to the nation via the new BBC. Len discovers that 'Auntie' had a tricky relationship with the bands - though they formed a key part of the corporation's entertainment output, during the 20s and 30s there were concerns about the influence of American culture, song-plugging and commercialisation. Crooning was also developed as a new style of singing, thanks in part to the development of better microphones. But this new 'intimate' form of singing did not impress everyone at the corporation. Despite the BBC's concerns the vocalists continued to enjoy huge success and fame, as did the bands. Len follows the story of vocalist Al Bowlly, a man of huge talent who attracted great public adoration. Al was killed in London's blitz and buried in a mass grave - a sad and symbolic moment in the history of dance bands. Len discovers how we went dance band crazy and asks why, within just two decades, our love affair with this music began to fall flat.
Pioneering female BBC broadcaster of the 1960s, Joan Bakewell subjects herself to an interrogation by David Frost, looking back on more than 50 years at the heart of television and a life often lived in the glare of celebrity. From her early years as the face of Late Night Line Up, the end-of-the-day live programme that broke the rules of polite television, through to her days on Newsnight, covering arts, entertainment, politics and even pornography, this no-holds barred interview recalls how it was to be a lone woman at the BBC, the fun she had in swinging London and how she came to be branded 'the thinking man's crumpet'.
Writer Elizabeth Kinder embarks on a journey through Andalusia from Malaga to Cadiz to find the soul of flamenco, the beguiling mix of guitar, song and dance strongly associated with southern Spain's gypsies. Featuring performances from gypsy blacksmiths to goat herders, the documentary reveals a glimpse of a timeless way of life as it has been preserved down the centuries. The history of this mysterious music and its relationship to Spain is explored in chocolate box locations including Moron de la Frontera, Granada, Seville and Jerez and the programme also features rare archive of notable artists such as Camaron de la Isla and Diego Del Gastor.
The history of the North West 200 motorcycle race from its beginnings in the 1920s to the present day. A wealth of archive pictures and film tell the story, and individual race stories of the North West are set in the social history of the time.
A remarkable film with exclusive access to Sir Peter Blake in his studio as he adds the final touches to his groundbreaking art works inspired by Under Milk Wood. For over 25 years, Blake has been obsessed by Dylan Thomas's play - and now, finally, this body of work is going on display at the National Museum of Wales. Includes contributions from Cerys Matthews, Damien Hirst, Ronnie Wood and Pete Townshend.
Paul Murphy investigates the children's heart unit in Leeds which is under threat of closure. He asks the people at the centre of the story what really happened when surgery was suspended due to safety concerns and tries to get to the truth about death rates at the unit.
Cambridge chemist Dr Peter Wothers offers 12 Key Stage 3 students the unique opportunity to join him in his laboratory for a master class exploring the four ancient elements: water, earth, air and fire - with explosive results. Part of the BBC Learning Zone
The BBC documentary follows people who mine Big Data, including LAPD police officers who use data to predict crime, a London scientist/trader who makes millions with math, and a South African astronomer who wants to catalog the entire cosmos. This 58 minute documentary examines The Age of Big Data, including LAPD officers who get a forecast where crime is most likely to happen in the next 12 hours City of London scientist turned trader believes he has found secrets of making millions with math South Africa astronomer who wants to catalog the sky, by listening to every single star. Big Data is set to become one of the greatest sources of power in 21st century.
Sisters Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most successful tennis players of all time. They've provoked strong reactions - from awe and admiration to suspicion and resentment. They've been winning championships for over a decade, pushing the limits of longevity in such a demanding sport. How long can they last? Following their extraordinary story - from young black girls from the ghetto training with their father to international stardom - this film features unprecedented access into their lives during the most intimidating year of their careers. Over the course of 2011, Venus grappled with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease while Serena battled back from a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. Now, as they prepare for this year's Wimbledon, this is a unique insight into two sisters who do not let their adversities hold them back, drawing their strength from each other.
Friends and colleagues celebrate the life in comedy of the much-loved actor and stand-up Felix Dexter, charting his influence as a pioneer of black British comedy.
In 1978, Top of the Pops began to turn the credibility corner. As the only major pop show on television, Top of the Pops had enjoyed a unique position in the nation's hearts since the 1960s; the nation's teenagers who were now fed up with the show's predominantly light entertainment blend still tuned in every week in the hope of seeing one of the new young outfits thrown up by punk, new wave and disco. In 1978 it seemed the kids' time had come again for the first time since glam rock. Yet the biggest-selling singles of 1978 were by the likes of Boney M, John Travolta & Olivia Newton John, Rod Stewart, the Bee Gees and Abba. Punk never quite fitted in with the mainstream - it had been treated with disdain by Top of the Pops and largely ignored by the show. Britain's teenagers had to endure the all-round family entertainment on offer when all they wanted was teenage kicks. Along came a generation of young post-punk and new wave bands armed with guitar and bass, ready to storm the Top of the Pops stage - from the Undertones, the Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Skids and Ian Dury and the Blockheads to the Boomtown Rats, Elvis Costello, the Jam and Squeeze - some weeks teenagers would get to see one of their bands, very rarely they got two, but there they were on primetime TV. With contributions from the Boomtown Rats, Squeeze, Boney M, Sham 69, Brian & Michael, the Barron Knights, Mike Read, Kid Jensen, Kathryn Flett, Richard Jobson, Ian Gittins and Legs & Co.
Documentary looking at the life and work of soul and pop diva Dusty Springfield, singer of such classics as You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and Son of a Preacher Man, who was equally famous for her trademark panda eyes and blonde beehive.
If you fancy an hour's worth of irresistible guilty pleasures from Anni-Frid, Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha, this is the programme for you. It's 39 years since ABBA stormed the Eurovision song contest with their winning entry Waterloo, and this programme charts the meteoric rise of the band with some of their greatest performances at the BBC.
Documentary following Viscount Crichton, son of the sixth Earl of Erne and heir to the historic family home of Crom Castle in County Fermanagh, as he faces the ever-increasing challenge of keeping a castle despite growing bills. Under the watchful eye of his fiercely private father, Lord Erne, and with the dedicated assistance of manager Noel Johnston, he juggles his family heritage and responsibilities with life as a property expert in London. With unique access, cameras follow the Viscount as he opens his home for weddings, tours and TV filming in a determined bid to keep the castle for the Crichtons.
Musician and film-maker Roxana Vilk lives in Scotland but grew up in Tehran. Her family left Iran in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and since the breakdown of diplomatic relations between London and Tehran in 2011, she has been unable to return. In this film, Roxana explores her identity as a British-Iranian and finds out how to teach her children about a country they have never visited. From a tower block in Glasgow to the glamour of Los Angeles, home to the largest group of Iranians living abroad, she finds out how other Iranian migrants keep their culture alive. While some of the questions she raises are specific to the Iranian diaspora, this film speaks to broader issues of identity faced by immigrants the world over.
Christmas is coming... Nigel Slater shares the flavours that for him make Christmas a truly delicious season. As we tick off the days and open our Advent calendars, Nigel shows us how to cook for both entertaining and self-indulgence, filling the kitchen with tastes and smells to evoke the spirit of the season and serving up food designed to bring comfort and joy.
'Cunnart' offers a glimpse into the world of Donald MacDonald, who spent the last twenty years disposing of landmines and bombs in some of the world's most troubled regions. In South Sudan, Donald is tasked with organising teams and recruiting locals, to clear land littered with unexploded bombs and landmines after a civil war which lasted over two decades.
When Queen Victoria's grandson, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, was born with a paralysed arm, it led to a story of child cruelty, secret shame and incestuous desire.
Ricky Ross presents performances from a special concert staged at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow, bringing some of the best music from Celtic Connections 2013. This is the twentieth Celtic Connections festival and this programme features the broad range of musical styles, from world music to Americana, traditional Scottish styles to blues and jazz, that has made the festival itself such a success since the first was staged in 1994. Acts featured include Martha Wainwright, Blazin Fiddles, India Alba and Heidi Talbot.
The giant squid is a creature of legend and myth which, even in the 21st century, has never been seen alive. But now, an international team of scientists thinks it has finally found its lair, 1,000 metres down, off the coast of Japan. This is the culmination of decades of research. The team deploys underwater robots and state-of-the-art submersible vessels for a world first - to find and film the impossible.
Historian Dr Michael Scott unlocks the secrets of a mysterious tomb recently discovered in one of Rome's famous catacombs. Found by accident following a roof collapse, the tombs contained over 2,000 skeletons piled on top of each other. This was quite unlike any other underground tomb seen in Rome. They are located in an area of the catacombs marked as 'X' in the Vatican's underground mapping system - hence the name The X Tombs.
Kate Humble, Bill Oddie, Bill Bryson, John Craven and Clarissa Dickson Wright discuss television's changing relationship - and recent obsession - with the countryside. What explains the huge appeal of shows like Countryfile and Lambing Live to an urban audience? Is television helping to bring town and country together, or is the gap getting larger? The programme remembers the pioneers of Welly Telly, like Phil Drabble, Jack Hargreaves and Hannah Hauxwell, and features archive from The Good Life, All Creatures Great and Small and Last of the Summer Wine.
Portrait of the conductor Sir Colin Davis, who died in April 2013. Shortly before his final illness, he spoke at length to John Bridcut about his early life; his family; his career as a conductor; his love of music and the art and skills of conducting; his relationships with orchestras. other conductors and with the Royal Opera House; his religion and beliefs; and finally his thoughts on death and dying. During the interview Sir Colin is asked what music he would like to hear before dying and if he ever sang in a large choir or had singing lessons. At school he played the clarinet and joined a university orchestra. He met veteran conductor Sir Adrian Boult and learned the Alexander Technique which helped him acquire his own style of conducting. He admits that at times his relationships with orchestras were not ideal - his period as Music Director at the Royal Opera House, and in particular with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) whom he conducted for many years - they did not like him at the beginning and he made enemies leading to a conscious decision that he would rather be a decent human being rather then an 'idiot' conductor. He talks briefly about his first failed marriage and subsequent happy second marriage and his children with whom he was able to make music. He spent time in his career conducting amateur choirs and student orchestras. Eventually he was asked to conduct the Last Night of the Proms in 1967 in place of an ailing Sir Malcolm Sargent. He talks about his own special style and technique of conducting - his way of holding the baton and how a conductor should connect with his orchestral musicians - who must listen as well as play. He has helped and coached young conductors in masterclasses, but his time as musical director at the Royal Opera House was not always a happy one. He was even booed by the audience on occasions and his interpretation of Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes did not altogether please the composer himself. Davis d
A glorious romp through 50 years of little-seen archive in which Joan Bakewell brings back to life the biggest stars of arts and entertainment, stage and screen. A trailblazing interviewer in a mini-skirt, Joan fearlessly confronts the most self-important and pompous and keeps her dignity. See her joust with Sir Robin Day, flirt with Sir Kenneth Clark of Civilisation fame and keep her end up with Bette Davis. From Arthur Askey to Nelson Mandela, from Bing Crosby to Jacob Bronowski, these are some of the finest moments in the BBC archive. And worth watching simply for the frocks.
A selection of some of David Bowie's best performances from the BBC archives, which also features artists who Bowie helped along the way, such as Mott the Hoople, Lulu, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.
From plainsong to Penderecki, this film for Remembrance Sunday shows how music has shaped the requiem over 500 years. John Bridcut explores the significance and history of one of the oldest musical forms and discusses its enduring appeal with some of its greatest exponents. The great requiems of Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi and Fauré have been rooted in the Latin requiem mass of the Roman Catholic Church. But now, thanks to Brahms and Britten, the requiem has spread into other Christian traditions, producing some of the finest classical music ever written. This feature-length documentary has specially-shot musical performances by the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales (conducted by Edward Gardner), with sopranos Elin Manahan Thomas and Annemarie Kremer, and bass-baritone Neal Davies. It also features the choir Tenebrae, conducted by Nigel Short. Contributors include the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the conductors Sir Colin Davis and Jane Glover, and the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel.
Tom Service presents a tribute to Sir John Tavener, one of Britain's greatest composers, who died in 2013 at the age of 69. Through forty years of BBC television archive, Tom traces the remarkable musical and spiritual odyssey of a man whose music found wide acclaim both inside and beyond the classical world. From his evocative The Protecting Veil and immensely popular setting of William Blake's poem The Lamb, to his Song of Athene sung to overwhelming effect at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. John Tavener's music reflects the life of a man who saw music as a form of prayer, becoming one of the most unique and inspired voices in the music of our time. Interviewees include John Rutter and Patricia Rozario.
This documentary presented by Professor Simon Schaffer describes the amazing story of automata Designed and built with pen and paper in the 18th Century leveraging the mechanisms employed in making timepieces, these mechanical devices containing 1000’s of parts and are programmable to mimic human actions in Mechanical Theatre. The program describes how there development has led to the creation of the mechanical devices we take for granted today showing the first mechanical weaving looms allowing for the mass production of fabrics and in effect started the industrial revolution.
A selection of Dusty Springfield's performances at the BBC from 1961 to 1995. Dusty was one of Britain's great pop divas, guaranteed to give us a big melody in songs soaring with drama and yearning. The clips show Dusty's versatility as an artist and performer and include songs from her folk beginnings with the Springfields; the melodrama of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me; Dusty's homage to Motown with Heatwave and Nowhere to Run; the Jacques Brel song If You Go Away; the Bacharach and David tune The Look of Love; and Dusty's collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys in the late 1980s. There are also some great duets from Dusty's career with Tom Jones and Mel Torme.
Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, is celebrated worldwide, not least in Ulster where his influence was felt during his own brief lifetime. But what is the connection between Burns and Ulster poets living and working today? Neil Oliver embarks on a literary journey to meet some of Ulster's most celebrated poets, including Seamus Heaney and Tom Paulin, to find out what impact Burns has had on their work.
Scottish musician Eddi Reader takes to the road in search of Ulster's weaver poets, inspired by her great love, Robert Burns. In a journey from County Down, across Antrim to Donegal, Eddi explores their influences and works. Her concert of Burns songs at the Ulster Hall with the Ulster Orchestra provides a musical backdrop to her trip.
Celebrating 600 years of the University of St Andrews with stories charting its progress over hundreds of years, and a look at how this university, which was founded on the east coast of Scotland, became the 'fountain of all the arts and sciences'.
Edinburgh Zoo is celebrating its 100th Birthday this July. Home to over 1,000 animals including two megastars of the conservation world - the Giant Pandas -Edinburgh Zoo is one of the city's top attractions. Narrated by John Hannah, this one-hour documentary tells the stories of the people and the animals that have made the zoo what it is today. We follow Darren McGarry, the zoo's head of living collections as he delves into the archives to uncover the vision of Edinburgh lawyer, Thomas Gillespie, who wanted to share his fascination with the wild by creating a modern national zoo for Scotland. Penguin parades, elephant rides and chimps tea parties were all part of the fun of the zoo during its hay days in the fifties and the sixties. Stunning archive footage shows visitors enjoying the tea parties, elephant rides but most remarkable of all - penguins marching along Edinburgh city streets, complete with police escort. But as the world changed and attitudes changed, Edinburgh Zoo has had to adapt to survive. Former Zoo Director Roger Wheater describes how he had to make some tough decisions during the 1970s and 1980s to balance the needs of the animals with those of the paying public. Naturalist, Chris Packham and Dr Lee Durrell, wife of the late Gerald Durrell, former animal collector and conservationist speak of how the role of the zoo has evolved. In 2011, amid declining visitor numbers and internal turmoil, a breeding pair of Giant Pandas arrived in the hope they would produce a cub. We follow the build up to their brief mating period and the first ever artificial insemination of a Giant panda in the UK. Whether or not the pandas do produce a cub this year they have been a lifeline for the zoo, visitor numbers have soared and profit rocketed. The zoo's new chief executive, Chris West, hopes that the income generated can help fund the zoo's conservation work. But it is the power of the pandas to capture the public's imagination and pull in the crowd
The Siege of Derry was a pivotal moment in the history of Ireland and Britain and one that placed the city at the heart of a European-wide struggle. In this documentary writer Carlo Gebler explores the remarkable story of this dramatic and bloody event - one that has shaped the course of our history to the present day.
Musical documentary about singer/songwriter Ricky Ross as he takes his Untold Stories tour to London, over the sea to Stornoway, to Barlinnie Prison and to his hometown of Dundee.
Join Fyfe Robertson on a journey through some of Scotland's islands, including Mull, Staffa, Barra and Vatersay.
Filmed at Glasgow's Old Fruit Market, this programme is part of a series of events produced by BAFTA and celebrates the work of famous Scottish comedian Billy Connolly as he looks back over his career and is presented with his BAFTA Scotland Outstanding Contribution Award. Connolly's career as a successful comedian, musician, television presenter and actor spans six decades. He has appeared in over 30 films including The Last Samurai, Gulliver's Travels and Mrs Brown, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA in 1997. More recently, he voiced King Fergus in Pixar's Brave, appears in Quartet, Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut, and is soon to be seen as a dwarf warrior in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. The programme is hosted by Francine Stock, who interviews Billy Connolly about his film career, and it features a number of his performances with clips and anecdotes.
At the tender age of 18, Luke Thomas is already Britain's youngest head chef, with an eponymous restaurant in a boutique hotel in the foodie home county of Royal Berkshire. He's got a taste for success and now he's reaching even higher - for cooking's ultimate prize, a coveted Michelin star. Backing Luke is self-styled rock & roll hotelier Mark Fuller, who is keen to cash in on the PR power of the teen sensation. He has set Luke up in the restaurant and hand-picked a team of experienced staff to help. But for Mark the bottom line is making money, not wining prizes. This documentary follows Luke on his first seven months as a baby boss to see if he he can make it in a man's world and catch his star.
Stacey Soloman explores why young mums get PND and looks at what help is available.
Get Lost is a programme introducing the satnav and online maps generation to the traditional skills of reading detailed paper maps. Three groups of young people are set a navigational challenge - to get from A to B in the middle of the countryside by following detailed Ordnance Survey maps. Presenter Joe Crowley is on hand to give tips as the school students discover the world of contours, spot heights and navigating using a compass. Can the teenagers make it to their destination without getting lost?
Professor Adam Hart is joined by a team of primary school scientists to explore the fascinating underground world of a leafcutter ant colony. Almost one million ants are transported from Trinidad to the UK and studied in every detail as they reorganise themselves inside an enormous, transparent, man-made nest. The young scientists get hands-on in their lab, carrying out their own investigations into the lives of these tiny insects - from reproduction to how they fit into the wider ecosystem.
Afghanistan has long been known as a major producer of drugs - but now it's become one of the worst consumers of illegal drugs in the world. High unemployment, war trauma and easy access to refined heroin have resulted in more than a million Afghans being addicted to drugs. As part of 2013: The Big Stories, another chance to see BBC Persian's reporter Tahir Qadiry travel to Afghanistan to understand the extent of the problem. He follows a young addict as he makes his way through rehabilitation, talks to dealers and outreach workers, and asks ministers what's being done to prevent addiction and the drugs trade from threatening the future stability of Afghanistan.
Unreliable, dirty, expensive and outdated - the familiar complaints of commuters on British Rail. Andrew Harvey reports on how Network South East measures up and examines lessons that could be learnt from its European counterparts.
Big Bill Broonzy would inspire a generation of musicians, yet he was not the man they believed him to be. This first, very intimate, biography of the pioneering bluesman uncovers the mystery of who Broonzy really was and follows his remarkable and colourful journey from the racist Deep South to the clubs of Chicago and all across the world. With contributions from: Pete Seeger, Ray Davies, Keith Richards, Martin Carthy, John Renbourn and members of the Broonzy family. Broonzy's own words are read by Clarke Peters. Show less
Documentary telling the story of the British world music revolution from the early 1980s to the present. Through a variety of careers, starting with Zimbabwe's Bhundu Boys and culminating with Portugal's Mariza in the new millennium, the film explores what it takes to bring music from 'out there' over here. Through the testimony of artists from all around the world alongside key British producers and broadcasters including Andy Kershaw, Joe Boyd and Nick Gold, it tracks the evolving story of what British audiences have wanted from what has come to be called 'world music' and what a range of artists including Les Mystere des Voix Bulgares, Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Buena Vista Social Club and Tinariwen have made of us. At the dawn of the 80s, in an age of spandex and synthesizers, many music fans were becoming bored with the pop charts and hungered for a new music that could excite them once again. Where music from the rest of the world had once been regarded as mere exotica, there was increasingly a sense that world music could be the future of pop music. The documentary traces the hopes and ambitions of a new music industry as cultures came together for the first time, producing much brilliant music and a degree of human comedy. From the tribal warriors of Mali who fought in rebellions with guitars and guns strapped to their shoulders, all-female choirs from the other side of the Iron Curtain playing to rock fans, a band from Zimbabwe who supported Madonna to a group of old men from Cuba who took the world by storm with their music from another era, these tales from musicians from out there arriving over here trace an evolving market that has both offered a blueprint for the future and an escape into a romantic past.
From presents to party games, from the tree to the turkey, Len Goodman invites us to share his perfect Christmas Day - as seen on TV.
Documentary account of the five-week visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Canada and the United States in the autumn of 1951. Stops on the royal tour include Quebec City, the National War Memorial in Ottawa, the Trenton Air Force Base in Toronto and a performance of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Regina. The royal couple are then welcomed to the United States by President Truman.
The five-minute documentary features rare archive footage and brand new interviews with many who worked with him, including Carole Ann Ford, Peter Purves and Waris Hussein as well as Matt Smith, Peter Davison and Hartnell’s granddaughter, Jessica Carney. It’s a revealing and affectionate portrait of a much-loved actor.
Compilation of BBC performances by Dame Shirley Bassey, who began her rise to fame as a 16-year-old singer in 1953 and over 60 years later is still going strong. This trip down memory lane uncovers some of her finest performances from the vaults, ranging from early appearances on Show of the Week and The Shirley Bassey Show, via the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury 2007, right up to her show at the Electric Proms in 2009. Iconic songs featured include The Performance of My Life, Goldfinger, Big Spender and Diamonds are Forever.
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey talk exclusively to the BBC's David Willis about some of their most celebrated music.
It's a big enough challenge to sail solo around the coast of Britain. But to do it when the only part of your body you can move is your head, and all the time you are suffering intense and continuous pain, takes a very special kind of sailor. This film follows the extraordinary story of quadriplegic Hilary Lister as she undertakes a 3,000 mile voyage around Britain. Hilary controls the sails and steering of her yacht by three tubes through which she sucks or blows. It is the only movement left to her as, stricken by a degenerative disease, her body is shutting down. Six times Hilary collapses and is rushed to hospital. Six times she sails on. Over the three month voyage, the film embraces the relationships in her life, her daily fight to live and breathe, her past life as a talented musician and sportswoman, and her attitude to the disease that has struck her down.
Gary Lineker looks back on the 60-year history of BBC Sports Personality of the Year. What started in 1954 as a low-key affair with a surprise winner when Chris Chataway beat four-minute-mile record-setter Roger Bannister, has grown into one of the most anticipated nights in the sport and television calendars, with the 2012 event the biggest ever. HRH Princess Anne, David Beckham, Lord Sebastian Coe, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Paula Radcliffe, Zara Phillips and Sir Steve Regrave are just some of the winners who recall fond memories of the night they won the main award. Former presenter Des Lynam recounts his nerves on the night, as well as the laughs he shared with Frank Bruno and others, while Lineker and Sue Barker remind us of the moments that brought them, and us, to tears – emotional presentations to legends of sport like Muhammad Ali and Sir Bobby Robson. There are also contributions from Young Sports Personality of the Year winners Wayne Rooney and Andy Murray. In the 60 years Sports Personality has been on the air, sport and society has evolved, but the award remains as relevant and important now as it ever has done. Lineker explains, this is because of the public – the people who are so frequently captivated by sport, and who vote in their thousands every year to select the award winner. As such, the roll of honour on the Sports Personality of the Year trophy reads like a who’s who of UK sport, and the programme itself has become a broadcasting institution.
1975 documentary about 11-year-old serial arsonist Michael 'Mini' Cooper, followed by Cooper and the film's director Franc Roddam in conversation with Alan Yentob in 2013. First broadcast in 1975, this provocative documentary about an 11-year-old serial arsonist shocked millions across the UK. Michael 'Mini' Cooper had already torched a church and set his family home ablaze with his violent father asleep upstairs. The film follows the angelic looking 'Mini' over a gruelling three-week period in a young offenders home in County Durham, as social workers and psychiatrists quiz and probe the charismatic and intelligent tearaway as they determine his future. Franc Roddam's film has a simplicity and directness that captivates whilst never shying away from the seriousness of the situation. Roddam would go onto find fame in Hollywood, but nearly 40 years on remains close friends with Cooper, who has spent most of his life in and out of jail, care, mental health units and halfway houses. Cooper has channelled his experiences into a revealing new book 'Mini and Me' and the programme also sees both Franc Roddam and Mini Cooper in conversation with Alan Yentob.
Mark Gatiss steps into the mind of MR James, the English master of the supernatural tale, attempting to uncover the inspiration behind stories that chill readers a century on.
In a world where most countries are anticipating problems caused by population growth, Japan expects a stunted reproduction rate caused by the absence of more and more men from the dating scene. This has been blamed on otaku culture - an obsession with computer games, manga and animation - and it has caused a rise in the number of young people with virtual partners, meaning a dwindling generation of future tax payers. Anita Rani investigates the extent of the problem.
With a third of British children living with only one biological parent, this film asks young people about their experience of their parents' breakup.
Documentary which follows four single Mormons looking for their eternal partner at a weekend-long, non-stop but sex-and-alcohol-free party in Duck Beach, North Carolina.
Nigel Slater takes us on a nostalgic, funny and heart-warming journey back in time - through the biscuit tins of mum and dad, the doilies and saucers of aunties and grannies, the lunch boxes of friends and siblings. Nigel charts the origins of the humble biscuit, from its vital contribution to Britain's nautical dominance of the globe, through to the biscuit tin becoming that most ubiquitous of household items. He explores the history of our most famous brands, uncovering the Georgian and Quaker origins of the biscuits we love and eat today, meeting eccentric biscuit anoraks who have dedicated their lives to a love of these simple baked treats and meeting scientists who squash, dunk and ignite biscuits for research purposes. Nigel recalls the biscuits he found in his lunch box, the ones he cherished and the ones that would shape his formative years. He asks why it is, that of all the treats we indulge in on a regular basis, the biscuit has become such a dependable culinary companion. What makes Britain a nation of ardent biscuit eaters like no other in the world, with a £2.3 billion industry to match?
There aren't many days that can be said to have changed the course of history, but there aren't many days like 6 June 1944 - D-Day. What was at stake was the freedom of the western world. In this compilation of three short films specially made for schools, historian Dan Snow examines how two years of meticulous planning, espionage and the analysis of millions of 3-D aerial reconnaissance photographs shaped that day. But D-Day is also a powerful and compelling story of heroism, self-sacrifice and determination and this is perhaps the last chance to hear the extraordinary first-hand testimonies of those who risked their lives to save the world from Nazi tyranny. With unprecedented access to thousands of top secret 3-D spy photographs, compelling storytelling, state of the art graphics and dramatic reconstruction, these three films bring one day in June into sharp relief for a new generation.
Rockumentary tracing the Rolling Stones' journey from blues-obsessed teenagers to rock royalty, including never-before-seen footage and fresh insights from the band.
Nicholas Owen takes a look at the legacy of the Beeching report and the relationship between the railways and the politicians.
The concluding part of historian Dan Snow's documentary tells the powerful and heroic stories of those who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy to save the world from Nazi Germany.
Jeremy Clarkson tells the dramatic story of the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, from Russia to the freezing Arctic Ocean. Accompanied by moving first hand testimony from the men who served on these convoys, Clarkson reveals the incredible hazards faced by members of the Merchant and Royal Navy who delivered vital war supplies via the Arctic to the Soviet Union: temperatures of minus 50 degrees, huge icebergs, colossal waves, not to mention German U-boats and the Luftwaffe. It is no wonder that Churchill described the Arctic Convoys as 'the worst journey in the world.'
1979 was a unique year for Top of the Pops, which saw the show record its highest audience of 19 million viewers and in which physical format singles sales hit an all-time high of 79 million. 1979 is maybe the most diverse year ever for acts on Top of the Pops with disco at its peak, new wave, 2 Tone, reggae, rock, folk and electro records all making the top five. Original interviews with Gary Numan, Nile Rodgers, Woody from Madness, Jah Wobble, Chas and Dave, Janet Kay, Linda Nolan, Jim Dooley, Secret Affair, the Ruts, Legs and Co and many others tell the story of an exceptional year. In the year that the 'winter of discontent' saw continuing strikes black out ITV and TOTP reduced during a technicians strike to a narrator introducing videos, the show also found itself the site of conflict backstage. TOTP's old guard of 70s MOR acts had their feathers continually ruffled by new wave bands, as the Skids spat at the Nolan Sisters backstage and Generation X urinated off the roof onto the Dooleys. Elsewhere in the corridors of TV Centre, in preparation for playing their single Death Disco, Public Image Ltd demanded their teeth were blacked out in make-up to appear ugly while Gary Numan remembers the overbearing union presence which prevented TOTP artists moving their own microphones without a union technician and the Musicians Union trying to ban him from the show for his use of synthesizers. The most popular musical styles of 1979 were 2 Tone, reggae and disco. The latter saw Nile Rodgers, the man of the year, score four hits with Chic as well as writing and producing a further four hits with Sister Sledge, Sheila B Devotion and Sugarhill Gang, who appeared with what would prove to be the first ever rap hit. Jamaican and UK reggae artists scored continual hits through the year and then watched as the Police notched up three hits with white reggae and the label 2 Tone revived the 60s reggae style known as ska. In November, in what is remembered as the 2 T
An anthology of Dave Allen's finest, funniest and most irreverent material, compiled from his time at the BBC from 1971 to 1986.
James May attempts to build a motorbike and sidecar entirely out of Meccano to take round the Isle of Man's famous TT circuit. But designing a machine capable of carrying James and his passenger, wine expert Oz Clarke, around the daunting 37-mile course is not a task for the faint-hearted. Fifteen thousand pieces of Meccano must be assembled to create a full-size, road-legal motorcycle that James hopes will be more than a match for the circuit's treacherous twists and turns, steep climbs and dizzying descents. And as in the real TT, the bike must race against the clock.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson examines the public's anxieties about immigration and reveals the facts of an issue that has transformed British politics. With Britain braced for a new wave of migrants from eastern Europe, a subject once regarded as toxic is now at the forefront of political discussion. The programme dissects the decisions which led to the biggest surge of immigration in modern history and asks whether politicians can control immigration as much as they claim, looking at the potential consequences of their pledges.
A richly detailed journey through the epic history of still life painting, featuring a range of delights from the earliest existing Xenia mural paintings discovered at Pompeii to the cubist masterpieces of Picasso. Awash with rich imagery of fruit, flowers and humble domestic objects, this lively take on the story of still life encompasses the work of some of the genre's greatest artists from Caravaggio to Chardin and Cezanne. But it also captures the surprising contributions of the less well known, including asparagus enthusiast Adriaen Coorte and female flower painter in the court of Louis XVI, Anne Vallayer-Coster. With contributions from historians Bettany Hughes and Janina Ramirez, art historians Andrew Graham Dixon and Norman Bryson, and philosopher Alain de Botton amongst others, it opens up the huge social histories that lie behind the paintings and the fascinating lives of the people who made them.
Michael Grade saw Annie Get Your Gun as a small boy in the 1950s and ever since he has been hooked on musicals - and their stars. He and his family have represented some of the world's greatest musical performers and he knows and understands talent. But one question has always fascinated him - is it the musical which creates the star or the star who makes the musical? In search of answers, Michael interviews stars and directors on both sides of the Atlantic, including Michael Ball, Elaine Paige, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Joel Grey, Chita Rivera, Hal Prince and Trevor Nunn. In what way are the qualities of a musical star unique? Michael explores the alchemy of the musical by looking at performances from the 1940s onwards in key shows like Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Evita and Les Miserables - examining the union of musicals that brilliantly reflect their time with performers who can interpret their magic. Michael uses all the knowledge, taste and judgement he has built up over decades as he sets out to define what it is that makes the great musical stars great.
Sir Terry Wogan discovers why timing is everything as he explores the human body clock, a ticking timepiece that lives in our brain and controls the daily rhythms of our body with the outside world. Many people are completely unaware of it, and have no idea there is an optimum time for everything - from driving safely to exercising, and even visiting the dentist.
To become a Salvation Army officer, cadets must shed the skin of their old lives, promise to reject treasures on earth in favour of true spiritual gifts and commit to 'care for the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love the unlovable and befriend those who have no friends'. This documentary takes us inside the training college for this most distinctive of British institutions, introducing the individuals and families who give up their jobs and leave their homes to work full-time for 'The Army' for just £7,500 a year. We meet new recruit Darron, who has left behind a successful career as a commercial baker and moved his family onto the college campus; Sylvia, a former ballroom dancer turned social worker who is beginning her work on the streets helping the fallen; and Annmarie, who was rescued by social services when she was a child and joined the Salvation Army when she was adopted. The uniforms, rank structure and brass bands are as much as part of Army life as social work with the homeless, prostitutes, trafficked women and addicts. This subtle and sensitive film also explores the universal questions of virtue, faith, doubt and the nature of salvation. As the new recruits adjust to the strict code and unwritten rules of this deeply institutionalised organisation, we hear their stories of God's personal calling, the transformation that led them to take this leap of faith and the doubts they face.
Our high street chains are powerful selling machines. With exclusive access to some of Britain's biggest stores, Cherry Healey goes behind the scenes to find out how the sales work from the inside - so that we can all become savvier sale shoppers. Cherry goes backstage in the John Lewis summer sale, gets inside a critical mark down meeting where sale prices and sale strategy are set, and she discovers the addictive way bargain hunting can affect our bodies. Cherry also uncovers hidden sales offering huge price cuts, learns how major high street retailers use scent to try and influence our behaviour, and meets with a sofa manufacturer willing to admit furniture sales can be a psychological trick.
There are believed to be over 600,000 illegal immigrants in the UK today, the subject of heated political debate but frequently hidden from public view. Foreign correspondent Fergal Keane finds out what life is really like for a group of illegal immigrants struggling to survive on Britain's streets. He asks what drew them here, follows their battles to beat the system and shows how ineffective the authorities can be in dealing with them
Documentary about an adventure that has become known as the greatest dog story ever told and captured the imagination of children and adults throughout the world for almost a century. On January 28, 1925, newspapers and radio stations broke a terrifying story - diphtheria had broken out in Nome, Alaska, a city separated from the rest of the world for seven months by a frozen ocean. With aviation still in its infancy and amidst one of the harshest winters on record, there was only one way to reach the town - dogsled. In minus 60 degrees, over 20 men and at least 150 dogs, among them the famous Balto, set out to relay the antitoxin across 674 miles of Alaskan wilderness to save the town.
After weeks of devastating weather across the UK, Sophie Raworth presents a special programme in which BBC News correspondents report on the scale of the damage, what caused it, and how those affected by it are coping.
Underage drinking is a serious issue in the North East of England. The region has the country's highest percentage of 11 to 15-year-olds drinking alcohol and it also has double the national average of under-18s in treatment for drink related problems. This film follows Phil Tye, a youth worker on the frontline who is fighting against the drink epidemic, and asks teenagers why they start drinking so early and why they drink so much.
Neil Oliver follows the work of the team of historians and scientists trying to discover the final resting place of the remains of 9th-century English king Alfred the Great, with the monarch's bones having been moved so many times over the years that many people concluded that they were lost for ever. Travelling from Winchester to Rome, Neil also tells the story of Alfred's life, revealing a man who forged a united language and identity and laid the foundations of the English nation.
An intimate family portrait of the film director John Boorman by one who should know him best - his daughter Katrine. Now over 80 years old, the director of Hell in the Pacific, Excalibur, Deliverance and The Emerald Forest is one of the last great mavericks. His daughter, who previously had never held a camera, spent four years filming her father who, during the process, found it impossible to resist taking control and offering her a crash course in filmmaking. Vulnerable, cross, funny, wild and wise, Boorman chronicles his adventures in Hollywood, but also talks with great honesty about his childhood, his marriages, his passion for nature, his need for danger and why film is the only thing he ever truly loved. Though the film is also a portrait of one of the most influential British filmmakers of the last 40 years, most of all it is a story of a father and daughter finding their way back to each other through the language of film.
Stephen Gough has been in prison in Scotland for nearly seven years. Most of that time he has been naked in solitary confinement. Stephen is 'the Naked Rambler', well-known for walking in public wearing just a pair of boots and a rucksack. A controversial figure, Stephen's incarceration has meant he has not seen his two teenage children grow up. This film follows Stephen as he attempts to walk home to his family in Eastleigh, Hampshire. Walking over 400 miles naked is fraught with difficulties. It is a four-month quest beset by arrests, police cells, court appearances, releases, rearrests and prison. Along the way, director Guy Gilbert attempts to understand how Stephen became the most notorious naked man in Britain and to examine his quest for 'freedom'. Why does a man persist in public nakedness when, time and again, his actions have landed him in jail? How does the public react to the sight of him? Is what he does 'wrong'? Is his cause really worth more than his family? Helping us understand, perspectives are offered from Stephen's family and from supporters who join him along the way. By turns funny, frustrating and emotional, this film challenges our own notions of the law, freedom and morality.
In 1944, at the Nazi concentration camp of Terezin, the imprisoned Czech conductor Rafael Schachter formed a choir of 150 of his fellow Jewish prisoners to brazenly perform Verdi's Requiem before the very Nazis who had condemned them to death. Transcending the horrors around them, night after night they rehearsed in a dark, mouldy and suffocating cellar, with a broken piano. In a calm message of defiance, each time a choir member was murdered by the SS, a new singer would replace them. The final performance took place in front of the camp's Nazi brass, visiting high-ranking SS officers from Berlin and gullible Red Cross inspectors brought in to verify that the prisoners were being well treated. This film features surviving Nazi propaganda footage of Terezin as it was perversely stage-managed during a Red Cross inspection visit to appear like an attractive Jewish commune. Shortly after the performance, both Schachter and most of his choir would be sent to Auschwitz. But through the transformation of Verdi's music into a proclamation of their unbroken spirit and warning of God's coming wrath against their captors, the prisoners had been able to sing to their captors what they dared not say. For over ten years, distinguished American conductor Murry Sidlin, who found out about the choir in the 1990s, dreamed of bringing the Requiem back to Terezin. Now, through soaring concert footage, powerful survivor recollections, cinematic dramatizations and evocative animation, their heartbreaking story is brought to life.
With over 70 million pets at home, Britain is a nation of animal lovers. The Zoo Next Door features people who've taken animal ownership to extremes. Jasmine Harman has previously helped hoarders to take their lives in hand but in this film she meets animal fanatics who've virtually given up their lives for their animals. Jasmine, who's mad about dogs, brings the animal welfare experts in when change is needed but finds out that even with extreme numbers, some owners wouldn't change a thing.
Historian Dan Snow looks back at 90 years of the Winter Olympics and shows how the political upheaval of the 20th and 21st century had an impact on the Games. Dan embarks on an epic journey across nine countries meeting some of the key people who helped shape the Winter Games. He tells the disturbing story of the Winter Olympics in Nazi Germany, the tense Olympic rivalry between East and West during the cold war, ending with the Miracle on Ice and the unforgettable, emotional Olympics in Sarajevo. Sarajevo was a city that in 1984 chimed to the music of Bolero - Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean reminisce about their performance as if it was a dream. Just eight years later most of the Olympic sites were destroyed during the civil war. Dan completes his journey in a little known Swiss village of Mürren where the blue riband event of the Winter Olympics, Alpine skiing, was first organised by a British man, Arnold Lunn. Did the British really invent the Winter Olympics? Not quite, but it is true that the British played and extraordinary role.
The contrast between the majestic statues of Easter Island and the desolation of their surroundings is stark. For decades Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as the islanders call it, has been seen as a warning from history for the planet as a whole - wilfully expend natural resources and the collapse of civilisation is inevitable. But archaeologist Dr Jago Cooper believes this is a disastrous misreading of what happened on Easter Island. He believes that its culture was a success story not a failure, and the real reasons for its ultimate demise were far more shocking. Cooper argues that there is an important lesson that the experience of Easter Island can teach the rest of the world, but it doesn't begin by blaming its inhabitants for their own downfall. This film examines the latest scientific and archaeological evidence to reveal a compelling new narrative, one that sees the famous statues as only part of a complex culture that thrived in isolation. Cooper finds a path between competing theories about what happened to Easter Island to make us see this unique place in a fresh light.
Five stories of aspiration against a background of poverty and austerity. With the aim of finding the real people behind familiar media stereotypes, documentary-maker Peter Gordon travels through Yorkshire and talks to some of those struggling through hard times. Fran and her daughter Niamh live in one of the most deprived parts of Leeds in a house whose fabric is falling apart. Niamh, without telling her mother, applied for entry to an exclusive fee-paying school, one she has always dreamed of attending. She won a bursary. This is her way out of a life with no future and Fran, who suffers from epilepsy, recognises this and fully supports her, but at great personal cost. Their struggle is felt every day, but the way they talk about themselves and their situation is heartfelt, perceptive and amusing. A mile or so up the road on another estate lives Charlotte, a young single parent with two small children, who talks about her early ambitions and present frustration. She feels isolated and trapped, but looks ahead and plans for the future. Charlotte is determined to succeed as a working mother. In Sheffield there is a lunch club where the elderly can go for an hour or two for a meal and some company - small reward for a life of hard physical labour. In the north east an angry and unemployed 22-year-old yearns for a job, security and a family life, while in well-heeled York a young couple with two small children live in a cramped and overcrowded flat, all sleeping in one damp bedroom with fungus on the ceiling. These are the real voices of the disadvantaged, the excluded or the marginalised who, between the four walls of their homes, dream, hope and plan for a better future.
Documentary produced and directed by rock superstar Dave Grohl (who also appears in the film) in which he uncovers stories about the Los Angeles studio Sound City, where some of the greatest rock albums of all time were perfected and recorded. Sound City was state of the art when it opened in 1969, featuring a legendary Neve recording console. Through interviews with the musicians and producers who have worked at the studio over the years, the film uncovers and defines the intangible magic within those wires and walls that was responsible for such an incredible history of contemporary music. For over four decades, it was the birthplace of some of the world's most treasured music, including Nirvana's Nevermind, Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes, Fleetwood Mac's eponymous album and Johnny Cash's Unchained, to name just a few. Grohl discovers the stories of the iconic bands that recorded there. We learn how Mick Fleetwood met Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham at Sound City, leading to them joining Fleetwood Mac, and discover why musicians and producers such as Butch Vig, Frank Black, Trent Reznor and Lars Ulrich all chose to work in its analogue environment over newer, more state-of-the-art studios. Grohl also tracks the growth of digital music and the inevitable death of analogue recording, which changed the industry and Sound City forever. The story of Sound City is an integral part of the personal story of Dave Grohl, whose music was forever influenced by those who once recorded in Studio A and left their mark in the form of the many platinum records hanging on the walls within. He completes the film by bringing some of the great names together at his Studio 606 to record a new album on the original Sound City Neve console, culminating in new performances from Rick Springfield, Stevie Nicks, Lee Ving, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor, Krist Novoselic and Sir Paul McCartney. Featuring contributions from Neil Young, Tom Petty, S
The definitive documentary record of one of Jimi Hendrix's most celebrated performances, now digitally remastered and featuring footage never seen on television before. It includes such signature songs as Purple Haze, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, as well as interviews with Woodstock promoter Michael Lang and Hendrix band members Mitch Mitchell, Billy Cox, Larry Lee and Juma Sultan among others.
On 14 February 1984, two ice skaters achieved perfection and Olympic gold. This is the story of that day.
Neil Sedaka is one of the most successful American singer-songwriters of the last century. A classically-trained musician, he won a scholarship to the Julliard School at the age of nine and four years later he embarked on a writing career that would see him create some of the most perfect pop songs of all time. Throughout his career, he wrote, recorded and sang a litany of instantly recognisable and memorable tunes, as well as delivering a string of hits as a songwriter for other artists. This documentary portrait film tells the story of Neil Sedaka's life and career, in which he had two distinct periods of success. Between 1958 and 1963 he sold over 25 million records, but then his career nose-dived after the Beatles and the British Invasion hit the USA. Leaving his homeland, he found success in the UK in the early 1970s and relaunched his career before returning to the US and achieving new stardom with songs like Solitaire and Laughter in the Rain. Neil gives great insight into how he created catchy classics like Calendar Girl, (Is This the Way to) Amarillo, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen and Stupid Cupid, amongst many others.
Mike Dilger investigates the mystery behind bronze age burial goods discovered on Dartmoor. They've been described as the most important find ever on the moor and give vital new clues about how our ancestors lived 4,000 years ago.
Dr Michael Mosley explores the bizarre and fascinating world of parasites by turning his body into a living laboratory and deliberately infesting himself with them. He travels to Kenya to give himself tapeworm - a parasite that can grow to many metres inside the human gut. He also encounters lice, leeches and the deadly malaria parasite, before swallowing a pill-camera to reveal what's growing within him. By the end of his infestation Michael learns a new-found respect for these extraordinary creatures, which can live off and even take control of their hosts for their own survival.
All over the country, thousands of women from 18 to 80 are signing up to work as online webcam models. For the girls it's the promise of easy money - the most successful models charge over £5 a minute and can make hundreds of pounds a day, all from the comfort of their own bedrooms. For the hundreds of thousands of men who have signed up, it means easy, one-on-one access to their favourite fantasy girl. This film looks into the secretive world of adult webcamming and meets three online performers to find out what it's really like baring all, online, for strangers all over the world. 25-year-old ex-pornstar Sammie has starred in over 100 adult movies, but her experiences in the industry have left her emotionally scarred. She's desperate to leave a troubled past behind and hopes that she can make enough money on the webcam to return to college. 24-year-old pornstar Carla is open-minded and up for trying most things on the webcam. Life as a webcam model may have taught her a lot about men and their secret desires, but it's making it tough for her to meet the right man. Ambitious 21-year-old glamour model Olivia thinks webcamming can boost her career. Unlike other webcam models she won't go fully nude, but with competition fierce, just how far will she have go to achieve her success?
A 21-year-old female student from the University of Leeds is stabbed to death in the picture postcard town of Perugia, Italy. After the horrific discovery, the search began for the murderer of Meredith Kercher. Now, an Italian Judge has found guilty Amanda Knox, an exchange student from the United States, and her Italian boyfriend. But Amanda Knox has gone on American breakfast television to say the judgement is wrong. Guilty or innocent? In the first TV documentary since the verdict, a team who have followed the case from the very first day present the evidence for and against Amanda Knox.
These days, opinionated journalists are two a penny. But back in the 1950s, Ian Nairn was part of a new breed of Angry Young Men. Aged just 25 and fresh out of the RAF, he burst onto the architectural scene with Outrage, a blistering attack on the soulless destruction of Britain by shoddy post-war planners. Published in the influential Architectural Review in June 1955, it led to the formation of the Civic Trust, whose remit was to tackle the 'subtopian' eyesores Nairn had so graphically exposed. Over the next two decades, Nairn became a tireless and passionate campaigner, both in print and on the BBC, inspiring a whole generation to take up arms against the second rate in our towns and cities. But he himself was a deeply flawed and troubled character, who slowly drank himself to death, feeling the battle to save Britain's soul had been lost. Close colleagues and admirers, including Jonathan Meades, Gillian Darley and Jonathan Glancey, pay tribute to a remarkable man who made us look afresh at the world around us.
BB King opens his heart and tells the story of how an oppressed and orphaned young man came to influence and earn the unmitigated praise of the music industry and its following to carry the title of king of the blues. Filmed on location all over America, as well as in the UK, this picture brings to life the heat- and gin-soaked plantations where it all began, with full cooperation of the BB King museum, owners of vaults and archives so precious and immense that several trips had to be made to revisit the collection and partake of its many gems. Prejudice and segregation has stained the lives of countless black persons and BB 'Riley' King made sure that through his music, he never allowed it to mar his spirit. This is the essence of the story that makes a beautiful film, both informative and visually captivating.
In a documentary to mark the 100-year anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, Sir Max Hastings argues that although the war was a great tragedy, it was far from being futile.
Hormones shape each and every one of us, affecting almost every aspect of our lives - our height, our weight, our appetites, how we grow and reproduce, and even how we behave and feel. This documentary tells the wonderful and often weird story of how hormones were discovered. Presenter John Wass, one the country's leading experts on hormones, relates some amazing stories - how as recently as the 19th century boys were castrated to keep their pure soprano voice, how juices were extracted from testicles in the hope they would rejuvenate old men and how true medical heroes like Frederick Banting discovered a way to make insulin, thus saving the lives of countless diabetes sufferers. And hormones remain at the cutting edge of medicine as we try and deal with modern scourges like obesity.
Documentary about the development of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The 747 was a game changer; the airliner that revolutionised mass, cheap air travel. But the first, wide-bodied plane was (originally) intended as a stopgap to Boeing's now-abandoned supersonic jet. This is the remarkable, untold story of the jumbo, a billion-dollar gamble that pushed 1960s technology to the limits to create the world's most recognisable plane.
Was the Great War a great mistake? In this innovative programme, Harvard historian Professor Niall Ferguson offers a different perspective on the First World War and argues that Britain's decision to enter the war was a tragic mistake. The First World War was one of the great turning points of modern history. We know where the war started: in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, when a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip murdered the heir to the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy. But how and why did this crisis in the Balkans escalate into a bloody global conflagration? Did Britain really have to fight a war against Germany? Niall Ferguson links cutting-edge graphics and short illustrative stories to place the First World War into the context of human history. He then argues that much of the responsibility for the scale of the conflict lies with the British and suggests that Britain's decision to enter the war in 1914 was not merely tragic for those who lost their lives, it was also a catastrophic error that unleashed an era of totalitarianism and genocide around the world. At the same time, the war revealed a fundamental truth about humankind's propensity for violence. At the end of the programme these contentious issues are debated by leading WW1 experts and the studio audience.
As courtesans, fashion icons, political pawns and international celebrities, the great ballerinas have played a multitude of roles both on and off the stage. They have moved from the courts of kings to stages around the globe, from the highs of public adoration to the lows of injury and scandal. But few people know the full story. British prima ballerina Darcey Bussell spent two decades at the top, performing all the great roles in the classical repertoire and becoming one of ballet's most famous faces. She explores the changing role of the ballerina. Journeying from 18th-century France to 1950s America, she examines the challenges that her predecessors encountered, discovers the women who broke the rules and reveals what it takes to be one of the greats. A feast for the senses, Darcey's Ballerina Heroines is an authoritative history of the best ballets and the finest ballerinas.
Robert Peston travels to China to investigate how this mighty economic giant could actually be in trouble. China is now the second largest economy in the world and for the last 30 years China's economy has been growing at an astonishing rate. While Britain has been in the grip of the worst recession in a generation, China's economic miracle has wowed the world. Now, for BBC Two's award-winning strand This World, Peston reveals what has actually happened inside China since the economic collapse in the west in 2008. It is a story of spending and investment on a scale never seen before in human history.
In a never-before-attempted sleep experiment, Bristol Zoo has been rigged with cameras and sensors and Liz Bonnin and sleep expert Bryson Voirin stay up all night to see what the animals get up to when they think no-one is watching. From red pandas and lions to meerkats and tapirs, for the first time a whole range of animal sleep behaviours is compared and contrasted across the course of a single night. The programme delves into the extraordinary world of animal sleep, looking at not only what science has already discovered, but the questions which remain to be answered. From dolphins, which have come up with ingenious solutions to allow them to sleep while swimming, to ants which have developed complex behavioural patterns which ensure that the colony sleeps undisturbed, and meerkats, which keep an ear open for danger during sleep, and flamingos, which arrange themselves in order to keep a wary eye out for night-time predators.
Dr Jonathan Foyle examines the mysterious wartime disappearance of stained glass from Coventry Cathedral. He investigates rumours the windows were stolen and sold on the black market. But, more than 70 years on, could the truth embarrass reputations both at home and abroad?
David Bintley, director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet explores how the Second World War was the making of British ballet and how fundamental the years of hardship and adversity were in getting the British public to embrace ballet. Bintley shows how the then Sadler's Wells Ballet Company, led by Ninette de Valois and featuring a star-studded generation of British dancers and choreographers including Margot Fonteyn and Frederick Ashton, was forged during the Second World War. It's the story of how de Valois and her small company of dancers took what was essentially a foreign art-form and made it British despite the falling bombs, the rationing and the call-up. Plus it is the story of how Britain, as a nation, fell in love with ballet. Using rare and previously unseen footage, plus interviews with dance icons such as Dame Gillian Lynne and Dame Beryl Grey, Bintley shows how the Sadler's Wells Ballet company survived an encounter with Nazi forces in Holland, dancing whilst the bombs were falling in the Blitz, rationing and a punishing touring schedule to bring ballet to the British people as an antidote to the austerity the country faced to emerge post-war as The Royal Ballet.
Prima ballerina Darcey Bussell talks about her life at the top. From tears at ballet school and forgetting the steps, to becoming the Royal Ballet's youngest-ever principal and her favourite roles, Darcey recalls her performing career from its earliest days.
It's now 30 years since the epic struggle between the miners and a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher, a strike that lasted a bitter twelve months. Former Labour government minister Kim Howells was involved at the heart of the action, working for the National Union of Mineworkers in South Wales. In this deeply-felt memoir, he asks some challenging questions about the conduct, the strategy and the outcomes of the strike.
Tamara Rojo, world-famous ballerina and artistic director of English National Ballet, takes us backstage as she prepares for one of classical ballet's biggest challenges, the dual lead in Swan Lake. It is the ultimate role for any dancer, requiring her to play the completely contrasting characters - Odette the White Swan and Odile the Black Swan. With unprecedented access, the disarmingly candid Rojo reveals her insights on the role's physical and psychological challenges. Through demonstration and masterclass, she reveals how to read the choreography of some of Swan Lake's most famous scenes. Along the way Rojo gives us a glimpse of Swan Lake's history - its genesis through to 21st-century incarnations. She looks back at some of the greats that inspired her and leads the way forward, coaching the next generation of rising stars. This film celebrates Swan Lake as an evolving and living work of art - the ultimate classic.
David Dimbleby looks back at events in Westminster Abbey, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu, David Cameron and the Soweto Gospel Choir joined together in a powerful and moving service to celebrate the extraordinary life of Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa.
The English Defence League has gained notoriety as the far-right street movement with racist and extremist members whose protests often end in violence. Many of its members feel misunderstood and misrepresented by the media. This film explores the lives of some of the females living within the EDL's ranks. After the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in May 2013, the EDL's ranks multiplied five times and a growing number joining the largely male group were women - they are known as EDL Angels. This film follows a committed Angel, a new member and a teenager trying to decide whether to join, over six tumultuous months, charting the impact of EDL leader Tommy Robinson's departure as well as unearthing their views and fears, and shining a light on what members of the EDL believe and why. Gail, 41, is the regional EDL leader for Yorkshire and one of the founding EDL Angels. The film follows her through the court case of the men accused of attacking her, leaving her jaw broken in seven places, and explores how her EDL beliefs have impacted on her life and family. Amanda is an 18-year-old new recruit from Yorkshire. From her first introduction to the EDL to her nervous debut at a demonstration, she speaks of the fear of Muslim extremists that has made her turn to the EDL. The programme follows her journey to understand the EDL's principles as well as the mixed reception she gets from friends about her new political interests. Katie, 16, from Reading is from a large extended family of staunch EDL supporters, including her mum and two sisters. Katie, however, struggles to make up her mind up about whether she wants to be part of their campaigning or if she's even prepared to tell her new college mates about her family's passion.
Photographer and film director Harry Hook, who grew up in the Sudan and Kenya and has been documenting life in Africa for 40 years, uses his images to tell a personal story as he crosses the continent to visit remote tribal groups. Harry tracks down five Samburu women he first photographed in Kenya 30 years ago. His aim is to give them a copy of their portrait and discover how their lives have changed over three decades. The search will be no small task - Samburuland covers an area the size of Wales and, as a semi-nomadic group, the women may well have moved great distances. During his search Harry witnesses a Lenkarna Lmuget, a once-in-a-decade coming-of-age ceremony for Samburu warriors, as they are initiated to become elders. There are not many parts of Africa where the lure of the city life is not felt. Harry ventures to isolated communities and encounters people living with one foot rooted in a rich cultural past, but who also embrace the here and now of contemporary Africa.
In the early 1960s, the BBC interviewed 280 eyewitnesses of the First World War for the series, The Great War. Using never-before-seen footage from these interviews, this film illuminates the poignant human experience of the war, through the eyes of those who survived it.
Bob Dylan described Missouri-born country boy Gene Clark as one of the three best songwriters in the world. He was the original frontman for one of the most iconic and influential bands of the 60s. After his abrupt departure from the Byrds at the peak of their popularity, he made records that are still regarded as classics. And he was one of the great pioneers of both folk rock and country rock. Yet, as far as the public is concerned, Clark is largely unknown and his reputation lags far behind that of peers such as Gram Parsons. Since his death in 1991 at the age of 46, his songs have been covered by artists ranging from Robert Plant to Yo La Tengo and he has been hailed as a key influence by successive generations of musicians such as Tom Petty, Primal Scream and Fleet Foxes, despite some of his albums having been unavailable for long periods and only now all in print again. This documentary explores the mystery of why this richly talented but deeply enigmatic and often self-destructive man failed to enjoy the success his work deserved. Drawing on interviews with his family, friends and fellow musicians including fellow Byrds David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, a wealth of great music from the four-decade span of his career and previously unseen archive material, it is a story that is both compelling and moving, veering between moments of magic and moments of madness. The film was made by a father and sons team - Paul, Jack and Dan Kendall - as a labour of love which took them right across America in search of the people and places that were part of Gene Clark's life.
Photographer Helmut Newton revolutionised fashion photography and electrified the art world with disturbing, highly eroticised images that transformed lush-bodied women into exquisite icons. This film, directed by Newton's frequent collaborator and wife of 56 years, June Newton, follows Helmut through photo sessions with an unselfconscious eye, as June turns the tables on Helmut to offer a voyeur's window into his personal and creative life. Poignant, comical and unsettling, it paints a riveting portrait of photography's dark prince as a man who is equally comfortable on either side of the camera.
Documentary telling the extraordinary untold story of soldiers' photography in the First World War. The British and German soldiers marched off to war with secret 'vest pocket' cameras, determined to record what they thought would be a great adventure, but few were prepared for the horrors they were about to witness and photograph. Their photos - many never seen before in public - provide a deeply moving document of their lives in the trenches and their rapid loss of innocence. With no soldier photographer alive to tell the tale, we join their close relatives on emotional journeys of discovery as they go in search of the secrets hidden within their ancestors' photographs. This is the war viewed from a new and surprising perspective - through the eyes of the men who fought in it.
From torn-out tongues to modern-day internet trolls, professor Mary Beard shares her belief that women's voices have been silenced throughout history, using examples ranging from the writings of Henry James to Homer's Odyssey and threatening posts on social media.
When Hastings Pier burnt down in 2010 many thought that was the end of Britain's first purpose-built pleasure pier. In a celebration of the golden age of the British seaside pier, we follow the local campaign to save her. Can she rise from the ashes and reinvent herself?
Prostitution in Britain is thriving, revolutionised by the internet and serviced by an estimated 100,000 sex workers. Billie JD Porter goes in search of the human face of the prostitution business, talking to the young men who routinely pay for sex about why they do it, and to the young women who sell their bodies about what's in it for them.
Obituary film of the lifelong Labour politician, Tony Benn, who was an MP for over 50 years. Born the son of a viscount, Benn was elected Labour MP for Bristol South East at the age of 25, and in his political career became a champion of the working class. After his father's death, Benn inherited the title of viscount, but he turned it down and with it a seat in the House of Lords, campaigning to change the Peerage Act, so that he could continue as an MP. Benn went onto serve as postmaster general and held cabinet posts as minister of industry and minister of energy under Harold Wilson. In 1981, he narrowly lost an election for Labour's deputy leadership to Dennis Healey. In 2001, Benn stepped down from the Commons in order to 'spend more time with politics'. He was president of Stop the War, campaigned against coalition cuts and ultimately became, in many people's eyes, a national treasure.
A group of friends have created a brand new subculture that is taking over the streets of Glasgow. They've established their very own fight club, but this is no ordinary wrestling event - this is brutal, riotous chaos. Fights don't always stay inside the ring, people are bounced off the side of buses and thrown off balconies in pubs. They now plan the biggest show of their lives. The stakes are high, will it bring them the fame and recognition they need to survive?
Stanley Spencer's Shipbuilding on the Clyde is one of the most astonishing - and least likely - achievements in British art. These colossal portraits of shipyard life were created by a painter best known for his intense, spiritual visions of the English countryside. WWII uprooted Spencer and sent him to Scotland. But the harsh industrial landscape of Port Glasgow inspired an astonishing vision - and revived Spencer's creative passion. Artist Lachlan Goudie - who himself has been painting in the last of the Clyde shipyards - goes in search of his hero, tracking down the original designs for Spencer's ambitious scheme, meeting the shipyard foreman who helped the eccentric Englishman with his work, and revealing how one of the 20th century's greatest artworks began as a doodle on a roll of cheap toilet paper!
In the southern African nation of Swaziland, around a quarter of all adults are now HIV positive. With so many now living with compromised immune systems, tuberculosis, which had been in decline for decades, has made a dramatic comeback. Now it has a foothold once more, new mutations are evolving fast, meaning the disease threatens the lives of the healthy as well as those with HIV. There are over eight million new infections every year worldwide, but Swaziland is the epicentre of the disease, with the highest rate of TB infection in the world. With the infection spreading with a cough or sneeze, international travel means these lethal new infections are already starting to appear in Europe - last year alone 3,500 Londoners were diagnosed with the disease. Multi-BAFTA winning film-maker Jezza Neumann travelled to Swaziland to make this very intimate account of the crippling effects of MDR-TB. We witness victims from two families battle with the disease over the course of a year. Deep in rural Swaziland near the border of South Africa lives Bheki, a builder who is fanatical about football, who recently learnt that both he and his sister have multi drug resistant TB. As time passes, his sister's condition deteriorates and Bheki starts to become increasingly anxious about his future. In the capital, Mbabane, lives 12-year-old Nokubegha, a TB orphan, who is cared for by her 17-year-old brother, Melusi. When Nokubegha is diagnosed with the MDR strain of the disease she has to be admitted into the national TB hospital so she can receive her daily pills and injections. A tragic yet heart-warming story about the value of human life, love and family.
The world is full of wannabe pop stars, but not everyone wants to gamble on a talent show to make it. With exclusive access to Britain's renowned Academy of Contemporary Music, this rockumentary follows students over the first term of the academic year as they follow their dream of making it big in the hard-to-break music business. First-year gospel singer Henrietta wants to be a chart-topping superstar, but struggles to shine in a class of talented vocalists. 19-year-old Ella is striving to develop her own musical style and stand out from the crowd. Trainee producer James has returned to college after being burnt by the music industry and, for hotly tipped college band Massmatiks, this year is all about getting their first record deal. With all the emotion, triumphs and disappointments, learning to rock is harder than it seems.
Documentary telling the inside story of Davina McCall's challenge to raise money for Sport Relief, with exclusive behind the scenes access. The film follows Davina through highs and lows as she swims, cycles and runs from Edinburgh to London - 500 miles in 7 days. Davina's husband, her parents and best friend provide a unique insight into Davina's battle to overcome the toughest Sport Relief challenge yet. Spending 17 hours on the bike on the first day alone, Davina fights extreme fatigue and fearsome weather conditions. And on day three Davina faces her biggest personal challenge - an open water swim across Lake Windermere. The dramatic scenes of Davina being carried out of the water became headline news. This film shows the behind the scenes preparation and aftermath, as Davina recovers and is able to get back on the bike an hour later. Taking in some of the most beautiful scenery in the UK - from the highest peak, Scafell Pike, to the Pennine Way and the Windsor Long Walk - this is the true story of one woman's triumph and determination to raise much-needed money for causes so close to her heart.
Programme made for the 50th anniversary of classic movie I Know Where I'm Going by maverick film-making duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, set on a Hebridean island and starring Dame Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey.
Novelist Martin Amis, a fierce critic of contemporary society, examines his experience of Englishness. Richly illustrated with archive footage, he reflects on a nation barely recovered from the loss of empire. Amis brings a sharp, humorous and surprisingly affectionate touch to the exploration of sex, binge drinking, football hooliganism, the idea of fair play, multiculturalism, the royal family and the tabloid press.
This 60 min documentary traces the life of the late James Ellis, one of Northern Ireland's best-loved sons. He is renowned for his work in the hugely successful series 'Z Cars' and Graham Reid's 'Billy' Trilogy. Jimmy, as he was known to his friends, is held in the highest esteem by fellow actors many of whom have been interviewed for this programme. He is described by one contributor as 'acting royalty' and was widely seen as the unofficial ambassador for Northern Ireland through the many roles in which he championed the Ulster accent. A younger audience will remember him with affection from 'Ballykissangel' and 'Playing the Field' but viewers will perhaps be surprised to learn of the breadth of his abilities as a prolific writer, poet and translator. This is an affectionate portrait of a well-known figure.
In the summer of 1914, a company of Cameron Highlanders left Portree and sailed off to war. On the battlefields of France, these raw recruits would meet the Maxim machine gun - invented in London, and capable of firing a hellish 666 rounds per minute. The German army deployed these weapons with mathematical efficiency. Neil Oliver examines the development of these ruthless, impersonal weapons, and the legacy they left on one Hebridean community.
The fascinating story of knighthood, told through the extraordinary life and times of William Marshal, whom many consider the world's greatest knight. From Europe's medieval castles to the holy city of Jerusalem, presenter Thomas Asbridge explores William's incredible life, revealing a rip-roaring adventure story in the spirit of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. In a career that spanned half a century, this English soldier and statesman served some of Christendom's greatest leaders, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Richard the Lionheart. Marshal fought in battles across Europe, survived court intrigue and exile, put his seal to the Magna Carta and proved to be the best friend a king could have, remaining loyal to those he served through disaster and victory. Then at the age of 70, despite all the odds, he saved England from a French invasion.
An affectionate portrait of Glasgow's rich entertainment history, featuring interviews with the stars who braved some of the toughest venues in showbusiness, alongside footage of classic performances and archive of a city that has played host to everyone from Laurel & Hardy to The Beatles.
Joanna Lumley is on a mission to get to know the elusive, slightly eccentric front man of the Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am. She travels to Los Angeles to spend time with The Voice judge, music performer, producer, and social entrepreneur in his home town. Over dinner with the family she bonds with his mother, who takes her through Will's childhood. Joanna learns how the boy who could not keep still made it out of his tough neighbourhood to achieve global success, and is now able to count President Obama as a friend. She gets to discover the real will.i.am, fascinated with creating the future and eager to give back. She is swept up in his hectic world but finally manages to get to the heart of what makes him tick.
Interviews and rare archive footage weave together performances from a landmark multi-artist concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, celebrating the songs and artistry of the great folk-blues troubadour Bert Jansch. Ralph McTell, Robert Plant, Donovan, members of Pentangle, Bernard Butler, Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, Lisa Knapp and more pay tribute to Jansch, who died in 2011. There's also a real coup with an extraordinary performance by Neil Young of Jansch's haunting Needle of Death, filmed at Jack White's Nashville studio especially for the occasion. Robert Plant shows his vocal prowess with a powerful rendition of Go Your Way My Love, joined by Jansch collaborator Bernard Butler. Martin Simpson and Danny Thompson surprise with a version of Heartbreak Hotel, a track covered by Jansch. Ralph McTell tackles the seminal Angie and Lisa Knapp and Martin Carthy combine for Blackwaterside - Jansch's arrangement of which heavily influenced Led Zep's Black Mountain Side.
The brutal use of British prisoners of war by the Japanese to build a railway linking Thailand to Burma in 1943 was one of the worst atrocities of the Second World War. For the first time in 70 years, British POWs and their Japanese captors, many now in their nineties, open their hearts to tell the story of what really happened on the 'Death Railway'. Alongside the extraordinary experiences and stories of survival told by the British, their Japanese guards tell of different horrors of war, some never disclosed before. Exploring how they have survived the terrible memories, this is an often inspiring story that many of these men have waited a long time to tell. What emerges is a warm and emotional journey through the lives of men from different sides reflecting on a terrible event that still haunts them.
Following the campaign of the family of one of the victims to try and discover who was responsible for blowing up two Birmingham pubs on the same night almost 40 years ago.
Alexander Armstrong explores the literature that inspired Michael Palin and Terry Jones's classic TV comedy Ripping Yarns, a loving parody of the Boys' Own books and magazines of their childhood. Featuring clips from Ripping Yarns, archive and interviews with experts, modern-day adventurers and Palin and Jones's own memories.
A documentary examining Margaret Thatcher's strategy of dealing with the IRA, revealing a complex picture of a woman, fiercely combative in public, yet behind the scenes, was secretly dealing with those who tried to kill her.
Natalie seems like any other university student on her Policing, Investigation and Criminology degree, but she has more experience than most. From the age of 13, she was repeatedly in and out of the criminal justice system. It took Natalie nine years to stop offending and she believes it was support from outside - rather than inside the prison system - that helped her change. Natalie's story isn't unique. Nearly 60 per cent of all offenders on a short sentence will commit further crimes within a year of release from prison. In this documentary, Natalie explores the impact being locked up has had on young adult offenders like Sephton, who spent most of his adolescence in prison and now struggles with basic tasks such as food shopping and cooking a meal. She also meets those in charge, such as Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation, Jeremy Wright, to find out what the government are doing to tackle our high re-offending rates.
A tale of skulduggery, dirty tricks and strong coffee in the cut-throat world that marked the dawn of breakfast television. Narrated by Peter Snow.
Because it's not grand, the story of the suburban garden has barely been told - and yet 8 out of 10 people in England live in the suburbs. In this documentary, writer and historian Michael Collins delivers a riposte to the urban intelligentsia which has spent a century sneering at the suburbs. His south London pilgrimage takes him to Bexley and Bromley, Surbiton and the new promised land of Bluewater in Kent to explore what the suburban garden has meant to us and to celebrate what one contributor calls 'their little piece of heaven'. George Orwell famously laid out the icons of English culture as 'solid breakfasts and gloomy Sundays, smoky towns and... red pillarboxes' and Collins shows that the suburban garden very much deserves a place in that canon. South Londoner Collins previously charted the history of the white working class in his controversial book The Likes of Us and explored the rise and fall of the council house in BBC Four's The Great Estate. He tends to admire what critics of suburbia have loathed - its lack of history, the mock and ersatz style of its homes and gardens, and the suggestion that it is a 'nowhere place', neither town nor country but stranded in between. Collins's journey starts a century ago in Hampstead Garden Suburb, a planned utopia that transformed the lives of its residents fleeing urban squalor, but one that came with off-putting regulations - maximum hedge size, a designated wash-day, and no pub. Suburban sprawl between the wars, when three million new homes were built, couldn't have been more different. 'You could', recalls one contributor from Welling, 'buy a house for 12/6 down and pay 7/6 a week on the mortgage, and suddenly you had a two-up/two-down, front garden/back garden. Those were the days!' In the 1930s, Wills cashed in on the suburban gardening craze with 50 cigarette cards offering handy tips. But this was also the era that identified a new condition - suburban neurosis. When war broke out, Rita Withers's da
Marine 'A': Criminal or Casualty of War? - Alexander Blackman, a Royal Marine sergeant, was convicted and jailed for life for shooting an injured Afghan insurgent on the front line. Some condemn him as a war criminal, while others claim he is a casualty of war. The nation is divided. Now the shamed marine, dismissed with disgrace from the Royal Marines, is launching an appeal from his prison cell - not only against the sentence but the murder conviction itself. Blackman is the first British serviceman to be found guilty of murder during combat since WWII. This one-off documentary, made by award-winning filmmaker Chris Terrill, who has himself witnessed the horrors of the Afghan conflict looks into Blackman's case. Terrill asks questions about the ethics of combat and rules of engagement in war and the mind-bending nature of active duty on the front line. As well as an exclusive interview with Blackman's wife Claire, Terrill speaks to those that condemn Blackman's actions and those that condone them, those that revile him as a killer and even those that revere him as a hero.
The world is full of wannabe pop stars, but not everyone wants to gamble on a talent show to make it. With exclusive access to Britain's renowned Academy of Contemporary Music, this rockumentary follows students over the first term of the academic year as they follow their dream of making it big in the hard-to-break music business. First-year gospel singer Henrietta wants to be a chart-topping superstar, but struggles to shine in a class of talented vocalists. 19-year-old Ella is striving to develop her own musical style and stand out from the crowd. Trainee producer James has returned to college after being burnt by the music industry and, for hotly tipped college band Massmatiks, this year is all about getting their first record deal. With all the emotion, triumphs and disappointments, learning to rock is harder than it seems.
An obituary of the Israeli military and political leader Ariel Sharon. The film tells the story of his life and how it intersected with all the major moments in Israel's history.
Jameela Jamil finds out if it's true that children are being exposed to more pornography than ever before - and what the effects of that might be. With smartphones and tablets making it easier than ever to get hold of the most explicit images, there are fears that each generation is seeing porn earlier than the one before, so Jameela meets teenagers across the country to hear from them what impact it has had on their attitudes and behaviour. With an exclusive survey, the biggest of its kind, revealing the truth about how much porn kids really see, she also talks to those behind some of the mostly commonly viewed material, including one of Britain's best known porn stars and rap artist Skepta, to see if they are worried about who's watching. She visits a family whose eight-year-old son was unexpectedly exposed to hardcore porn and, as she hears how it has directly affected people's lives, Jameela asks if teaching children about porn could be the answer - and if so, at what age that should start.
With access to Police Scotland, Transport Scotland and businesses like House of Bruar this one-hour documentary reveals a surprising view of the notorious A9, as we follow the people who keep the road moving, find out what happens when accidents close off the route and explore the future for Scotland's iconic road.
Fiona Bruce follows Falklands War hero Simon Weston over three months, as he becomes the first person chosen by the public to be painted for the National Portrait Gallery. Weston is painted by Nicky Philipps, best known for her portrait of the royal princes. As the painting takes shape, Weston's moving life story is revealed, from his battle for survival and struggle with depression to his becoming an inspirational role model and national treasure. Weston chooses not to view the work in progress, instead waiting for the big unveiling. But will be like how he is portrayed for posterity?
Brooke Kinsella, former EastEnders star and anti-knife crime campaigner, explores the use of restorative justice in Britain today and finds out what happens when offenders and their victims are brought together face to face. With the government now making millions available for restorative justice - across offences ranging from anti-social behaviour to murder - Brooke considers whether it's an effective way of dealing with offenders and whether it can meet the needs of victims.
Documentary featuring the work of stop-motion camera and special effects guru Ray Harryhausen. Including clips from Jason and the Argonauts and contributions from Peter Jackson, Nick Park, Phil Tippet, Peter Lord, Terry Gilliam, Dennis Muren, Rick Baker, John Landis, Ken Ralston, Guillermo Del Toro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron and Steven Spielberg.
For billions of years our planet was devoid of life, but something transformed it into a vibrant, living planet. That something was soil. It's a much-misunderstood substance, often dismissed as 'dirt', something to be avoided. Yet the crops we eat, the animals we rely on, the very oxygen we breathe, all depend on the existence of the plant life that bursts from the soil every year. In this film, gardening expert Chris Beardshaw explores where soil comes from, what it's made of and what makes it so essential to life. Using specialist microphotography, he reveals it as we've never seen it before - an intricate microscopic landscape, teeming with strange and wonderful life-forms. It's a world where the chaos of life meets the permanence of rock, the two interacting with each other to make a living system of staggering complexity that sustains all life on Earth. Chris explores how man is challenging this most precious resource on our planet and how new science is seeking to preserve it.
Stories from the Home Front 1914-1918 - a special programme to launch a unique partnership between the BBC and Imperial War Museums. Robert Hall presents.
Thousands gather in Bent's Park, South Shields on Good Friday for BBC One's extraordinary spectacle, The Great North Passion. The one-hour live event and broadcast reveals a giant iconic installation in the shape of a cross and is a unique and innovative retelling of the story of the Passion. Fern Britton and singer Alexandra Burke join local community participants, ranging from dancers and graffiti artists to a massed choir, to tell the story of the last moments of Christ's life, from his trial and suffering to his eventual death. Twelve artists have created new contemporary work with local communities across the north east of England, inspired by the stations of the cross. Housed in shipping containers, they will be joined together to form a giant iconic installation in the shape of a cross. Artworks range from a boat atop a shipping container with a net descending to the floor, made by local fishermen questioning 'what is truth', to the memories of Northumberlanders inscribed on a long wooden table. Documentary short films will be interwoven with the live broadcast to reveal both the story of the Passion and that of the north east. The Great North Passion is created in partnership with the Cultural Spring.
Handel's Messiah is one of the most popular choral pieces in Western music. It has been recorded hundreds of times and contains a tune that is as instantly recognisable as any in music. Yet few people know the extraordinary story of how this much-loved piece came to public attention - or how it helped save the lives of tens of thousands of children. Historian Amanda Vickery and BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom Service present this one-hour drama documentary which recreates the first performance of Messiah at London's Foundling Hospital in 1750 and tells the heart-rending story of how this special fundraising concert helped maintain the hospital and heralded a golden age of philanthropy. Exploring historical documents and artefacts, Amanda Vickery examines the plight of women in Georgian London, particularly how the attitudes of the time led mothers to abandon their babies at the hospital. Tom Service looks at the momentous trials and tribulations faced by Handel in London and discovers how the composer became involved with the Foundling Hospital alongside another philanthropist of the day, the artist William Hogarth.
The changing position of the sun in the sky affects the behaviour of animals and plants across our planet. From the moment it rises, animals are waiting, ready to take advantage of the opportunities that the sun creates. A quirky chameleon uses solar power to survive, while a family of lemurs get a morning heat fix. But, as the day progresses and the sun climbs higher in the sky, becoming more powerful, animals must also react as it pushes them toward moments of crisis. As the sun sets and its great heat and light are extinguished, a night-time world wakes, full of characters who have carved a niche in the darkness. But even in the dead of night, the sun is not lost. Its rays are reflected in the moon, our 'ghost sun.' We take the rising and setting of the sun for granted, but it is the ultimate game changer. The way the natural world responds will be the difference between success and failure, life or death.
In the United States more than 2,500 people are serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes they committed when they were 17 or younger. In this film, five of them, all convicted for first degree murder, tell their stories. Brian was a 16-year-old outsider inspired by the Columbine School massacre when he and school friend Torey killed their classmate Cassie in a chilling murder reminiscent of a scene from a horror film. Josiah and Jacob both reflect on the impact childhood abuse had on the appalling murders they committed and Sean recalls gang life in the notorious Bloods, killing a passer-by the first time he shot a gun. All five give sober insights into their teenage selves and the deep regret they feel for their victims and all those impacted by their crimes. Through their stories the film asks some difficult questions. What is justice when a teenager kills? Can a horrific act place a life beyond redemption? Are there alternatives or should we simply dispose of them?
Professor Richard Fortey delves into the fascinating and normally-hidden kingdom of fungi. From their spectacular birth, through their secretive underground life to their final explosive death, Richard reveals a remarkable world that few of us understand or even realise exists - yet all life on Earth depends on it. In a specially-built mushroom lab, with the help of mycologist Dr Patrick Hickey and some state-of-the-art technology, Richard brings to life the secret world of mushrooms as never seen before and reveals the spectacular abilities of fungi to break down waste and sustain new plant life, keeping our planet alive. Beyond the lab, Richard travels across Britain and beyond to show us the biggest, fastest and most deadly organisms on the planet - all of them fungi. He reveals their almost magical powers that have world-changing potential - opening up new frontiers in science, medicine and technology.
Documentary chronicling the lives and deaths of some of the 80 young people who have killed themselves in British prisons in the last ten years. It tells the stories of three of these young people, looking at the flaws in the system and the lapses in care that contributed to their deaths. Adam Rushton was 20 when he hanged himself from the bars of his bunk bed in HMYOI Brinsford in 2009. Ryan Clark was just 17 when he took his own life in the prison cell where he was on remand and 17-year-old Jake Hardy, who couldn't cope with life inside, was severely bullied and would cry during visits from his mum, took his own life in January 2012. Through their stories, the film explores the experiences of the children and young people we lock up and discovers why some of them take their own lives.
Kenneth Macdonald looks back on the remarkable life and career of Margo MacDonald, who in a political career spanning more than 40 years became one of the most important and influential figures in Scottish political life as well as one of Scotland's best loved personalities. Friends, colleagues and fellow campaigners talk fondly about the woman known to millions only as Margo; recalling her love of Scotland, her campaigning for the poor and under privileged and her love of television shopping channels.
For 50 years, BBC TWO has been at the heart of popular music in the UK, and this programme offers 50 great moments in music from across the decades. It is an exploration of popular music through the BBC TWO prism, featuring key live performances, documentary extracts and iconic presenters
A portrait of one of the greatest English-language poets of his generation, this joyful and penetrating documentary was made with the late Seamus Heaney's unprecedented collaboration. The film explores the key personal relationship in his life, that with his wife Marie, and follows him to Harvard, New York and London, to readings, signings and public interviews.
Filmmaker Robb Leech attempts to understand his stepbrother's journey from middle-class white boy in Weymouth to convicted terrorist. In 2010 Robb spent a year filming his stepbrother Rich after he turned his back on the world in which he grew up to become a fundamentalist Muslim called Salahuddin. Robb began filming with his stepbrother as he entered a strange new world where everyone talked about fighting jihad and implementing Sharia law. The result was Robb's acclaimed BBC Three documentary, My Brother the Islamist. When, in 2013, Salahuddin is convicted of preparing terrorism acts and jailed for six years, Robb is desperate to know what triggered his stepbrother, and others like him, to cross the line. Robb seeks out imam and psychologist Alyas Karmani to understand what drives young British-born men and women into radical jihadism. And he confronts Anjem Choudary, the man who converted Rich, about his role in Salahuddin's radicalisation.
He was a man who combined the savagery of a real-life Conan the Barbarian with the sheer tactical genius of Napoleon, a man from the outermost reaches of Asia whose armies ultimately stood poised to conquer Europe. His name was Genghis Khan. Today the name of Genghis Khan is synonymous with dark evil yet in his lifetime he was a heroic figure, a supreme strategist capable of eliciting total devotion from his warriors. He grew up in poverty on the harsh unforgiving steppe of Mongolia. From the murder of his father, the kidnap of his wife and the execution of his closest friend, he learned the lessons of life the hard way. So how did this outcast come to conquer an empire larger than the Roman Empire? And was Genghis Khan the brutal monster who ruthlessly slaughtered millions in his quest for power, or was he a brilliant visionary who transformed a rabble of warring tribes into a nation capable of world domination? Filmed entirely on location in Mongolia, the film tells the truth behind the legend that is Genghis Khan.
In a cottage in northern Scotland, Megan Boyd twirled bits of feather, fur, silver and gold into elaborate fishing flies - at once miniature works of art and absolutely lethal. Wherever men and women cast their lines for the mighty Atlantic salmon, her name is whispered in mythic reverence, and stories about her surface and swirl like fairy tales. With breathtaking cinematography and expressive, hand-painted animation, this film both adheres to and escapes from traditional documentary form, spinning the facts and fictions of one woman's life into a stunning meditation on solitude, love, and its illusions.
Michael Mosley travels to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan to explore the disaster from a completely fresh perspective - looking at the animals caught up in the crisis and the specialist team of vets who have come to save their lives and those of the people who depend on them. Amid the devastation, Michael learns about the little-known work these expert vets do, both in the short term by providing immediate veterinary care to thousands of animals and in the long term, by using their skills to develop pioneering technology that could help save millions of animals the next time a disaster strikes. He discovers what motivates this team to travel to some of the most dangerous places on earth to help animals and encounters many of the challenges they face as they work against the clock to leave a lasting legacy behind.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh's design for The Glasgow School of Art is a Glasgow icon and renowned around the world. American architect Steven Holl was given the daunting task of creating a new building to sit opposite Mackintosh's masterpiece. Filmed over three years, 'Facing up to Mackintosh' charts the design and construction of the new school of design, now named the Reid Building, and explores how a building can affect the people working in it. The film is a collaboration with four recent graduates - Roberta Knox, Gibran Farrah, Walter Hamilton and Lu-Sisi - who contribute sound design, illustration, graphics and digital design, and includes interviews with GSA alumni Muriel Gray, Adrian Wiszniewski, Martin Boyce and Janice Kirkpatrick, as well as the architect Steven Holl.
James Corden and Gary Barlow head out on a road trip for this documentary, as James gets up close and personal with the man behind the music of his youth and discusses Gary's meteoric pop comeback. Gary Barlow has had one of the most incredible stories in pop history. We follow Gary's near-25-year career, from its beginnings to the Take That phenomenon, the wilderness years as the industry he loves cast him aside, and the darker times which have inspired his lyrics. James Corden has been a Take That fan since his teens. Now he gets to spend quality time with one of his heroes as they visit key places in Gary's career, from the working men's club where Gary first performed to the nightclub where Take That first auditioned. Corden tags along as Gary surprises one of his own fans on their wedding day, and even joins in band rehearsals. Featuring contributions from Elton John, Chris Evans, Robbie Williams, Gary's mother and members of the press and music industry, this documentary sees one of the nation's best-loved musicians shed light on the real story of his remarkable career.
A journey through the dramatic and destructive years of the French Revolution, telling its history in a way not seen before - through the extraordinary story of its art. Our guide through this turbulent decade is the constantly surprising Dr Richard Clay, an art historian who has spent his life decoding the symbols of power and authority. Dr Clay has always been fascinated by vandalism and iconoclasm, and believes much of the untold story of the French Revolution can be discovered through the stories of great moments of destruction. Who were the stone masons in the crowd outside Notre Dame that pulled down the statues of kings? Why do the churches of Paris still carry all the coded signs of anti-Christian state legislation? What does it mean, and who was carrying this out? Telling the story of the French Revolution - from the Storming of the Bastille to the rise of Napoleon - as the significant modern outbreak of iconoclasm, Clay argues that it reveals the destructive and constructive roles of iconoclasts and how this led directly to the birth of the modern Europe.
A trip through the Comedy Playhouse archive in the company of the people who made some of the most-loved episodes from the original series, as it returns to BBC One for a new run. From Steptoe and Son to Last of the Summer Wine, a series of one-off comedy ideas produced some of the most watched comedy series of the last 50 years. With commentary and insider knowledge from June Whitfield, Paul Merton, Hugh Dennis and top writing team Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Five people with an extreme fear of heights set off on a once-in-a lifetime adventure to cure their debilitating phobia. Accompanied by presenter Mel Giedroyc, the five sufferers confront their fears head-on as they undergo exposure therapy. From the dramatic peaks of the Alps to the world's tallest building, they'll attempt a series of increasingly difficult height-based challenges that will push them to their limits. Can they rise to the challenge and develop a head for heights? Shot in stunning locations in the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the show climaxes at the tallest building in the world - the 828m Burj Khalifa tower. It's almost twice the height of London's Shard - will the five phobics be able to overcome their fear and climb it, or will it be mission impossible? Presenter Mel Giedroyc is joined by Oxford University psychologist Dr Jennifer Wild as they lead the group on this hair-raising and life-changing journey.
For the past eight years, Glaswegian sculptor Andy Scott has been working on the biggest project of his life. The Kelpies are two 30m-high horse heads made of steel, now standing alongside the Forth and Clyde Canal. This film, narrated by Andy himself, follows the long and tortuous process of the creation of the 300-tonne sculptures from design to installation. The enormous technical challenge involved engineers in Leeds, steel mills in Hartlepool and Corby and metal benders in Tipton, and was nearly derailed by the financial crisis of 2008. Originally planned to form part of the canal lock mechanism, the sculptures are now a free-standing attraction within Falkirk's Helix Park.
From bomb threats sent to campaigners for more females on banknotes to sexually explicit pop videos. From extreme laddism at universities to rape jokes in the school yard... Kirsty Wark explores whether there's a new culture abroad in which it's acceptable to write about, talk about, and feature women in a sexually offensive, even abusive way. Or whether the female of the species just needs to 'man up', learn to enjoy a gag, and get used to the 21st century world.
Covent Garden present their highly-acclaimed production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, a depiction of the last day and night of the most iconic of seducers, in a thrilling new interpretation directed by the Royal Opera's Kasper Holten.
Don Giovanni had its premiere performance in Prague on October 29, 1787. Mozart's vastly successful opera, based on the stories of legendary libertine Don Juan, delighted the city that had taken him to their hearts. But what brought them all - composer and audience, theatre manager and cast - to this time and place? Acclaimed tenor Rolando Villazón presents the story of one of the best-known operas of all time. Based in Prague, Rolando explores the run-up to that candle-lit first performance, looking at the music of the opera and the social setting in which it was first performed, before recreating the finale of the opera close to how it would have looked and sounded on that autumn evening.
Professor Robert Bartlett explores the Plantagenets, England's longest ruling dynasty, in this version of the BBC Two series made especially for schools. Fifteen of the nation's most famous and infamous kings came from this one family. Their story is one of intrigue, conflict and brutality, but during their 331-year domination of England they shaped the country's politics and culture. Bartlett reveals how Parliament was born, the system of justice was established through Magna Carta and the foundations of the United Kingdom were set down. Ultimately, the family tore itself apart and was destroyed through civil war.
As part of its 50th birthday celebrations, BBC Two is allowing access all areas to their precious comedy vaults. This programme pulls from the shelf some rare and unseen comedy moments from some of the greatest names in comedy. There are pilots which have never been broadcast before, including Miranda Hart's Joke Shop, Stephen Fry's first appearance as the quizmaster in QI and a sitcom from the band Madness, as well as rare comedy treats from Spike Milligan, Pete and Dud, Rik Mayall and Billy Connolly, and Sacha Baron Cohen's first incarnation of Borat, an Albanian called Christo. Packed with archive treasures illustrating how groundbreaking and innovative BBC Two has been for British comedy, insightful analysis is provided by the guest interviews with some of the biggest names in television.
Nicholas Hytner, Director of London's National Theatre, interviews playwright, screenwriter, actor and author Alan Bennett as he celebrates his 80th birthday. Featuring clips from eight of Bennett's productions, including plays Forty Years On and The Habit of Art
A Series which follows Martha Kearney's bee-keeping year and explores the science, art and culture of the honeybee, the most ingenious insect known to humankind.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Thalidomide was prescribed to women to combat morning sickness, but the drug led to children being born with deformed or missing limbs. More than 50 years on, this documentary hears from British people affected by it, their families and those intimately involved in the campaign to secure compensation from the manufacturer, revealing the long battle through the courts and how society has treated them through the years.
Penelope Keith pays tribute to comedy writer Bob Larbey. He and his writing partner John Esmonde wrote some of Britain's best-loved comedies, including The Good Life.
Will Gompertz celebrates Museums at Night, a three day festival of museums and galleries from St Ives to Orkney that throw open their doors till late, showcase their collections and party!
Stephanie Flanders, former BBC economics editor, has a very personal interest in the battle to beat polio. Her father, Michael Flanders, one half of the world-famous singing duo of the 50s and 60s, Flanders and Swann, was paralysed by the infection when he was 21. He used a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and died early at 53 through complications caused by the disease. Stephanie was just six. But the desperate search for a vaccine was far from straightforward. Stephanie discovers that it is the story of decades of battling between good and bad science, celebrity scientists with giant egos, prepared to take enormous risks to be first with a vaccine, and countless innocent victims. By the end, Stephanie realises there might have been a polio vaccine years earlier, and hundreds of thousands might have been spared, including her Dad.
Peter Bowker writes some of Britain's most compelling television dramas, winning BAFTAs for the likes of Occupation, about the Iraq war, and Eric and Ernie, about the early career of Morecambe and Wise. He has also written other award-winning dramas such as Flesh and Blood, Blackpool, Desperate Romantics and the medical series Monroe. Bowker's latest three-part series, From There to Here, which airs in May on BBC1, is a bold, sweeping saga about two Manchester families and how their lives are changed following the IRA bombing of Manchester in 1996 and the events of the next four years leading up to the Millenium. It covers Euro '96, Labour's election victory, Manchester 's rave music scene and the banking collapse. This film offers an exclusive insight into the life of Peter Bowker, who explains how he writes and where the inspiration for his writing comes from, and how after 23 years of writing for television he still feels insecure. 'I always feel my next commission could be my last...'
Film following the British team at the Battle of the Nations 2013, the world's biggest and most brutal period tournament held in the French countryside. Knight Club is the story of Rob, Dan, Gwilym and Sam, a gallant band of English and Welsh knights, who are part of the fledgling debut British team.
Nat King Cole was the only black television star in Hollywood at a time when America groaned under the weight of racial segregation and prejudice. Yet he possessed a natural talent so great that these issues were seemingly swept to one side to allow him to become one of the greatest jazz icons of all time. However, behind closed doors those around him were trying to think of a way to package him as something he was not: bi-white. This candid account of what really happened in and around his 'fairytale' life is taken from his private journals, interviews with his widow Maria and contributions from other family members, Tony Bennett, Buddy Greco, Harry Belafonte, Nancy Wilson, Sir Bruce Forsyth, George Benson, Aaron Neville, Johnny Mathis and many more. Featuring archive never seen before, it reveals Nat King Cole's feelings behind his ultimate calling as a 'beacon of hope' to the legions of the oppressed.
As part of BBC Two's 50th birthday celebrations, the channel has a two-hour comedy extravaganza lined up. Featuring some of the greatest names in comedy, this packed programme showcases the channel's remarkable output over the last 50 years. From The Likely Lads and Not Only... But Also in its first year in 1964, up to W1A and Rev. today, this is a romp through the funniest bits of BBC Two.
The son of a coach-maker with a highly developed sense of the macabre, Jacobean dramatist John Webster's life was shadowy and his plays darkly imagined. His masterpiece The Duchess of Malfi is a gothic tale of forbidden love, intrigue, betrayal and murder, and was the most frequently performed play of the period not written by Shakespeare. In this documentary, Professor James Shapiro goes in search of the mysterious man behind the play, piecing together the fragments of Webster's life and exploring how he came to write The Duchess of Malfi just at the moment when the Jacobeans were inventing modern indoor theatre. Featuring contributions by Gemma Arterton, who plays the title role in The Globe's candlelit production, which can be seen on BBC Four on Sunday
As part of the 50th anniversary of BBC Two, the channel has commissioned Harry and Paul to celebrate the occasion in their own unique way, and this they are doing - both ruthlessly and Reithlessly. Inspired by Harry Enfield's Emmy Award-winning mythical biography, Norbert Smith, and Harry and Paul Whitehouse's Question Time spoof, the BBC's head of comedy Shane Allen asked them to come up with their own unique biography of BBC Two. In this one-off comedy-drama, Harry and Paul, themselves popular fixtures of the channel for half the 50 years, dance through the story of BBC Two. They start with its painful birth, as 'Auntie Beeb' pushes out the now familiar logo into the arms of the attending BBC execs. This sets the tone as the shows romp through the story of Two's highs and lows, from World War One to imported Scandinavian dramas, via The Forsyte Saga, Tim Nice But Brooke Taylor, Late Night Line Up with Joan Bakewell Tart and Monty Python. It drops into The Office and Boys from the Blackstuff, Arena, Old Grey Whistle Test and The Apprentice among many others. The whole journey is set inside a Simon Schama documentary, with Simon, played by Harry, laconically walking through and linking this 50-year saga. Shot in the studio and on location, the show visits and parodies in the region of 50 different shows, and there are 150 of BBC Two's favourite presenters, actors, comics and politicians on parade, most of them portrayed by either Harry or Paul with a little help from their friends.
A journey into the BBC archives unearthing glorious performances and candid interviews from the golden age of jazz. Featuring some of the greatest names in American music, including the godfather of New Orleans jazz Louis Armstrong, the King of Swing Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.
Henri Matisse, his health failing, reinvented himself towards the end of his life with a bold and striking new technique, the cut-out. It produced some of his most famous and recognisable works and the Tate's exhibition is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Matisse's celebrated cut-outs together in one place.
Trevor Fishlock explores how two sisters from Wales, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, created one of the great British art collections of the 20th century. They embraced impressionist art long before it became fashionable and left their remarkable collection to the nation. The money came from the coalfields of South Wales, making the sisters two of the richest women in the world. During the First World War they worked as volunteers in a soup kitchen just behind the front line. All their lives, they never gave up on their desire to turn their home at Gregynog into the beating artistic and cultural heart of Wales.
Documenting John Grierson Born the son of a headmaster in Cambusbarron, near Stirling, John Grierson directed one of the first documentaries, Drifters, set up the influential GPO Film Unit making Night Mail, and went on to be the first director of The National Film Board of Canada. The annual awards for best documentary are made in his name. He set out to make films to change the world, and made not just films, but filmmakers.
Former Royal Navy officer and test pilot Captain Eric `Winkle' Brown has flown more types of aircraft than anyone in history and is regarded as one of the best pilots Britain has produced. In this programme, the 95-year-old chats to James Holland about his flying experiences and encounters with Nazis, as well as other adventures in the run-up to and during the Second World War, illustrated by archive and personal photographs.
Documentary telling, in her own words, the story of Carole King's upbringing in Brooklyn and the subsequent success that she had as half of husband and wife songwriting team Goffin and King for Aldon Music on Broadway. It was during this era in the early 1960s that they created a string of pop hits such as Take Good Care of My Baby for Bobby Vee, The Locomotion for Little Eva and Will You Love Me Tomorrow for the Shirelles, which became the first number 1 hit by a black American girl group. Not to mention the era-defining Up on the Roof for the Drifters and the magnificent Natural Woman for Aretha Franklin. By 1970 Carole was divorced from songwriting partner Gerry Goffin and had moved to Los Angeles. It was here that she created her classic solo album Tapestry, packed with delightful tunes but also, for the first time, her own lyrics, very much sung from the heart. The album included It's Too Late, I Feel the Earth Move and You've Got a Friend and held the record for the most weeks at number 1 for nearly 20 years. It became a trusted part of everyone's record collection and has sold over 25 million copies to date. The film features some wonderful unseen material and home movies, and narrates her life as an acclaimed singer-songwriter. To date, more than 400 of her compositions have been recorded by over 1,000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles. More recently, in 2013, Carole was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by the Library of Congress for her songwriting, whilst in 2014 a Broadway production Beautiful, which tells her life story during the Goffin and King era, has received rave reviews. Nowadays Carole King would see herself as much as an eco-activist as a songwriter, and is to be found constantly lobbying congress in defence of the wildlife and eco-systems of her beloved Idaho.
As veterans gather to relive one of the turning points of the Second World War, historian James Holland moves beyond the D-Day beaches to reassess the brutal 77-day Battle for Normandy that followed the invasion. Challenging some of the many myths that have grown up around this vital campaign, Holland argues that we have become too comfortable in our understanding of events, developing shorthand to tell this famous story that does great injustice to those that saw action in France across the summer of 1944. Including perspectives from those who fought on both sides, Holland examines not only the nature of the fighting and the higher aims of the campaign, but also the operational level - the nuts and bolts - and in so doing reveals the true complexity of this bitter and bloody battle. This story is about the challenge for both sides to adapt to conditions in a campaign of carnage that has rarely been acknowledged. More than just well trodden tales of heroic struggle, it is also the story of two competing military doctrines: one ill-prepared for the organisational demands of a long battle, the other in the process of building the greatest military machine ever seen.
Seventy years ago one of the greatest amphibious assaults in history was launched from here on the south coast of England. And within a matter of hours, 7000 vessels had landed 156,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy. It was a manoeuvre that changed the course of the war and tested innovations in science and engineering for the first time. On this programme, engineer Rob Bell looks at the nuts and bolts which made such a staggering invasion possible. From giant troop carrying gliders to tanks that could drive on water. How necessity really did become the mother of invention. Like all new inventions - not all of them worked and resulted in devastating consequences. We find out why. This is the science of D-Day.
After 22 years playing for the world's greatest football teams, David Beckham has retired. For the first time in his adult life he has freedom to do whatever he wants and to mark the occasion he's going on an adventure. He's chosen Brazil, and he's taking three of his closest friends to join him on this once in a lifetime experience. Starting with beach footvolley in Rio, the friends travel deep into the Amazon, ending up with the remote Yanonami tribe, with David desperately trying to explain the beautiful game
As the nation prepares for the start of the 2014 World Cup, England football legend Gary Lineker presents this very special documentary on the world's fascination with Brazil and the beautiful game. Gary meets Brazilian striking legend Ronaldo for a frank and illuminating insight into the pleasure and pain of playing for Brazil and there are revealing interviews with key figures, like World Cup-winning player Leonardo. Focus also falls on Pele - his gifts, global appeal and role in cementing Brazil and Brazilian football firmly in the hearts and minds of the world. The programme asks Michael Palin why we all love Brazil, and there are also contributions from Rio Ferdinand, John Barnes and Michael Owen. It features rarely-seen archive footage, reliving great moments in World Cup history, and with help from Brazilian model and television host Fernanda Lima, explores the roots and romance of Brazil and the beautiful game.
As D-Day is remembered, Robert Hall tells the little-known story of the French resistance's battle to stop a German division reaching the landing beaches.
Over eight extraordinary years, this award-winning documentary follows the daily life of a twelve-year-old child prodigy as she and her father work towards her goal of becoming an internationally-renowned classical pianist. Under the watchful eye of her father Pierre, a Juilliard-trained violinist devoted to her flourishing career, Canadian pianist Marika Bournaki grows up and matures before our eyes as she searches for her own identity. Labelled a child prodigy, she is catapulted into a world of concerts, competitions and media attention at a very young age. From backstage tears, adolescent rebellion and burnout to her parents' unexpected divorce and finding her first love, the film reveals a rare and candid look inside the world of classical music - a world that demands an elusive alchemy of sacrifice, talent and serendipity. Shot in concert halls, hotels and airports around the world - and featuring stunning piano performances - the film amounts to a front row seat in the unfolding of a life and the forming of a personality. As Marika seeks her place and identity in the world, we witness her evolution from child to adult and experience the numerous conflicts she overcomes to finally make it on her own. It's a story that says as much about families, growing up and the complex relationships between parents and their children as it does about the world of classical music.
For four hundred years or more, Highland regiments advanced and attacked to the sound of the bagpipes. In the Great War, pipers climbed out of the trenches, unarmed, to face machine guns and shells. The descendants of those men return to the battlefields to discover individual stories of unparalleled bravery.
Documentary telling the story of the most extraordinary experiment in the history of animal science. In the 1960s a powerful and charismatic scientist flooded a house. He then invited a young woman to live there full-time with a dolphin. Their intention was the ultimate in animal research - they wanted to teach the dolphin to speak English. What happened next would change all their lives. For the first time those involved in the experiment reveal the secrets of the Dolphin House.
Afghanistan has a drugs problem. A big one. It has some of the highest rates of heroin addiction anywhere - over a million Afghans are now problem drug users. This film follows the fortunes of two young heroin addicts - Jawad and Babrak - as they try to kick their smack habits and get their lives back together. It's a deeply personal portrait of hope and fear in a country ravaged by war, poverty and hard drugs.
Robert Beckford takes a journey into the heart of Brazil, a country where football is worshipped like a national cult, but Brazil has another much older religion. One that has existed since the country was colonised by the Portuguese almost 500 years ago. Brazilian Christianity is a mixture of influences - there is song and dance, African beliefs, indigenous Indian beliefs, and the folk Catholicism of the southern Europeans. Robert explores the incredible spiritual diversity of Brazil by travelling to seven wonders. From the spectacular and iconic Christ the redeemer statue to the samba beat of the carnival, at each wonder, Robert looks at a key ingredient that makes up the melting pot that is Brazilian Christianity
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Billy Joel was building a catalogue of timeless songs while enjoying a string of consecutive hit albums and singles. Though selling out concerts around the world, Billy and his music were, like much of western pop culture and rock 'n' roll itself, unheard behind the Iron Curtain, except for black market bootlegs and faint shortwave radio. By the late 80s, the Cold War between the USSR and the West had begun to thaw in the light of Russian head-of-state Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, designed to bring openness and transparency to the Soviet Union while promoting political reform and cross-cultural exchanges. When the Kremlin invited Billy Joel to perform in the Soviet Union, he jumped at the chance to realise a long-time dream of performing for the Russian people. As America's pop rock musical ambassador, Billy Joel brought the Soviets their first fully-staged high-energy rock show. The tour began with a small acoustic concert in Tbilisi, followed by three electrifying stadium shows in Moscow and three shows in Leningrad. Joel's historic visit to Russia became a worldwide news event, with journalists and writers covering the tour, its progress and the effect Billy, his band and his family were having on the Russian people. The entire tour was professionally filmed and the concerts were simulcast on radio worldwide. During their stay, Billy and his family, along with musicians, staff, and a huge press entourage spent their days interacting with the Russian people, forging true bonds of friendship wherever they went. The tour has been seen as a major cultural turning point in the course of US and Soviet relations. Seen and heard now, more than 25 years later, Joel's Russian concert tour performances stand out among the most electrifying and moving of his career and this film bears witness to the timeless revolutionary power of rock 'n' roll.
In August 1987, Billy Joel took his worldwide Bridge tour on an unprecedented leg through the Soviet Union, the first fully-staged rock concert to visit the country. This programme features highlights from his concert at the Lenin Sports and Concert Complex in Leningrad (now St Petersburg). Songs include: Angry Young Man, Goodnight Saigon, An Innocent Man, The Longest Time, A Matter of Trust, Only the Good Die Young, It's Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me, Uptown Girl and Back in the USSR.
With around 330,000 mobility scooters on our roads and pavements, Britain has more mobility scooters than any other country in Europe - and the numbers are growing fast. For owners, scooters are a lifeline offering freedom and independence, but for some road users they can cause chaos. The number of accidents with mobility scooter drivers is increasing and there's very little regulation, as mobility scooter drivers don't need to pass a proficiency test and insurance is not compulsory. Even being registered blind doesn't legally stop you being allowed to drive one. With access to South Yorkshire Police's mobility scooter driving school, this warm hearted, engaging and informative documentary follows the lives of scooter users in South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and North Wales. We meet those living their twilight years to the full with the help of a four-wheeled friend and also hear the stories of those who have fallen foul of the mobility scooter phenomenon. With ailing health a common theme, the documentary is as much about mortality as it is mobility.
To the outside world Lorraine Pascale is the successful TV chef, best-selling author and ex-model, but there is another side to her story. Given up at birth, adopted at 18-months-old and then fostered aged eight when her family broke down, she really has been through the system. Lorraine looks back at her childhood in a bid to shine a light on the neglected world of fostering and tracks down the foster carers who looked after her as a child, whom she hasn't seen for over 30 years.
Documentary delving into the world of internationally-renowned opera house Glyndebourne in its 80th anniversary year. The film provides a critical and expert overview of Richard Jones's new production of Richard Strauss's much-loved comic opera, Der Rosenkavalier. It looks at the historical and musical background of the work, the composer and the context in which the opera was written, as well as reflecting on its programme history at Glyndebourne. The film also examines the relevance of presenting the work at Glyndebourne today, and what makes Glyndebourne and its heritage unique.
On the hottest day of the year in 2013 millions of people all over the UK were glued to their TV and radio sets willing Andy Murray to end 77 years of sporting hurt by winning the Men's Wimbledon crown. When Andy Won Wimbledon is the emotional and heartwarming story of how so many people experienced Murray's historic victory against Djokovic that day. There are personal recollections from Murray himself and those closest to him, including mum Judy and girlfriend Kim Sears. Plus, stars and members of the public recall their own stories from this classic 'where were you when' moment. With contributions from John McEnroe, Sue Barker, Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Michael Parkinson, Amy McDonald and John Newman.
Samantha Lewthwaite is one of the world's most wanted terrorists. The widow of Jermaine Lindsay, one of the 7/7 bombers, she claimed ignorance of her husband's lethal intentions. She said she was a victim too. But now she's on the run, somewhere in Africa, charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. For three years British, American, and Kenyan security services have been after the so-called White Widow. But what strange journey has this former sixth form schoolgirl from a quiet home counties market town taken? How did she end up as the friend and confidante of some of the top echelons of al-Qaeda? Filmmaker Adam Wishart has spent a year tracking down the real story of Samantha Lewthwaite - for the first time revealing her path to radicalisation and the hate preacher who inspired her.
Today, few people's clothes attract as much attention as the royal family, but this is not a modern-day Hello magazine-inspired obsession. As Dr Lucy Worsley reveals, it has always been this way. Exploring the royal wardrobes of our kings and queens over the last 400 years, Lucy shows this isn't just a public preoccupation, but our monarchs' as well. From Elizabeth I to our present queen, Lucy believes that the royal wardrobe's significance goes way beyond the cut and colour of the clothing and that royal fashion is and has always been regarded as their personal statement to their people. So most monarchs have carefully choreographed every aspect of their wardrobe and, for those who have not, there have sometimes been calamitous consequences.
In September 2014, Scotland's people face a momentous choice: should they remain part of the United Kingdom, or opt for independence? As the debate hots up, Robert Peston asks the big question which is at the heart of it: would Scotland be richer or poorer as an independent nation? It is a journey which takes him from oil platforms in the North Sea, to the Shetland folk festival, and the high-tech industries of Dundee. He discovers that although money matters, it isn't the be all and end all. For many, just as important is what kind of nation Scotland wants to be.
Alex has been charged with a murder committed by a friend in a spontaneous fight; Wayne has been convicted of possessing a firearm he never touched; Joseph is serving a life sentence for a murder he didn't even see. All of them have been convicted using the law of joint enterprise, under which a person in a group or gang can be held responsible for the criminal acts of others. Joint enterprise is a 300-year-old law which has been increasingly used in recent years to combat the rise in gang violence. Its supporters argue that it ensures that those who encourage violent crimes are held responsible for their actions and that it deters further violence. It has been used to secure convictions in a number of high-profile murder cases, including two of the killers of Stephen Lawrence and the three murderers of Ben Kinsella. Others argue that it is leading to wrongful convictions of people who were only on the periphery of a crime, but who will, nevertheless, be sentenced to mandatory life sentences. This documentary follows the story of Alex's family after his arrest and during his trial for murder at the Old Bailey and also examines the cases of Wayne and Joseph. We speak to defence lawyers, prosecutors and also to the families of victims, including the Kinsellas, who believe that without joint enterprise their children's killers would have walked free. The programme raises questions about how we deal with group violence, what makes a murderer and whether we are locking young people away on life sentences for crimes they did not commit.
From My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock to God Save the Queen, this is the story of ten records from the 1930s to the present day that have been banned by the BBC. The reasons why these songs were censored reveals the changing controversies around youth culture over the last 75 years, with Bing Crosby and the Munchkins among the unlikely names to have met the wrath of the BBC. With contributions from: Carrie Grant, Paul Morley, Stuart Maconie, Glen Matlock, Mike Read and Jon Robb.
Michel Roux Jr sets out to discover the secret of chocolate - not just why we're addicted to the sublime and complex foodstuff but its rich and varied history, from a sacred drink of Aztec Emperors to the aphrodisiac of choice at the court of Louis XIV in Versailles. For Michel Roux Jr the best chocolate in the world is to be found in France, where the art of the chocolatier has been handed down from generation to generation. In this documentary he sets out to create his own unique chocolate flavour to use in his cooking. He will immerse himself in the world of chocolate, from the raw cocoa bean to some of the most refined and unusual chocolate creations the world has seen. Michel Roux will be tasting and tempering, dipping and decorating to discover the art of chocolate making as he sets out to create his very own melt in your mouth chocolate flavour.
A central character in the BBC's football coverage since 1992, Alan Hansen is bowing out after the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil. Gary Lineker presents a personal and revealing tribute as Hansen joins friends, family and colleagues to look back at an illustrious career as a player and a pundit. This very private, self-effacing family man opens up about his playing career with Scotland and Liverpool, and talks about the close relationships forged over the years with the likes of Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness and Mark Lawrenson. As club captain of Liverpool during the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, Hansen talks emotionally about the events of that day and how they've had a profound personal effect on him, and everyone else associated with Liverpool Football Club, over the subsequent 25 years. He also discusses the Heysel Disaster four years earlier, and reveals his disappointment at missing out on the 1986 World Cup for Scotland. And we also learn why Hansen turned his back on football management. Lineker also looks at the massive effect his friend and colleague Hansen has had on sports broadcasting. The so-called 'King of Pundits', he revolutionised the role of the TV analyst. Along with Andy Gray, he was responsible for transforming attitudes towards football punditry. He was unafraid to criticise footballers or the establishment - passionate, forthright and above all, intelligent. Who can forget the infamous quote about the Manchester United team - 'You never win anything with kids'? Hansen's appeal was so widespread that he even appeared in polls commissioned to find a new James Bond, became a housewife's favourite and brought female viewers to Match of the Day in the process. There are contributions from Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Des Lynam, Jamie and Harry Redknapp, Jose Mourinho, Brendan Rodgers, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Mark Lawrenson and Alan's wife Janet and children Lucy and Adam
Rio in Rio is a personal insight into the 2014 World Cup in Brazil from the former England and Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand. This is Ferdinand the football fan, pundit and traveller as he explores the city of Rio during football's greatest show on earth. This trip has opened up a whole new world for Rio. While the focus has been on the pitch over the past month and Rio has been learning the ropes in broadcasting, he has also been meeting 'Cariocas', as the locals are known, to sample a city famous for its beauty, beach culture, good food, party music and to get their views on the World Cup in a country that hasn't fully welcomed the tournament at a time of major social and economic problems across Brazil. How is the World Cup affecting their everyday lives, and who will benefit when the show leaves town? The man from Peckham is an active campaigner on racism, poverty and inner city violence, and first up he visits one of the favelas and community sports projects where some of the poorest live. The journey continues with a visit into the rainforest some 100 miles outside the city to see his good friends and former Manchester United team mates the da Silva twins, who welcome him into their extended family home to sample Brazil's first match of the tournament. This is a learning experience for Rio, who follows England's tournament through new eyes as a pundit, fan and friend. From sitting among the fans on his first visit to the Maracana stadium to local bars, this is Rio adapting to life as a non-international player. This is the 2014 World Cup as Rio Ferdinand experiences it!
In 1986, Edinburgh hosted the Commonwealth Games for a second time. There were sporting triumphs from athletes who were to become household names - Steve Cram, Daley Thompson, Tessa Sanderson and Scotland's own, Liz McColgan, winner of the 10,000m gold medal. But these were Games when sport locked horns with politics over the issue of sanctions against the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. The boycott of more than half the Commonwealth nations brought the Games to its knees. The drama which unfolded placed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Queen and flamboyant newspaper mogul Robert Maxwell centre stage in a story that attracted worldwide attention.
The guitar riff is the DNA of rock 'n' roll, a double helix of repetitive simplicity and fiendish complexity on which its history has been built. From Chuck Berry through to the White Stripes, this documentary traces the ebb and flow of the guitar riff over the last 60 years of popular music. With riffs and stories from an all-star cast including Brian May, Dave Davies, Hank Marvin, Joan Jett, Nile Rodgers, Tony Iommi, Robert Fripp, Johnny Marr, Nancy Wilson, Kevin Shields, Ryan Jarman, Tom Morello and many more. Narrated by Lauren Laverne.
At the tail end of 2013 the papers were full of panic-inducing headlines about the prospect of millions of Romanians waiting to invade our shores, take our jobs and fleece our welfare system once EU border controls were relaxed on January 1. Journalist and filmmaker Tim Samuels, himself a descendent of Romanian immigrants, has decided to look behind the headlines, following the experiences of Romanians who have headed to British shores to live and work for the first time, as well as exploring the UK's continuing unease with the thorny issue of immigration. Irreverent, insightful and warm, The Great Big Romanian Invasion reveals some surprising sides to our own national psyche as well as that of our newest neighbours.
Thursday 5 December 2013 is a night the residents of the Norfolk seaside resort of Hemsby will never forget. That night homes fell into the sea during the worst storm surge to hit the East Coast for sixty years. BBC presenter David Whiteley witnessed the drama unfold. Seven months on he returns to find the community still fighting for the survival of their village. Hemsby is a village people fall in love with. It is the site of one of the country's first holiday camps, and tourists still flock there today to enjoy its beautiful sandy beach. But with no hope of government money to protect it, villagers have seen almost 70 homes go over the edge and into the sea. Seeking advice from erosion experts and business gurus, and building their own defences, the residents are determined not to let Hemsby be lost to the sea. David joins the villagers in their latest campaign, meets the people about to buy a home on the threatened dunes and goes with the map man who's quite literally been redrawing the map of the East coast over 40 years of erosion.
California has always been an empty sales pitch. Its first settlements were borne of missionary zeal. It promised a haven from marauders, banditos and mercenaries. Since then it has wiled us with unlimited gold, boundless harvests, silver screen-stardom, dotcom salvation and hi-tech silicon marvels. It has always been a place that promises a good chance of success-if you're youthful or white. And if you're Mexican, it at least promises a decent chance of survival. It is a place that instantly forgets its past so it can reinvent it for tourists and dreamers. True reality has never been good enough for Californians. They are always vaguely dissatisfied with themselves, their bodies, their spirituality, their government and their present car. Yet they still believe they shape both American culture and American character. And to a large degree, they have. In his unique and sardonic way, Rich takes the viewer on a skewed but keenly-eyed journey to the place built on a tectonic faultline, but still calls itself the Land of Dreams.
Passionate flying enthusiast and broadcaster John Sergeant celebrates the plane that some believe won the war - the Lancaster. The film tells the story of this mighty aircraft and the ordinary people whose lives were made extraordinary through their association with it.
The air around us is not just empty space; it is an integral part of the chemistry of life. Plants are made from carbon dioxide, nitrogen nourishes the soil and oxygen gives us the energy we need to keep our hearts pumping and our brains alive. But how did we come to understand what air is made of? How did we come to know that this invisible stuff around us contains anything at all? Gabrielle Walker tells the remarkable story of the quest to understand the air. It's a tale of heroes and underdogs, chance encounters and sheer blind luck that spans the entire history of science. It began as a simple desire to further our knowledge of the natural world, but it ended up uncovering raw materials that have shaped our modern world, unravelling the secrets of our own physiology and revealing why we are here at all.
A one-off special to herald the start of the Commonwealth Games. Some of the nation's best-loved presenters - Clare Balding, Denise Lewis, Anita Rani, Dan Snow and Reggie Yates - travel around the globe to marvel at seven diverse natural wonders and meet some of the two billion members of the Commonwealth. They venture to the oldest desert on the planet, the most pristine rainforest, the world's greatest waterfall, the largest mangrove swamp, the richest coral reef and the world's most spectacular fjordland. The final wonder is found deep in a cave far closer to home. Along the way they discover what it means to part of the Commonwealth today.
The northern soul phenomenon was the most exciting underground British club movement of the 1970s. At its highpoint, thousands of disenchanted white working class youths across the north of England danced to obscure, mid-60s Motown-inspired sounds until the sun rose. A dynamic culture of fashions, dance moves, vinyl obsession and much more grew up around this - all fuelled by the love of rare black American soul music with an express-train beat. Through vivid first-hand accounts and rare archive footage, this film charts northern soul's dramatic rise, fall and re-birth. It reveals the scene's roots in the mod culture of the 1960s and how key clubs like Manchester's Twisted Wheel and Sheffield's Mojo helped create the prototype that would blossom in the next decade. By the early 1970s a new generation of youngsters in the north were transforming the old ballrooms and dancehalls of their parents' generation into citadels of the northern soul experience, creating a genuine alternative to mainstream British pop culture. This was decades before the internet, when people had to travel great distances to enjoy the music they felt so passionate about. Set against a rich cultural and social backdrop, the film shows how the euphoria and release that northern soul gave these clubbers provided an escape from the bleak reality of their daily lives during the turbulent 1970s. After thriving in almost total isolation from the rest of the UK, northern soul was commercialized and broke nationwide in the second half of the 70s. But just as this happened, the once-healthy rivalry between the clubs in the north fell apart amidst bitter in-fighting over the direction the scene should go. Today, northern soul is more popular than ever, but it was back in the 1970s that one of the most fascinating and unique British club cultures rose to glory. Contributors include key northern soul DJs like Richard Searling, Ian Levine, Colin Curtis, Kev Roberts, alongside Lisa Stansfield, Norman Jay
Red Arrows: Inside the Bubble A unique insight into the 120-strong Red Arrows team of pilots and ground crew as they prepare to celebrate their 50th display season and turn British skies red, white and blue
Documentary telling the story of Kenyan athlete David Rudisha, the greatest 800m runner the world has ever seen, and his highly unusual coach, the Irish Catholic missionary Brother Colm O'Connell. Shot over ten years, the film begins in 2005 when we first meet David as a shy 16-year-old arriving at a training camp with nothing but a dream of emulating his father's 1968 Olympic silver medal. The camp is run by the unlikeliest of coaches, missionary and amateur athletics trainer Brother Colm, who quickly spots his talent. Together they embark on a journey through injury, disappointment and terror when violence sweeps through the country in the aftermath of the 2008 election, all the way to the 2012 Olympics and the greatest 800m race the world has ever seen. With unprecedented access and featuring interviews with Seb Coe and Steve Cram, this is an epic, magical and uplifting tale that reaches far beyond sport.
During the most demanding Ramadan for over 30 years, Dr Saleyha Ahsan meets prominent British Muslims undertaking 16 hour fasting days throughout July and talks to Dr Michael Mosley whose health was transformed by a fasting diet.
Sir Chris Hoy is Britain's greatest ever Olympian, winning six gold and one silver medal at four Olympic Games. His amazing journey took him from a cycling club in Edinburgh to the biggest sporting stages in the world. But he doesn't believe that he was simply born to be a champion. So how did he do it? And how does his story compare with the other top athletes he meets in this revealing film? With Andy Murray, Lennox Lewis, Sir Steve Redgrave, Rebecca Adlington and Graeme Obree.
China is the fastest growing nation in history, an economic superpower, but it has cultural ambitions too and nowhere is this clearer than in its embrace of Western classical music. Huge sums of government money have been poured into concert halls across the country and millions of young musicians, many of whom were inspired by the success of concert pianist Lang Lang, are now competing to help fill them. But how does a society that traditionally celebrates discipline and conformity adapt to the individualism and artistic freedom demanded by the music of Beethoven? Contributors include Lang Lang, Daniel Barenboim, conductor of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Chinese musicians from Shanghai's Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory as well as a new generation of aspiring classical musicians.
Ex-rugby international John Beattie investigates what happens when the worlds of sport and politics collide.
Documentary which follows the last 12 months in the singer Tulisa Contostavlos's life. Combining self-shot diary footage with actuality the programme shows what's it's really like to be on the receiving end of a tabloid sting and its consequences. The film charts Tulisa's highs and her lows, her arrest, her charge, state of mind and suicide attempt and her treatment at the hands of the tabloid press as she travels to the brink of disaster before her case collapses and she regains her life and her reputation. Hard-hitting and harrowing, the film lifts the lid on this episode in the singer's life and in doing so tells us about the nature of celebrity culture and how it feels to be a major celebrity facing public ruin.
Syria's war - well into its fourth year and with no end in sight - is having a devastating impact on the lives of the country's children. Tens of thousands have been killed or wounded. Many are learning to hate. Many more are deeply traumatised. With unique access across the conflict's frontlines, Lyse Doucet follows the lives of six children over six months. Filmed in Damascus, Homs and amongst the refugee community in Turkey, their stories offer an intimate and powerful insight into a country being torn apart. Syria's war is a war on childhood, and the lives of its children will shape the country's future for decades to come.
Actor and musician Sam Palladio hosts a musical tribute to Elvis Presley, 60 years to the day from when he recorded his first single That's All Right at Sun Studio in Memphis on July 5th 1954. Sam traces Elvis's story from childhood poverty in Mississippi, where he had to make do with a broom for a guitar, to the moment when, by accident, he ended up recording the song that changed the history of popular music. There are performances of the finest Elvis tracks from the likes of soul legend Candi Staton, LA duo the Pierces and country star Laura Bell Bundy.
Featuring stunning aerial footage from 54 countries, this film from acclaimed aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and ecology-minded French director Luc Besson reveals the beauty and fragility of our planet as never before.
BBC Parliament shows a themed evening of programmes to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, starting with the documentary, To War, presented by Mark D'Arcy.
A spectacular live concert with Edinburgh Castle providing the magnificent backdrop and featuring British and international music artists performing a mixture of current and classic hit songs.
Mark Lawson talks to comedian, writer and actress Jo Brand. After a decade working as a psychiatric nurse, Jo turned her hand to comedy in the 1980s and has spent nearly 30 years at the top of what is widely accepted to be a male-dominated genre, receiving recognition by BAFTA in 2011 for her performance in the sitcom Getting On. One of the most important female comics of her generation, she reveals the backlash she faced on her arrival on the alternative comedy scene, her approach to hecklers and taboos, as well as her experiences as a TV personality - from the pressure of having her own sketch show, Jo Brand: Through The Cakehole, to being on panel shows such as Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week.
Distinguished war reporter Kate Adie examines the impact of women's work on the Home Front during the First World War. Innovations included the first women's police force, women's football and female surgeons operating on men. Adie argues that what truly mattered though was whether these changes in women's lives were long-lasting or viewed as 'only for the duration'.
In Britain there is a new generation of young football fans, responsible for trebling violent incidents since 2007. Last season the police clamped down on football-related public disorder with 600 new football banning orders and nearly 3,000 arrests. This documentary follows Britain's youth football firms across the 2013/14 season. The film features members of three firms - 'The Blazing Squad', made up of Man City fans; The 'Yid Army' (Tottenham Hotspur) and 'The Interchange Riot Squad' (Bury) - and follows them home and away to tell the inside story of why a new group of young men are engaged in football-related violence, even though the clubs obviously don't condone their actions. They allow us into their lives to meet their families, girlfriends and show the secretive network of organised fights that take place every week. We meet 18-year-old Paul, studying engineering at college, who has been in Bury FC's firm since he was 16. Aaron is 17 years old and the new recruit who wants to join Manchester City's youth firm. The firm is run by Carl, who at 24 is the 'top boy' and has a banning order that prevents him from watching the club he loves. In London, Dante's dedication to Tottenham Hotspur has resulted in three convictions for football violence. Recently released from prison, he has got engaged to his fiancée Harley. But can she keep him on the straight and narrow?
Compilation of songs previously banned by the BBC including Lola by the Kinks, Jackie by Scott Walker and We Don't Need this Fascist Groove Thang by Heaven 17.
Journalist and broadcaster Geraint Talfan Davies journeys to Berlin to uncover the story about his uncle, Idris Morgan, a young Welshman witnessing Nazi power at first hand in the 1930s. His uncle's diary is his only guide as he unveils the story of a friendship with a young German girl and her mysterious death - a death that brought Idris face to face with Wilhelm Brückner, Adolf Hitler's chief adjutant, only days before the massacre of the Night of the Long Knives. This is a personal story of a dark epiphany, as well as a moving tale of an ordinary family adjusting to the growth of Hitler's power.
In summer 2014, Scotland is hosting one of the most ambitious celebrations of contemporary art ever staged. Featuring over 100 artists in 60 venues across the country, Generation shines a spotlight on one of the most phenomenal cultural stories of modern times - Scotland's transformation from a declining industrial powerhouse to an international centre of artistic creativity.
A real life love story set against the backdrop of one of history's darkest chapters. Welshman Ron Jones takes an emotional journey back to Auschwitz, where he was held as a British prisoner of war. Now almost 100 years old, Ron shares his wartime experiences with presenter Joe Crowley. He talks about his friendship with a Jewish man called Joseph and his horror when he discovered that he'd been killed in the notorious gas chambers. And he remembers the regular home nations' football matches that took place alongside the Auschwitz prison camp. Even though the war had ripped them apart, it was the love of his childhood sweetheart Gwladys that kept Ron going. He wrote regular letters home to tell her how he longed to be back in her arms. Gwladys kept the letters in an old chocolate box. Reading them now, they tell a remarkable story of the couple's enduring love for each other as Europe descended into chaos.
Presenter and engineer Dick Strawbridge returns to Belfast to tell the story of one of the world's most important seaports. Using state of the art graphics, Dick charts the city's 400 year journey from humble sandbank, to the industrial powerhouse that made it the envy of the world.
In 1967 Martin Luther King came to Tyneside to be honoured for his civil rights campaigning. Lenny Henry tells the story of a unique visit-and its impact on the man and the people he met.
Carol King Eckersley is probably the last mother to have found out that her child was killed when Pan Am 103 was bombed over Lockerbie in 1988. This powerful programme follows her journey to discover the last days and death of her son Ken Bissett, who she gave up for adoption at birth.
Compilation of BBC performances featuring some of the best axe men and women in rock 'n' roll.
Largely in his own words, Graham Chapman's wry and ribald recollections are brought to bizarre life with the help of a few friends and assorted animation teams.
The Scottish referendum debate has been almost entirely about Scotland - but what about the rest of the UK? Whatever the result, the UK as we have known it for the past 300 years is set to change dramatically, and may never be the same again
Jasmine Harman examines the destructive and often secretive condition that left unchecked can severely blight the lives of sufferers and their families - compulsive shopping.
Documentary which charts the history of this iconic programme, with classic archive, contributions from players and fans, and an interview with the composer of the theme music.
This documentary explores Kate Bush's career and music, from January 1978's Wuthering Heights to her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow, through the testimony of some of her key collaborators and those she has inspired.
This documentary marks the 50th anniversary of the famous mods and rockers clashes on the seafronts of south east England. Mods And Rockers Rebooted will take a fresh look at the fights which took place between March and August 1964 causing mass hysteria across Britain, and have since become the stuff of legend. They’ve inspired countless books, songs, musicians, artists, and a cult movie, Quadrophenia, which turns 35 in August and has devoted fans all over the world. The BBC film will ask how much of what was reported at the time, and what was depicted in Quadrophenia, actually happened? Did the mods and the rockers really despise each other, or was there something else going on behind it all? To seek answers, and separate fact from fiction, the film, narrated by Quadrophenia star Phil Daniels, goes back to each location piecing together the events of 1964 in chronological order. It will reveal the real people behind the hard-hitting headlines, including interviews with mods and rockers who were there in 1964 (now in their 60s and 70s) taking them back to the seaside scenes of their crimes: Clacton, Margate, Brighton and Hastings. Finally, after 50 years of hype and hysteria, this film reveals what was really going on in 1964, and how an extraordinary mix of factors came together to create a compelling myth that endures to this day.
Comedian and history buff Al Murray is joined by historian Dan Snow, writer Natalie Haynes and broadcaster and film expert Matthew Sweet for a fresh look at a subject very close to his heart - the great British war movie. This roundtable discussion looks at both the films themselves, from A Bridge too Far to Zulu, and uses them as a lens on British history, cultural attitudes and our changing views on conflict over the decades. With dozens of clips from classic films such as Where Eagles Dare, The Dam Busters, In Which We Serve, Escape to Victory and The Eagle Has Landed, nostalgic memories of Bank Holiday afternoons in front of the telly and lashings of tea, rousing speeches and stiff upper lips, Al and his guests explore why the British are so obsessed with films about war - and what this says about us.
A tribute to Lord Richard Attenborough. Narrated by Alan Rickman with contributions from John Hurt, Ben Kingsley and more.
Blondie's album Parallel Lines captured the spirit of 1970s New York at a time of poverty, crime and an exploding artistic life, selling 16 million copies. This is the story of that album, that time and that city, told primarily by the seven individuals who wrote, produced and performed it. It was a calculated and painstaking endeavour to produce surefire hits - whatever it took. The film follows Debbie Harry and the rest of the Blondie crew as they head into the studio to record their game-changing album with producer Mike Chapman. It also features commentary from Harry herself about writing music, the media's focus on her appearance and lyrically inspirational ex-boyfriends. In 1978 the New York band Blondie had two punk albums behind them and were establishing a name for themselves at the club CBGBs on New York's Lower East Side. Then Chrysalis Records exec Terry Ellis saw them and spent a massive $1m buying out their recording contract. He had to ensure that their next album was a hit - there was no room for error. To do this he brought in maverick Australian record producer Mike Chapman, who already had a string of hits under his belt. Mike's job was to turn this crew of New York punks into world stars - but did they have the popular songs which would appeal to a wider non-punk audience? At a time when rich creativity and grinding poverty and drug abuse were hand in hand on the sidewalks of the Lower East Side, the music and lyrics of Parallel Lines celebrated and captured this vibrant and edgy chemistry, shooting the band to international stardom.
Thirty years ago, Sir John Betjeman died and was buried at St Enodoc Church, close to the village of Tribetherick in north Cornwall. To commemorate Betjeman's death the writer, critic and biographer of Betjeman, AN Wilson, visits the real and imagined places that shaped his life to reveal the life and work of the poet and broadcaster. Wilson explores how Betjeman came to speak to, and for, the nation in a remarkable way. As a poet Betjeman was writing popular verse for the many, not the few. With his brilliant documentaries for television, Betjeman entertained millions with infectious enthusiasm as he explained his many passions and bugbears. As a campaigner to preserve the national heritage, Betjeman was tireless in his devotion to conservation and preservation, fighting the planners, politicians and developers - railing against their abuse of power and money. Wilson investigates this by visiting locations in London, Oxford, Cornwall, Somerset and Berkshire. He travels through a landscape of beautiful houses and churches, beaches and seaside piers - a place that Wilson calls Betjemanland. In doing so he also reveals the complexity and contradictions of Betjeman - how Betjeman, the snob with a love of aristocrats and their country houses, is the same person who is thrilled by the more proletarian pleasures of the Great British seaside; how the poetry of Betjeman shows us that he is haunted by childhood memory, has religious faith but also doubt and is in thrall to love and infatuation; and how the man his friends called Betjeman was full of joie de vivre, but also suffered great melancholy and guilt whilst living an agonised double life.
Professor Joann Fletcher explores what it was like to be a woman of power in ancient Egypt. Through a wealth of spectacular buildings, personal artefacts and amazing tombs, Joann brings to life four of ancient Egypt's most powerful female rulers and discovers the remarkable influence wielded by women, whose power and freedom was unique in the ancient world. Throughout Egypt's history, women held the title of pharaoh no fewer than 15 times, and many other women played key roles in running the state and shaping every aspect of life. Joann Fletcher puts these influential women back at the heart of our understanding, revealing the other half of ancient Egypt.
Dom Littlewood and Cherry Healey transform the driving habits of two British motorists whose terrible driving is putting both themselves and the public at risk. Nominated by family members or friends, the two drivers will undergo tailor-made driver training leading up to a skills test.
Documentary in which painter and critic Matthew Collings charts the rise of abstract art over the last 100 years, whilst trying to answer a set of basic questions that many people have about this often-baffling art form. How do we respond to abstract art when we see it? Is it supposed to be hard or easy? When abstract artists chuck paint about with abandon, what does it mean? Does abstract art stand for something or is it supposed to be understood as just itself? These might be thought of as unanswerable questions, but by looking at key historical figures and exploring the private world of abstract artists today, Collings shows that there are, in fact, answers. Living artists in the programme create art in front of the camera using techniques that seem outrageously free, but through his friendly-yet-probing interview style Collings immediately establishes that the work always has a firm rationale. When Collings visits 92-year-old Bert Irvin in his studio in Stepney, east London he finds that the colourful works continue experiments in perceptual ideas about colour and space first established by abstract art pioneers such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky in the 1910s. Other historic artists featured in the programme include the notorious Jackson Pollock, the maker of drip paintings, and Mark Rothko, whose abstractions often consist of nothing but large expanses of red. Collings explains the inner structure of such works. It turns out there are hidden rules to abstraction that viewers of this intriguing, groundbreaking programme may never have expected.
The Haywain by John Constable is such a comfortingly familiar image of rural Britain that it is difficult to believe it was ever regarded as a revolutionary painting, but in this film, made in conjunction with a landmark exhibition at the V&A, Alastair Sooke discovers that Constable was painting in a way that was completely new and groundbreaking at the time. Through experimentation and innovation he managed to make a sublime art from humble things and, though he struggled in his own country during his lifetime, his genius was surprisingly widely admired in France.
Abstract Artists in Their Own Words Documentary which unlocks the BBC archives to tell the story of abstract art in Britain through the words of some of its leading lights. From Barbara Hepworth's abstract geometric forms and Bridget Riley's op art imagery to Anthony Caro's bold new ideas about sculpture, the film reveals the remarkable and varied ways in which British artists explored the idea of abstraction in the 20th century. As well as offering insights into the ideas and working practices of some of Britain's most acclaimed artists, the film also documents the often-uncertain public response to abstract art and considers the legacy of the artists today. Featuring interviews with artists Howard Hodgkin and Gillian Ayres, Tim Marlow of the Royal Academy, art historian James Fox, Iwona Blazwick from the Whitechapel gallery, Andrew Marr and Colm Toibin.
Deep Purple is one of the most influential and important guitar bands in history, one of the godfathers of the heavy metal genre, with over 100 million album sales worldwide to their name. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Deep Purple's groundbreaking double live album Made in Japan, this documentary explores these recordings and Deep Purple mark 2, the line-up between 1969 and 1973.
Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead on Valentines Day 2013 inside a toilet cubicle at Oscar Pistorius home. Pistorius insisted that he was innocent of the charge of premeditated murder, claiming he fired a gun in the mistaken belief that he was protecting both Reeva and himself against an intruder. The show follows a BBC team that flew to South Africa to talk to Reevas parents Barry and June Steenkamp as they prepared for the start of the trial in March 2014. Six months later as the trial reaches it's conclusion, Barry and June give their reaction to the judges verdict.
In 2013 the movie Philomena was shown in cinemas across the world and earned four Oscar nominations. The film was based on the true story of Philomena Lee, who was forced by the Catholic Church to give up her illegitimate son for adoption, and detailed her journey with journalist Martin Sixsmith to find her child 50 years later. In the weeks and months after the film went out, Martin was contacted by other mothers who had their own stories to tell. Now, Martin Sixsmith goes on a journey to investigate the Irish Catholic Church's role in an adoption trade which saw thousands of illegitimate children taken from their mothers and sent abroad, often with donations to the Church flowing in the other direction. In Ireland and in America, Martin hears the moving stories of the parents and children whose lives were changed forever and discovers evidence that prospective parents were not properly vetted - sometimes with tragic consequences.
Yayoi Kusama is Japan's most successful living artist. The 85-year-old is famed for her polka-dot-covered artworks, but behind her colourful art lies a troubled and difficult past. The inspiration for Kusama's use of repetitive patterns comes from the hallucinations she has suffered since early childhood and for nearly 40 years she has lived in a psychiatric hospital, fighting, through painting, the daily urge to commit suicide. This film follows Kusama during the preparations for Tate Modern's 2012 retrospective of her work, when Kusama undertook the mammoth physical and mental challenge of creating 100 new works for the largest-ever exhibition of her art.
Documentary in which painter and critic Matthew Collings charts the rise of abstract art over the last 100 years, whilst trying to answer a set of basic questions that many people have about this often-baffling art form. How do we respond to abstract art when we see it? Is it supposed to be hard or easy? When abstract artists chuck paint about with abandon, what does it mean? Does abstract art stand for something or is it supposed to be understood as just itself? These might be thought of as unanswerable questions, but by looking at key historical figures and exploring the private world of abstract artists today, Collings shows that there are, in fact, answers. Living artists in the programme create art in front of the camera using techniques that seem outrageously free, but through his friendly-yet-probing interview style Collings immediately establishes that the work always has a firm rationale. When Collings visits 92-year-old Bert Irvin in his studio in Stepney, east London he finds that the colourful works continue experiments in perceptual ideas about colour and space first established by abstract art pioneers such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky in the 1910s. Other historic artists featured in the programme include the notorious Jackson Pollock, the maker of drip paintings, and Mark Rothko, whose abstractions often consist of nothing but large expanses of red. Collings explains the inner structure of such works. It turns out there are hidden rules to abstraction that viewers of this intriguing, groundbreaking programme may never have expected.
The John Moores Painting Prize is one of the country's most prestigious art awards. Established over 50 years ago by Sir John Moores, the man behind the Littlewoods pools empire, past winners include David Hockney, Richard Hamilton and Peter Doig, while Sir Peter Blake, who won the junior section in 1961, is now the prize's patron. Alexei Sayle has followed the prize avidly since he was a child growing up in Liverpool and it even inspired him to train as a painter at Chelsea School of Art, before a career as a stand-up comedian beckoned. In this film, Alexei returns to Liverpool to follow the progress of the 2014 John Moores Painting Prize. He visits some of the shortlisted artists in their studios and talks to Sir Peter Blake, Jake Chapman and Peter Doig about the importance of the award and goes behind the scenes at this year's award ceremony.
On a clear Autumn day in 1938, the Nazi flag was raised over Cardiff City Hall - a startling reminder of the respect, even admiration, that some in Wales felt towards Hitler. This story of political intrigue and espionage reveals how the Third Reich tried to exploit an ambivalence that stretched across the Welsh political spectrum. But ultimately the Germans' belief that they could recruit the Welsh to their cause would prove fatally damaging - not to Wales, but to the Nazis themselves.
Charting the journey of Ian Paisley from rabble-rousing preacher and divisive demagogue to the man whose final deal with his lifelong enemies helped bring political stability to Northern Ireland.
Cats are the most popular companion animals in the western world. In the UK their numbers have swollen to more than 10 million. This is great news for the cat lovers amongst us but for those who see Felis silvestris catus as nothing more than a garden pest, it can feel like an epidemic. Cat Wars meets those on both sides of the feline divide to find out what really gets people so worked up about the humble moggy. In Somerset, retiree Joe is desperately trying to defend his little corner of the world from fouling invaders. After years of trying to protect his prize vegetable patch, he is seeking help from Dave Jones, a self-professed expert in cat deterrents. Dave is armed with a plethora of gadgets, but will they work? In Beacon Heights, a community has become divided by an incumbent colony of feral cats. Half the residents want to evict the furry freeloaders, but the other half are becoming increasingly attached to their four-legged visitors. This difference of opinion will need to be resolved one way or another. In Southampton, Annie and her cat Buster are receiving house calls in the middle of the night from a mystery visitor, who is pinching Buster's dinner despite a state-of-the-art security cat flap. How is this possible? This BBC One documentary also meets some of the more fanatical cat owners out there, including Silvana and her 50 cats and Helen, who likes to take her prized pets for a stroll round the block in a baby buggy.
A unique amateur film provides the centrepiece of a documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of Scotland's great landmarks, the Forth Road Bridge. The documentary traces the memories of the people who built the bridge, the biggest of its kind in Europe at the time, as well as those who ran the Forth ferries that stopped running when it opened in 1964.
Recorded in front of a passionate Glasgow crowd in the historic Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, the show features Frankie at his brilliant best doing stand-up, review, discussion and audience interaction - all in an attempt to make sense of the recent Referendum result.
Peter Taylor has been covering the conflict in Northern Ireland for more than 40 years. On the 20th anniversary of the 1994 ceasefires, he makes a personal assessment of who really 'won the war'.
A feature-length documentary about one of the most successful British bands in rock music, reuniting Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett to tell their story. The film recounts their extraordinary musical story, exploring the songwriting and the emotional highs and lows. It features previously unseen archive material and rare footage from across their entire career. It was broadcast on Showtime in the US and released on home video under the title 'Genesis: The Sum Of The Parts.'
For two generations the Dunlop family from Northern Ireland has dominated motorcycle road racing. Narrated by Liam Neeson, this documentary is the dramatic, tragic and inspirational story of two sets of Dunlop brothers - Joey and Robert, William and Michael. Brothers united by success, and united by loss.
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, America went down in popular history as the winner of the space race. But that history is bunk. The real pioneers of space exploration were the Soviet cosmonauts. This remarkable feature-length documentary combines rare and unseen archive footage with interviews with the surviving cosmonauts to tell the fascinating and at times terrifying story of how the Russians led us into the space age.
Former England cricketer and Strictly Come Dancing winner Mark Ramprakash learns and performs the traditional Indian folk dances which are a key part of the Hindu religious festival of Navratri. In the process, Mark learns more about the meaning behind the celebration.
First published to bring news from the trenches of World War One, the Sunday Post has become a Scottish icon and - according to the Guinness Book of Records - the most successful newspaper in the world. Narrated by Dundee's own Brian Cox, A Century of Scottish Sundays: 100 Years of the Sunday Post tells the story of this well-loved newspaper from the city of 'jute, jam and journalism'. Post columnists Lorraine Kelly, Ross King and Lesley Riddoch take part, along with celebrity readers like Alex Norton and John Michie. Lorraine describes her guest appearance in the Post's Oor Wullie cartoon as being even better than receiving her OBE! Sunday Post editor Donald Martin is in the spotlight, with cameras following him as he produces an edition. Donald is only the sixth editor in the Post's 100 year history - and his task is to embrace modernity and attract a new audience without alienating loyal readers.
On the 20th anniversary of the 1994 ceasefires in Northern Ireland, this documentary explores the background to those momentous events and the tragic human cost of the final months of the Troubles.
'Riding the Ridge' is a documentary following Scottish cycling star Danny MacAskill as he attempts to create an incredible new viral film on and around one of the most dramatic mountain ranges in Scotland, the Black Cuillin in Skye. Danny and his film crew spent ten days on the shoot, enduring long treks and tricky terrain, all in a bid to capture Danny performing in this most thrilling and challenging environment.
In 1988 the first and only Afghan astronaut, Ahad Momand, went into space. He spent a week on the Russian space station Mir and was welcomed back a hero. But civil war tore his country apart and Ahad fled with his family to Germany. A quarter of a century later, with his country still suffering violence, Ahad now wants to revisit his historic space mission. He travels first to Moscow, where he relives the joys and dangers of his flight, before returning to Afghanistan hoping to inspire a new generation of Afghans by telling his story once more.
Documentary following a team of maritime archaeologists as they uncover the remarkable city of Heracleion, lost to the sea and forgotten for over two thousand years. In the fading days of the pharaohs, the city of Heracleion was the gateway to Egypt and a port beyond compare. In the 4th century BC, this was an opulent and prosperous place adorned with statues and sphinxes. It was a city of religious significance and home to the temple of Amun. In the 2nd century BC it was wiped off the face of the earth. In a mysterious subsidence, the coastline dropped by over 20ft and Heracleion was consumed by the sea. The lost city slept for centuries beneath the waters of the Mediterranean. In 2000, archaeologists made an incredible find. Using ancient texts, they discovered the city's remains six kilometres off the Egyptian coast and only 10 metres underwater. Pristinely preserved, it is an archaeological jewel - an ancient Egyptian city frozen in time. The glorious temples, statues, houses and boats of the cities lie perfectly preserved by the sea, providing a snapshot of ancient Egyptian life. But many mysteries remain. What caused this sacred city to plunge into the sea? And why did its inhabitants deliberately sink over 65 ancient warships?
Swap My Council House charts the growing phenomenon of the mutual exchange - where social housing tenants simply swap their homes in order to move house. Since the introduction of the spare room subsidy or so-called bedroom tax last year, there has been a massive upsurge in the number of tenants needing to move. And many of them are resorting to swapping to downsize, upsize, or build a new life hundreds of miles away. But just how easy is it to swap? We follow five groups and families who are hoping to move, to reveal first hand the truth about home swapping. Devon cabbie Cheryl McCarthy and her family are about to complete a 300-mile swap from Plymouth to Eccles, Greater Manchester - she thinks Manchester will provide a better life for her children. Cheryl is swapping homes with Jeni Burdett and partner Keith Ainger who want to live closer to the sea. Claire Webb and her family are involved in a rather more complicated three-way swap. But will a faulty electrical inspection scupper the whole move? Some tenants live in homes no-one fancies swapping to. Francis Harris from Vange needs to downsize as a matter of urgency as she can't afford the spare room tax, but sadly there's no queue of potential swappers for Vange, a former mining village near Basildon. And former model and actress Jenny Rainbird, who wants to upsize to a two-bedroom in Wimbledon, is also stuck - her one-bed flat in leafy Epson is proving hard to swap - possibly because it's painted bright pink throughout. And while some tenants are stuck in seemingly unswappable homes, others can't stop swapping - we meet Jane Martin who has moved from one council house to another 18 times.
Icarus-like, Rembrandt flew ever higher towards the sun - the most successful artist in the richest city on earth, 17th-century Amsterdam. He lived like a prince and he loved living like a prince. But when his fall came - deep into bankruptcy and scandal, poverty and unfashionability - far from destroying him, it took him to new creative heights and a sense of humanity and the human condition that speaks more directly to us today than Rembrandt in his heyday. Simon Schama celebrates the masterpieces of the last years to coincide with the National Gallery's major exhibition on late Rembrandt.
As good as any Dickens novel, this is the triumphant and tragic story of the greatest architectural dynasty of the 19th century. Dan Cruickshank charts the rise of Sir George Gilbert Scott to the very heights of success, the fall of his son George Junior and the rise again of his grandson Giles It is a story of architects bent on a mission to rebuild Britain. From the Romantic heights of the Midland Hotel at St Pancras station to the modern image of Bankside power station (now Tate Modern), this is the story of a family that shaped the Victorian age and left a giant legacy.
For the first time, the inner secrets of the gunpowder plotters are dramatised using the actual words of their most senior captured leader Thomas Wintour, Guy Fawkes and state interrogators investigating the 18-month conspiracy in which a family circle of militant Catholic gentlemen tried to blow up King and Parliament. Wintour's insider account of this epic tale of faith, fanaticism, persecution and betrayal is told in detail, from his recruitment of both Fawkes and his own brother, to his capture in a dramatic siege and bloody shoot out on November 8th. The hopes, fears and plans for a Midlands rebellion, royal kidnap, the plotters' penetration of the King's bodyguard and Fawkes' attendance, sword in hand, at a wedding attended by the King in December 1604 are shown, as well as a dramatisation of the thrilling, forgotten story of the final days after 5/11 as the conspirators are hunted down and then face the terrible punishments reserved for traitors.
What killed King Tutankhamun? Ever since his spectacular tomb was discovered, the boy king has been the most famous pharaoh of all ancient Egypt. But his mysterious death, at just 19 years old, has never been explained. In this BBC One special, presenter Dallas Campbell reveals new scientific research and carries out unique experiments to get to the truth. For the first time, a virtual autopsy of Tut's mummified body reveals astonishing secrets about the pharaoh. Using CT scan data, the programme creates the first ever full size, scientifically accurate image of the real Tutankhamun. Brand new DNA analysis uncovers a shocking secret about Tut's family background, and the genetic trail of clues leads to a radical and revolutionary new theory to explain Tut's sudden and unexpected death. This is an epic detective story that uncovers the extraordinary truth of the boy behind the golden mask.
Medieval historian Dr Janina Ramirez looks back to a time when British craftsmen and their patrons created a new form of architecture. The art and architecture of France would dominate England for much of the medieval age. Yet British stone masons and builders would make Gothic architecture their own, inventing a national style for the first time - Perpendicular Gothic - and giving Britain a patriotic backdrop to suit its new ambitions of chivalry and power. From a grand debut at Gloucester Cathedral to commemorate a murdered king to its final glorious flowering at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, the Perpendicular age was Britain's finest.
Who failed Baby P? The social workers and a single doctor have taken the blame from the public and the press, but were there other professionals who might have saved Peter Connelly? And if so, why did we never hear about it? Featuring interviews with many people who've never discussed the story before, including Haringey's former head of children's services Sharon Shoesmith, Peter's social worker Maria Ward and Nasim O'Subhi, husband of the doctor who allegedly missed Peter's broken back, the film reveals the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring that pushed some professionals into the spotlight and left others hidden in the shadows.
Leadership expert and the BBC's CEO Guru, Steve Tappin tells the story of an exclusive group of China's top entrepreneurs. They got together around a decade ago to try to help improve the image of the business community in a country where, not long ago, there was little in the way of a market economy. The result was the establishment of an exclusive club of 46 of the top business people in China, which counts billionaires like Jack Ma of Alibaba amongst its members. Through unique and revealing interviews with club members, this programme tells the story of how the first businesses in China were established after the economic reforms of the 1980s, and the challenges that China's first generation of innovators encountered on their path to success. What drove them to innovate, and what are their visions for their companies, their products, and their country?
Ever wondered what spiders really get up to in your home? In this Halloween special Alice Roberts overcomes her arachnophobia to enter a spider-filled house where an astonishing drama unfolds within its walls. Inside she meets entomologist Tim Cockerill, who loves spiders and quickly immerses Alice in the wonders of web building, the secrets of fly catching and the dangerous spider-eat-spider world they inhabit. Tim wants us to welcome spiders into our homes. Think of all the flies and unwanted insects they kill. He takes Alice on a macro-mystery tour of the rooms of the Spider House, revealing what goes on in the cracks and crannies of our homes. Why do we always find spiders in the bathroom? They seem to lie in wait in our bathtubs. And what happens if we flush them down the plughole? Using powerful macro-photography, Tim and Alice find out. In the dining room, they uncover the complex engineering behind the most beautifully constructed 'dinner plate' in the home - a spider's web. In the kitchen Alice witnesses the extraordinary hunting ability of the keen-eyed jumping spider, while Tim finds out how spiders kill their prey using venom. In the bedroom, the secrets of spider courtship are revealed. For spiders, mating is a high-stakes life-or-death game, where males risk being eaten by females. In the nursery, we enter an enchanting cocoon where tiny spiderlings struggle out of their exoskeletons - the first of many moults on the road to becoming adult spiders. Meanwhile, down in the cellar, we meet an unexpectedly voracious killer - the daddy longlegs. Many of us have a love-hate relationship with spiders. The rational side of Alice Roberts understands their benefits, but can she overcome her irrational fears? She faces the ultimate challenge: to spend the night alone... with the spiders... in Spider House.
Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling voyage through European horror cinema. From the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the wake of World War I to lesbian vampires in 1970s Belgium, from the black-gloved killers of Italy's bloody Giallo thrillers to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, Mark reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition. On a journey that spans the continent from Ostend to Slovakia, Mark explores classic filming locations and talks to the genre's leading talents, including directors Dario Argento and Guillermo del Toro.
Angela MacLean brings us the untold story of HMS Timbertown where sailors from Lewis became prisoners of neutrality. After the fall of Antwerp in October 1914, 1,500 men from Winston Churchill's newly formed Royal Naval Divison crossed the border into the neutral Netherlands to evade capture from the German Army. Incredibly, 102 men from that number came from the Isle of Lewis. These men would be interned in a camp in the Netherlands for the duration of the war. For the first time, Angela MacLean retraces the journey they took through the fort at Antwerp, to the border crossing with the Netherlands and finally to the town of Groningen where wooden huts were built to house the men in a camp which became known as HMS Timbertown. Angela uncovers what life was like in the camp: from the highs of the football matches, to the lows of failed escape attempts and the reality of death.
Showing as part of the BBC Wales Real Families season. Research suggests that we are having less sex than previous generations. This film sets out to find out what has changed. We look back over the last five decades to see what has shaped and defined our attitudes to sex and our sex lives to understand why now, in the 21st century, sex is losing its appeal. We meet experts and professionals, and take the 'tent of love' out onto the streets of Wales and invite the nation to share its experiences of sex, love and cwtches.
The greatest, spookiest, most productive literary house party in horror history is at the core of this lightning-lashed documentary. Actors re-create the dark, debauched summer of 1816 in a villa by Lake Geneva in Switzerland when Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and two of their friends drank, took drugs, had sex and wrote ghost stories.
Professor Brian Cox is joined by two of his heroes, the actor Brian Blessed and Professor Alice Roberts. On the agenda are his TV idols from both science fiction and science fact, as well as a whole universe of other stuff.
Lost Treasures of the Sikh Kingdom In the birthday week of the founder of Sikhism, TV auctioneer James Lewis tells the story of the lost treasures of the 19th-century maharajah, Ranjit Singh.
Film telling the story of the greatest physicists of the 20th century and the discoveries they made, told in their own words. Men and women who transformed our understanding of the universe, from unlocking the secrets of the atom to solving the mysteries of the cosmos. Revealing archive provides a unique insight into the lives and personalities of a cast of complex characters, eccentric geniuses and fantastic showmen who had to overcome personal struggles and intense rivalries before they could succeed. The film reveals the human side of scientific endeavour and shows how the great advances in our understanding of the cosmos depended on the character and personality of the scientists who made them, as much as on their intellectual abilities.
The late Jack Bruce fronted the 1960s supergroup Cream alongside Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker and has played with everyone from Marvin Gaye to Jimi Hendrix and from Lulu to Lou Reed. ArtWorks Scotland tells the story of his life, from childhood in Scotland to global superstardom, through some of Jack's favourite songs and with contributions from Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Flea of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Adam Clayton of U2. The story encompasses some of the biggest riffs and rifts in rock, taking in family tragedy, drugs and near death. A specially chosen set of six songs mark crucial moments in Jack's life, including Cream's Sunshine of Your Love. Jack rerecorded the tracks with some of Scotland's finest musicians including folk trio Lau, percussionist Jim Sutherland, keyboard player Andy May, guitarist Taj Wyzgowski, drummer Chris Peacock, his nephew Nico Bruce on bass and string ensemble Mr McFall's Chamber.
In this moving tribute to the teenage heroes of the Great War, Fergal Keane unearths the most powerful stories of Britain's boy soldiers. With as many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 having served in the British Army during World War I, and with every tenth volunteer lying about his age, Fergal looks to find out what made them enlist. Was it motivated by patriotism or the spirit of adventure? Fergal follows the children into the trenches to see how they coped with the reality of war. He explores how, as the casualties began to mount, a movement grew in Britain to get them home. Fergal also meets the children and grandchildren of these former boy solders, uncovering heartrending, but often uplifting, stories and taking them on an emotional journey to the places where their ancestors trained and fought.
This historical biography of the city that is the glittering hub of country music reveals the dynamic relationship between commerce and art, music and the market, that has defined Nashville since 1925. It explores the conflicts and demons that have confronted Nashville's artists and music industry down the years, such as the creative pressures of the 'Nashville Sound', the devastating impact of Elvis and then Bob Dylan, the rise and fall of the urban cowboys and the struggle of several Nashville legends to confront their inner demons. The story unfolds through the testimony of musicians, producers, broadcasters and rare archive of the country legends. These include Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Willie Nelson, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson and several hitmaking contemporary stars, Kasey Musgraves, Brad Paisley and Jason Aldean. This cast reveal the unique power of country music to hold up a mirror to its fans and create a music that has - for decades - touched the hearts of the South and of working people. Kristofferson calls it the 'white man's soul music'. Also featured are extensive musical performances by Nashville's greatest, from Johnny Cash to Loretta Lynn and George Jones to Garth Brooks. Several of Nashville's younger stars describe their ongoing journey from their hometowns in the South to the streets of this city, from the first studio demos and the sawdust of the Broadway bars to the stadiums and promo videos that now define country stardom.
Dan Snow recreates a map of Europe on the beach in Blackpool to reveal the geopolitics of the continent as it stood on the brink of World War I. The sequence of crises that took place can seem murky to the uninitiated. Time and the recriminations of the parties involved have combined to make the events that led to war seem ambiguous and confusing. Now, using remarkable sand art, Dan brings his clarity of style and presentation to the subject, shedding new light on our descent into the war and unravelling the reasons behind a conflict that is fast receding in our collective memory.
A rare chance to see Robert Elfstrom's 1969 classic film that captures the Man in Black at his peak, the first of many in a looming rollercoaster career. Fresh on the heels of his Folsom Prison album, Cash reveals the dark intensity and raw talent that made him a country music star and cultural icon. Elfstrom got closer than any other filmmaker to Cash, who is seen performing with his new bride June Carter Cash, in a rare duet with Bob Dylan and behind the scenes with friends, family and aspiring young musicians - painting an unforgettable portrait that endures beyond the singer's death in 2003.
'Whispering' Bob Harris journeys to America's country music capital to reveal why Nashville became Music City USA. From the beginnings of the Grand Ole Opry on commercial radio, through the threatening onset of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s, right up to the modern mainstream hits of Music Row, this is the story of how music has shaped Nashville and why today it's a place of pilgrimage for musicians from all over the world. As well as iconic venues on Lower Broadway and the historic hit factories of 16th Avenue, Bob also explores the East Nashville music scene and discovers a rebellious flipside to the country coin. With exclusive performances from the city's top talent, Bob explains why country music owes its enduring success to Nashville's unique nurturing community of songwriters. Includes interviews with Emmylou Harris, Duane Eddy, Dave Stewart and Rosanne Cash.
The 1916 Battle of the Somme remains the most famous battle of World War I, remembered for its bloodshed and its limited territorial gains. What is often overlooked, however, is the literary importance of the Somme: more writers and poets fought in it than in any other battle in history. Narrated by Michael Sheen, War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme details the experiences of the poets and writers who served in the battle. The work of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Jones, Isaac Rosenberg and JRR Tolkien (who arrived at the Western Front with ambitions to be a poet) was informed and transformed by the battle. Taken together, their experiences allow us to see this dreadful historical event through multiple points of view. War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme uses animation, documentary accounts, surviving artefacts, battalion war diaries and the landscape itself to reconnect this literature to the events that inspired it.
The burning double-decker bus may have become the defining image of the Troubles, but little is known about the workers who risked life and limb to keep the buses running during the darkest of days. This is the story of the bus drivers, led by the extraordinary German Werner Heubeck, who struggled to maintain a sense of normality in the face of constant threats and hijacks.
Eyewitness accounts from history, brought to life in animation for a young audience. Elderly survivors recount their childhood experiences of Nazi atrocities, their escape from occupied mainland Europe to Britain, adapting to life in the UK and the impact on their lives subsequently. Ruth is a five-year-old girl escaping from eastern Germany and from Nazi-occupied Prague. She arrives in England the moment war is declared. Martin is an eight-year-old boy, expelled from Germany to Poland in the middle of the night by the Nazis, who escapes to England only to experience the worst of the Blitz in Coventry. Trude is a frightened nine-year-old brought to England without her family on the Kindertransport, who struggles to adapt to life in Britain away from her parents. Heinz is a 13-year-old boy who witnesses the effects of anti-Jewish laws, Nazi demonstrations and pogroms, and escapes persecution in Germany only to be arrested as an 'enemy alien' in Britain. Resourceful 14-year-old Arek survives against all odds in appalling conditions in the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Suzanne, aged six, is violently separated from her parents in Nazi-occupied Paris. Deprived of her family, freedom and education, she is hidden in the countryside and forced to work on a farm. We also get a chance to meet the real-life survivors today in short, on-camera interviews, which reflect on the effect these experiences have had on their adult lives.
The history of the notorious Peterhead Prison, which shut its doors in 2013, as told by former governors, prison officers and inmates. From the colourful history of famous prisoners like Jimmy Boyle and regular escapee Johnny Remensky, to the rooftop riots of the 1980s, and becoming a world centre of excellence in dealing with sex offenders in the 1990s. Alongside the old jail, the new HMP & YOI Grampian jail is being built and architects and builders show how Scotland's newest superjail is designed and constructed for the 21st century, with a rehabilitation focus rather than punishment, closer to the model demonstrated by Halden prison in Norway.
Rugby players have become stronger and faster, and the style of play more physical. With bigger crashes and bashes, what are the long-term effects on players? Tim Rogers investigates.
Michael Grade reveals the extraordinary and utterly unique story of General Tom Thumb, the world's first global show business celebrity. Just 31 inches tall, he went from humble beginnings in America to international superstardom, eventually performing on stage before over 50 million people, including President Lincoln and a devoted Queen Victoria. Yet Tom Thumb didn't choose his own career and his selling point was his disability. Is this story one of success or exploitation? And why do we remain just as fascinated by performers with unusual bodies? As an impresario and lifelong entertainment devotee Michael sets out to follow the remarkable life of Tom Thumb (real name Charles Stratton) from his discovery aged four by the legendary showman PT Barnum to his setting out on the first ever show business world tour. The journey takes him to New York and across snowy New England, then back to the UK to discover how adored Stratton was by the British public. It features exquisite hand-made suits, tiny bespoke carriages and the first ever visit by a film crew to Stratton's specially designed home, complete with miniature staircase. Looking to our own times, Michael meets contemporary entertainers to find out what it's like to be a little person or disabled actor today, and asks whether it's ever right for us to be entertained by people with unusual bodies. Expecting a tale of exploitation, in Stratton Michael eventually discovers the story of man who made the very most of his situation and had a truly unforgettable life. And in the process there is a discovery that rewrites the history of Charles Stratton, suggesting he may have had a long-forgotten baby.
Following the Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste and choir as they make their debut UK visit, the latest step in an extraordinary odyssey for the world's first all-black orchestra.
Nigel Slater takes us on a nostalgic, funny and heartwarming journey back in time exploring the earliest origins of cake in Britain, charting the ways in which Neolithic man used to munch on flat compacted handfuls of grain, through to the ways in which Elizabethan cooks discovered the magical raising agent that is the egg white and the impact of developments in kitchen technology on our cake consumption. Cake has come a long way from its earliest manifestations and Nigel brings this tastiest of culinary histories to life. He finds out about the ancient rituals surrounding the baking and eating of cake and the ways in which buns were once considered too risqué for us common folk and so were banned. He goes back to school to learn about the science behind a successful bake, explores whether our desire to eat cake really is just a question of mind over matter, examines the rise and popularity of the cupcake and comes face to face with some grisly cakes created by bakers hoping to revolutionise what we mean when we refer to a cake. Reflecting on the cakes of his youth and childhood, Nigel examines the mass appeal of a culinary creation that can be defined by that most appropriate of phrases 'naughty but nice'. Whether it be homemade cakes courtesy of Auntie Marjorie or a Battenburg bought from the corner shop, for Nigel a cake is all about sharing and so here he shares the story of British cake.
Examining the life and career of the artist who 'knows when to hold 'em and knows when to fold 'em', this documentary chronicles Kenny Rogers's remarkable rise to the top of his game and the golden era of country music he ushered in. With an exclusive, candid interview from Rogers himself and performance footage gathered on his recent Through the Years tour, this honest and eye-opening film provides a backstage pass to a remarkable 50-year career of performing and recording. Associates and luminaries provide personal insight into how the poor, music-obsessed boy from Houston, Texas went on to become a superstar with over 120 million albums sold worldwide. Singer, songwriter and producer Kim Carnes recalls how the New Christy Minstrels folk group - of which she and Kenny were members in the late 1960s - was like a 'school on the road' that provided them both with a springboard from which to explore other musical ambitions. Actor and musician Mickey Jones recounts his time with Kenny in the band The First Edition, whose hit single Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) made Kenny an unlikely poster boy for the psychedelic generation. Long-time friend Lionel Richie reveals how a trip to the bathroom played a crucial role in the recording session for Lady, one of Kenny's biggest hits. Away from music, the programme reveals how Kenny's drive and ambition - what he describes as his 'impulsive-obsessive' nature - led to success in other fields: according to the renowned photographer John Sexton, the country music legend was determined to master the art of photography (Kenny was recently awarded an honorary Master of Photography degree by the Professional Photographers Association). For over half a century, Kenny has kept us entertained with some of the best-known and beloved music ever recorded. With a career spanning everything from jazz to folk, 60s psychedelia to R'n'B, perhaps his real legacy lies in the fact that he introduced a tr
One iconic black box has probably more than anything else come to define the sound of rock - the Marshall amplifier. It has been, quite literally, behind some of the greatest names in modern music. It all started in 1962 when drum shop owner Jim Marshall discovered the distinctive growl that gave the electric guitar an exciting new voice. Music got a whole lot louder as young musicians like Clapton, Townshend and Hendrix adopted the revolutionary 'Marshall Sound'. The electric guitar now spoke for a new generation and the genre of rock was born. Soon Marshall stacks and walls were an essential backdrop of rock 'n' roll. The excesses of rock machismo were gloriously lampooned in the 1984 movie This is Spinal Tap. In an extrodinary piece of reverse irony, it was this comic exposure that rescued the company from financial meltdown. With contributions from rock legends like Pete Townshend, Lemmy and Slash, plus an interview with the 'Father of Loud' Jim Marshall, this documentary cruises down the rock ages with all the dials set to 'eleven'.
The late Jack Bruce, most known for fronting the 1960s supergroup Cream alongside Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, is documented working at Abbey Road Studios on his latest and final album, Silver Rails, which was released in March of this year. The behind the scenes story documents the recording process, Jack discussing the motivation behind the project and the individual songs, as well as interviews with the albumʼs contributors including Pete Brown, Phil Manzanera, Robin Trower, Cindy Blackman Santana, John Medeski, Jack's family members and many more. Jack touches on his first time recording at Abbey Road in 1965 with The Graham Bond Organisation as well as Silver Rails being a follow up to his 1969 debut album Songs For A Tailor and how this fourteenth solo album looks back on his life.
Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the death of Jane Haining, the only Scottish woman currently known to have been killed in Auschwitz. Jane Haining is honoured in Budapest's famous Dohany Street synagogue and named as Righteous Among the Nations in Jerusalem's sacred Yad Vashem, but this is the first television programme ever made about this humble but heroic Scot.
Twenty-five years after his death in July 1989, the controversial Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan remains an enigma. He was the most successful conductor in the history of classical music. Many of those recordings - of Italian opera, of Wagner and Richard Strauss, of Sibelius, Beethoven and Brahms - are treasured by music lovers around the world. Yet, even at the peak of his fame, his performances were variously criticised for being too opulent, too manicured, lacking warmth or spiritual depth. This musical profile explores the many paradoxes in the life and music of this controversial figure, who forged his international reputation in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra shortly after the end of the Second World War and went on to reign supreme in the classical music world during his three decades with the Berlin Philharmonic. The film also examines Karajan's belief in the visual power of music, and his determination to leave behind a substantial legacy of music on film. Karajan was famous not only for his music, but also his glittering off-duty moments on the ski slopes, piloting his own jet, sailing his yacht and driving top-of-the-range fast cars. Yet, at the same time, he was a solitary man with few friends, who drew his strength from long walks in the Austrian mountains. In this feature-length profile, the first ever made about Karajan for BBC Television, those who worked closely with Karajan, including singers Placido Domingo and Jessye Norman, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, conductors Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Neville Marriner and flautist Sir James Galway, speak of his almost magical power as a conductor and the reality that lay behind the Karajan myth.
Documentary telling the story of funk, an irresistible style of music that burst out of the American black community at a time of self-discovery, struggle and social change. In the 1970s, America was one nation under a groove as an irresistible new style of music took hold of the country - funk. The music burst out of the black community at a time of self-discovery, struggle and social change. Funk reflected all of that. It has produced some of the most famous, eccentric and best-loved acts in the world - James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, George Clinton's Funkadelic and Parliament, Kool & the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire. During the 1970s this fun, futuristic and freaky music changed the streets of America with its outrageous fashion, space-age vision and streetwise slang. But more than that, funk was a celebration of being black, providing a platform for a new philosophy, belief system and lifestyle that was able to unite young black Americans into taking pride in who they were. Today, like blues and jazz, it is looked on as one of the great American musical cultures, its rhythms and hooks reverberating throughout popular music. Without it hip-hop wouldn't have happened. Dance music would have no groove. This documentary tells that story, exploring the music and artists who created a positive soundtrack at a negative time for African-Americans. Includes new interviews with George Clinton, Sly & the Family Stone, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang, War, Cameo, Ray Parker Jnr and trombonist Fred Wesley.
In this moving tribute to the teenage heroes of the Great War, Fergal Keane unearths the most powerful stories of Britain's boy soldiers. With as many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 having served in the British Army during World War I, and with every tenth volunteer lying about his age, Fergal looks to find out what made them enlist. Was it motivated by patriotism or the spirit of adventure? Fergal follows the children into the trenches to see how they coped with the reality of war. He explores how, as the casualties began to mount, a movement grew in Britain to get them home. Fergal also meets the children and grandchildren of these former boy solders, uncovering heartrending, but often uplifting, stories and taking them on an emotional journey to the places where their ancestors trained and fought.
A very personal portrait of the truly unique comedy genius of Spike Milligan, as told in his own words and featuring exclusive home movie footage. With contributions from those who worked with him, lived with him and were inspired by him.
With more people taking a wider range of drugs than ever before, Radio 1 DJ B. Traits meets users and dealers to find out how much they really know about their drugs - and whether they're safe. After a decade working in some of the biggest clubs in the world, she worries that many people have no idea what they're taking, and are being sold drugs that aren't what they think. With exclusive access to high profile clubs in Britain and Ibiza, and to emergency services struggling to deal with the latest compounds they know little about, she explores why drug-related deaths in the UK have suddenly increased, and how much of that is down to the rapid growth of legal highs. As she talks to families at odds over drugs and to dealers who don't care about the contents or effects of what they're selling, she discovers the realities of the country's constantly changing drugs market, putting aside moral judgements and political debates to find out how the thousands of people who regularly take drugs can stay safe. Is it time for a new approach? She also meets Dr Zee - the man who invented legal highs, who claims he's invented a new drug that he says 'has all the fun, but none of the risk'. Is he right?
The story of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who became the first person to sail around the world solo in 1969 and has returned to single-handed racing at the age of 75.
The documentary Russell Brand made for BBC Three in 2012 concluded with him giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee. Drawing on his own experience of drug taking and recovery, he advocated treating addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal problem and underlined his own belief that abstinence is the best way to help addicts. Since then the Committee has reported its findings, concluding that the British drugs laws were failing and that it was a 'now or never' moment to reform them. But David Cameron didn't agree, insisting that the drugs policy is working in Britain and that we should 'stick at it'. In this personal journey for BBC Three, Russell Brand sets out to challenge that point of view. He wants to find out how other countries are tackling their problems of drug abuse and to explore how the framework of criminalization implicit in the 'war on drugs' produces enormous harm in the treatment of addicts. Russell believes that 'a shift' is happening in the way that people view drug addiction. But to really change things he needs to persuade those who have power. Russell starts on the frontline of the 'war on drugs' by joining the Met Police as they carry out dawn drug raids, and ends up sharing a police cell with a young addict who has been in and out of prison since she began taking drugs aged 12. He witnesses the dangers of street addiction in Birmingham, but is as shocked by what he sees in the legal 'drug-consumption room' he visits in Berne, capital of conservative Switzerland. At a drug recovery conference, Russell is drawn into an argument about abstinence versus government methadone programmes, but also finds an unlikely ally for his campaign in a Tory lord. At a UN drugs conference in Vienna he meets the politician who in 2001 decriminalized drugs in Portugal. What Russell discovers from him informs his impassioned plea at the end of the conference that drugs should be decriminalized. As he takes his argument public, R
A selection of some of funk's best artists from the BBC archives and beyond, beginning in the 1970s. Includes performances from acts such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang, Average White Band and Herbie Hancock.
Rhod Gilbert faces the toughest challenge of his life when he attempts to climb Kilimanjaro. Together with celebrities, comedians and fundraisers, Rhod sets out into some of the worst weather conditions experienced on the infamous African mountain. Rhod attempts to overcome a chronic lack of fitness to complete the challenge, while shooting his own film of this extraordinary adventure.
Michael Grade tells a tale of television skullduggery and dirty dealings in the battle to win the Saturday night ratings crown.
Guilty pleasure or genius, misfits or mavericks, noble or naff - how do we really feel about the Bee Gees? Are the brothers Gibb a cacophony of falsettos or songwriting maestros, the soundtrack to every office party or masters of melancholy and existential rage? Are they comedy or Tragedy? How deep is our love and how deep are the Bee Gees? With a back catalogue that includes hits like How Do You Mend a Broken Heart, Massachusetts, Islands in the Stream, Stayin' Alive, Chain Reaction, How Deep Is Your Love, Gotta Get a Message to You, Words, To Love Somebody and Night Fever, the Bee Gees are second only to the Beatles in the 20th-century songwriting pantheon, but while their pop success spans several decades, there are different Bee Gees in different eras. Is there a central glue that unites the brothers and their music and, if so, what is it? The Joy of the Bee Gees features a rare interview with the last remaining Bee Gee brother, Barry Gibb, many of those musicians and industry figures who have worked with them closely over the years, and a surprising cast of Bee Gees aficionados including John Lydon, Ana Matronic, Guy Chambers, Mykaell Riley and Alexis Petridis, who together share their stories and their insights into the band whose music and image moved us in the 60s and defined pop culture in the mid-to-late 1970s. The film explores how the band were iconoclasts and outsiders, brothers in the family business, who worked best when together but who grew up and played out their fraternal struggles in public. The brothers went from child stars on the Australian variety circuit to competitors with the Beatles in the UK charts in the late 60s, scoring number one hits while still only teenagers. In the mid-70s, the former 'beat group' reimagined themselves as a close-knit soul boy trio. The Saturday Night Fever album shot them to global superstardom and every radio station played a song written, produced or sung by The Bee Gees. The saturation of their music and t
Comedian Rik Mayall died suddenly on 9 June 2014. Mayall's blend of rocket-fuelled physical comedy, surrealism, subversive satire and pompous punk wit left a body of work that spanned four decades. Mayall's characters include the Black Country's investigative nerd Kevin Turvey, Felicity Kendal-adoring student and 'People's Poet' Rik in The Young Ones, ruthless MP Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman, seedy loser Richie in Bottom and larger-than-life characters Robin Hood and flying ace Lord Flashheart from Blackadder. Narrated by Simon Callow, this programme salutes Rik Mayall and celebrates his part in the UK's comedy history using rare and unseen archive footage. It also features contributions from people who knew or admired him, including Michael Palin, Simon Pegg, Lenny Henry, Ben Elton, Alexei Sayle, Christopher Ryan, Tim McInnerny, Jools Holland, Ruby Wax and Greg Davies.
Sammy Davis Jr was born to entertain. He was a human dynamo who made his debut at the age of five and by the time he was a teenager was wowing audiences across America. A gifted dancer, actor and singer, and a key member of the Rat Pack, Davis is best remembered for his unforgettable rendition of Mr Bojangles and his No 1 single, The Candyman. However, as a black man, making his way in the entertainment business saw him struggle to overcome racial prejudice, letter bombs and death threats. Davis fought back with his talent and in the 1960s marched alongside Dr Martin Luther King. Despite his reputation as a civil rights campaigner and one of the world's greatest entertainers, Davis remains an enigma. Those closest to him tell of a man never quite comfortable in his own skin, a workaholic and spendaholic who put his career before his family and who died leaving them millions of dollars in debt. This documentary is Sammy Davis Jr's remarkable life story - his rise and his fall - told by those who knew him best. For the first time his family and friends including Paul Anka, Engelbert Humperdinck, Reverend Jesse Jackson and Ben Vereen share their memories - shedding new light on the legacy of one of the most gifted and loved performers in show business.
Len Goodman investigates the rise and fall of British big band music, and charts its recent revival. Before the war, popular jazz and dance band music enjoyed universal appeal, capable of reaching out to people across the generations. Len spent many of his early days listening, and of course dancing, to the music of Ted Heath, Glenn Miller and Joe Loss. He has an enormous affection for the days when swing was king and top of the pile were the big bands. Len returns to some of his old stamping grounds and discovers why we continue to love this bold and brassy art form. The film looks at how the bands survived, and indeed thrived, in the years after the war. Eventually, though, the world around them moved on. The rise of teenager culture, rock 'n' roll, pop and other forms of jazz, blues and folk meant big bands were struggling to compete in a crowded market, one that catered for an incredibly diverse range of musical tastes. Today we've come full circle. The big bands are enjoying something of a revival, and once again have universal appeal. Bands live on in towns and cities across the UK. Artists such as Robbie Williams have also introduced a new generation to the sound of swing and popular big band jazz. And, as Len says: 'Everyone seems to have an affection for it - and, you know what - when I hear Glenn Miller's music drifting lazily through the air, I can really understand why...'.
17-year-old Jane Park is one of the youngest ever lottery winners. She won £1,000,000 with her first ever lucky dip. We follow Jane over the course of her first year as a millionaire as she tries to figure out what to do with her new-found wealth. There are adventures in Benidorm and Magaluf and a love affair with a chihuahua called Princess.
An inside look at Scotland's fairs, which are run by the Showmen's Guild - this year celebrating its 125th anniversary. Showman and expert Mitchell Miller reveals the reality of life in the fairs, the ups and downs, the challenges and the thrills. With archive film from every decade since 1908, including never-before-seen home movies, and following families on their summer to winter runs, this is a look behind the bright lights at a unique and threatened way of life.
Documentary telling the story behind the success of Julie Walters. Includes interviews with Victoria Wood, Celia Imrie, Rupert Grint, Alan Bleasdale, Willy Russell, Gary Lewis and Hugh Bonneville.
On the 60th anniversary of this Christmas institution, Juliet Stevenson narrates the story of Carols from King's, how it was first televised in 1954 and how each year the soloist is selected for the traditional opening of Once In Royal David's City.
Professor Vernon Bogdanor delivers a lecture on the 1945 general election at the Museum of London.
Professor Linda Colley delivers a lecture at Guildhall on the Magna Carta in the run up to its 800th anniversary.
David Meade is about to face his biggest ever challenge - can he win one million dollars? He's always been curious about gambling and is convinced he must be able to figure out how to beat the odds using his mentalist powers. Along the way he meets the winners, the losers and the experts before heading to Las Vegas, Nevada, to put his theories to the test. Can he really beat the casinos at their own game?
That Musical We Made is an honest and funny look at the making of a musical. Victoria Wood takes us behind the scenes of That Day We Sang, the film she wrote and directed. She shows us the whole process, skipping only the actual writing, which would be very dull to watch as it's mainly Victoria staring out at her bins. But the cameras have captured every other bit of the whole complicated process - from the first day of orchestral recording to the last shout of 'cut!' on a huge dance number. It's a fascinating look at the nuts and bolts of a big musical production, revealing how the choreography, musical arrangements and design all have to work together to tell the story. As well as exploring the inherent bonkersness of any work in progress - how does Michael Ball hang off a ladder while singing at the top of his voice, which is the best camera angle for a giant plastic prawn and do we have enough period braces for a whole orchestra - Victoria also looks at the real events which inspired her story. She goes back to Manchester to find out about the original choir of the 1920s, and the children who sang on the record of Nymphs and Shepherds. And in between unpeeling the history and sharing the fun of the shoot, she tries to work out how a piece of writing can evolve. Victoria unpicks the process in an attempt to understand how what started as a straightforward account of a day in the life of a children's choir in 1929 ended up as a middle-aged love story about the power of music to reconnect lonely people and give them a second chance to fall in love.
Over the past year accident and emergency departments across the UK have been under intense pressure. The BBC's health correspondent Dominic Hughes was given exclusive access to North Manchester General, one of the busiest A&Es in the country, to follow consultant Dr Jim Butler across one of his shifts.
60 years ago, the BBC broadcast the first Carols from King's live from the world-famous chapel of the Cambridge university college. The transmission took place at 8 o'clock on the evening of December 23rd, sandwiched between the news and an edition of Sportsview in which Brian Johnston reported on England's ultimately successful Ashes tour. But the 44-minute recital was also recorded and has now been digitally remastered to offer today's audience a unique glimpse into the beginnings of this Christmas institution. Led by the organist and director of music Boris Ord, the concert opens with the now traditional solo of Once in Royal David's City and includes In Dulce Jubilo and While Shepherds Watched, before the equally familiar closing anthem of O Come All Ye Faithful.
It's one hundred years since the birth of poet Dylan Thomas. From Swansea to New York, actor Michael Sheen and singer Cerys Matthews are among those paying tribute to the work and life of the poet - known as the first 'rock star' poet.
Comedian and history buff Al Murray is joined by former director of MI5 Dame Stella Rimington, political comedian Matt Forde and film expert Matthew Sweet for a fresh look at the great British spy movie. This round-table discussion looks at the films themselves - not to mention the spies that star in them - and uses them as a lens on the British people, our fear of the world and our changing views of espionage over the decades. As well as discussing the inevitable moral ambiguity, the limited female roles and general distrust of the intelligence community, we also find out what Dame Stella Rimington, the real M, actually thinks about James Bond, what you really say at a party when someone inevitably asks what you do, the spy gadget she'd really like to get her hands on, and the film that was genuinely used as a training movie when she first joined the service.
Behind Audrey Hepburn's dazzling image, Darcey Bussell unravels an epic tale of betrayal, courage, heartache and broken dreams. For as long as she can remember Darcey has been fascinated by Audrey Hepburn: style icon, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's, an Oscar winner at 24. Now, Darcey follows in Audrey's footsteps through Holland, London, Rome, Switzerland and Hollywood to find out more. She discovers Audrey started out as a dancer, risked her life in the war and, although adored the world over, was always looking for love.
A revealing documentary follows Katherine Jenkins from Neath to New York in the weeks leading up to the launch of her new album. Katherine opens up about her life, her loves and living under the gaze of the media spotlight.
A touching and often funny observational documentary about a charming couple in their twilight years, who have lived in their beloved Scottish castle since rebuilding it from ruins forty years ago. Award-winning filmmaker Darren Hercher follows Sandy and Alisoun Grant during their final few months in Inverquharity Castle as they come to terms with the emotional and practical difficulties of leaving a home they have loved. As the challenges of age take their toll, Alisoun, for the first time in her long marriage to Sandy, has had to take control of their destiny and make increasingly difficult decisions about their day-to-day lives and future. The hardest truth for Alisoun to accept was that living in the castle had become impossible. As the move approaches, and their lives are turned upside down, the film follows Alisoun as she faces the daunting task of downsizing from a castle to a bungalow. The distressing reasons behind the move gradually become clear and are gently explored. Having handed over the keys to the castle, Sandy and Alisoun face the future with equal measures of trepidation and optimism, their unwavering commitment and love for each other always at the heart of the film as a new chapter approaches.
Lord Hennessy delivers a lecture on Parliament and the State in the State Apartments of the Palace of Westminster, from Tuesday 18 November.
In June 2013, the RAF Museum raised a unique World War Two German bomber from the seabed of the English Channel. Now, BBC News can share more about the challenges the recovery team faced both at sea and on land.
Rio Ferdinand and Helen Skelton look back at the most celebrated, most shocking and most memorable moments from the greatest domestic football cup competition in the world.
Made entirely of Scottish film archive, a journey into our collective past, the film explores universal themes of love, loss, resistance, migration, work and play. Ordinary people, some long since dead, their names and identities largely forgotten, appear shimmering from the depth of the vaults to take a starring role. Brilliantly edited together, these silent individuals become composite characters, who emerge to tell us their stories, given voice by King Creosote's poetic music and lyrics.
George Michael introduces his unique live solo performance at the historic Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris, recorded in 2012 for his live album Symphonica. He was the first contemporary artist ever to perform there. The film brings together a compilation of live stage performances interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage and insights featuring George, his orchestra and the legendary producer Phil Ramone, shortly before his death in 2013. In between performances of his classic songs, George describes the stories behind some of his favourite tracks, and we see black-and-white studio footage of conversations with Ramone, along with rehearsals with the Symphonica orchestra and George's backing singers. Before the end, George pays a moving tribute to the late Ramone, whom he describes as the most accomplished producer of the 20th century: 'He understood more about music than anyone I had ever met... And it breaks my heart that he's not around to see this album released or to watch this documentary.'
Mike Dilger goes behind the scenes at the nation's biggest firework competition, where the spectacular setting of Plymouth Sound becomes a battleground for our top pyrotechnic wizards. Who will be crowned the best in Britain?
The Birth of Empire: The East India Company - Learning Zone Dan Snow looks at the rise and fall of the East India Company in this version of the BBC Two series made specially for schools. Just over 400 years ago, a group of London merchants arrived on the Indian coast. Over the course of 200 years, the company they formed grew into a commercial titan. Its wealth rivalled that of the British state. The East India Company had its own army and eventually ruled over 400 million people. Its trade was vital to Britain's commercial success and it revolutionised the British lifestyle. By accident, it created one of the most powerful empires in history. But the company's rise was followed by a dramatic fall into profiteering and corruption. Unchecked greed led to devastating consequences.
When Kris Hallenga was diagnosed with aggressive, terminal breast cancer at the age of 23, she decided to channel her fear and anger into changing the way young women, the medical profession and the rest of the planet see and treat breast cancer in young women. This film is about the sheer strength, passion and indomitable spirit of Kris Hallenga as she battles her illness and tirelessly promotes her charity CoppaFeel! - an energetic and fearless awareness-raising campaign dedicated to making sure other young women and their doctors are made more aware of the risks. Kris Hallenga is an inspirational young woman on a very personal mission. This is the film of her life-enhancing fight against cancer and her life-saving campaign to battle public ignorance.
Documentary presented by writer Tim Kendall which tells the remarkable story of the First World War soldier-poet who broke all the rules. Ivor Gurney wasn't an officer but a private who bizarrely joined up in the hope that the ordered army life would help ease a mental health condition. Initially this shock therapy worked, but he was eventually shot and gassed and spent the last 15 years of his life in an asylum. Yet the poetry he wrote there is uniquely powerful - capturing the experience of the ordinary soldier - and the film argues that it is the equal of the work of any of the more well-known soldier-poets of WWI. Gurney was also an accomplished composer and all the music used in the film is his, some of it hauntingly written on the Western Front.
Johann Sebastian Bach's majestic Cello Suites are among the world's best-loved pieces of music - but did another Bach write them? Australian musical sleuth Martin Jarvis explosively claims the suites were composed not by Bach, but by his much-loved second wife, Anna Magdalena. Jarvis's controversial quest for clues takes him from London to Paris to Berlin and beyond. Using advanced techniques of forensic document examination and drawing on his vast experience as a conductor and musician, he sets out to uncover the truth of the Cello Suites and rewrite some musical wrongs. Narrated by composer Sally Beamish.
With spring in the air, Gregg finds out what it takes to bring us millions of eggs for Pancake Day, discovers the clever technology behind Easter chocolate and reveals what our eyes tell us about the way we shop.
As Alex Salmond stands down as first minister, Brian Taylor looks back at his political life. With contributions from the man himself, colleagues, opponents and those who have worked most closely with him behind the scenes. Brian sets out to discover if anyone truly knows the real Alex Salmond and asks what his political legacy will be.
A look at what family life has been like for James and Phil Lusted, who stand 3ft 7in and 3ft tall respectively despite being born to average-height parents.
1968 film by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and the late experimental filmmaker Jud Yalkut. Kusama produces and stars in the film, which has a psychedelic feel and non-narrative structure. It starts with Kusama in rural upstate New York, covering animals, plants and a naked male body with polka dots. She uses this action throughout her career as a metaphor for giving up identity, abolishing uniqueness and becoming one with the universe - or 'self-obliteration'. The film goes on to show body-painting in the artist's installation environments or 'happenings'. These 'happenings' embraced the new hippie culture that had been on the rise in the US since the mid-60s, as well as sexual liberation, opposition to the Vietnam War and a yearning for change following civil rights injustices. They also saw a shift in art with a move away from the restraints of the gallery space and its conventions of traditional painting and sculpture. Kusama's 'happenings' took place in New York parks and public spaces such as Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge, as well as in galleries, and would often involve audio-visual-light performances where she painted naked models with paints or covered them in polka dots. The film was so popular in art-house film circles that Kusama set up a company to sell prints from the film. It also went on to win prizes in the Fourth International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium as well as the Maryland and Ann Arbor Film Festivals in the US.
Between 1978 and 1994 Kate Bush appeared on a variety of BBC programmes including Saturday Night at the Mill, Ask Aspel, the Leo Sayer show and Wogan, as well as Top of the Pops. This compilation showcases her performances of hit songs such as Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, Running up That Hill and Hounds of Love alongside other intriguing and lesser-known material in the BBC studios.
A compilation of six short documentary films exploring the rights and wrongs of some of life's biggest questions. These films present real-life stories captured as beautiful and engaging short documentary portraits, drawn from the personal experiences of individuals. They provide students with personal perspectives on important issues in religion, morality and ethics, based on major themes explored in Key Stage 4 religious studies and ethics lessons.
Two-part documentary in which Chris Packham and Martha Kearney reveal the mysteries of the honeybee.
Sue Barker celebrates 50 glorious years of BBC Two sport with the help of Gary Lineker, Sir Ian Botham, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Steve Cram, Alan Hansen, Clare Balding, Des Lynam, Murray Walker and comedian Alan Davies. The documentary reveals the origins of sport on BBC Two, including the creation of Match of the Day in 1964 and other iconic brands like Ski Sunday and Pot Black. It also relives many of the channel's greatest sporting moments including the 1985 snooker World Championship final, which was watched by a record-breaking 18.5 million viewers in the early hours of the morning, Botham's Ashes in 1981, Usain Bolt's 100m world record and many of the highlights of the Winter Olympics. There is also a chance to listen again to some family favourite TV theme tunes.
Documentary telling the story of Pink Floyd, who since forming in 1965, have sold 250 million records and become one of the most successful bands in the world.
Michael Grade tells a tale of television skullduggery and dirty dealings in the battle to win the Saturday night ratings crown.
Documentary sitting in the front seat as cars up and down Northern Ireland make their way to work. The morning commute is for many the most stressful part of the day, with sibling squabbles, road rage tantrums, backseat banter and homework-cramming teens.
A unique one-off television production of Dylan Thomas's famous 'play for voices' performed by a community of Welsh talent in New York, Los Angeles, London, Cardiff and Laugharne. Michael Sheen opens as First Voice, Sir Tom Jones as Captain Cat and as each of Dylan's iconic characters joins in, the piece builds up into a collage of famous voices and faces (including Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Siân Phillips, Jonathan Pryce, Bryn Terfel and Katherine Jenkins) intercut with evocative imagery inspired by the play and created as part of a live event by National Theatre Wales. Credits Role Contributor Voice Michael Sheen Captain Cat Tom Jones New York Voice Matthew Rhys Laugharne Voice Aimee-Ffion Edwards Drowned and Willy Nilly Tom Rhys Harries Drowned and Voice Karl Johnson Drowned and Evans the Death Iwan Rheon Drowned and Voice Aneurin Barnard Rosie Probert Nia Roberts Mog Edwards Ioan Gruffudd Myfanwy Price Kimberley Nixon Mr Waldo Steffan Rhodri Neighbour Mark Lewis Jones Neighbour Richard Harrington Neighbour Sophie Evans Neighbour Melanie Walters Voice Griff Rhys Jones Voice John Rhys-Davies Voice Andrew Howard Voice Rakie Ayola Mr Pugh Jonathan Pryce Mrs Pugh Siân Phillips Rev Eli Jenkins Bryn Terfel Polly Garter Katherine Jenkins Mrs Ogmore Pritchard Charlotte Church Mr Ogmore Tom Ellis Mr Pritchard Aneirin Hughes Butcher Beynon Robert Pugh Mrs Beynon Suzanne Packer Lily Smalls Eve Myles Mae Rose Cottage Alexandra Roach Nogood Boyo Craig Roberts Mary Ann Sailors Sharon Morgan Dai Bread Owen Teale Mrs Dai Bread One Di Botcher Mrs Dai Bread Two Sian Thomas Sinbad Sailors Jon Tregenna Writer Dylan Thomas Director Pip Broughton Executive Producer Bethan Jones
In 1868, public hanging was abolished in Britain. A decade later, the first execution behind prison walls took place in Edinburgh - following an explosive trial. The story of Eugene Chantrelle remains one of the most remarkable in Scottish criminal history.
For over two hundred years, Scots have been celebrating the life and work of our national bard Robert Burns every January. However, Burns Suppers aren't a phenomenon unique to Scotland and in the year that Glasgow welcomes 71 nations to Scottish soil for the Commonwealth Games, this documentary reveals how, and why, this night is still celebrated in some of the furthest-flung corners of the Commonwealth. From the villages of Sri Lanka, where only three Scots remain in an ancient society that is still going strong; to Singapore, where only 'pure blood' Scots are eligible to join the club; and from Ghana, where the marriage of Scots and African culture has generated new 'traditions'; to the remote island paradise of Bermuda, where every Scot on the island - including the new Governor - has to speak for their supper. 'The Commonwealth of Burns' follows the trials and tribulations of these far-flung St Andrews and Caledonian societies as they prepare for their big day. It tells the story of the Scots characters who have settled in these countries, and reveals why the celebration of Burns Night still has such meaning around the Commonwealth. It also explores 'Scottishness' and what it means to people, some of whom have never actually visited Scotland.
Celebrating ten years since she won Young Musician of the Year, virtuoso violinist Nicola Benedetti joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on the trip of a lifetime: a tour of India. This film goes behind the scenes with Nicola, as she plays in Mumbai and New Delhi and experiences the country for the very first time. It reveals the joys and challenges of life on the road for a musician - the gruelling rehearsal schedule, the pre-performance nerves and the thrill of coming off stage to rapturous applause. There's an insight into Nicola's passion for the violin and the special bond she shares with her Stradivarius. Nicola also takes part in workshops for local children and gives an informal performance to young children in a Mumbai municipal school.
It's the story of a boy who chose glory and death so that his name would live forever. His myth held generations in its spell and changed a nation's destiny. Broadcaster Antaine Ó Donnaile follows in the footsteps of Cú Chulainn, seeking the forces that shaped him, finding his traces in our landscape and history.
As Scotland prepares to vote on whether to become an independent country, David Dimbleby questions two of the key protagonists - Alex Salmond, first minister of Scotland and leader of the Yes campaign; and former prime minister Gordon Brown, who has emerged as a leading figure in the No campaign.
Legendary Formula 1 commentator Murray Walker presents highlights and memories from some of the sport's most dramatic championship finales.
Following the final episode of the award-winning German drama Generation War, Martha Kearney is joined by a panel including the programme makers, leading historians and cultural commentators, to examine the historical facts behind the series, the controversy it has caused and why now Germany is confronting the difficult issues of its past.
Famous for his womanising, drinking and tragic death, Dylan Thomas is the rock star of 20th-century poetry. But for Welsh poet Owen Sheers, his tempestuous life often obscures the power of his poetry. Sheers takes us on a journey that reveals Dylan Thomas as a visionary and a craftsman.
"An Dotair Mor" tells the story of how this legendary doctor looked after 3,000 people on 16 inhabited islands for over 40 years. There were no hospitals, no telephones and few roads when he first arrived in 1932. With perseverance through any weather, he used all possible means to reach patients living in remote locations.
David Attenborough narrates the story of Rodrigo Medellin. Since he first kept vampire bats in his bathroom as a child, Rodrigo has dedicated his life to saving them. Now Mexico's most famous export, tequila, is at stake. Rodrigo's beloved lesser long-nosed bat is crucial to the liquor - pollinating the plants the drink is made from. To save both, Rodrigo must track the bats' epic migration across Mexico - braving hurricanes, snakes, Mayan tombs and seas of cockroaches. The threats are very real for not only Rodrigo and the bats, but also for anyone with a taste for tequila.
Documentary profile of Roberta Flack, telling the story of the emergence of a different kind of soul singer, set against the turbulent backdrop of America's Civil Rights movement.
Was Patsy once a man? Who nearly put Joanna Lumley off taking the role? Who was originally going to be Saffy? And what do Marisa Berensen, Jennifer Saunders and Lynne Franks all have in common? How is Ruby Wax involved? Those and other burning questions are answered in The Story of Absolutely Fabulous the definitive film of one of British comedy's most definitive sitcoms. From how it came into being, to how it manages to stay at the top of its game, this entertaining documentary follows the antics of the Ab Fab crew, and sheds some light on some of comedy's most blurry, far-out characters. Featuring behind-the-scenes footage and drunken outtakes, The Story of Absolutely Fabulous tells you everything you needed to know and a little bit more.
Dr Michael Mosley explores the bizarre and fascinating world of parasites by turning his body into a living laboratory and deliberately infesting himself with them. He travels to Kenya to give himself a tapeworm - a parasite that can grow to many metres inside the human gut. He also encounters lice, leeches and the deadly malaria parasite, before swallowing a pill-camera to reveal what is growing within him. By the end of his infestation Michael learns a new-found respect for these extraordinary creatures, which can live off and even take control of their hosts for their own survival.
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh explores the untold story of the Irish in Iceland. It's a tale of pilgrim fathers, marauding Norsemen, pillaging Vikings and Irish slaves. In Aistear na nGael Maireád steps from that past into the present, and discovers that Ireland's historic connections are alive, well and thriving in Iceland today.
Documentary telling the incredible story of a group of young actors with Down's syndrome who set out to create a touring production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Along the way the play begins to blur with their real lives, leading to romance, rows and revelations. This funny, intimate and uplifting film is directed by William Jessop, the brother of leading man Tommy.
Seeing wonderfull wonders of our vast world through the commonwealth.
From the BBC archives, using rare archive footage and eye-witness interviews, this documentary recounts the previously untold stories of the local men from Northern Ireland who fought for the beaches, towns and villages of Normandy on 6 June 1944. The Royal Ulster Rifles was the only regiment in the Allied Forces to have two battalions serve on D-Day; one airborne and the other by sea. The film reveals the vital role that Northern Irish servicemen played in D-Day, as they landed on Sword Beach and experienced heavy German resistance as they liberated several villages in their push towards the city of Caen. Central to the film are interviews with veterans of the Royal Ulster Rifles, such as Bill McConnell who, as a fresh-faced teenager, flew into battle in a glider, and Stanley Burrows, who fought and was badly wounded in the battle for Cambes Woods.
1980 was the year that both pop music and TOTP changed. A new generation of British pop arrived with Dexy's, Adam Ant, the Human League and OMD. The show changed as the veteran TOTP orchestra was laid off, the studio audience doubled in size, new sets were built and a range of celebrity co-hosts from Elton John to Kevin Keegan to Russ Abbott arrived. This documentary explores these dramatic changes in Top of the Pops, British pop and British society with a cast including Adam Ant, the Human League, OMD, Kevin Rowlands, Coronation Street actress Sally Lindsay (who appeared with St Winifred's School Choir), Kelly Marie, Ray Dorset, Johnny Logan, the Vapors, the Piranhas and Richard Skinner.
Who are the super-rich Russian elite who have chosen to make London their home? Why have they favoured the capital city? And why do they obsess about the English education system, polo and the monarchy? We enter the lives of an entrepreneur chased out of Russia for his liberal views and growing bank balance, as well as one of London's biggest art collectors and philanthropists. We tap into the life of Russia's top supermodel. And as we follow two debutantes preparing for the glitz and glamour of the Russian ball, we meet Princess Olga Romanov, now 64, and granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas's sister, who vividly recalls her coming out as a debutante. Debunking some of the myths about Russians in London, this film takes us further under their skin than before. They love the capital city for its security and freedom, for them it is an English dream. But how do they see us? Why, when in London, do they still feel a need to access their Russian roots and culture? What is it that unites the Russians in London and brings them together for a fairy-tale night by the banks of the Thames? And on what do they spend their wealth?
In London, Louis sells supercars to Britain's wealthiest car enthusiasts, while Darren flogs reliable runarounds in Bridgend, Wales. They're both at the top of their game, but they're swapping jobs, customers and bosses in a bid to meet or even beat each other's targets.
The Somerset Levels are one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, but in the winter of 2013 they faced a natural disaster. One village, Moorland, was entirely engulfed by the floods. Deluged by water, the villagers watched helplessly as their lives and homes were washed away. This programme follows their year-long struggle to get home again after the water drained and media attention shifted away. Although the residents put on a brave face, the realities of their fate pile up - the refusal of insurance companies to pay up, and the months of delay with the builders. All this adds fuel to a heartfelt frustration that the floods were man-made and the nagging fear of what would happen to them if and when the waters return.
These days, nobody takes Rubens seriously. His vast and grandiose canvases, stuffed with wobbly mounds of female flesh, have little appeal for the modern gym-subscriber. And it's not just the bulging nudity we don't like. The entire tone of Rubens's art offends us. Everything in it is too big - the epic dramas full of tragedy, the fantastical celestial scenery, the immense canvases and murals adorning the walls and ceilings of Europe's grandest palaces. All of it seems too much for modern sensibilities. But Waldemar Januszczak begs to differ. In Waldemar's eyes, Rubens has been traduced by modern tastes, and a huge misunderstanding of him has taken place. By looking in detail at Rubens's fascinating life, by understanding his art in more enlightened ways, Waldemar sets out to correct the extra-large misconceptions that have arisen about Rubens.
Built around the earliest, until now unseen, footage of the Clash in concert, filmed by Julien Temple as they opened the infamous Roxy club in a dilapidated Covent Garden on January 1st 1977, this show takes us on a time-travelling trip back to that strange planet that was Great Britain in the late 1970s and the moment when punk emerged into the mainstream consciousness. Featuring the voices of Joe Strummer and the Clash from the time, and intercutting the raw and visceral footage of this iconic show, with telling moments from the BBC's New Year's Eve, Hogmanay and New Year's Day schedules of nearly 40 years ago, it celebrates that great enduring British custom of getting together, en masse and often substantially the worse for wear, to usher in the New Year. New Year's Day is when we collectively take the time to reflect on the year that has just gone by and ponder what the new one might hold in store for us. Unknown to the unsuspecting British public, 1977 was of course the annus mirabilis of punk. The year in which the Clash themselves took off, catching the imagination of the nation's youth. As their iconic song, 1977, counts us down to midnight, we'll share with them and Joe Strummer, in previously unseen interviews from the time, their hopes and predictions for the 12 months ahead.
The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is one of the largest and most visited museums in the world. Margy Kinmonth's film tells the story of its journey from imperial palace to state museum, investigating remarkable tales of dedication, devotion, ownership and ultimate sacrifice, showing how the collection came about, how it survived tumultuous revolutionary times and what makes the Hermitage unique today.
A look at one of the most exclusive holiday destinations in the world - Necker Island. This reveals how the rich holiday, and what it's like for the staff who serve them.
Since the release of the Bat Out of Hell album, Meat Loaf has possessed the kind of international status that few artists obtain. His larger-than-life persona and performances are fuelled by a passion for theatre and storytelling. This candid profile reveals the man and his music through his own testimony and from the accounts of those closest to him. Meat Loaf's life story is one of epic proportions - he survived a childhood of domestic violence only to face years of record company rejection before eventually finding global fame. Along the way he experienced bankruptcy, health scares, bust-ups and one of the greatest comebacks of all time. All this and more is explored in the film, which features behind-the-scenes footage of his recent Las Vegas residency, plus plans for a new album featuring songs by Jim Steinman. The film also revisits the Dallas of Meat Loaf's early years and includes insights from his high school friends, who reveal how Meat really got his famous moniker. After his mother died, Meat Loaf fled Texas for the bright lights of LA. He sang in itinerant rock bands, but no-one would give him a recording contract. By 1969 he was broke and disillusioned. His break would take the form of a musical. He was offered a part in Hair, having been invited to audition whilst working as a parking attendant outside the theatre. Shortly afterwards he met Jim Steinman and the road to success really began. Yet the Hair gig was the beginning of an enduring love affair with theatre that is reflected in his singing persona today. His first album, the now legendary Bat Out of Hell, was initially rejected by scores of record companies, yet went on to spend a staggering 485 weeks in the UK charts. The whole album is a masterwork of storytelling that Meat Loaf and Steinman worked on for four years and then battled to get heard. Meat Loaf and those who worked on the album - from Todd Rundgren to Ellen Foley - reflect on the songs, and celebrate the alchemy that resulted
Lucy Worsley and David Starkey celebrate the 500th anniversary of Britain's finest surviving Tudor building, Hampton Court. As Henry VIII's pleasure palace, Hampton Court was a showcase for royal magnificence and ceremony - and the most important event of all was the christening of Henry's long-awaited son, Prince Edward, on October 15th, 1537. Lucy and David explore how Tudor art, architecture and ritual came together for this momentous occasion. Drawing on historical records and with the help of a team of experts, they recreate key elements of the christening ceremony - including a magnificent set piece procession through Hampton Court involving nearly 100 people in full Tudor costume.
Tim Whewell is in St Petersburg to meet the self-styled Russian nationalists and patriots who are volunteering to join the fighting in eastern Ukraine. He joins a group of volunteers as they undertake military training, and travels to Ukraine to see how the volunteer force is fighting on the ground.
A beautifully cinematic documentary following a year in the life of England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike, through the eyes of the farmers who work the valleys and fells, those who climb the mountain for pleasure and those who try to protect its slopes. Filmed over a twelve-month period, it follows the seasons on the mountain from spring lambs through to winter snows. The contributions of the British Mountaineering Council and National Trust volunteers make clear the crucial importance of maintaining the landscape quality of England's highest peak for future generations.
In a disarmingly frank interview, Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller (now in his 90s) tells his personal story of being a young Jewish man during World War II. Speaking directly to camera and accompanied by extensive archive footage, he relives his past and draws on intense memories to navigate the extraordinary adventure of his early life. Freddie's story is a dramatic - and often surprisingly funny - real-life account. It takes us from his family life in 1930s Vienna through the German occupation of Austria and his flight to Belgium. Then onto Nazi-occupied Paris, where Freddie lived and worked in red-light Pigalle, entertaining German officers and socialising with dancing girls, before an interrogation by the Gestapo meant he had to move on again. After a brief spell in the Resistance, the war eventually caught up with him and his life in Auschwitz began.
Tom Service plunges into the life and times of Mozart to try and rediscover the greatness and humanity of the living man in his moment. Mozart's prodigious output and untimely death have helped place him on a pedestal that can often blind us to the unique brilliance of his work in the context of his life and times. Tackling the sentimental tourist industry of Salzburg and the cloying reverence in which Mozart is too often held, Service visits the key cities and rooms in which Mozart lived and worked, plays some of Mozart's original instruments and scores, and gradually uncovers the brilliance and originality of his work as the 18th century turns into the early 19th. There is the prodigious childhood when Mozart was feted as an infant phenomenon around Europe's most glittering courts, and his golden decade in Vienna in which masterpiece followed masterpiece - operas, symphonies, piano concertos, string quartets - as if this short, high-voiced man-child must have been taking dictation from some divine source, until his death at the age of just 35 in 1791. Even more than the music, Mozart's tragic demise sets the seal on his myth. The trajectory of Mozart's life sets the template for the romantic paradigm whose throes we are still in today, which requires our creative heroes to die young to prove that they were too good for this madding world, whether it be Wolfgang Amadeus or Jimi Hendrix. Service travels from London to Vienna and Salzberg, unpicking the living, breathing genius that was Mozart. With Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Nicola Benedetti, Paul Morley and others.
Documentary in which a 69-year-old horsewoman from New Zealand sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the truth about the origins of the rare Appaloosa spotted horse. Back in the saddle for the first time in 12 years, she crosses one of the world's highest mountain ranges in search of a lost valley, where she hopes to discover whether the experts have been wrong all along and that the true source of the North American Appaloosa horse is Asia and not Europe, as the history books would have us believe. An inspirational adventure story inspired by a lifelong passion for horses.
OJ Borg explores the growth of electronic sports, the professional players who take part, and the debate on whether gaming could be considered as a true sport.
Presenter Lucy Cooke sets out to explore the phenomenon of seagulls, foxes, squirrels and badgers which are now living in our towns and stealing our food. Starting in the seaside resort of St Ives in Cornwall, Lucy witnesses for herself the seagulls that will swoop from 50 metres and steal a sandwich out of your hand. At the height of the summer season there are as many as 15 snatches a day from tourists. With the help of bird experts Professor Graham Martin and Steven Portugal, Lucy sets up a range of tests and GPS tagging to discover exactly what makes the seagulls such good thieves. Lucy also goes to Rustington in Sussex, where she discovers that the fox population is increasing dramatically. She sets up a test to discover whether - given the choice - foxes would choose jam sandwiches and sausage rolls or the more natural diet of worms and fruit. Lucy goes to Hertfordshire to encounter the black squirrel - a variety of the grey squirrel - which is now spreading through Hertfordshire and southern England. She observes it tackling a challenging homemade assault course built in a suburban garden in order to steal nuts from a bird feeder. And she explores how the unusual 180-degree ankle joint of a squirrel makes it such a good thief. Back in St Ives, Lucy discovers that badgers outnumber foxes in the town and they are regularly eating food from gardens. One family of badgers has developed a liking for peanut butter sandwiches! With numbers of urban gulls up to around 250,000 in the UK and urban foxes and badgers on the increase, Lucy concludes that the phenomenon of seagulls, badgers, foxes and squirrels living in our towns and stealing our food is here to stay and we humans must learn to live alongside them.
On the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death, Jeremy Paxman tells the story of the send-off which Britain gave to the man who led the country to victory in the Second World War. More than a million people came to line the streets of London on the freezing day in late January to pay their respects as his coffin was taken from the lying-in-state at Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral. Millions more watched the state funeral on television. Churchill was the only commoner in the twentieth century to receive the honour of such a magnificent ceremony. In the programme, Jeremy explores whether Churchill's immense legacy still has relevance today and meets a wide range of people who were involved in the events of that day, from soldiers who bore the coffin, to members of Churchill's close family. He hears from Boris Johnson, author of a new book on Churchill, and from a London docker who remembers that some of the dock workers had misgivings about saluting the passing coffin with their cranes as it passed down the Thames on a launch after the ceremony at St Paul's - one of the most memorable moments of that extraordinary day. The funeral ended at the village churchyard of Bladon where Churchill was laid to rest alongside his father, Randolph. At the close of the film, Jeremy reflects that no statesman has come close to rivalling Winston Churchill in the half a century since our nation mourned his passing.
On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz was liberated. 70 years later the international community will gather, as it does every year, to remember the atrocities of the holocaust and reinforce the message that this paradigm of evil must never happen again. But as time passes the numbers of survivors are growing smaller, and without their testimonies how will the memory of the Holocaust be kept alive? In this film to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, three extraordinary women tell their powerful personal stories to reveal just why the memory of one of the darkest moments in human history should never be forgotten.
With the anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill's death, 50 years on BBC Television presents an obituary to a beloved war hero and a much-respected statesman. Archive footage, stills and contributions from old friends and colleagues fill in the details of a colourful history spanning 90 years.
We take our liberties for granted. They seem absolute and untouchable. But they are the result of a series of violent struggles fought over 800 years that, at times, have threatened to tear our society apart. On the frontline was a document originally inked on animal skin - Magna Carta. Distinguished constitutional historian David Starkey looks at the origins of the Great Charter, created in 1215 to check the abuses of King John - and how it nearly died at birth. He explores its subsequent deployment, its contribution to making everyone - even the monarch - subject to the rule of law, and how this quintessentially English document migrated to the North American colonies and eventually became the foundation of the US constitution. Magna Carta has become a universal symbol of individual freedom against the tyranny of the state, but with ever-tightening government control on our lives, is it time to resurrect it? Starkey has a special encounter with an original Magna Carta manuscript at the British Library, one of only four from 1215 to survive. He also examines other unique medieval manuscripts that trace the tumultuous history of Magna Carta, the Article of the Barons listing their demands in June 1215, and the papal bull declaring Magna Carta null and void less than two months after it was sealed.
This feature-length documentary attempts to answer one of the most profound questions of the Holocaust - what was the human legacy of the crime? Producer and director Laurence Rees (The Nazis: A Warning from History, Auschwitz: The Nazis and The Final Solution) has travelled extensively in order to film six Auschwitz survivors along with their friends and families. Together, these sequences filmed in Jerusalem, Chicago, London, Bavaria, Krakow and Tel Aviv build into a compelling portrait of the problems, challenges and triumphs that six different individuals have experienced since the war as a result of their time in Auschwitz.
Birds of paradise are one of David Attenborough's lifelong passions. He was the first to film many of their beautiful and often bizarre displays, and over his lifetime he has tracked them all over the jungles of New Guinea. In this very personal film, he uncovers the remarkable story of how these 'birds from paradise' have captivated explorers, naturalists, artists, film-makers and even royalty. He explores the myths surrounding their discovery 500 years ago, the latest extraordinary behaviour captured on camera and reveals the scientific truth behind their beauty: the evolution of their spectacular appearance has in fact been driven by sex. And in a final contemporary twist to this story of obsession and royalty, he travels to the desert of Qatar, to a state-of-the-art facility which houses the largest breeding group of these birds in the world - a sheikh's very own private collection. There he has his closest ever encounter with a greater bird of paradise and its dramatic display, reliving the experience that captivated him in the forests of New Guinea more than 50 years ago. 'For me birds of paradise are the most romantic and glamorous birds in the world. And this is a film I have wanted to make for 40 years.' - Sir David Attenborough.
It's a timeless classic of children's literature and the third most-quoted book in English after the Bible and Shakespeare. But what lies behind the extraordinary appeal of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to generations of adults and children alike? To mark the 150th anniversary of its publication, this documentary explores the life and imagination of the man who wrote it, the Reverend Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. Broadcaster and journalist Martha Kearney delves into the biographies of both Carroll himself and of the young girl, Alice Liddell, who inspired his most famous creation. Kearney's lifelong passion for Carroll's work began as a young girl, when she starred as Carroll's heroine Alice in her local village play. She discusses the book with a range of experts, biographers and distinguished cultural figures - from the actor Richard E Grant to children's author Philip Pullman - and explores with them the mystery of how a retiring, buttoned-up and meticulous mathematics don, who spent almost his entire life within the cloistered confines of Christ Church Oxford, was able to capture the world of childhood in such a captivating way.
Documentary telling the amazing story of how a group of reclusive Rhineland experimentalists called Kraftwerk became one of the most influential pop groups of all time. It is a celebration of the band featuring exclusive live tracks filmed at their Tate Modern shows in London in February 2013, interwoven with expert analysis, archive footage of the group going back to 1970, newsreel of the era and newly shot cinematic evocations of their obsessions. With contributions from techno pioneer Derrick May, Can founder Holger Czukay, DJ and remixer Francois Kevorkian, graphic design guru Neville Brody, writer Paul Morley, band photographer Peter Boettcher, Tate Modern curator Caroline Wood and others. Kraftwerk are very much in the news at the moment as they are currently playing a week of concerts at the New National Gallery in Berlin (to follow other concert-events including those at the Tate, Sydney Opera House , New York's MOMA etc), the first international academic conference on the group, 'Industrielle Volksmusic for the C21', is to be held at Aston University on January 21st/22nd, and interest has been stirred by recent books exploring the group in the context of Krautrock such as David Stubbs's Future Days.
In July 2014 the world was stunned by the deaths of nearly 300 people as their plane was shot down above eastern Ukraine. One of the victims was Glenn Thomas from Blackpool.
Politicians used to have the confidence to tell us stories that made sense of the chaos of world events. But now there are no big stories and politicians react randomly to every new crisis - leaving us bewildered and disorientated. Bitter Lake is a new, adventurous and epic film by Adam Curtis that explains why the big stories that politicians tell us have become so simplified that we can’t really see the world any longer. The narrative goes all over the world, America, Britain, Russia and Saudi Arabia - but the country at the heart of it is Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan is the place that has confronted our politicians with the terrible truth - that they cannot understand what is going on any longer. The film reveals the forces that over the past thirty years rose up and undermined the confidence of politics to understand the world. And it shows the strange, dark role that Saudi Arabia has played in this. But Bitter Lake is also experimental. Curtis has taken the unedited rushes of everything that the BBC has ever shot in Afghanistan - and used them in new and radical ways. He has tried to build a different and more emotional way of depicting what really happened in Afghanistan. A counterpoint to the thin, narrow and increasingly destructive stories told by those in power today.
Ben Robinson retraces the dramatic last days of King John, England's most disastrous monarch, and uncovers the legend of his lost treasure. Ten days took King John from ruler of an empire to sudden death, and left the kingdom in ruins. John is famous for the creation of Magna Carta, which inspired our modern democracy. Ben follows in the footsteps of the King's epic last journey, from the treacherous marshes of East Anglia, through Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, to his final resting place in Worcester. He is joined by medieval historian professor Stephen Church. Together they examine the truth behind the legend that has lived on for 800 years. Did the crown jewels really end up in the mud of the Wash? Was the King poisoned? Does he deserve his reputation as our most disastrous monarch? Thanks to unique documents, we can tell this epic tale in the King's own words. Not only can we get into the mind of the Magna Carta King, we can reveal in fantastic detail how and where he travelled. Ben reveals what happened when treasure seekers attempted to find the King's lost jewels with the help of a diviner. And using the latest technology reveals how we can actually see back in time to reveal the landscape as it would have looked when King John made his last journey 800 years ago.
A remarkable film record of the legendary Everest expedition of 1924, newly restored by the BFI National Archive. The third attempt to climb Everest culminated in the deaths of two of the finest climbers of their generation, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, and sparked an ongoing debate over whether or not they did indeed reach the summit. Filming in brutally harsh conditions, Captain John Noel captured images of breathtaking beauty and considerable historic significance, including the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet. But what resonates so deeply is Noel's ability to frame the vulnerability, isolation and courage of people persevering in one of the world's harshest landscapes. The restoration by the BFI National Archive has transformed the quality of the surviving elements of the film and reintroduced the original coloured tints and tones. The original silent film is brought to life as never before by a haunting new soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner. Revealed by the restoration, few images in cinema are as epic - or moving - as the final shots of a blood red sunset over the Himalayas.
Abortion is against the law in Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the UK, where it has been legal for nearly 50 years. In the Republic of Ireland, the right-to-life of unborn children is enshrined in the constitution. But these laws don't stop Irish women having abortions. In this film, reporter Alys Harte shares her investigation into the abortion issue and how it divides the young people of Ireland.
Olympic bronze medal-winning diver Tom Daley gives BBC Sport's Nick Hope a look at his preparations for the Rio 2016 Games as he visits the host city in Brazil for the first time.
n Berlin in 1935, Regina Jonas made history as the first officially ordained female rabbi. During the Second World War, knowing that she was to be sent to the concentration camps, she placed in her synagogue all her documents and the only photograph ever taken of her, trusting that in the event of her death there would be survivors who might be inspired by her thoughts and example. She died in Auschwitz in 1942, and was completely forgotten. Through her rediscovered official ordination papers, personal correspondence and newspaper articles she left behind, her story can now be told on television for the first time. Featuring rare archival footage showing the rich Jewish life and culture that formed the backdrop of her times, the film traces Regina's life from her upbringing in Berlin as the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish peddler, through her studies to her ordination in 1935. During the Nazi era and the war, her sermons and her unparalleled dedication brought encouragement to the persecuted German Jews. Winner of the Lia Award at the 2013 Jerusalem Film Festival, the Warsaw Phoenix Award 2014 and featuring Rachel Weisz as the voice of Regina.
Michael Wood tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary woman in a time of revolution. Born during the reign of Henry VIII, Mary Arden is the daughter of a Warwickshire farmer, but she marries into a new life in the rising Tudor middle class in Stratford-upon-Avon. There she has eight children, three of whom die young. Her husband becomes mayor, but is bankrupted by his shady business dealings. Faced with financial ruin, religious persecution and power politics, the family is the glue that keeps them together until they are rescued by Mary's successful eldest son - William Shakespeare!
There are all sorts of incredible species of animal in the world, but there are a few that we think are special. We love them for their big eyes or furry faces but we also fall for the sounds they make and the way they move - who doesn't love a waddling penguin? These animals have become online celebrities, with millions of us finding and sharing videos every day - a tiny snoring hummingbird or a sneezing panda is just too cute not to share. Gordon Buchanan has dedicated his life to filming wildlife. He wants to understand why we have such a strong emotional response to these particular species. Why a baby panda makes us go all gooey or why a squeaking frog got over 11 million internet hits. Travelling to meet these super cute animals, he reveals the surprising science behind each of the animals we love so much, starting with one of the most iconic animals on the planet, the giant panda. The panda's beautiful markings set it apart, but it's that big round oversized head that makes it so unusual. Although we find the teddy bear look incredibly appealing, for the panda, the size of its head tells the story of millions of years of evolution and survival. Gordon also meets the fennec fox, with big ears that look sweet but are actually crucial to the fennec's survival out in the Sahara. He travels to Kenya to meet young elephants learning how to perfect their trunk skills and discovers the surprising secret behind a penguin's comic waddle. He hangs out with Eli, a five-year-old chimpanzee whose giggle can give us new information about our own evolution, and discovers just why snoring can help a tiny hummingbird conserve enough energy to make it through the night.
Three British bands defined the British Invasion of 1964 which changed America. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Dave Clark Five. Fifty years later this film tells the story of the Dave Clark Five, their emergence from working-class Tottenham, their unique sound, their close friendship, their self-managed business philosophy and the youthful exuberance with which they captured the USA. Testifying to the lasting impact of the band and what made them unique in an era of brilliant, game-changing creativity, Dave Clark's two-hour documentary features newly filmed interviews with Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Sir Ian McKellen, Stevie Wonder, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Bruce Springsteen, Steven van Zandt of the E Street Band, Gene Simmons of Kiss, Whoopi Goldberg, Dionne Warwick and Twiggy. Interwoven throughout, boyhood fan Tom Hanks' inspirational and moving speech at the DC5's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2008 explains what five guys from north London and the Tottenham Sound meant to Hanks' generation. As well as barnstorming live and TV performances by the DC5, the film weaves archive interviews with band members alongside extraordinary rarely seen footage of the DC5 on tour and in the studio and also features rare TV footage from the legendary Ready Steady Go! series, where the DC5's fellow pop pioneers the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Dusty Springfield, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding highlight a time of unparalleled excitement and innovation. This film captures the youth, innocence and zany zest of the swinging 60s and the Dave Clark Five's driving role in those years. And Beyond the '60s? Unseen archive interviews and performances with Sir Laurence Olivier and Freddie Mercury feature among the rare footage telling the story of TIME, the spectacular, innovative and visionary rock musical with which producer and entrepreneur Dave Clark reinvented London's live music
In the first television biography of the celebrated conductor Sir Simon Rattle for 15 years, this documentary provides unique insights into the working life of one of the world's most acclaimed musicians. To mark his 60th birthday, we follow Rattle through a demanding year of rehearsals and performances with five different orchestras, from the South Bank to Taiwan, as he talks candidly about his life and beliefs. Through the lens of archive footage we explore a remarkable journey spanning four decades, from his early days with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the tender age of 22 to his current post as chief conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic. We see how his dynamic leadership of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra made him a household name which is said to have inspired the rebuilding of a city, while he remains someone who still has his own doubts before every performance. There are contributions from artists and friends who have worked closely with him, including violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, composer Thomas Adès, singers Roderick Williams and Mark Padmore, theatre director Peter Sellars and the managing director of the Barbican, Sir Nicholas Kenyon.
William McIlvanney, who died this month, was one of Scotland's greatest and most enigmatic writers, responsible for groundbreaking novels such as Docherty and Laidlaw. In this powerful, funny and affectionate portrait, filmed earlier this year, McIllvanney looks back on his life's work as it is rediscovered by a new generation of readers.
Comedian Jolyon Rubinstein is on a mission. He wants to find out why the Facebook generation is so disengaged from politics. With the general election just around the corner, according to a recent survey less than a quarter of under 25s plan to vote. Is this just apathy and ignorance? Or is something else going on? The film is packed with stunts, pranks and some pretty serious interviews in which Jolyon seeks to find the answers.
Two-part documentary. Steve Hewlett examines the controversial methods Mark Bolland used to rebuild Prince Charles's public image after Princess Diana's death.
Written and presented by Steve Hewlett, the series is told principally through the first-hand testimony of those who were there: ex-royal advisors, editors, photographers, journalists, royal correspondents - and an enormously rich archive. This episode looks at how the experience of growing up in the media spotlight has affected Princes William and Harry, and their attitudes to the press and media. Seismic events like the phone-hacking scandal - which started with the royal princes - and the impact of the Leveson Inquiry that followed have tipped the balance of power in their favour. The relationship between the royal family and the BBC is also examined, the so-called 'Queengate' fiasco - where a trailer for a royal documentary was cut as if to show the Queen storming out of a photo session with the American photographer Annie Leibowitz. The programme recounts how, in the aftermath, another still-unseen documentary celebrating the life of Princess Diana was shelved by the corporation. The programme also looks at the question of succession. For Prince Charles it is now not so much his private life as his personal views that are under the microscope, and their potential impact on his upcoming kingship is explored.
What's your idea of the perfect birth? Do you want every medical intervention known to science or do you want to go it alone, without the help of a doctor or midwife? And what about after birth? Perhaps you'll hang on to your baby's placenta and carry it around with your newborn until it dries and drops off naturally? Or maybe you'll decide to eat it by whizzing it up into a smoothie? This film follows four pregnant women all making very different choices around their births, all determined to do it their way. 37-year-old Jo plans to deliver her baby completely alone on board her barge, without the assistance of any medical professional. By contrast, 34-year-old Anna is opting to sidestep the pains of labour and book in for a c-section at the Portland Hospital in London. Anna wants all the medication available and she doesn't want to feel a thing. There are plenty of unusual plans for after the birth too. In Devon, 33-year-old Lisa plans to lotus birth - she'll leave her baby's umbilical cord attached to its placenta and she'll keep it fresh by dusting it with salt, rose petals and lavender oil. 35-year-old Kati from Manchester is going to whizz her afterbirth into a smoothie and consume it over a number of days. She hopes it will help her stave off post-natal baby blues and bounce back as quickly as possible. Fending off bewildered looks and concerns from friends, family and medical professionals, each woman is going against convention to have the birth she wants. There are free and frank discussions between mums and daughters and decisions to go against medical advice. So does breaking with the norm and sticking to your guns pay off? And what really is the perfect birth?
An unprecedented insight into the heartland of UKIP that follows the party faithful as they ride high in the polls and try - but fail - to avoid the gaffes the media are looking for. Thanet on the Kent coast is where Nigel Farage has chosen to stand for parliament, but this timely film is about the local party activists who stand firmly behind him rather than the media-savvy leader himself. Filmed over six months, these true believers explain the UKIP phenomena, but there are also jaw-dropping views on race the national party would definitely prefer weren't aired.
There's a revolution going on in supermarkets. After years of relentless expansion, these huge businesses - names as big as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - face closing stores and desperately slashing prices. So what's really happening in an industry that dominates our shopping lives? Cherry Healey gains behind-the-scenes access to see how these companies are adapting to a seismic shift in shopping habits. She discovers how Aldi and Lidl won over the hard-up shopper tired of too much choice, and how the big supermarkets lose as much as £15 for every shop done online. A visit to Britain's only 'virtual supermarket' reveals how these giants of retail make up to a third of their profits not from customers, but the companies supplying the goods. Plus, how supermarkets are reshaping their stores to lure us in. Cherry also spends time with the people driving this transformation - the shoppers themselves -and tests out whether we really are seeing a once-in-a-generation change in the way we buy our groceries.
Pioneering the journey from rhythm and blues to funk, James Brown forever changed the face of American music. Mr Dynamite follows the story of Brown as he escaped his impoverished southern roots to become the biggest name in soul music and one of the most important music talents of the 20th century. This captivating film utilises never-before-seen concert footage, interviews with Brown from a variety of sources and recent insights from band members and others who knew the singer, to tell the remarkable story of the supremely gifted and enormously influential American musical icon. Mick Jagger is among those who recall his magnetic showmanship - first catching Brown's act from the balcony of the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, only to have Brown steal the spotlight when they performed on the same Los Angeles television show. Beyond musical talent, the film documents how Brown played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement, whilst later endorsing Richard Nixon, whose politics chimed with his own entrepreneurship.
At the time of his death in April 1973, aged 91, Pablo Picasso had become one of the 20th century's most influential and prolific artists. Picasso has been painted as many men - genius, womaniser, egomaniac. His reputation is still fiercely debated. Brought up in the Spanish town of Malaga, he would represent himself as the mythological minotaur - half man, half bull. The bull craved the women who would feed his life and his art. Picasso reconstructed the female form - to the point of total abstraction. Many women would find themselves damaged forever by the experience of being his partner. Now, for the first time, the people who knew him best tell the story of those women, giving a new insight into the artist and his work.
On June 4 1976, four young men from ruined, post-industrial Manchester went to see a Sex Pistols show at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. Inspired by the gig that is now credited with igniting the Manchester music scene, they formed what was to become one of the world's most influential bands, Joy Division. Over thirty years later, despite a tragedy that was to cut them off in their prime, they are enjoying a larger audience and more influence than ever before, with a profound legacy that resonates fiercely in today's heavily manufactured pop culture. Featuring the unprecedented participation of all the surviving band members, this film examines the band's story through never-before-seen live performance footage, personal photos, period films and newly discovered audiotapes. A fresh visual account of a unique time and place, this is the untold story of how four men transcended economic and cultural barriers to produce an enduring musical legacy, at a time of great social and political change.
A very personal portrait of the truly unique comedy genius of Spike Milligan, as told in his own words and featuring exclusive home movie footage. With contributions from those who worked with him, lived with him and were inspired by him.
Actor Michael Sheen goes on a personal journey to find out why there is so much political disillusionment in Wales today. Walking in the footsteps of the Chartists, who 175 years ago gave their lives for democracy, he asks why do ordinary people and politicians seem so far apart?
Documentary about a French gold miner and his Scottish wife; their family's quest to start a remote eco-friendly gold mine in Africa with no prior experience. Frenchman Claude Nicolay (62) has no experience whatsoever in the mining business. Yet he has chosen to bring his Scottish wife Moira (60) and their two sons Craig (22) and Pierre (19) to Mali in West Africa on one last family adventure: to start an eco-friendly goldmine. Starting in primitive conditions in a remote mining camp, Claude has acquired a concession of 100 square kilometres with a tiny initial investment of $1m. Learning on the job, he seeks to identify and locate a seam of gold which he is convinced must lie on the land. Claude's mission is to create an eco-friendly enterprise where gold is produced without the use of mercury or cyanide, the land is well cared for, and there is a fair deal with the local (technically illegal) mining community. But reality soon intrudes: mistakes, malaria and mishaps lead to delay and soon the money is on the verge of running out as Claude struggles to protect his mine from a mini gold rush and his family from the onset of war.
A window into the incredible and dangerous world of daredevil war correspondent and author Ryszard Kapuscinski. One of the most important literary voices today, Kapuscinski has spent his life trying to stay alive on foreign battlefields and struggling to stay published in the face of censorship in his native Poland. Known as 'Indiana Jones with a notepad', he is a legend among his peers, a man who has been looking for the truths of human experience in the most dangerous places. Film-maker Gabrielle Pfeiffer travelled with Kapuscinski to four countries, capturing his true character, his passion, his humour and his demons. Her film unfolds in an engaging episodic format, in which the echoes of Kapuscinski's childhood as a war refugee interweave with his later experiences on the battlefields of the third world, in a poetic reverie of the tragedy and the absurdity of war.
What's it like to be homeless in Britain today - when you are ten years old? BAFTA-winning film-maker Jezza Neumann follows two families for 18 months, from before they are evicted by their private landlords, through over a year in a homeless hostel and months of sofa-surfing with friends and family. Throughout this ordeal 11-year-old Ellie and 10-year-old JJ remain cheerful and resilient, trying to see what they are going through as an adventure that they will one day look back on and laugh about, once they finally have a home they can call their own once again. But we also see the destructive impact that living with such uncertainty has on young lives, as this film brings to life before our eyes the dry statistics about how children's education, their physical and mental health, and their future chances in life all suffer as a result of homelessness and eviction. Record numbers of low-income tenants are being evicted by private landlords. As a result over 80,000 children are now living in temporary housing in the UK, three quarters of them in London. This sensitive film brings home just how destructive that experience can be.
At the heart of the climate change debate is a paradox - we've never had more information about our changing climate, yet surveys show that the public are, if anything, getting less sure they understand what's going on. This programme aims to remedy that, with a new perspective on the whole subject. Presented by three mathematicians - Dr Hannah Fry, Prof Norman Fenton and Prof David Spiegelhalter - it hones in on just three key numbers that clarify all the important questions around climate change. The stories behind these numbers involve an extraordinary cast of characters, almost all of whom had nothing to do with climate change, but whose work is critical to our understanding of the climate.
Horatio Nelson was Britain's greatest naval hero. He was famed for his dash-and-glory heroics. He was also a prolific letter writer. The letters reveal that Nelson was a very different and more complex man than the hero that Britain created after his death. Using Nelson's letters this drama documentary exposes Nelson's skilful and manipulative use of PR to advance his career, and shows how he was careful in his praise of his rivals - in case they threatened his own prospects. And the letters reveal how his passionate love affair with Emma Hamilton changed his life forever. Highly regarded RSC actor Jonathan Slinger portrays Nelson.
Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story, presented by psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry, is a witty and revealing look at the problem page's enduring appeal. In the documentary Philippa picks her way through three centuries of advice on broken hearts, cheating partners and adolescent angst to uncover a fascinating portrait of our social history. She talks to fellow agony aunts and uncles like The Telegraph's Graham Norton and The Sun's Deidre Sanders about their experiences, as well as exploring the work of advice columnists past, like the 17th-century inventor of the problem page John Dunton. The advice may change, but she discovers that, when it come to subjects like love and courtship, the same old problems keep on cropping up. Through the work of generations of advice columnists Philippa charts the developing battle of the sexes, the rise of the middle classes and a revolution in social attitudes. For much of the 20th century, agony aunts avoided any mention of trouble in the bedroom. Philippa explores the pioneering work of agony aunts like Claire Rayner, who began to offer frank sex advice in the 1960s. Today, sex takes pride of place on the problem page, as Philippa discovers for herself when she takes a starring role in The Sun's photo casebook, which is famous for its real-life problems illustrated with pictures of semi-clad ladies. At a time when advice is more easily available than ever before, Philippa reflects on why agony aunts are often still our first port of call, and on what makes reading about other people's problems so irresistible.
Documentary telling the poignant true story of twin sisters from China, found as babies in a cardboard box in 2003 and adopted by two separate sets of parents - one from California, the other from a remote fishing village in Norway. In the US, Mia is raised a typical all-American girl, with a bustling life filled with violin lessons, girl scouts and soccer, while Alexandra grows up in the quietude of the breathtakingly beautiful but isolated village of Fresvik, Norway. Neither of the adoptive parents were told their daughters were twins, but a chance sighting at the orphanage enabled them to keep in touch, until a DNA test proved their hunch had been right. Both girls grew up knowing they had an identical twin living on the other side of the world. The film tells the remarkable story of their parallel journey, punctuated by only the odd visit, videos and photographs - until they meet for a longer visit in Norway when they are eight years old. Despite living completely different lives and speaking different languages, they are mirrors of each other - the magical bond between them is extraordinary. This is the story of our notions of family - the genetic ones we inherit and the ones we create.
More young people than ever are disillusioned by society and a system where capitalism is king. They are fighting back. This groundswell has given birth to a new breed of young activists, who are prepared to sacrifice everything in order to stand up for the issues they believe in. This film tells the story of four extreme protesters who are using direct action, risking their safety, their freedom and their futures, to force their way to change. They are armed with the latest technology to fight an increasingly hard line. This film shows the lives of young activists who have taken their fight to the streets and are using social media to mobilise others to join them and, of course, to grab the attention of the press and celebrities to help their cause. We meet animal rights extremist sisters, Phoebe and Jayne as they take on massive high street shops in an attempt to stop fur sales; we join environmentalist Danielle who illegally occupies an energy company against controversial fracking; Sarah takes on her local council in the fight for social housing; and we are embedded with Yaz who, after confronting Rupert Murdoch, sees the end of her long campaign against The Sun's infamous page 3, however short-lived it may be.
Hockney is the definitive exploration of one of the most significant artists of his generation. For the first time, David Hockney has given access to his personal archive of photographs and film, resulting in an unparalleled visual diary of a long life. 'I'm interested in ways of looking and trying to think of it in simple ways. If you can communicate that, of course people will respond - after all, everybody does look.' His is a long-term one-man campaign against the pessimism of the world, mastering new media - whether acrylic paint or iPad digits - in the search for a picture adequate to his sense of what it is to be alive. The film chronicles Hockney's vast career, from his early life in working-class Bradford, where his love for pictures was developed through his admiration for cinema, to his relocation to Hollywood, where his life-long struggle to escape labels ('queer', 'working class', figurative artist') was fully realised. David Hockney offers theories about art, the universe and everything. But as Hockney reveals, it's the hidden self-interrogation that gives his famously optimistic pictures their unexpected edge and attack. As one of his oldest friends says of his early work, 'the pictures are not just about men fucking'. The subject matter is a way into the picture to see something else, to open our eyes and our minds. Acclaimed film-maker Randall Wright offers a unique view of this unconventional artist who is now reaching new peaks of popularity worldwide, remains as charismatic as ever and at seventy seven is still working in the studio seven days a week.
In the early 1980s, Culture Club was one of the biggest bands in the world, selling 150 million records worldwide. Formed in London, the band was comprised of Boy George on vocals, Mikey Craig on bass, Roy Hay on guitar and keyboards and Jon Moss on drums. As well as their UK success, the band was huge in the USA - notching up ten top 40 hits. Being part of Band Aid cemented them as stalwarts of the 80s, a band that broke down barriers and left a huge legacy for the stars that came later, before they disbanded in 1986. However, they are a band with a past as colourful as their music. George had a secret affair with his drummer Jon Moss and when they acrimoniously split, the band fell apart and George descended into heroin addiction. Over the years there have been numerous failed attempts to reunite the band. In 2014 Culture Club decided to come back together to record a new album and embark on a UK and US tour. Director Mike Nicholls has unique access, following the band as they first meet in George's London home to write new material. However, it's not long before creative differences and tensions from their past begin to emerge. Faultlines develop further when the band travel to Spain to record the new album, spending two weeks working and living together in a remote recording studio. As the band return to London to prepare for the tour, they suffer a Twitter mauling after their first big public performance on Strictly Come Dancing. Relations are even more strained when George and the band sign to separate managers and a sudden illness threatens the whole reunion. The film looks at the band's troubled past, examining the themes of success, fame and ego, and reveals the personalities behind one of the most iconic bands of all time.
It was 1952, and polio gripped the world in fear. There was no known cause, no cure and no help in sight for parents desperate to protect their children. Across the ocean, eager to beat the potentially fatal condition, polio-afflicted President Roosevelt inspired the American public to send in their dimes to fund research. In just a few years Joseph Salk, an ambitious 33-year-old scientist working from his basement lab in Pittsburgh, would bring infantile paralysis to its knees and change the course of medical history. Bill Gates is interviewed along with a number of world-renowned experts and survivors to tell the extraordinary story of how Dr Salk and the legendary 'march of dimes' came together to help conquer polio.
A Julien Temple film about the Strypes, the young Irish band from Co Cavan bringing blistering R&B and rock 'n' roll to a whole new generation. The film explores the band's evolution from toddlerhood, when they first began playing together, through the hard work and twists of fate that have catapulted them straight out of their small rural hometown to screaming crowds. Theirs is a success story of the digital age. Born in the late 90s, the boys have never known a world without computers and smartphones. Going on the same musical coming-of-age quest as their early heroes, the Beatles, Stones and Kinks, they searched out the origins of R&B and the wellspring of the blues to produce their own distinctive, hard-edged sound. A deeply human story of four young childhood friends, with a profoundly shared passion and goal, as they become adults in the world of 21st-century rock 'n' roll success. The film is produced by Parallel Films and Elton John's Rocket Pictures.
With 2015 marking the 100th anniversary of the first British policewoman being given the power of arrest, this film takes us through the remarkable history of 100 years of Britain's female police force. It explores the individual careers and ambitions of women police officers who, through their bravery and guile, were determined to succeed in a profession that never wanted them. It's a story of class, drive and sheer guts, entwined with a darker side of sexism, snobbery, intimidation and betrayal. Includes interviews with former policewomen who pushed boundaries in the profession such as Sislin Fay Allen, Britain's first black policewoman; Cressida Dick, Britain's highest-ever-ranking policewoman; Alison Halford, who brought a high-profile sex discrimination charge against the police; and Jackie Malton, who provided the model for Prime Suspect's Jane Tennison. These interviews are combined with fascinating facts and illuminating stories from expert historians and current serving officers who have made their careers in the specialist areas of the mounted police and firearms units. This is a story about ingenuity and determination as well as law and order. A Fair Cop is a hidden history of our society, depicting a battle of the sexes that masked a battle for power.
A whistlestop tour of rock from over the water, taking in some of the finest Irish rock offerings from the early 70s to the present day, as captured on a variety of BBC shows from The Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops to Later... with Jools Holland. Kicking off with Thin Lizzy's 1973 debut hit Whiskey in the Jar, the programme traces Irish rock's unfolding lineage. Performances from guitar maestro Rory Gallagher, Celtic rock godfathers Horslips and John Peel favourites the Undertones feature alongside rivals Stiff Little Fingers, with their Top of the Pops performance of Nobody's Hero, followed by post-punk U2's 1981 debut UK performance of I Will Follow from The Old Grey Whistle Test. Then there is Sinead O'Connor's debut single performance of Mandinka, and the Pogues play the Ewan MacColl classic Dirty Old Town from 1986. Into the 90s, there is the Frank and Walters and Therapy? on Top of the Pops, along with early performances on Later...with Jools Holland from Ash and the Divine Comedy. There is rockabilly with Imelda May's debut hit Johnny Got A Boom Boom, and then bang up to the moment is Cavan's the Strypes and Hozier, whose Take Me To Church completes this hit-driven tour through Irish rock.
Ever wondered what the nation's top ten evening meals are? Is our favourite all time dish a curry, a steak, a roast - or a pizza, pie or stew? The Hairy Bikers and Lorraine Pascale reveal all in this special programme. They show the best ways to cook our favourite meals by breathing new life into our weekly menu and empowering us to make our dinners as simple, cheap and tasty as possible. From spice shops in Scotland, apple orchards in Kent, Thai kitchens, fish and chip shops and farms, the show is packed full of top tips and interesting culinary observations - setting out the state of the nation through the food we love to eat.
Award-winning ventriloquist Nina Conti and her much-loved puppet Monkey are a huge hit in comedy clubs around the world and stars of Live at the Apollo. But now she wants to put her skills to a more meaningful end on a much more difficult stage - entertaining children in hospitals. This film follows Nina as she trains as a giggle doctor with Theodora Children's Charity, beginning with her trying to find her clown persona, who might be Scottish... or might not. Devastated by the discovery that Monkey can only perform in hospitals if he can be boil-washed, Nina tries to go it alone with only a red nose, a few misshapen balloon animals and some slightly disappointing magic tricks. Not to mention her professional snobbery rearing up as she finds herself turning into a baby-voiced children's entertainer. Then there are the difficulties she encounters when faced with clown phobia. Following her directorial debut with Her Master's Voice which won a Grierson Award and a BAFTA nomination, Nina Conti brings us another frank and intimate documentary about her eventful two-year stint as a hospital clown. Join her to discover whether Nina raised a laugh amongst sick children or whether she cried the tears of a clown.
In 1928, Lady Heath became the first person to fly solo from Cape Town to London. Eighty-five years later, Tracey Curtis-Taylor sets out in a vintage biplane to retrace her flight. Her extraordinary eight-and-a-half-week journey from Cape Town to Goodwood is nearly 10,000 miles long and takes her through 15 African countries. From the beauty of the wilderness to the challenge of flying through war-torn nations, Tracey faces many of the same challenges as her aviatrix predecessor. With aviation fuel scarce and with a top speed of only 95 miles per hour, her progress is slow and at times frightening. Tracey will need the same courage and single-minded determination of Lady Heath if she is to make her lifelong dream come true.
This film tells the story of how rock music helped to change Ireland. The 40-year-old story of Irish rock and pop music is grounded in the very different musical traditions of the two main cities of the island, Belfast and Dublin. This musical celebration charts the lives and careers of some of the biggest selling acts in Irish rock, punk and pop from Van Morrison and Thin Lizzy to the Undertones and U2. From the pioneers of the showbands touring in the late 50s through to the modern day, the film examines their lineage and connections and how the hard-core, rocking sound of Belfast merged with the more melodic, folky Dublin tradition to form what we now recognise as Irish rock and pop. The film explores where these bands and musicians came from and the influence the political, social and cultural environments of the day had on them and how the music influenced those environments. With contributions from many of the heavyweights of Irish rock and pop, including U2, Sinead O'Connor and Bob Geldof, it follows their careers as they forged an international presence and looks at how they helped change the island along the way.
In his directorial debut, Tom Felton, who played the villainous Draco Malfoy in the hugely successful Harry Potter films, meets the world's most committed fans in a bid to understand what drives them. For Tom, being involved in such a global phenomenon has meant being followed by many millions of dedicated fans all over the world. And over the past seven years he has become increasingly aware of one fan in particular - she follows him to almost every event he attends - and it has got him thinking about exactly what it takes to become this devoted. What is it that causes a regular fan to make the leap to becoming a superfan? From Wizard World to the streets of New York, from Comic Con to behind-the-scenes action, Tom takes viewers into the reality of his world. He spends an evening with 20-year-old Brian from New York, who dedicates most nights to tracking down his favourite stage and screen stars for a selfie. He meets 26-year-old Steve from Pittsburgh, the self-proclaimed world's biggest Harry Potter fan, who has turned a basement into his very own Hogwarts. Tom also talks candidly with celebrity friends including Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and JK Rowling. A unique insight into the world of superfans and celebrity from the perspective of one of Britain's brightest and biggest young stars, which dissects the unique relationships between the famous and their followers.
Twenty years ago, while still First Lady, Hillary Clinton made a ground-breaking speech in Beijing setting down a challenge to world leaders: to treat women's rights as human rights. Since then, a new generation of women, including Hillary herself, have risen to some of the top jobs in global politics. But 20 years on from that famous speech, has anything really changed for women? In candid interviews, Clinton along with her predecessors as Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright talk about the commitment they made to improve women's rights – and the struggles they went through to make a difference. The programme also hears from female politicians and campaigners from across the globe who have been making strides for change in their own countries. From the battle to give girls a right to education in Afghanistan, to preventing the growth of sex trafficking in India, the programme hears from the women who dare to speak out for their gender. In Liberia women helped bring an end to the civil war by making waves in their community. Organiser of the protests Leymah Gbowee reflects back on the horror of women of living in a country where rape is used as a tool of war; and how the women’s non-violent protest forced change and Liberia ended up with Africa’s first woman president. The film also reveals the shocking extent of abuses in some countries and conflict zones and asks what Western politicians should – and should not - do to promote women’s rights and equality. And as the US waits to hear if Hillary Clinton will make a second attempt at the US presidency, the film will assess how much progress has been made since Clinton's speech and why there's been a backlash in some areas.
In Eat to Live Forever with Giles Coren, the food critic takes up three extreme diet regimes in a bid to push the very limits of life expectancy. Giles's search to find a diet which might extend his life comes after his great-grandfather lived to the grand old age of 93. His grandfather passed away aged 76 and his father Alan died aged 69. The Coren men are bucking the global trend of living longer so Giles, now in his mid-forties, wants to find out what he can do to avoid a premature death. In this witty, entertaining and informative documentary, Giles investigates how not to die young with the help of some extreme regimes. He meets people from around the world whose pursuit of longevity is an obsession that dominates every aspect of their lives. It won't be an easy ride for Giles - as a food critic who has eaten in some of the world's finest restaurants, he'll have to make sacrifices. He meets ardent devotees of extreme food regimes, but how much suffering will be involved, and can any of these extreme regimes actually extend Giles's life? He undertakes the calorie-restriction diet, meeting followers of this near-starvation regime, some of whom aim to live to 150. He then takes up the Palaeo diet, aka the Stone Age diet, which consists only of foods hunted, fished or gathered by our Palaeolithic ancestors. Giles ends his journey with a regime consisting of almost 100 per cent fruit, the aptly named fruitarian diet. Throughout the process, Giles's health is monitored by his doctor, who helps Giles assess the impact these unusual regimes are having on his body. Can Giles be persuaded to change his ways by the well-being and enthusiasm of the people he meets? Can he hack the strict self-imposed rules under which they live? Will he discover the secret to a longer life? Or will he decide that the pleasures of a short and happy life matter more to him than living to a ripe old age?
Dina Torkia has a huge following for her vlog about Muslim fashion and now she is heading to Indonesia for the finals of an international Muslim beauty pageant, World Muslimah. But Dina soon discovers it isn't just a pageant - it's a two-week boot camp where contestants have to prove their credentials as a good Muslim role model. It's a testing and often hilarious journey which pushes Dina to the limit.
Eleven years ago Angela Samata was an ordinary mother of two living in Birkenhead. Then her partner Mark took his own life. In this film, Angela goes on a journey around Britain to meet others who have suffered a similar loss and explores why, when suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK, we are still so afraid of talking about it.
Documentary celebrating the male artists whose vocal stylings have played an instrumental role in the soul genre from the 60s to the 00s. Featuring footage of Brenton Wood performing Gimme Little Sign and Curtis Mayfield singing Keep On Keeping On, as well as appearances by Billy Preston, Bill Withers, Billy Ocean, Alexander O'Neal, Bobby Womack and Barry White. They’re mainly performances from Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Jools Holland, so Al Green rubs shoulders with R Kelly, Luther Vandross, Bill Withers and the Commodores. It’s perfect late-night viewing. Boogie the evening away or just slump on the sofa, close your eyes and, as Dobie Gray says, drift away.
Gabby Logan celebrates rugby's Six Nations Greatest Moments with classic archive footage and untold stories from rugby legends Jonny Wilkinson, Brian O'Driscoll, the Hastings Brothers (Gavin and Scott), Bill Beaumont, Sir Clive Woodward, Will Carling, Matt Dawson, Thomas Castaignede, Serge Betsen, Gareth Edwards, Jonathan Davies, Keith Wood and Martin Johnson. There are also fun anecdotes from famous rugby fans including Dermot O'Leary, Sir Terry Wogan, Alex Jones and Katherine Jenkins, capturing the uniqueness and magic of this event that is the envy of world rugby.
Cuts to public spending mean there are far fewer police on the streets than before, and the public's obsession with security is on the rise. Over 7000 private security firms in the UK are stepping in to fill the gap - and business is booming. People are terrified by threats - some real, some imagined - and are willing to pay big bucks for everything from bodyguards to cutting-edge security equipment. Using a mix of CCTV footage, point-of-view narratives from security personnel and moving testimonies from victims, Call Security gets to grips with one of modern society's fastest-growing industries.
Of all the wonders of the human body, there's one more mysterious than any other. Blood: five precious litres that keep us alive. Yet how much do we really know about this sticky red substance and its mysterious, life-giving force? Michael Mosley gives up a fifth of his own blood to perform six bold experiments. From starving it of oxygen to injecting it with snake venom, Michael reveals the extraordinary abilities of blood to adapt and keep us alive. Using specialist photography, the programme reveals the beauty in a single drop. Michael even discovers how it tastes when, in a television first, he prepares a black pudding with his own blood. Down the ages, our understanding of blood has been as much myth as science, but Michael reveals there might be truth in the old vampire legends, as he meets one of the scientists behind the latest research that shows young blood might be able to reverse the ageing process - the holy grail of modern medicine.
Professor Joanna Bourke charts how, over the past five centuries, dentistry has been transformed from a backstreet horror show into a gleaming modern science. During her journey into dentistry's past, Joanna uncovers how a trip to the dentist's in medieval England could mean much more than a haircut, reveals how a First World War general's toothache would transform British oral surgery, and discovers the strange story of how the teeth of soldiers killed at Waterloo ended up in the mouths of London's rich.
Twenty-five years after the biggest riot in British penal history, this film brings together the ringleaders of the trouble with the prison guards they battled with over three weeks of anarchy that brought Strangeways to its knees. For the first time, these events are told through unparalleled access to the people at the heart of the riot, including the governor Brendan O'Friel who was faced with the task of trying to regain control of his prison. Former prisoners describe the explosion of violence that erupted on April 1st 1990, when 1,600 angry inmates escaped from their cells and ran amok through the prison. Many were seeking revenge and reform for what they saw as years of suffering under an archaic and sometimes brutal regime in the overcrowded Victorian prison. In the bloody mayhem that followed, prison officers describe fearing for their lives as they were driven out of the building, leaving prisoners to settle scores and hunt down sex offenders, showing no mercy whilst the prison burned around them. Candid testimony from ex-inmates, prison officers and the governor himself creates a compelling story of the struggle for power between the authorities and the hardcore prisoners who ultimately took their protest onto the prison roof. The stand-off that followed is documented until the final moments, when the siege was ended in a dramatic take-down in front of rolling news cameras.
For 60 years Brits have flocked to the Costa del Sol. Since the launch of package holidays, it has guaranteed us sun, sea and sausage sandwiches. Up to a million Brits moved to Spain for a better life, but after a huge financial crisis, crippling austerity and plummeting property prices, the dream may be over. Figures suggest that 90 thousand Brits resident in Spain left in the last year alone. In this film, director Matt Rudge travels the coast to meet some of the last Brits standing: British business owners struggling to turn a profit, pensioners trapped in negative equity and reliant on the Spanish healthcare system, and young British migrant workers employed in Spanish bars and nightclubs. He meets some ex-pats determined to remain no matter what, and others who are resigned to returning to the UK. But beneath the surface there are simmering tensions between the Spanish public and British immigrants. It seems the UK is far from the only country debating immigration at times of austerity, but in Spain it's the Brits who are the immigrants. So is the British love affair with the Costa del Sol over?
Simon Russell Beale travels to Italy to explore the story of the notorious Duke of Mantua and his long-suffering court composer Claudio Monteverdi during the turbulent times of the late Italian Renaissance. Out of the volatile relationship between the duke and the composer came Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, a major turning point in western music. The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, explore some of the radical and beautiful choral music in this dramatic composition.
When gunmen shot dead 12 people in the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine, the hashtag 'Je Suis Charlie' seemed to unify France. But for many young Muslims it was a symbol of their growing alienation from mainstream French society, where the right-wing Front Nationale are now the leading party for the under-35s. British journalist and comedian Shaista Aziz travels to our nearest neighbour to find out why the country has become so divided. As France reels from attacks carried out by French Muslim extremists, she meets the ordinary young Muslims who feel rejected by their country, with some even hiding their Muslim identity to get work. Shaista confronts the far-right youth organisations who believe foreigners should be repatriated. In a rare interview, she speaks to Dieudonne, the controversial comedian who talks about what he calls the double standards over free speech that exist in France today.
Showing as part of the BBC Wales Real Valleys season. Kim Howells celebrates 250 years of art in the Valleys, looking at how the place became a magnet for artists drawn by its natural splendour and the spectacle of the industries that grew up there. Former MP and Labour arts minister Kim Howells looks at how the south Wales valleys have been portrayed by artists from the end of the 18th century to the present day. He begins with JMW Turner who visited the Vale of Neath in the 1790s to paint the spectacular waterfalls, but soon discovers that it was the drama of industry that attracted the next generation of painters. By the 20th century artists became more concerned with social issues, showing the despair brought on by the Great Depression. But after the Second World War the mood changed and painters reflected the post-war optimism. Finally, Kim looks at the current generation of artists, including Valerie Ganz and David Carpanini, who portray the after-effects of industry and the natural beauty that's returned to the Valleys.
A look at the career of Nancy Astor, the first woman to take her seat in Parliament.
Showing as part of the BBC Wales Real Valleys season. For over a hundred years the south Wales valleys have been producing boxing champions. This documentary looks back at some of the boxers who made it to the top and follows Liam Williams - a professional boxer from Clydach Vale - as he prepares for his first title fight.
This year, every motorist will spend several days worth of time sitting in traffic jams caused by roadworks. Thousands more will feel their wheels walloping through potholes which occasionally damage cars. In this film we meet the men whose job it is to control the carnage. In Leeds alone, there are 1,800 miles of roads with 29,000 sets of roadworks a year. Two-and-a-half billion miles are driven on the city's roads every year, contributing to 30,000 potholes a year. Dealing with this are men like Pat Griffin, who has worked for Leeds City Council Highways Department for 22 years. In this time, the department will have patched over half- a-million potholes. You'd think Pat would be sick of the sight of them. Not a bit of it: 'I've got a passion for it,' he says. 'I'm proud. We're on the front line and what we do make a difference.' Neil Carpenter has been a utilities inspector at Leeds highways for 11 years, his department inspecting over one hundred thousand utilities digs in that time. His job involves checking that the utilities digging up our roads have permits for their work and that they're not overstaying their welcome. It's a permanent cat and mouse utilities versus inspectors game on the city's streets. Roadworks and potholes are a favourite national moan, and in this film we hear the exasperated voice of motorists forever stuck at red lights - and we hear from the road crews on whom they frequently vent their ire.
Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups Mark Radcliffe presents a look at the highs and lows of band life - the creative tension that produces great music and the pressures that come with success and fame, and pull most bands apart. Radcliffe lifts the lid on the main reasons why bands break up and the secrets of bands that manage to stay together.
The super-rich are maximizing property value in the heart of London as never before. But they're not building up, they're digging down, creating mega-basements or 'iceberg homes' - nicknamed because there's more square footage under the ground than above. Over the last ten years an estimated 2000 new basements have been dug in central London. Into these multi-level subterranean structures owners are building anything from cinemas, swimming pools, beauty parlours, squash courts, wine cellars and servants' quarters. Some take as long as three years to complete. As well as the noise of the digging, fleets of concrete mixers and lorries taking away the dug soil service the sites. So life for neighbours in some of London's poshest addresses has been hell. As the Royal Borough of Kensington Council responds to angry residents and tries to regulate the number of mega-basements and the disruption they cause, this BBC film goes behind the hoardings to look inside the extraordinary structures and talk to builders, owners and irate neighbours to tell the story of the conflict that has gripped the millionaires and gold-paved streets of London's smartest postcodes.
Professor Alice Roberts discovers which are Britain's most popular fresh foods - and uses the latest science to uncover the surprising health benefits of our favourite foods. Last year in Britain we spent over £84 billion on food. With each beep of the till, every item of food we buy is recorded and scrutinised. It produces an extraordinary shopping list - what we're buying most of and spending the most money on. From three billion litres of milk a year to 730 million kilos of bananas, from 520 million kilos of chicken to 1.34 billion kilos of potatoes - the BBC has gained access to the latest information about the fresh foods we load into our supermarket trolleys. But what do we actually know about these favourite foods? How good are they for us, and are we getting the best from them - could they actually make us feel and look better? Professor Alice Roberts travels across the country to track down the very latest scientific information, revealing the definitive guide to the foods we love.
Great pop records are the soundtrack to our lives and that is why number one hits hold a totemic place in our culture. This film goes in search of what it takes to get a number one hit single, uncovering how people have done it, and the effect it had on their lives. As the exploration moves through the decades the goal is to trace the various routes that lead to the top of the singles chart, and discover the role played by art, science, chance and manipulation in reaching the pinnacle of pop.
More than sixty young British women have travelled to join the so-called Islamic State in Syria, lured by a combination of slick marketing, social media and religious fervour. With access to the friends and family of the some of the girls, Britain's Jihadi Brides reveals how the sophisticated recruiting tactics of IS have shattered so many lives.
An intimate portrait of Sir James Galway, regarded by many as the finest flautist of his generation. The programme charts his remarkable rise to the top of the classical music world from humble beginnings with a Belfast flute band, and is given unique access to Galway at home and on tour. Galway was born in Belfast at the outbreak of the Second World War and established himself performing with the top London orchestras in the 1960s before becoming first flute with the Berlin Philharmonic. In the mid-70s he took the unusual step of leaving to launch a solo career and became a household name with the release of his instrumental version of John Denver's Annie's Song. He has sold more than 30 million albums and at the age of 75 continues to tour the world performing to packed houses and giving masterclasses to the next generation of world-class flute players. Galway speaks frankly about his life and career and puts his success down to hard work and daily practice. The documentary captures Galway backstage, in rehearsal and performing, and at his home overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, with his wife and fellow flautist, Jeanne. Narrated by Jeremy Irons and contributors include broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, Riverdance composer Bill Whelan and the conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin.
Professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Matt Williams present the highlights from this year's archaeology in Ireland. There is new evidence and a new theory to explain the amazing phenomenon of Ireland's perfectly preserved Iron Age bog bodies. Could these men really have been kings, murdered when their reigns failed? A dig at the iconic Dunluce Castle opens up the controversial Plantation of Ulster. A disagreement pits experts against local knowledge as the hunt is on for the location of the Battle of Ford of the Biscuits from the Elizabethan Nine Years' War - with unexpected results. A burial ground yields clues to a Bronze Age invasion of Ireland, a period when it became known as Europe's Eldorado. An astonishing lough yields perfectly preserved boats from Bronze, Iron and Viking Ages. The burial ground of the prison known as Ireland's Alcatraz offers up unexpected evidence of kindness among the inmates. Plus amazing plunder from the Spanish Armada, from Viking raiders and from Ireland's age of heroes, all curated from the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
Springwatch returns for an Easter Special, showcasing the best of British wildlife just as the countryside is bursting into colour and life. With the breeding season getting underway, presenters Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan hope for Easter eggs at the mainland's largest seabird colony. Martin Hughes-Games is in Suffolk with seasonal news from the current home of Springwatch, and Simon King is back on the remote Scottish island of Islay, discovering the origin of the Easter Bunny.
Rock legend and tour bus aficionado Rick Wakeman takes us on a time-travelling trip through the decades in this first-hand account of rockers on the road from the late 1950s to the 80s and beyond. It's an often bumpy and sometimes sleepless ride down the A roads and motorways of the UK during the golden age of rock 'n' roll touring - a secret history of transport cafes, transit vans, B&Bs, sleepless roadies and of loved ones left at home or, on one occasion, by the roadside. And it's also a secret history of audiences both good and bad, and the gigs themselves - from the early variety package to the head clubs, the stadiums and the pubs. This is life in the British fast lane as told by Rick and the bands themselves, a film about the very lifeblood of the rock 'n' roll wagon train. With members of Dr Feelgood, Suzi Quatro, the Shadows, the Pretty Things, Fairport Convention, Happy Mondays, Aswad, Girlschool, the Damned and many more.
Paula Radcliffe: The Marathon and Me Marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe looks back on her extraordinary career on the eve of her swansong appearance at the 2015 London Marathon. In a revealing set of interviews with Olympic gold medallist and BBC athletics pundit Denise Lewis, Radcliffe discusses the highs and lows of 20 years at the top of her sport, the future, and the importance of family life in her success. The three-time London Marathon winner also talks about overcoming her battle with serious injury in order to race the 26.2 miles on the famous streets of the capital for the final time.
'My father shook up the establishment', claims Rupert Murdoch in this hour-long special that tells the true story behind the Gallipoli letter written in September 1915 by a young Australian journalist - Keith Murdoch. According to journalistic legend, Keith Murdoch's letter toppled a general, shook a government and ended the bloodbath that was Gallipoli, one of the most infamous calamities of World War I. But the truth is far more complex. With interviews and testimony from Rupert Murdoch, Sir Max Hastings, Sir Hew Strachan and other experts, plus dramatic reconstructions based on Keith Murdoch's own writings, the documentary tells the story of a young, ambitious journalist who visits the killing fields of Gallipoli and becomes embroiled in a scheme to evade the military censor. But when top-brass generals, cabinet ministers and press barons get involved, the scene is set for a political struggle in which reputations are destroyed, careers are made and the foundations for a new journalistic empire are laid.
It's one of the most audacious diamond heists in British history: despite CCTV, alarms and security guards, a six-man gang spent the Easter weekend breaking into a vault in London's Hatton Garden, escaping with the contents of safe-deposit boxes estimated to be worth millions. But how did they get away with it? Declan Lawn takes a journey into Britain's criminal underworld in search of the secrets behind the job - the creation of the team, the choice of target, the execution of the robbery and the escape plan. Speaking to victims of the crime, he asks what was inside the boxes. As the search for the perpetrators intensifies, how could they dispose of the stolen property?
For Democracy Day, which commemorates the 750th anniversary of the earliest Parliament in Britain, Mark D'Arcy presents a short history of the De Montfort Parliament.
When women were battling to win the vote, Parliament was on the front line. Rosalyn Ball looks back at the Suffragettes' campaign.
Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford climb on board Britain's trains to find out whether they offer value for money. On the trail of the £8 billion of fares and £4 billion of public money that go into the nation's trains each year, they discover a rail system that is struggling to contend with outdated infrastructure and more passengers than at any time in living memory. Twenty years on from privatisation, Nick and Margaret are in for a bumpy ride as they meet irate commuters, polished train operating company bosses and the head of Network Rail. They unearth some mind-boggling bureaucracy and infuriating inefficiency, but also ask if there are signs of hope that the railway may be getting back on track.
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman goes behind the scenes at the National Gallery in a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
The sensational discovery of a lost papyrus containing the words to songs unheard for 1700 years sends Margaret on a journey of exploration. From the fragmentary documents, ruined temple architecture and surviving oriental jewellery, the programme conjures the real world of the woman, whose erotic writings gave us the words 'sapphic' and 'lesbian', after the island of Lesbos the place of her birth.
A two-hour, real-time canal boat journey down one of Britain's most historic waterways, the Kennet and Avon Canal, from Top Lock in Bath to the Dundas Aqueduct. Using an uninterrupted single shot, the film is a rich and absorbing antidote to the frenetic pace and white noise of modern life. Taking in the images and sounds of the British countryside, underpinned by the natural soundscape of water lapping, surrounding birdsong and the noise of the chugging engine, this is a chance to spot wildlife and glimpse life on the towpath while being lulled by the comforting rhythm of a bygone era. Along the journey, graphics and archive stills embedded into the passing landscape deliver salient facts about the canal and its social history.
The birdsong of sunrise in all its uninterrupted glory, free from the voiceover and music of traditional television. With the first glimmers of sunlight, the birds of Britain's woodland, heathland and parkland burst into song. This is an opportunity to sit back and enjoy a portrait of three very different habitats and the natural splendour of their distinctive chorus.
The Duke of Wellington was the most famous Briton of the first half of the 19th century. His victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 altered the course of history. The hero of Waterloo became a towering figure in British history for both his achievements and for embodying our notions of Britishness - the stiff upper lip, unfussy straightforwardness and incorruptibility in office - he was the Iron Duke. This drama documentary looks behind the iron mask to focus on the intriguing complexities of the Duke of Wellington - his character, personality and relationships, told through his own words and the words of those who knew him best. General, politician, lover, outsider - the series discovers that the hero of Waterloo was far more complex than his public image. Drawing on his own vast private correspondence, as well as the diaries and memoirs of those around him, this biographical series uses dramatic reconstruction to create an intimate portrait of the Duke of Wellington, played by Richard E Grant (Withnail and I, The Iron Lady, Doctor Who).
Following the SNP's landslide in the general election across Scotland, Sarah Smith charts the party's extraordinary rise. From their humble beginnings as a fringe party in 1934 to their success today, this programme asks, how did they do it and what does the future hold?
This programme is based on a film entitled Divided By Race - United in War and Peace, produced by The-Latest.com. During the Second World War, thousands of men and women from the Caribbean colonies volunteered to come to Britain to join the fight against Hitler. They risked their lives for King and Empire, but their contribution has largely been forgotten. In this programme, some of the last surviving Caribbean veterans tell their extraordinary wartime stories: from torpedo attacks by German U-boats and the RAF's blanket bombing of Germany to the culture shock of Britain's freezing winters and war-torn landscapes. This brave sacrifice confronted the pioneers from the Caribbean with a lifelong challenge - to be treated as equals by the British government and the British people. In testimony full of wit and charm, the veterans candidly reveal their experiences as some of the only black people in wartime Britain. They remember encounters with a curious British public and confrontation with the prejudices of white American GIs stationed in Britain. After the war, many veterans returned to the Caribbean where they discovered jobs were scarce. Some came back to Britain to help rebuild its cities. They settled down with jobs and homes, got married and began to integrate their rich heritage into British culture. Now mostly in their 80s and 90s - the oldest is 104 - these pioneers from the Caribbean have helped transform Britain and created an enduring multicultural legacy. With vivid first-hand testimony, observational documentary and rare archive footage, the programme gives a unique perspective on the Second World War and the history of 20th-century Britain.
David Reynolds re-examines the war leadership of American president Franklin Roosevelt. At the height of war, Roosevelt inspired millions with stirring visions of a new and better postwar world, but it was a world he probably knew he would never see. He was commander-in-chief of the greatest military power the world had known, and yet a man whose paralysis from polio made him powerless to accomplish even the most minor physical tasks. Few Americans knew the extent of his disability. In this intimate biography set against the epic of World War Two, Reynolds reveals how Roosevelt was burdened by secrets about his failing health and strained marriage that, if exposed, could have destroyed his presidency. Enigmatic, secretive and with a complicated love life, America's wheelchair president was racing to shape the future before the past caught up with him. Weaving together the conduct of the war in Europe and the Pacific, the high politics of Roosevelt's diplomacy with Stalin and Churchill, and the entangled stories of the women who sustained the president in his last year, Reynolds explores the impact of Roosevelt's growing frailty on the war's endgame and the tainted peace that followed.
"I want to make people cry even when they don't understand my words." - Edith Piaf This unique film explores the story of the lyric-driven French chanson and looks at some of the greatest artists and examples of the form. Award-winning singer and musician Petula Clark, who shot to stardom in France in the late 1950s for her nuanced singing and lyrical exploration, is our guide. We meet singers and artists who propelled chanson into the limelight, including Charles Aznavour (a protégé of Edith Piaf), Juliette Greco (whom Jean-Paul Sartre described as having 'a million poems in her voice'), Anna Karina (muse of Jean-Luc Godard and darling of the French Cinema's New Wave), actress and singer Jane Birkin, who had a global hit (along with Serge Gainsbourg) with the controversial Je t'aime (Moi non plus), and Marc Almond, who has received great acclaim with his recordings of Jacques Brel songs. In exploring the famous chanson tradition and the prodigious singers who made the songs their own, we continue the story into contemporary French composition, looking at new lyrical forms exemplified by current artists such as Stromae, Zaz, Têtes Raides and Etienne Daho, who also give exclusive interviews. The film shines a spotlight onto a musical form about which the British are largely unfamiliar, illuminating a history that is tender, funny, revealing and absorbing.
Stephen Fry reveals the secret of a unique World War Two building in Norfolk. Known affectionately as the Christmas Pudding, the Langham Dome holds a special place not only in the history of warfare but also in the development of 21st-century entertainment. Recently rescued from ruin by a dedicated bunch of enthusiasts after 50 years, its secrets are finally revealed.
Recorded coverage of a seminar organised by Nuffield College Oxford at which leading academics and pollsters analyse the result of the General Election, from Thursday 14 May.
BBC Scotland investigates the multimillion pound world of the dog trade. A third of all dogs bought today are believed to have come from puppy farms. Using secret filming, reporter Sam Poling follows the supply chain, from the small-time illegal sellers to the profit-driven puppy farmers getting rich off this ruthless trade. She exposes Scotland's biggest dog trafficker and uncovers a breeding facility operating on a scale the experts didn't believe existed in the UK - until now.
On 22 May 1915, a collision at the Quintinshill signal box, near Gretna, became Britain's deadliest ever rail crash. Involving a military train filled with troops - most of whom were from Leith - heading for Gallipoli and two passenger trains, the crash claimed an estimated 226 lives and left hundreds more injured. The duty signalmen, George Meakin and James Tinsley, were found responsible for the disaster and were both jailed on the charges of culpable homicide. Neil Oliver explores the series of mistakes that may have caused the collision, the part played by the train companies and the government, and determines whether the investigation would have come to the same conclusions if it were carried out today. Dramatised reconstructions add to this compelling account of a tragedy which had a profound effect on several communities in Scotland, and remains the deadliest in the annals of Britain's railways. Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster: Quintinshill is a Finestripe Productions programme for BBC Scotland.
The story of Ashya King, the five-year-old whose parents removed him from Southampton General Hospital because they wanted a different treatment for their son. For the first time, staff at the hospital talk about their role in events which led to a public outcry and hate mail being sent to doctors and nurses. BBC South health correspondent David Fenton explores why the family turned their backs on the NHS and sought cancer treatment abroad.
When the Second World War ended, the people of liberated Europe celebrated their freedom from Nazi tyranny. Their years of suffering had ended, but for millions of Germans, the end of the conflict opened a new and terrible chapter. The Savage Peace reveals the appalling violence meted out to the defeated, especially to those ethnic Germans who had lived peacefully for centuries in neighbouring countries. Using rare and unseen archive film, the documentary tells a harrowing story of vengeance against German civilians, which mirrored some of the worst cruelty of the Nazi occupiers during the years of war. The Savage Peace includes the unique testimony of eyewitnesses and victims, who recall the horrors with searing clarity, their memories undimmed 70 years after the events took place. This a story that has, until now, been untold amidst the justified celebration of an end to an unspeakable tyranny. But as the writer George Orwell said, the treatment of the defeated Germans was a terrible crime that has gone unpunished.
A look at Winston Churchill’s battle to be elected Prime Minister just weeks after VE Day. The war leader was confident of victory, but ended up being humiliated at the polls with the Conservative party almost annihilated. Surprising revelations from first-hand witnesses, including Sir Max Hastings, Juliet Gardiner, Anthony Beevor and Dave Douglas, help to uncover whether Churchill’s rejection was a mark of ingratitude, or the most mature decision ever made by a democracy.
Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life - and death - of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure - a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn't fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith, and today more than ever we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill. Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone - the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where in all of this is the real Joan - the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan's own words at her trial, and as Helen unpicks Joan's story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.
As all three of Cunard's world-famous liners make an historic visit to Liverpool, Simon O'Brien reflects on 175 years of pioneering transatlantic travel. He uncovers the heroic stories of the people who sailed on the ships and reveals the legacy they brought back to the city.
With the help of a team of experts and the latest in 3D scanning technology, Alexander Armstrong, along with Dr Michael Scott, explores the hidden underground treasures that made Rome the powerhouse of the ancient world. In his favourite city, he uncovers a lost subterranean world that helped build and run the world's first metropolis and its empire. From the secret underground world of the Colosseum to the aqueducts and sewers that supplied and cleansed it, and from the mysterious cults that sustained it spiritually to the final resting places of Rome's dead, Xander discovers the underground networks that serviced the remarkable world above.
The story of FA Cup final day seen through the eyes of the fans. Filmed on the day of the 2015 final, the programme gets up close and personal, following all the trials, tears and tribulations of the Arsenal and Aston Villa fans watching their teams on the big day. Every entertaining moment of FA Cup final fever is featured, including every emotion, every passionate reaction and every smart wisecrack as it happens. Whether they're watching live at Wembley, in the pub or on a big telly in the garden, the cameras are there to capture all the highs and lows of being a football fan on the biggest day in the English football calendar.
Gabby Logan looks into what it takes to become a winner. Asking whether we can be born to win by the make-up of our genes, she takes a DNA test to find out. Gabby also meets Olympic, Commonwealth and European long jump champion Greg Rutherford and learns how his view on nature versus nurture has steered his training and preparation methods - and how he balances this with being a new dad to his six-month old son. Sir Matthew Pinsent asks whether people can be taught to win as he visits world record holder Adam Peaty and looks into the change of mentality within the British Swimming team which has brought big wins over the past 12 months. And Sir Clive Woodward gives his view on how winners can be created through team spirit, psychology and preparation.
A look back at one of the most famous FA Cup finals in history - the 1953 'Matthews final' between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers. Football legends Sir Bobby Charlton and Gordon Banks pay tribute to Sir Stanley Matthews, while Alan Shearer analyses the goals and Roger Johnson asks if Matthews is the greatest English footballer of all time.
The inside story of the Eichmann Trial. The elusive figure in the dock, the horrific experiences of inmates of the extermination camps, the meaning and importance of the recording and broadcast of events around the world and how the event was both a show trial for Israel and Eichmann himself. Here was a key moment in the history of the Holocaust and our understanding of it. The series features extracts from The Eichmann Show, a major dramatisation of the trial and its broadcast, starring actors Martin Freeman, Anthony LaPaglia and Rebecca Front.
On the eve of the Women's World Cup in Canada, Jacqui Oatley presents a history of the event told through the eyes of the greatest players in women's football. Michelle Akers, the star of the USA's successful campaign at the first World Cup in 1991, remembers the tournament's humble beginnings, while her compatriots Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain discuss their breakthrough victory on home soil in 1999. Kelly Smith relates her personal battles prior to her starring role with England in 2007, while Japan's Homare Sawa reflects on an emotional triumph just weeks after her home country was devastated by a tsunami in 2011. Plus interviews with current stars including Brazilian legend Marta, German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, United States dynamo Abby Wambach and players from across the globe looking to make the headlines over the next month.
At 16, Martin Read found himself living on the streets. Since then, he's spent time in prison and suffered from mental health issues. But he has picked himself up and is now a film director. This, his first film, is made in and around Bristol and tells the stories of the young people he meets who are not registered anywhere as homeless, but are forced to sleep on friends' sofas, in tents, in caves, under bridges and on the streets. Since the introduction of the bedroom tax, benefit sanctions and the privatisation of many hostels, the under-25s have been hit hard. Charities estimate that the real number of 'hidden homeless' is three times as high as the official homeless figure, so that almost half a million people are now sleeping rough or being supported by friends. Martin's past experiences have enabled him to gain unrivalled access into the worlds of those he meets, and the result is an honest and revealing look at what homelessness for young people really looks like today.
Journalist Kate Mossman explores the unique relationship between artist and fan, from the Beatles to One Direction and her own evolving fascination with Queen.
Huw Edwards fulfils a lifelong dream to explore Patagonia, and the unique attempt to preserve Welsh culture by isolating a Welsh community in one of the most remote and inhospitable places on earth. A hundred-and-fifty years after the pioneers arrived, Huw meets their descendants and asks what remains of the culture the forefathers wanted to safeguard.
Michaela Strachan, Martin Hughes-Games and Chris Packham unpack the science of evolution.
A look at how one county in Wales is ensuring that all its children speak Welsh, following eight children attempting to learn Welsh in 12 weeks before attending school in Gwynedd.
Jonathan Ross gains unprecedented access to Britain's famous film studio to reveal the magic behind some of the greatest movies ever made. He encounters legendary stars including Dame Joan Collins and Barbara Windsor, casts the spotlight upon the award-winning teams behind iconic heroes such as Superman and James Bond, and even risks life and limb attempting some daring and dangerous stunts of his own! Part of 2015's Genius of British Cinema series.
In the opening programme, BBC reporter Sian Lloyd, who grew up in Wrexham, meets people connected with adventure tourism, country houses and heritage railways, the residents of a Caernarfon housing estate and an old friend who makes her favourite Welsh cakes.
The story of Freddie Scappaticci, the IRA man who hunted down men and women suspected of betrayal but who was working for the state himself and was described as the 'golden egg' of British intelligence. Darragh MacIntyre investigates.
he Greenhalgh family from Lancashire conned the art world with a series of fakes sold to museums, galleries and collectors all over the globe, made in the garden shed of their shared council house in suburban Bolton. This highly acclaimed film uncovers the secret world of the most unlikely art forgers in history, interviewing the police who uncovered them, the experts they deceived and their friends and neighbours.
All over the world, animals are turning up in strange and unexpected places. Some are showing up thousands of miles from their natural homes - like African hippos now running riot in South America. Other native animals are turning up on our doorsteps - like black bears taking dips in swimming pools. These events are happening more and more across the world, and biologist Lucy Cooke wants to find out what's going on, so she's turning detective. Animals Unexpected follows her investigation as she travels from the remote peaks of the Italian Alps to the heart of New York, in search of animals where they just shouldn't be! She discovers wolf-like creatures in the Big Apple, North American raccoons in Berlin and ancient sea creatures flocking around vast billowing power stations. Lucy uncovers the latest research about the superpowers that enable these animals to survive and thrive in new and unexpected places - from lock-picking raccoons to giant pythons that are the masters of staying hidden. Ultimately she discovers how we humans are changing the world - and how animals are reacting in ways we could never have predicted. This is a very modern tale of our increasingly unnatural history.
Jon Chase meets a range of individuals using wave science to do things in the real world. Young opera singers attempt to match the fundamental frequency of a wine glass - and then destroy it with the power of their voices. Doctors use destructive waves to cure a painful medical condition by sending sound waves deep into the body. A team of young engineers harness the power of the sun to take their futuristic car across Australia. But as Jon discovers, we are solar-powered too. Prize-winning photographer Reece McCready has learned how to control light waves to create stunning images. Jon joins him in a portrait session to see how reflection and refraction are central to photography. In another studio, Jon joins singer Charlie-Anne Bradfield who is recording a new track. Jon makes his own microphone and loudspeaker to show how sound waves go from guitar to recording. On one of the best surf beaches in Britain, Jon joins international surfers to discover exactly what a wave is, why it is that the waves travel but the water does not, and how many kinds of wave there are. This programme is for KS3 and KS4 physics.
This may seems like a quite a random interviewing combination - a comedian and one of the world's most celebrated scientists. However, unbeknownst to many, O'Briain himself also has a degree in theoretical physics, and it has actually been a lifelong dream of his to meet Hawking. In this documentary, the comedian spends time with his boyhood hero as he attends the world premiere of the movie made about his life, The Theory of Everything, and then at his home and place of work in Cambridge. In their frank chats, Hawking admits to how his condition can leave him feeling lonely at times, while Dara also meets Hawking's two children, Lucy and Tim, as well as his friends and colleagues.
Kirsty Wark and Morgan Quaintance visit the Royal Academy as it prepares for its annual artistic extravaganza. They meet the cast of people who have come together to make the show unique - Michael Craig-Martin, the godfather of Brit Art, in his role as chief curator, singer/songwriter Jessie Ware as she leads the charge at the opening night party, and a handful of talented aspiring artists from across the nation who submitted their paintings in hope of a place in this hallowed institution.
Rob Bell marks the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo by exploring the brutal world of battlefield medicine.
2015 marks the 40th anniversary of tennis legend Arthur Ashe lifting the Wimbledon men's singles title. From boyhood in segregated America to becoming one of the world's opinion-formers, Ashe's story is told poignantly by his brother Johnnie, along with friends Stan Smith, Donald Dell and rivals like Ilie Nastase. Arthur Ashe: More Than a Champion is far more than just a story of how a man conquered the world of tennis. His life spans America's Civil Rights struggle, the ending of South Africa's system of apartheid and Arthur's creating an awareness of the disease that would eventually kill him - AIDS. Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe and Andy Murray all explain Arthur's legacy and their own personal debt to the man. It is not surprising that when Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison, one of the first people he asked to meet was Arthur Ashe.
After the previous week's big anniversary commemorations and re-enactment in Belgium, Robert Hall explores whether the events of 200 years ago still resonate today.
British pop and the BBC's flagship chart show said goodbye to the 70s and trembled on the edge of a new era for the show, for British music and for British society. This meant a continuing love for the nutty boys, Madness, who feature in this compilation with My Girl, and the man with the best cheekbones in pop, Adam Ant, gave us Antmusic. We get to check out the Pretenders' first number 1, Brass in Pocket, alongside Dexy's Midnight Runners' tribute to soul legend Geno Washington. There are the early stirrings of new romantic with Spandau Ballet, and it's a veritable mod revival with the Piranhas and 2-Tone with the Beat. Plus Hot Chocolate, OMD, Motorhead and many more top hits proving the 80s were truly beginning.
In May 2015, an extraordinary conversation took place in the White House. President Barack Obama interviewed Sir David Attenborough. Together, they candidly discuss the future of the planet, their passion for nature and what can be done to protect the environment. This intimate film includes behind-the-scenes footage of his latest project on the Great Barrier Reef, and some rarely seen moments from Attenborough's career.
Islamic State has declared war on the most important and romantic ancient architectural sites in the world. Jihadi fighters seek the total destruction of the wonders of the ancient world that gave us writing, the wheel and the first cities. Dan Cruickshank charts the likely course of Islamic State's destructive advance and asks how this can be happening and what we can do to stop them.
In 2005, the lives of seven 15-year-old schoolgirls from Drumchapel High School in Glasgow changed forever when one of them, Agnesa Mursulaj, was removed in a dawn raid carried out by UK immigration authorities. Agnesa and her family had been settled in Scotland for five years. They were seeking asylum since fleeing their homeland of Kosovo, where their lives were in danger due to their Roma ethnicity. Devastated by her sudden disappearance, Agnesa's friends began a vigorous campaign against the UK government, to stop her deportation and put an end to dawn raids involving children. Their inspirational story has since been the catalyst for two BBC documentaries, a National Theatre of Scotland musical and a BBC drama. Ten years on, the Glasgow Girls are back together to reflect on all the different ways their story has been told.
The story of Blue Note Records, the jazz label that was home to such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. In 1939 Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, who had emigrated from Nazi Germany to New York, 'discovered' an American art form which at the time received little serious attention from mainstream America - jazz music. Without money or connections and speaking little English, they began to record practically unknown musicians, following their own taste and judgement. Today the list of artists who recorded for their label reads like a who's who of jazz. A portrayal of the rise of modern jazz, the film explores a very special friendship in exile and uncompromising artistic excellence. Told by the musicians, friends, associates and fans of the Blue Note recordings from all walks of life, it recreates an era of American cultural history and is widely regarded as one of the best films ever made about jazz.
Journalist Myriam François-Cerrah travels to Bosnia to mark the 20th anniversary of one of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. In July 1995, in the midst of war in the former Yugoslavia, around 8,000 Muslim men and teenage boys were massacred at Srebrenica. Now Myriam, a British Muslim, is visiting the site with a group of young people - all born in the year of the genocide. In an often emotional trip, they learn first-hand how easily prejudice can take hold and why this story has important lessons for us all in multicultural Britain today.
Sound of Music star Connie Fisher was devastated when she lost her singing voice and set out on a journey to see if there was any way to get it back. Everything failed, but now there is one unlikely hope in the shape of 'miracle' voice builder Gary Catona, the man credited with saving the voice of Whitney Houston. In this emotional rollercoaster journey around the world, Connie attempts to rediscover the talent that first propelled her to fame.
David Dimbleby comes live from St Paul's Cathedral for a service of commemoration to mark the tenth anniversary of the London bombings. Families who lost loved ones and survivors are joined by members of the emergency services to remember that tragic day in 2005 when 52 people were killed.
La traviata is the world's most popular opera. Its arias are instantly recognisable and have become staples for opera houses across the globe. Yet at its London premiere in 1856, La traviata was denounced for bringing 'the poetry of the brothel' to the stage and unleashing uncomfortable truths on Victorian society. Historian Amanda Vickery and Radio 3 presenter Tom Service reveal the extraordinary story behind the opera's first night in London and its scandalous heroine, the courtesan Violetta Valéry, whose dramatic life and tragic death were based on real-life characters and events. Tom and Amanda's journey goes from the luxury of the Parisian demi-monde to the teeming streets of Victorian London, where prostitution was seen as a threat to society itself. Amanda explores the story of Marie Duplessis, a highly-prized courtesan whose life inspired the play on which the opera was based, whilst Tom discovers how Verdi, on a visit to Paris with his mistress soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, seized this risqué story for the subject of his new masterpiece. Together, Amanda and Tom follow the opera's journey to London and examine how its incendiary premiere marked a historic moment in which art confronted reality, redefining the role of the opera diva forever. Scenes from Verdi's masterpiece have been specially recreated for the film alongside location photography in Venice, Milan, Paris and London.
Poet Michael Symmons Roberts explores the mythic afterlife of the 18th-century poet Thomas Chatterton. With access to rare documents and artefacts, and featuring a surprising interview with Queen guitarist Brian May, Michael explains how Chatterton's tragic early death in his London garret aged just 17 was immortalised by a succession of poets and painters and photographers - most notably by the pre-Raphaelite Henry Wallis in his masterpiece known as The Death of Chatterton - and how these successive images of the young Chatterton have saddled poets ever since with the notion of the doomed young artist suffering and ultimately dying in service to the muse.
Children in Gaza and across the border in Israel have lived through three major conflicts in six years. In the summer of 2014, more than 500 children were killed in a 51-day war, all but one of them Palestinian. Almost every child in Gaza lost a loved one. More than a third were left traumatised. On the Israeli border, children lived in constant fear of rocket attacks and underground tunnels. Lyse Doucet follows the lives of children on both sides of the conflict in the midst of the war and through the months that followed, revealing how children born so close are growing further apart with each war.
Emily Maitlis interviews the Dalai Lama, to discuss politics, Buddhism and ageing.
Following rural police in north Wales. Specially trained in rural detection, the officers tackle everything from criminals taking advantage of the isolation to feuding farmers.
Groundbreaking documentary which follows a Japanese-led team of scientists as they attempt to shed light on the mysterious world of deep sea sharks. Only 50 specimens of the newly-discovered 'megamouth' have ever been sighted. Over four years, scientists and film crews voyaged in midget submarines into the depths of Suruga Bay and Sagami Bay to film them. Prehistoric 'living fossil' sharks such as bluntnose sixgill sharks, goblin sharks and frilled sharks also lurk in the bay. As part of the investigation, a sperm whale carcass was placed at the bottom of the bay to attract these sharks, which were then studied and observed from the submersible vessels. Revealing in detail the previously unknown behaviour of deep sea sharks, the film unravels another of the intriguing mysteries of our planet's biodiversity.
Sunday 21 June is International Day of Yoga as declared by the United Nations. From sun salutations at the top of London's Shard to rugby players doing the downward dog, BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty delves into the roots of this ancient Indian tradition and discovers that for many Hindus it is a deeply spiritual practice.
Boxer Lee Selby has walked a rocky road in life. He has fought his way up from small smoky social clubs in south Wales to boxing's world stage today. He's now a contender, preparing for the defining fight of his life - to try and become the featherweight champion of the world. Boxing is Lee's life, but he's not just fighting for himself. He's fighting for his family, friends and his home town of Barry. Over twenty years ago his father thrust an eight-year old child into the ring. Lee's been boxing ever since - always encouraged and driven by his father. His road to the top hasn't been simple. As a teenager Lee was drawn to alcohol and drugs and he also lost friends and family very close to him. Under the most difficult of circumstances, he's turned his life around and is now on the verge of greatness. This will be the biggest year of Lee's life and he has allowed a film crew to go behind the scenes to follow him as he prepares for the ultimate test - a shot at becoming a world champion.
In celebration of the WI's centenary, Lucy Worsley goes beyond the stereotypes of jam and Jerusalem to reveal the surprisingly radical side of this Great British Institution. Beginning on the Welsh island of Anglesey, where the WI's first meeting was held in a garden shed in 1915, Lucy discovers that its humble origins were no bar to the movement's grand ambitions. Some of the institute's founding members were suffragettes and it saw itself as a campaigning organisation, engaged in the fight for women's rights. Lucy explores some of the WI's most important campaigns, like its 1918 crusade for decent housing and its remarkably radical fight for equal pay in 1943. Lucy uncovers the crucial role the WI played on the home front during both world wars. In the Second World War, the institute's 350,000 members took a leading role in feeding a hungry nation. With the help of some modern WI ladies, Lucy recreates a wartime institute jam factory, thousands of which were set up by branches up and down the country to produce hundreds of tonnes of jam. When she traces the story of the WI into the post-war period, Lucy discovers that membership began to decline as the institute struggled to cope with the social revolution of the 1960s. To find out how the WI reinvented itself for the 21st century, Lucy meets some of the members who combatted the WI's staid and stodgy image by stripping naked for a charity calendar in 2000. She also joins a protest alongside the Shoreditch Sisters, one of a number of recently formed new-wave WIs whose proudly feminist stance is attracting a new generation of younger members.
Charlie Elmore suffered a brain injury in a snowboarding accident four years ago. Now she's going to retrace the steps of her dramatic recovery and meet other young people adjusting to life after serious brain injuries, including 19-year-old car-crash survivor Callum, avid skier Tai and fashion buyer Hannah, who has to re-learn how to walk and talk after she collapsed whilst out shopping and hit her head on the pavement. With their help, Charlie embarks on a courageous journey to improve understanding of this 'invisible' disability, which is the biggest cause of acquired disability in young adults in Britain, and discovers the hidden ways it affects her own life too.
What would you do if you were told you only had months to live? In this heartwarming, heartbreaking and ultimately life-enhancing documentary, the extraordinary Rowena Kincaid, a terminally ill young woman with a wicked sense of humour, tries to figure out what best to do with the time that remains.
Adam Pearson is on a mission to explore disability hate crime - to find out why it goes under-reported, under-recorded and under people's radar. In this documentary, Adam challenges people into questioning their attitudes towards disability and disfigurement, to uncover the roots of the issue. Adam has neurofibromatosis type 1, a condition that causes benign tumours to grow on nerve endings - in his case, on his face. He is disfigured and disabled and has experienced disability hate crime first-hand, like a number of his friends, some of whom he meets with in the film. Their stories may differ, but their disability as the motivating factor is constant. Just days into his investigation, Adam becomes the target of some grossly offensive online hate speech. While this isn't unusual for him, for the first time Adam decides to take action, reporting it to the police - with some unexpected outcomes. Undeterred, he looks to understand the laws specific to disability hate crime, and finds that a mixture of ignorance and inequalities mean that these crimes often don't make it to our courts, or are sentenced less severely than other hate crimes when they do. Adam looks to uncover what attitudes and influences may be causing people to commit disability hate crime in the first place, questioning whether the portrayal of disfigurement and disability in the media, for example, could be leading us to associate them with being 'the bad guys'. With help from Miles Hewstone, professor of social psychology at the University of Oxford, Adam conducts an experiment measuring peoples' innate prejudice towards disfigurement that gives some shocking results, and leads him to question if he alone can hope to affect a change - and if so, how?
Naturalist Chris Packham is joined by two of his heroes - Jeremy Deller and George Monbiot - to discuss art, television and communing with a gorilla.
Lauren Laverne hosts an all-star discussion from London's iconic 100 Club, asking if rock 'n' roll is in crisis and what it now means in the 21st century. Can rock 'n' roll still be as dangerous and subversive as the original or has it become more about lifestyle and decoration? Joining Lauren are Savages' lead singer Jehnny Beth, Dr John Cooper Clarke and former Animal Eric Burdon. Featuring original contributions from Noel Gallagher, Dave Grohl, Sleaford Mods and Alabama Shakes. Music from Mercury-winning Young Fathers and Matthew E White.
Seventeen-year-old Jane Park is one of the youngest ever lottery winners. She won £1,000,000 with her first ever lucky dip. We follow Jane over the course of her first year as a millionaire as she tries to figure out what to do with her new-found wealth. There are adventures in Benidorm and Magaluf and a love affair with a chihuahua called Princess.
Documentary about Dillon, an eleven-year-old boy who suffers from an aggressive form of neurofibromatosis, a disease that causes tumours to form in his nervous system. His leg has grown out of proportion to his tiny frame and he's found it hard to get around, never mind joining in with other kids. In his mind there's only one way to cure the problem - amputation. But can a young boy persuade the medical establishment to cut his leg off, and is it even in his best interests?
A remarkable film record of the legendary Everest expedition of 1924, newly restored by the BFI National Archive. The third attempt to climb Everest culminated in the deaths of two of the finest climbers of their generation, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, and sparked an ongoing debate over whether or not they did indeed reach the summit. Filming in brutally harsh conditions, Captain John Noel captured images of breathtaking beauty and considerable historic significance, including the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet. But what resonates so deeply is Noel's ability to frame the vulnerability, isolation and courage of people persevering in one of the world's harshest landscapes. The restoration by the BFI National Archive has transformed the quality of the surviving elements of the film and reintroduced the original coloured tints and tones. The original silent film is brought to life as never before by a haunting new soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner. Revealed by the restoration, few images in cinema are as epic - or moving - as the final shots of a blood red sunset over the Himalayas.
Dancing Through The Blitz: Blackpool's Big Band Story 90-minute documentary film presented by Jools Holland, Lucy Worsley and Len Goodman, celebrating the big band sound and uncovering the social history behind the music that kept the nation's spirits up through the Second World War. Blackpool was one of the few resorts that remained open during the war, training troops by day and offering a welcome escape from the horrors of war. Featuring extracts from a specially recorded BBC4 concert given by Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra at the Empress Ballroom, Blackpool.
Chained up at prayer camps, exiled from villages for being cursed, forced on the streets and in some cases even killed, this is the reality for many disabled people in Ghana. Disabled journalist Sophie Morgan goes on an immersive journey to discover if Ghana is the World's Worst Place to Be Disabled. Beginning in the country's thriving capital Accra, Sophie sees first-hand how many disabled people end up with a life on the streets and hears how the disabled people of Ghana seem to have been left out of this west African country's economic success. Shocked by what she finds in the city, she heads to the countryside to find out the reality of life for disabled people there and then finds herself in one of Ghana's popular prayer camps where many disabled people are taken to be 'cured'. Sophie meets some of the patients who have been brought to the camp against their will by their families and are even chained up so they can't escape. But as she leaves the camp she hears of an even worse reality for many disabled children, who are 'returned to the spirits' by some of Ghana's spiritual and traditional healers. Sophie is taken to a place by a local disabled activist where he says disabled children are poisoned and killed, and she goes to meet a so-called fetish priest who admits that he will dispose of a disabled child for payment. After her many shocking discoveries Sophie makes her way back to Ghana's capital to put her findings to a government spokesperson.
Penelope Keith uncovers the secrets behind some of the BBC's greatest artists and programmes as she delves into the corporation's written archives.
Welsh comedian, actor and presenter Rob Brydon retraces his rocky road to success, from his early days in Porthcawl to the bright lights of Hollywood. Featuring a host of famous friends that joined Rob on his journey including Sir Tom Jones, Steve Coogan, Ruth Jones and David Walliams.
Documentary about the last few weeks of term at Derwen College in Shropshire for six students with learning difficulties, as they prepare to graduate and enter the real world.
Gold medal-winning Paralympian David Smith has faced many struggles in his life and career. The professional karate champion, athlete, bobsleigh brakeman, rower and now cyclist faces the biggest battle - for his life. David Smith was born with clubfoot and came close to having his feet amputated at birth. After spending his first three years learning to walk in special boots and plaster casts, a career in Olympic sport seemed doubtful. However, that was just a hurdle he needed to get over and it was not going to hold him back. David from Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands, is nothing if not determined. Despite his disability, he has succeeded in following his sporting dream first representing the UK at karate, Scotland at athletics and the UK at bobsleigh before deciding that rowing offered him the best possible chance of living his dream of Paralympic stardom. However, nine months before London, David was diagnosed with a rare tumour on his spinal column and battled to regain fitness after life threatening surgery. Determined to win gold again, this time in cycling in Rio, David received devastating news that the tumour had returned and another battle against the potentially lethal illness started. Dead Man Cycling follows David over the 18 months before, during and after his second spinal surgery. It is an emotional story of David's sheer inner strength and utter determination as he fights to live and ultimately regain fitness. Never known to do anything by halves, David sets himself the seemingly impossible goal of attempting to cycle one of the world's most notorious cycling climbs - Mont Ventoux. Not once, but three times in a day - all just six months post-surgery. But, will the Dead Man Cycling make it?
Lying on the remote northwest coast of England is one of the most secret places in the country - Sellafield, the most controversial nuclear facility in Britain. Now, for the first time, Sellafield are letting nuclear physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili and the television cameras in, to discover the real story. Inside, Jim encounters some of the most dangerous substances on Earth, reveals the nature of radiation and even attempts to split the atom. He sees inside a nuclear reactor, glimpses one of the rarest elements in the world - radioactive plutonium - and even subjects living tissue to deadly radiation. Ultimately, the film reveals Britain's attempts - past, present and future - to harness the almost limitless power of the atom.
The personalities behind the creation of the world's first atomic bomb were as extraordinary, and often as explosive, as the science they were working in. This is the inside-the-barbed-wire story of the men and women who worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Through first-hand accounts and never-before-seen interviews, this documentary looks inside the atomic insiders' hearts and minds, their triumphs and failures, their bravery in the face of paralyzing fear and, ultimately, their war-winning and world-changing accomplishments.
Young people in the south Wales valleys spend more on looking good than in the most prosperous parts of London. Tattoos, tans, botox and boobs - a journey into the world of looking good and feeling poor as young Welsh men and women reveal all in their pursuit of the body beautiful.
Professor David Carpenter of King's College London examines the relationship between Magna Carta and the de Montfort Parliament of 1265, seen as the forerunner of the modern House of Commons, in a lecture given in London in February 2015.
Andrew Marr discovers the untold story of Winston Churchill's lifelong love for painting and reveals the surprising ways in which his private hobby helped shape his public career as politician and statesman, even playing an unexpected part in his role as wartime leader. Marr is himself a committed amateur painter and art has played an important role in his recovery from a serious stroke in 2013. His fascination with the healing powers of art fuels a journey that opens a new perspective on one of Britain's most famous men. Andrew travels to the south of France and Marrakech, where Churchill loved to paint, and discovers how his serious approach to the craft of painting led to friendships with major British artists of the 20th century. He finds out how a single painting in the 1940s may have influenced the course of the Second World War, and meets Churchill's descendants to discover what his family felt about a private hobby that helped keep him sane through his wilderness years. And he discovers how, 50 years after Churchill's death, his art is being taken more seriously than ever before, with one painting being sold for almost £2 million in 2014.
Lord Bew delivers a lecture on Charles Stewart Parnell in the Speaker's House. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wn8q4
September 2015 marks the 300th anniversary of the death of King Louis XIV of France and this documentary looks at how Louis XIV not only had a personal passion and talent for dance, but supported and promoted key innovations, like the invention of dance notation and the founding of the world's first ballet school, that would lay the foundations for classical ballet to develop. Presented by David Bintley, choreographer and director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the documentary charts how Louis encouraged the early evolution of ballet - from a male-dominated performance exclusive to the royal court to a professional artform for the public featuring the first female star ballerinas. The film also looks at the social context of dance during Louis XIV's reign, where ballets were used as propaganda and to be able to dance was an essential skill that anyone noble had to have. As well as specially shot baroque dance sequences and groundbreaking recreations of 17th-century music, it also follows Bintley as he creates an exciting new one-act ballet inspired by Louis XIV. Danced by 15 members of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, The King Dances features an original score by composer Stephen Montague, designs by Katrina Lindsay and lighting by Peter Mumford and receives its world premiere on television directly after the documentary.
Andrew Carnegie: Rags to Riches, Power to Peace charts the story of a poor Scottish immigrant who sailed to America in the 1840s, and by the end of the century would be the richest man in the world. Criticised for the harsh business practices that allowed him to dominate the iron and steel industries, and praised for his quest to give all his money away, Andrew Carnegie is undeniably one of the most fascinating and contradictory figures in modern history. His name is synonymous with the modern philanthropic movement, and the libraries and educational institutions he established thrive almost a century after his death. From his Scottish highland retreat, Skibo Castle, Carnegie spent his retirement masterminding a plan to use his wealth and influence to get Theodore Roosevelt, Kaiser Wilhelm II and King Edward VII to create a framework for world peace in the run up to the Great War. This documentary reveals the untold story of a man with incredible vision, whose dream of a world without conflict ended in tatters and led him to die a broken man.
A portrait of Amy Winehouse the artist threaded together from extracts from interviews she gave to the BBC for a variety of documentary projects including the Jazz and Soul Britannia series on FOUR, much of which material is previously unbroadcast, blended with performances from across her career, including some which are also previously unbroadcast and unseen. Winehouse had a strong relationship with many parts of the BBC from when she launched herself as an artist back in 2004. In her short musical career, the North London native changed the landscape of modern pop culture, won countless awards, achieved critical acclaim and garnered global success before tragically dying at the tender age of 27. On the eve of the release of Asif Kapadia’s Amy documentary film which explores Winehouse’s life and death, here is an exploration of her music and her influences in her own words. Consisting performances and interviews entirely from the BBC archives this film celebrates Amy’s music, her influences, her challenges as an artist and her eternal brutal honesty in her own words. Featuring exclusive unseen and rarely seen songs from her triple platinum selling album Frank and revered Grammy winning album Back To Black, this programme pays homage to the tattooed rebellious rock & roll spirited songstress who wrote smart, sad, soulful and original pop songs that became instant classics and inspired a generation.
Eight-year-old Kaleem suffers from macrodactyly or local gigantism - his hands measure 13 inches from wrist to fingertips. Cameras follow as he undergoes special surgery in the hopes of easing his problems and helping him be more accepted in his small Indian village.
Sir Roy Strong is the man who made museums fashionable. In his own words, "a young man from nowhere, who went somewhere!" - exploding a post-war world of privilege and cultural snootiness to put art at the heart of London's swinging sixties. After his time at the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, nothing would ever quite be the same again. Yet now, Sir Roy is an ardent critic of falling cultural standards in Britain. On the eve of his 80th birthday, he looks back with pride at his genius for popularising the arts and ponders the question - was it all his fault?
Epilepsy & Me is a film about people who have extreme epilepsy, where seizures can be a daily occurrence and they have to be watched 24 hours a day. It follows four people at a crucial point in their lives when their futures are being decided.
Filmed over a year, Transsexual Stories features Anne, Gladys, Carla, Bee and Jan - five trans women at various stages of transition. From 17-year-old Bee Wallace, who is just beginning her hormone therapy, to Glady's Patterson, a 77-year-old retired antiques dealer who had her full sex change operation at the age of 69. Anne, an ex-soldier turned bus driver from Perth, has recently come out to her family, work colleagues and regular passengers. It's tough coming out in the public eye, but Anne must prove to doctors and psychologists that she can live and work full-time as a woman if she hopes to be approved for the surgery that will physically change her from male to female.
Sue Perkins immerses herself in the complex life of Kolkata. She sees first-hand how it has evolved from a place notorious for its fabled 'Black Hole' dungeon and the dreadful poverty of its street people to a place reinventing itself as a vibrant new megacity, with a booming property sector and a reputation for eccentricity, culture and tolerance. In this intricate human habitat, Sue explores the lives of its people, from the 250,000 homeless street kids hustling for a living to the wealthy young entrepreneurs who race their Ferraris and Lamborghinis down the streets of the New Town. She joins the rickshaw wallahs navigating the chaotic city streets and narrow lanes, thronged with people, and descends into Kolkata's Victorian sewers as part of an epic clean-up. She limbers up with the ladies of the Laughing Club and makes an offering to the goddess in the sacred Kalighat Temple. No other city tells the remarkable story of India more clearly than the beautiful, crazy, colourful city of Kolkata. Through encounters with people from every strata of society, from the richest to the poorest, Sue paints a picture of contemporary India, emerging from a brutal colonial past to take its place among the most powerful nations on earth.
More than any other art form, in any other country, Indian cinema speaks for the people. Sanjeev Bhaskar presents a retrospective on its history anchored by a live stand-up show.
In the centrepiece film of BBC Four's pop art season, Alastair Sooke champions pop art as one of the most important art forms of the twentieth century, peeling back pop's frothy, ironic surface to reveal an art style full of subversive wit and radical ideas. In charting its story, Alastair brings a fresh eye to the work of pop art superstars Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and tracks down pop's pioneers, from American artists like James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha to British godfathers Peter Blake and Allen Jones. Alastair also explores how pop's fascination with celebrity, advertising and the mass media was part of a global art movement, and he travels to China to discover how a new generation of artists are reinventing pop art's satirical, political edge for the 21st century.
Andy Warhol created some of the most instantly recognisable art of the 20th century. But perhaps his greatest work of art was himself - the cool, enigmatic pop art superstar. In this film, Stephen Smith sets out to discover the real Andy Warhol - in the hour-by-hour detail of his daily life. Taking a playful approach, mixing archive and entertaining encounters with Warhol's closest friends and confidantes, Stephen pieces together a typical day in the mid 1960s. By 1964, Warhol had established himself as a famous pop artist and his creative ambitions were exploding in new directions in a creative frenzy of art, films - and even music. From an early-hours chat with John Giorno, Warhol's lover and star of his notorious film Sleep, to recreating Warhol's intimate telephone conversations with Factory superstar Brigid Berlin, Stephen immerses himself in the round-the-clock whirl of Warhol's daily life. Visiting the church where Warhol worshipped with his mother, discussing the day-to-day running of the Factory with Warhol's assistant Gerard Malanga, talking to Bibbe Hansen and Jane Holzer, stars of his famous Screen Tests, the film offers a fresh and illuminating new portrait of Warhol. And from the obsessive desire to document his everyday life to the endless fascination with fame and his own celebrity image, a day with Andy Warhol appears surprisingly familiar to 21st century eyes. "In his lifetime", concludes Stephen, "some people thought Warhol came from another planet. But in fact he hailed from somewhere equally exotic - the future.".
Featuring archive interviews with Sean Connery from over 50 years in the business. Friends, actors and directors including Robert Carlyle, Dougray Scott, Laurence Fishburne, Terry Gilliam and George Lucas pay tribute to Scotland's greatest movie star as he celebrates his 85th birthday.
From elegant line drawings in the 30,000 year old Caves D’Arcy in central France, to the triumphal graffiti of Russian troops who captured the Reichstag in 1945, we have scratched, etched and painted from time immemorial. In A Brief History of Graffiti - part of BBC’s pop art season - Richard Clay guides us through cave art, revolutionary posters and contemporary street art, to unravel the enigma of graffiti.
Documentary in which actor and sportsman Peter Mitchell, who was himself paralysed in a car crash, follows the stories of three young people who have battled to survive life-changing illnesses or injuries, as they leave hospital and discover what life is like with a disability. Peter tries to help them, questioning why the support networks supposed to assist disabled people don't work better.
Gordon Welchman was one of the original elite codebreakers crucial to the allies defeating the Nazis in World War II. He is the forgotten genius of Bletchley Park. Filmed extensively at Bletchley Park, the centre for codebreaking operations during World War II, this documentary features the abandoned buildings where thousands of people worked tirelessly trying to crack the codes, Hut 6, where Welchman pioneered his groundbreaking work, and the machines that Welchman helped design. Post-war, Welchman moved to the United States to be at the nerve centre of the computer revolution. He was employed by the Mitre Corporation, a US defence contractor, and engaged in top secret work. Recently released top secret documents reveal that the case of Gordon Welchman reached the desk of the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and then led to questions being asked in the House of Commons after Welchman's untimely death. Welchman's legacy continues to this day as Professor John Naughton and former CIA analyst Cynthia Storer reveal how Welchman's pioneering work in the field of traffic analysis led directly to the modern secret surveillance state, and particularly the use of metadata - as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning monarch in British history on the evening of 9 September 2015. This documentary compares the lives and the reigns of two extraordinary women who have steered their courses through periods of remarkable change: Elizabeth and Victoria. It follows Queen Elizabeth II on engagements in the UK and abroad as she approaches this historic date. With interviews and archive to illustrate the remarkable stories of these two female monarchs.
Historian William Dalrymple travels to Hyderabad in India to explore the remarkable 18th-century love affair between a British diplomat and the Muslim princess he married.
To mark the 75th anniversary of the start of the Blitz, John Humphrys returns to south Wales to discover more about the devastating Nazi bombing campaign and how it affected those who experienced it. He sees the reconnaissance maps the Germans used to identify key bombing targets. He takes to the air to follow the direct flight path of the Luftwaffe bombers, as they attacked Cardiff and Swansea. Back on the ground, he also meets survivors of the bombings, including Elaine Kidwell from Swansea, who describes the Blitz on the city as hell. He also visits locations where the bombs hit, including the site of Hollyman's Bakery, the setting for the single worst atrocity in Cardiff. This is a personal story for John, who was born in 1943, and who remembers playing amongst the rubble of the bombsites in Splott, near Cardiff docks.
West meets east when acclaimed actor Dominic West joins his childhood friend Sir James Mallinson on a pilgrimage to northern India and the biggest religious festival in the world, Kumbh Mela. Here, 100 million Hindus have gathered to wash away their sins in the holy rivers near Allahabad, on the banks of Sangam. Jim takes Dom to live with his own sect of holy men, or sadhus, and to witness his ordination as a mahant, a commander of his sect - the first time a westerner has received this honour in this ancient order of master yogis.
Strictly Come Prancing: Lucy Worsley learns to ride - in fact, she learns how to dance on horseback before putting on a show for the paying public! Now, if this sounds mad, horse ballet or manege was once the noblest of pursuits practised by everyone from courtier to king in the first half of the 17th century. Having become fascinated by this horsey hobby whilst writing her PhD, Lucy is on a quest to find out why this peculiar skill was once so de rigeur - learning the lost art from its modern masters; visiting the Spanish Riding School in Vienna to witness spectacular equestrian shows; exploring its military origins through donning Henry VIII-style jousting armour; and discovering horse ballet's legacies in competitive dressage and, more surprisingly, in the performances of the Royal Horse Artillery, the King's Troop today.
In 1975, the Bay City Rollers were on the brink of global superstardom. The most successful chart act in the UK with a unique look and sound were about to become the biggest thing since the Beatles. Featuring interviews with Les McKeown and other members of the classic Bay City Roller line-up, and using previously unseen footage shot by members of the band and its entourage, this is the tale of five lads from Edinburgh who became the world's first international teen idols and turned the whole world tartan.
Frankie Boyle takes centre stage in his Election Autopsy - a comedy special made exclusively for BBCiPlayer. Recorded in front of a passionate crowd in London's historic Wilton's Music Hall, the show features Frankie at his brilliant best doing stand-up, review, discussion and audience interaction - all in an attempt to make sense of the remarkable general election results. Throughout the show, Frankie makes a series of bold and often outrageous statements about the vote. He's joined by a range of guests including Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan and Akala, who are on hand to take him to task over his claims - before the audience decide whether he's right or wrong. Frankie Boyle's Election Autopsy is made exclusively for BBC iPlayer by Zeppotron, part of Endemol Shine Group.
Professor Brian Cox expands your mind. He's joined by comedians Ben Miller and Hugh Dennis, who each lead a team of scientists as they compete to find the scientific connections between six unlikely objects. It's Making it Digital week, so they start with an analogue record player, and attempt to find the link to Galileo, a dung beetle, whipped cream, the inner Earth and finally, end at all things digital. A dung beetle obstacle race and exploding bags of custard are among the scientific experiments that help the teams find the links. Ben is joined by mathematician Dr Hannah Fry and geneticist Professor Steve Jones, while Hugh is aided and abetted by anatomist Professor Alice Roberts and theoretical physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili.
Ada Lovelace was a most unlikely computer pioneer. In this film, Dr Hannah Fry tells the story of Ada's remarkable life. Born in the early 19th century Ada was a countess of the realm, a scandalous socialite and an 'enchantress of numbers'. The film is an enthralling tale of how a life infused with brilliance, but blighted by illness and gambling addiction, helped give rise to the modern era of computing. Hannah traces Ada's unlikely union with the father of computers, Charles Babbage. Babbage designed the world's first steam-powered computers - most famously the analytical engine - but it was Ada who realised the full potential of these new machines. During her own lifetime Ada was most famous for being the daughter of romantic poet Lord Byron ('mad, bad and dangerous to know'). It was only with the advent of modern computing that Ada's understanding of their flexibility and power (that they could be far more than mere number crunchers) was recognised as truly visionary. Hannah explores how Ada's unique inheritance - poetic imagination and rational logic - made her the ideal prophet of the digital age. This moving, intelligent and beautiful film makes you realise we nearly had a Victorian computer revolution.
Three 13-year-olds go on a trip of a lifetime to explore the geography of India. Dua, Amalia and Nayan find out what life is really like for the people of India. They take a cruise down the Ganges river, play cricket in an Indian village, visit a remarkable school and go to work with young Indians. The students experience life in two contrasting centres - Patna, a very traditional Indian city, and Bangalore, one of India's fastest growing cities and a place which has a far more westernised feel. As they cruise on the mighty Ganges, the students discover how the river supports life across the whole of northern India. However the river is under threat from increased pollution and the blind river dolphin is becoming an endangered species. Most of India's population lives in the countryside where the teenagers discover that life is very different from anything they have experienced elsewhere. However, the most basic technology is now having a huge impact on rural livelihoods. In Bangalore, they experience the working lives of a PR manager in a modern factory, a stallholder who spends his day serving homemade food and a computer-gaming entrepreneur. The teenagers are surprised to discover the opportunities that exist there and also discover how Bangalore has expanded and swallowed surrounding towns and villages. They see two sides of the city, experiencing the more affluent middle class lifestyle and life in the slums where families live in single-room homes. At the end of their trip, the students visit a unique school that has taken a handful of children from the most deprived communities and given them access to an education that has transformed their lives. The students learn about caste and the impact it has on children's lives.
Kwasi Kwarteng delivers a lecture on Lord Palmerston in Speaker's House.
A surprising, revealing and intimate portrait of the working class boy from Cumbria who crossed the class divide to become an establishment figure. Melvyn Bragg is an inexhaustible broadcaster and champion of the arts and has variously been called a polymath and the nation's schoolmaster. Bragg is best known for the South Bank Show, the country's longest-running arts programme, which has profiled many of the world's most notable writers, actors, artists and musicians. With innumerable other television series to his name, he is also a constant presence on BBC Radio 4 and has written 22 novels, numerous works of non-fiction, plays and film scripts, and in 1998, he entered the House of Lords and became Lord Bragg of Wigton. He has been a familiar figure in our living rooms for the past 50 years, but what's less well known is his private persona. With contributions from a wealth of well-known figures - from Dame Judi Dench to Tony Blair and his childhood friends - this documentary reveals a man still deeply embedded in his working-class Cumbrian roots and struggling to come to terms with an event that occurred over 40 years ago - the tragic suicide of his first wife.
Lord Lexden delivers a lecture on the Earl of Shaftesbury in the Speaker's House.
With fears growing that Islamophobic hate crimes are on the rise, the BBC's religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt exposes the brutal reality of daily life for some women living behind the veil. Muslim women speak out about the physical attacks they have been subjected to, and how they feel they are being hounded out of their homes and neighbourhoods.
Without us noticing, modern life has been taken over. Algorithms run everything from search engines on the internet to satnavs and credit card data security - they even help us travel the world, find love and save lives. Mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy demystifies the hidden world of algorithms. By showing us some of the algorithms most essential to our lives, he reveals where these 2,000-year-old problem solvers came from, how they work, what they have achieved and how they are now so advanced they can even programme themselves.
With race relations stretched to breaking point in some American cities, the notorious supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan says it’s seeing a surge in membership. They claim that white Americans - angry at what they perceive as attacks on their heritage - are joining the infamous group in large numbers, convinced they must prepare for a coming race war. With access to the young leaders of the Loyal White Knights chapter in North Carolina, we film as they allow us to follow their secretive rituals and as they explain why their members choose to don the infamous hood. When a white supremacist walked into a church in Charleston, South Carolina and massacred nine black worshippers protests erupted - led by Black Power groups. The Klan travel to the South Carolina Statehouse to protest against the removal of the confederate flag. But when Black Power groups turn out to demonstrate against the KKK the two opposing visions of America violently come face to face.
Documentary following celebrated Estonian composer Arvo Pärt as he works with director Robert Wilson on a unique theatre production of Adam's Passion. The work exemplifies Pärt's distinctive style, formed from simple, rich tonal material. The film examines Pärt's methodology and explores the spiritual themes that have preoccupied him throughout his life.
A year on from the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager killed by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, Reggie Yates examines the position of African-Americans in US society. Brown's death, in addition to other incidents of police brutality, shocked the world and led to sustained rioting in Ferguson. Reggie visits the small town in America's Bible Belt and discovers that the events of August 2014 have politicised a new generation of young activists. He seeks to find out from the citizens of Ferguson whether the community can ever be healed. Reggie looks at new police recruits being trained but goes on to discover how African-Americans are still being discriminated against.
East London Mosque is one of the largest in Europe and the central hub of East London’s Muslim community, but for many it’s a place of mystery and the unknown. Documentary filmmaker Robb Leech has been granted unprecedented access to the mosque and takes us inside to find out what life is really like for some of the two million people who come through the doors every year. Leech first came to The East London Mosque in Whitechapel with his stepbrother Richard, who’d converted to an extreme brand of Islam, and in 2013 was convicted of preparing terrorist acts and jailed for six years. Now the Mosque has invited Robb back. During eight months of filming he captures key moments: from the rituals of washing before Friday prayers to preparing Muslim couples for marriage at the centre’s very own match-making service. Robb meets young Muslims at the Mosque’s school who discuss ‘British values’. He meets older community members who tell him about the racism they experienced growing up in the East End; he witnesses segregation and attempts to understand its cultural value; and meets younger community members, fearful of the dangers of 'free-mixing' with the opposite sex. While Robb is filming, the story breaks about the three London schoolgirls who fled Britain to join Isis jihadists in Syria. Robb explores the Mosque’s response to events that shocked the community, and made headlines around the world. He captures the frantic first phone call to the Mosque’s charismatic young media manager from a distraught sister of one of the girls and travels to Istanbul with the families of the missing girls to try and track them down.
As the BBC gears up for the 2015 General Election results programme on 7th May, Peter Snow, the unchallenged Master of the Swingometer over the last 20 years, whisks us on a journey through ballot boxes and exit polls, town hall counts and studio swingometers. Sixty Years of Swing looks back over BBC election night coverage since 1955, highlighting electoral triumphs and disasters along the way.
Recorded coverage of tributes in the House of Commons to Her Majesty the Queen marking the day when she became the UK's longest-serving monarch, from Wednesday 9 September.
George McGavin investigates the dramatic life of the oak tree - a species that makes extraordinary transformations as it meets the challenges of the four seasons.
A meeting of two great British stars: baker Paul Hollywood and Aston Martin cars. Paul drives some priceless and exclusive Aston cars - the DB10, the new James Bond car from Spectre, the DBR1, the 1959 World Championship-winning racing car, and the DB5, the stunt car used in Goldfinger. Ever since he was given a toy model of the Goldfinger car at the age of five, Paul Hollywood has been a passionate fan of Aston Martin. Now, four decades on, Paul gets to fulfill his dream and find out first-hand about the company. Despite huge success, Aston Martin has never made much money. So Paul meets new boss Andy Palmer to hear about his plan to turn the company around. To find out just what these cars can do, Paul also trains up to race and joins one of the Aston teams. If he can get his licence upgrade, he will even be able compete at the world famous Le Mans race festival in France.
When Wayne Rooney scored against Switzerland at Wembley in September 2015, he became England's greatest ever goalscorer, eclipsing a record held by Sir Bobby Charlton for almost half a century. But who is the real Wayne Rooney, off the pitch and away from the glare of the media spotlight? For the first time, he has allowed a television production team, as well as BBC football presenter Gary Lineker, unique access to his life with wife Coleen and their two sons, Kai and Klay. Wayne takes us back to Merseyside as we meet both his and Coleen's parents, plus we discover the details of the couple's early life together. Featuring extensive interviews with Rooney himself, plus Coleen Rooney, Wayne's parents, David Beckham and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, along with a host of figures from the world of football, Rooney: The Man Behind the Goals offers an extraordinary personal portrait of life in Wayne's world.
Documentary investigating how developers, often working with local officials, are using golf as a smokescreen to build massive luxury resorts with negative effects on the local environment. However, people are fighting back. The programme features appearances from Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin, environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr and real estate developer Donald Trump.
Racism has never been more socially unacceptable in Britain - three quarters of Britons claim they have no racial prejudice whatsoever. Journalist Mona Chalabi investigates whether these statistics provide an accurate picture. To find out what is happening on Britain's streets, three reporters are sent undercover to test the public's prejudice. The results are surprising. The programme looks into people's unconscious behaviour, discovering what British people really think about their neighbours of different races and religions. And Mona puts her own beliefs under the microscope, discovering some uncomfortable truths. Finally, she asks a hugely significant question - can people be trained to lose their prejudice?
In recent months, Britain First - which says it wants to ban all trace of Islam from the UK - has emerged as a new name in far right politics. With a 29-year-old-woman, Jayda Fransen, as the face of the party, and with an online following bigger than any other UK party, Britain First says that it is ready to become a household name and credible force in British politics. Film director Miles Blayden-Ryall joins deputy leader Jayda and leader Paul Golding (ex-BNP press officer) as they embark on their first public national campaign to garner support. With seemingly huge numbers viewing the provocative videos they produce and backing them online, they say that the British public is ready to turn out in huge numbers for them and that, as a result, the authorities view them as dangerous and want to shut them down. Blayden-Ryall is with them on the streets of the UK as they attempt to rally big numbers around their cause, in the face of growing opposition. But do they have any hope of succeeding? Have the British public really become so intolerant that they will get behind a party with such extreme views?
Alan Johnson MP tells the story of 500 years of the Royal Mail. As a former postman, Alan brings his unique personal perspective to this fascinating slice of social history.
Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the greatest leaders this country has ever produced. He was the mastermind of one of Britain's leading brands. Not a soft drink or a smart phone, but a football club: Manchester United. In 26 years, Sir Alex transformed United into a multimillion-pound global business, picking up every single domestic trophy there is in football along the way. His leadership is unique in the history of world football. During this extraordinary encounter, BBC political editor Nick Robinson gets up close and personal with Sir Alex and uncovers the secrets of his success. Sir Alex shares his unique insights on leadership that speak to everyone, revealing how he stayed at the top of his profession for so long and, crucially, how best to motivate, discipline and inspire people. Sir Alex also reflects on the nature of legacy and life after leaving the stage with Manchester United, and how - through his relationships with eminent figures outside football and his teaching - his approach to leadership has found resonance beyond the world of football. Featuring contributions from leading figures in business, politics, military and sport, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Tony Blair, General Sir Michael Jackson, Lord Sugar, Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand, Sir Michael Moritz, Jose Mourinho and Professor Anita Elberse.
Ted Hughes is widely recognised as one of Britain's greatest poets. He is also one of the most controversial. The Heathcliff of poetry who 'attracted more scandal than any other literary figure with the exception of Lord Byron' as one contributor notes. Now, for the first time, the events of his life and the breadth and influence of his poetry are the focus of a major documentary. Featuring the first television interview with Frieda Hughes - poet, artist and daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Path - alongside a rich seam of testimony from family members, friends, fellow poets and writers, this film will illuminate one of the 20th century's most influential cultural figures and show how his compelling life story shaped his vision as a poet. Hughes's significance is incontrovertible, yet so often during his lifetime, attention was focused on the scandalous events in his personal life. Love and work collided with tragic consequences during his marriage to Sylvia Plath. When she committed suicide, he was forced to weather a storm of speculation and accusation over her death, which gathered momentum after Assia Wevill, his lover, also killed herself. Hughes's mythic creation Crow proclaims 'But who is stronger than death? Me, evidently', and this film will explore how Hughes's ability to survive the traumas in his own life were bound up in a belief in the power and importance of poetry. It is a journey in which the passions and preoccupations that informed his unique poetic voice - nature, mythology, death and the occult - became increasingly infused with a more personal tone culminating in the searing power of his final volume Birthday Letters - his only account of his life with Plath. Nine months later he was dead.
To celebrate National Poetry Day, and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death, writer and critic AN Wilson revisits the life and work of one of the greatest English poets of the 20th century, Philip Larkin - a poet soon to be honoured with a place in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey. Wilson traces Larkin's life from his childhood in Coventry, through to his student days at Oxford and then his adult years working in university libraries, whilst writing some of the best-loved and notorious poems in the English language. Wilson, who knew Larkin in his later life, remembers memorable encounters with the poet and this personal connection helps him to reveal a complex man with a complicated, and at times tortured, private life. As part of this candid exploration into Larkin's life, Wilson confronts the allegations of racism, bigotry and misogyny that emerged following the publication of his Selected Letters and authorised biography, and which dogged his posthumous reputation. However, Wilson concludes that it is Larkin's poems, not his faults, that have survived. Featuring readings of his work by Larkin himself, including the greatness of The Whitsun Weddings, Arundel Tomb, Church Going and Aubade, Wilson argues that Larkin spoke for Britain between the 1950s and 1970s perhaps more than any other writer.
Political journalist and film-maker Michael Cockerell's intimate portrait of Denis Healey, who died on 3 October 2015 aged 98. Healey was a giant of the Labour movement and one of Britain's best-known politicians, whose career took him to the highest offices of state - although he never became prime minister. As chancellor of the exchequer during the darkest moments of economic crisis, Healey subjected Britain to a level of austerity beyond anything we have gone through in recent years. For much of his career, he was locked in combat with Labour's left wing as the party tore itself apart. An extraordinary life that spanned much of Britain's post-war history, Healy's career has remarkable resonance for today's political landscape.
Is poetry the new rock 'n' roll - or is rock 'n' roll the new poetry? This documentary explores how the edges between performance poetry and popular music have become blurred - a radical cross-pollination that began 50 years ago when Allen Ginsberg stormed the stage of the Royal Albert Hall. In the year when the Beats met the Beatles, the event turned a young generation on to verse - a revolution that shows no sign of slowing down in today's urban music and slam poetry scenes.
Presenter Mawaan Rizwan sets out to discover what life is really like for gay people in Pakistan. Homosexuality is illegal in Pakistan, even considered to be a disease by some. In this revealing journey to the country of his birth, Mawaan meets some people who live their lives openly as LGBT, despite the constant fears of retribution. He also explores whether the fears of Pakistan’s gay community are justified. He discovers a fascinating world behind closed doors, where homosexuality is discussed and practised in private more than he ever thought. During his time in the country he’s also surprised to be offered a miracle herbal cure for his own homosexuality.
Brett Nielsen has no arms because his mum took thalidomide. Film-maker Roger Graef's 1965 documentary One of Them is Brett was an extraordinary story about a spirited four-year old's fight for identity and survival. His parents sold up and moved from Australia to Britain to get Brett the medical help he couldn't get there. Fifty years later, whatever happened to him? Roger has tracked him down in this follow-up film which tells the story of Brett's life since he was a child. Brett's now a musician, record producer, businessman and a loving single dad with three ex-wives. And he's in love yet again. It's a film about passion, optimism and fun, a story of triumph over adversity. In the words of Brett, 'it doesn't matter what happens to you in your life, it matters how you deal with it.'.
In the late 1970s Chalkie Davies was a photographer at the New Musical Express, taking pictures of bands like Thin Lizzy, the Clash, the Sex Pistols and many more. Now, as his first major exhibition opens at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, and showing as part of BBC Music Day, he looks back on an extraordinary life, and old friends like Elvis Costello reflect on how Chalkie's images are so enduring. Chalkie Davies was born in Sully just outside Cardiff and his first job was as an engineer at Heathrow Airport. But he was always a keen amateur photographer and when he won a camera club competition in 1973 the door opened onto a career in rock 'n' roll. He was allowed in to take pictures on the last night of David Bowie's legendary Ziggy Stardust tour and the results were so good he never looked back. Joining the New Musical Express in the mid-1970s, he was in the right place at the right time and became a favourite amongst the punk and new wave bands including the Clash, the Specials, Squeeze and Elvis Costello. Chalkie's pictures summed up the era and many are classics of rock and roll photography. But by the mid-1980s he'd become disenchanted with the music business, where image mattered more than music. The death of his close friend Phil Lynott, leader singer of Thin Lizzy, led Chalkie to quit rock music. For 25 years Chalkie's collection of rock images remained hidden away until an invitation from the National Museum of Wales led him to bring them out for a new generation. This documentary follows Chalkie as he prepares for the exhibition, revisits his childhood haunts and reflects on an extraordinary career. There are contributions from many of the musicians he photographed including Elvis Costello, Chris Difford of Squeeze, songwriter Nick Lowe, the Specials mainman Jerry Dammers and punk poet John Cooper Clarke.
Sophie Lancaster was kicked to death in a Lancashire park in 2007 because of her appearance. Sylvia Lancaster remembers her daughter and the tragic events after the attack as Sophie tells her own story through a sequence of poems written by poet by Simon Armitage.
The Scottish midge is a small beast with a big reputation. As one of the few flies in the British Isles that feed on human blood, it can cause havoc for anyone who has to live and work among them. But what makes some of us more attractive to the midge than others? On a journey around some of Scotland's midgier places, insect scientist Dr James Logan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explores the secret life of the midge to discover how best to cope with the terror of the Highlands and whether some of us might contain our own natural midge repellent.
Documentary exploring the rise and fall of the most visionary period in British music history: five kaleidoscopic years between 1965 and 1970 when a handful of dreamers reimagined pop music. When a generation of British R&B bands discovered LSD, conventions were questioned. From out of the bohemian underground and into the pop mainstream, the psychedelic era produced some of the most ground-breaking music ever made, pioneered by young improvising bands like Soft Machine and Pink Floyd, then quickly taken to the charts by the likes of the Beatles, Procol Harum, the Small Faces and the Moody Blues, even while being reimagined in the country by bucolic, folk-based artists like the Incredible String Band and Vashti Bunyan.
Filmed over the course of four years, award-winning director Phil Grabsky follows one of the world's greatest pianists, Leif Ove Andsnes, as he attempts, in a series of sold-out worldwide performances, to interpret one of the greatest sets of works for piano ever written - Beethoven's five piano concertos. However, Concerto is more than a portrait of a famous musician on tour - it is an exploration into Ludwig van Beethoven's life as revealed by these five masterworks. The relationship between the composer and his world is mirrored by the relationship between the pianist and orchestra in these concertos. The film seeks to reveal Beethoven in a way rarely seen before and bears witness to what is increasingly being regarded as one of the greatest interpretations ever of these five great pieces of music. Considered one of the top pianists of the age, Leif Ove Andsnes offers rare insights into the mind of a world-class pianist and access to his personal and professional life. Andsnes gives an insight into the world of a contemporary classical musician. Against the wonderful background of Leif Ove playing these five pieces, we also peel back the many myths of Beethoven's life - from prodigious talent in Vienna to greatest composer alive by the time he wrote the fifth concerto. Perhaps above all, it is the fresh new biography of Beethoven that is most revealing.
BalletBoyz at the Roundhouse documents the life and work of this ground-breaking company, with footage from their 2014 Roundhouse performances. It was the culmination of a two-year tour during which they were awarded Best Independent Company at the National Dance Awards, while choreographer Russell Maliphant won Best Modern Choreography and lighting designer Michael Hulls won an Olivier Award. Featuring Liam Scarlett's Serpent with music by Max Richter and Russell Maliphant's Fallen, with music by Armand Amar, and accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Paul Murphy, the film also includes interviews with the dancers and choreographers along with insights into their creative processes as well as behind-the-scenes footage.
Dukedoms are created by the monarch for reasons ranging from a grateful nation rewarding a major war leader to a king acknowledging his illegitimate son. The last dukedom to be created was by Queen Victoria. As they gradually become extinct, what will become of those that remain? Do they still have power and wealth? What is it to be a duke in the 21st century? Answers come from a surprising variety of extraordinary characters - the Duke of Marlborough and his aunt, born Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, who remembers being brought up in Blenheim Palace with 36 indoor servants, and the Duke of Atholl, who until 2012 was a rural South African sign-maker called Bruce Murray - on succeeding to the dukedom he now heads the only private army in Europe - the Atholl Highlanders. The Duke of Montrose is a Scottish hill farmer and a politician, one of the few dukes who still sit in the House of Lords. The Duchess of Rutland made dozens of people redundant when she took over Belvoir Castle, but is determined to make it an efficient business. The Duke and Duchess of St Albans don't have a stately pile, but do have their coronets and coronation robes. The duke's heir Charles Beauclerk is fascinated by the history of mental illness in the family. And if Camilla Osborne had been a boy, she would have become the 11th Duke of Leeds. But she wasn't and the dukedom is now extinct. Where does that leave her?
Rapper Professor Green takes an intensely personal journey to uncover the truth behind the suicide of his father - and why suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK.
In impeccable evening dress, Mark Gatiss and Matthew Sweet ponder the Bonds we've seen on screen since Dr No in 1962. With the release of the 24th official James Bond film, Spectre, we ask - which 007 is the best? To date, six actors have portrayed British Secret Service agent James Bond. Was Sean Connery impossible to surpass? Was George Lazenby really that bad? Was Live and Let Die really a blaxploitation movie in disguise? Gatiss and Sweet consider these and many other questions, and raise a martini in honour of their premium Bond.
On the eve of the biggest game of his life, refereeing the World Cup Final, Nigel Owens is at the pinnacle of his career. Now he reflects upon the pressures of the modern game with the boon and burden of technology, about the private struggle with his own sexuality, coming out and tackling homophobic abuse, and about his love of the game and his family, community and Welshness. The documentary highlights some of Nigel's best known on-field quips and includes contributions from Shane Williams, Sarra Elgan, Jonathan Davies, Eddie Butler and the last Welshman to referee a Rugby World Cup Final in 1991, Derek Bevan.
All too often, every great female rock musician has to answer a predictable question - what is it like being a girl in a band? For many, the sight of a girl shredding a guitar or laying into the drums is still a bit of a novelty. As soon as women started forming their own bands they were given labels - the rock chick, the girl band or one half of the rock and roll couple. Kate Mossman aims to look beyond the cliches of fallen angels, grunge babes and rock chicks as she gets the untold stories from rock's frontline to discover if it has always been different for the girl in a band.
In the first of a two-part series, the BBC delves into its archives to discover British acting greats as they take their first tentative steps on the road to success. Long before they were knighted for their services to drama, we see early appearances from Michael Caine in a rare Shakespearean role, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon. Featuring unique behind-the-scenes footage alongside a wealth of classic British productions like War and Peace, the Mayor of Casterbridge and the Singing Detective, it reveals many career-defining moments from the first generation of acting talent to fully embrace television drama.
Today, they are at the centre of British cultural life and among our greatest exports - the acting dames, an exclusive club of stage and screen greats who were honoured for their services to drama. But, lurking in the BBC archives - from long before their talents were recognised by royal decree - we find the early work and some career defining moments of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren. David Tennant narrates the story of our dames of classic drama, from a golden age of British television drama.
From BBC Introducing artist to performing at the Dalai Lama’s public talk at the O2 Arena in just six months - this is the story of Ngawang Lodup’s remarkable rise. Exclusively for BBC iPlayer, From Buddhist Monk To Rock Star is the incredible story of triumph over adversity for the singing ex-monk, who ten years ago fled his life in a Tibetan monastery, trekking for 18 days, 250 miles, to pursue a life where he could freely express himself. After settling in the UK, Ngawang performed as a highly sought after singer amongst the Tibetan Diaspora in Europe but was picked up by BBC Radio 3 in April 2015 in the inaugural year of a BBC Introducing World Music scheme. In this intimate documentary portrait Ngawang speaks openly about his life and career, the pain of exile from his country and family and the central role that music plays in his life. This film tells Ngawang’s incredible story through a mix of interviews, archive footage and behind the scenes access along with live performances from Radio 3, WOMAD festival and the O2.
Violence among girls seems more visible than ever. This year, in Walthamstow, there were shocking scenes as a fight broke out started by young women. In Belfast, a fight between two girls organised on social media became a spectator event for the city’s teenagers. BBC reporter Alys Harte asks, are girls getting angrier - and if so, why? From women who beat their boyfriends, to drunken brawlers, to girl gangs – Alys looks at the rising number of females who are involved in violence, and hears from their victims. One in five of all violent crimes and a third of domestic violence incidents reported to the England and Wales Crime survey involve a female perpetrator - but have our perceptions kept pace with the change? Alys investigates if females are treated the same way as their male counterparts when it comes to British justice, and finds out how hard it is for women who are caught up in violence to take control of their aggression and move on with their lives.
From bankers to football managers, from toymakers to uni lads, accusations of sexism in British life come thick and fast. Now, using comedy clips, viral videos and stunts on the street, journalist Leah Green takes us on a tour of some of the most notorious examples. To judge the winner, she has recruited a panel of comedians who will choose their favourite, the ultimate winner of the title Britain's Biggest Sexist.
They were, overwhelmingly, women - very young women. They cared for Catholics and Protestants, police and army, gunmen and bombers, perpetrators and victims. Innocent civilians. The eye-opening, untold story of Ulster's nurses across more than three decades of the Troubles.
Documentary which celebrates the role of the cover version in the pop canon and investigates what it takes to reinvent someone else's song as a smash. Through ten carefully chosen cover versions that whisk us from the British Invasion to a noughties X Factor final, this film journeys over five decades to track how artists as varied as the Moody Blues, Soft Cell, Puff Daddy and Alexandra Burke have scored number 1s with their retake on someone else's song. Each of the ten classic cover versions has its own particular tale, tied not only into its musical and cultural context but also the personal testimony of the artists, producers and songwriters whose lives were changed in the process. Narrated by Meera Syal, it explores the stories behind such iconic hits as House of the Rising Sun, Respect, Tainted Love, I'll Be Missing You and Hallelujah, with contributors including John Cale, Gloria Jones, Marc Almond, Rick Rubin, Faith Evans and British singer-songwriter Nerina Pallot. The cover version has always been a staple of the pop charts. Yet it's often been viewed as the poor relation of writing your own songs. This film challenges and overturns that misconception by celebrating an exciting, underrated musical form that has the power to make or break an artist's career. Whether as tribute, reinterpretation or as an act of subversion, the extraordinary alchemy involved in covering a record can create a new, defining version - in some cases, even more original than the original.
With a year until the start of the Olympics, gold medallist Darren Campbell travels to Rio to see how preparations for the Games are progressing. With test events for next year taking place around the city, Darren speaks to some of the Great Britain athletes involved about their plans for 2016. We also hear from the people of Rio and how they hope the impact of the games will leave a lasting impression on their lives.
Compilation celebrating some guitar band performances at the BBC that feature some of the best female musicians in rock. Beginning with the oft-forgotten American group Fanny performing You're the One, it's a journey along rock's spectrum from the 1970s to now. The selection includes the powerful vocals of Elkie Brooks on Vinegar Joe's Proud to Be a Honky Woman, the mesmerising poetry of Patti Smith's Horses and the upbeat energy of the Go-Go's on We Got the Beat. Mighty basslines come courtesy of Tina Weymouth on Psycho Killer and Kim Gordon on Sugar Kane, whilst we trace the line of indie rock from the Au Pairs through Lush, Elastica and Garbage to current band Savages.
Newly qualified pilot Carol Vorderman's passions are flying and engineering. She gets hands-on experience with the Airbus workforce at Broughton, Flintshire, where they are building the wings for their latest, greenest, most advanced aircraft - the A350.
Stephen Nolan travels to the USA, the world leader in scientific research, to learn about the inner workings of the brain and the impact that the junk food we eat everyday has on it.
Over one million people were given emergency food in Britain last year and the numbers are growing.The Food Bank follows the stories of some of the people who get help from Scotland's busiest food bank in Dundee. These include Charlie who, after being a victim of a robbery, is left with no money to buy food, and single dad Billy, who after a long spell out of work is forced to get help from the food bank to feed his four-year-old son Jack.
Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis is known the world over for running one of the biggest music festivals on the planet. But he is also a working dairy farmer, whose family have herded and milked cattle in the same corner of Somerset for generations. This year, Michael turns 80, but he's not slowing down - far from it. He's just won the coveted Gold Cup for the best dairy herd in Britain. This intimate film reveals the other side of Glastonbury - Michael and his team of dairy farmers whose passion, skill and knowledge shine through.
From the gold-diggers on Buru in Indonesia, to the Rastafarians in the Colombian islet of Providencia, Island Stories travels to six islands to meet the people who call them home.
Millennium Children Almost two billion children have been born since the turn of the millennium. They are the first generation of the 21st century. This extraordinary film sets out to ask what kind of a world these millennium children are about to inherit. From the Bafta-winning team behind Welcome to Lagos and Exit Through the Gift Shop, this unique documentary takes us into the lives of kids in every corner of the world, from street kids in war-torn Congo to the hidden world of children working on a Cambodian dump, from the poorest part of the USA through to life as a teenager in the world's most dangerous city. We hear their hopes, their dreams and their ideas on what would make their world a better place. In 2000, 180 world leaders agreed on a series of ambitious targets to improve the lives of people everywhere. The Millennium Development Goals they signed up to were meant to herald unprecedented progress in every corner of Earth. They promised enormous reductions in poverty, increased life expectancy and an altogether fairer world. Those goals are being renewed this year. This powerful and poignant film asks kids to show us, from their perspectives, whether older generations have lived up the promises we made back at the turn of the millennium.
After a break of nine years, David Gilmour steps back into the spotlight with a number one album and world tour. This film is an intimate portrait of one of the greatest guitarists and singers of all time, exploring his past and present. With unprecedented access, the film crew have captured and detailed key moments in David Gilmour's personal and professional life that have shaped him both as a person and a musician.
BBC world affairs editor John Simpson takes viewers behind the scenes of reporting from the frontline. He and his guests - Jon Snow, Christiane Amanpour and Max Hastings - discuss the difficulties, moral ambiguities and challenges of this increasingly dangerous job, with a series of clips from conflicts in the Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq and Syria, highlighting some of the best work of the past 50 years.
Documentary following two cage fighters from Stoke-on-Trent during the tough eight weeks of training, overcoming injuries and battered egos, as they prepare for fight night. As the countdown plays out, we discover that this sometimes brutal sport is helping many young men overcome troubled circumstances such as alcoholism, violent crime, drugs, unemployment and obesity, in order to turn their lives around.
Arin Andrews and Katie Hill look like any American teenage couple in love, but there’s one big difference: they are both transgender. Arin began life as Emerald, a beauty pageant-winning little girl, whereas the name on Katie’s birth certificate was Luke, a boy obsessed with computer games. Since 2012, Arin and Katie have shared their transitions online through video diaries watched by millions - as they became the poster boy and poster girl of the young trans community. At present, it is estimated that 700,000 people in the US identify as transgender*, whilst statistics show the number of British children who want to change their gender has doubled in the last six months**. As part of BBC Three’s Breaking The Mould season, this one-off film discovers how Arin and Katie are spreading their message of hope and acceptance to a global audience, inspiring a new transgender generation who are looking for love. Of them, we meet 18 year-old Devon (who has gone from girl to boy) and looks up to Arin, taking comfort from knowing there is someone online going through the same challenges. However, Devon has to deal with the thorny issue of how and when to tell a girl that, biologically, he is still female. Meanwhile, Claire (pictured) is a 20 year-old trans woman longing for a fairytale romance like Arin and Katie’s, but finding it impossible to meet a boyfriend, despite her good looks. For Claire, social media and her group of trans friends provide much needed support through day-to-day challenges, from online dating profiles to wearing a swimsuit in public for the first time. These brave stories also reveal the emotional ups and downs of what it is to be transgender. Shockingly, recent UK statistics show that 48 percent of young transgender people have attempted suicide***. From the lows of bullying, abuse and suicide attempts, to their joy as they undergo hormone treatments and surgery, we see what life is really like for these courageous individuals and
As the Children’s Commissioner releases the results of the most comprehensive study of child sexual abuse ever conducted in the UK, we investigate its shocking findings. What do we really know about the impact of this horrific crime? How much still remains hidden behind closed doors? How many paedophiles are there in the UK? Who are the offenders and what drives them to abuse children? This programme has had full access to the report and digs deeper into the issue and its findings. Professor Tanya Byron, a psychologist who specialises in working with children and adolescents, and investigative journalist Tazeen Ahmad pick apart what the most up-to-date statistics actually mean and meet some of the victims and offenders to explore the truth about child sex abuse. A remarkable 17 year-old, abused from the age of six by her mother and stepfather, describes why she didn’t feel able to speak out and a teenage victim of abuse describes the fears around testifying in court. While the parents of April Jones, the five year-old kidnapped and killed by a paedophile, talk openly about their tragic experience. They are calling for a better understanding of the crime of child sex abuse, which is what this programme will try to achieve. And what of the offenders? A convicted internet sex offender is questioned about whether viewing online pornography could lead to perpetrating contact offences and we meet another convicted sex offender who believes he has been ‘cured’ by therapy, as well as the clinician who treated him.
Hosts and competitors tell the behind-the-scenes story of 60 years of Eurovision - the greatest and maddest song contest on earth.
In his first television interview since his doping confession of 2013, former cyclist Lance Armstrong talks exclusively to BBC Sports Editor Dan Roan in Austin, Texas, about life as sport's most notorious drugs cheat, forgiveness, and his hopes for the future.
Johann Sebastian Bach's majestic Cello Suites are among the world's best-loved pieces of music - but did another Bach write them? Australian musical sleuth Martin Jarvis explosively claims the suites were composed not by Bach, but by his much-loved second wife, Anna Magdalena. Jarvis's controversial quest for clues takes him from London to Paris to Berlin and beyond. Using advanced techniques of forensic document examination and drawing on his vast experience as a conductor and musician, he sets out to uncover the truth of the Cello Suites and rewrite some musical wrongs.
Behind the scenes at Wales's only weight management clinic, on the frontline of the nation's battle with obesity. The team at Ebbw Vale are seeing even more challenging and complex cases, and we follow three of the most difficult. How do you get to the point when the scales are topping thirty stone, and your body mass index (BMI) is three or four times the healthy limit? How do you shed the pounds when you're dealing with other serious conditions such as epilepsy or a stroke, or your shift work gets in the way of a healthy lifestyle? We see Professor Nadim Haboubi and his team struggling against the odds to ensure their patients stay on their weight loss journey back to health.
In the week when Sikhs across the world are celebrating the birth of their founder, Guru Nanak, BBC political journalist Anita Anand tells the fascinating and largely unknown story of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh - descendant of Sikh royalty, goddaughter of Queen Victoria and pioneering suffragette. Bold and fearless, she marched alongside Emmeline Pankhurst in protest outside parliament, refused to pay her taxes until women got the vote, and even threw herself in front of prime minister Asquith's car.
Amal Fashanu, daughter of John and niece to Justin, explores the culture of football to find out whether it is cultivating a worrying attitude towards women and sex. How do footballers juggle their intense professional and personal lives? Young footballers can be earning £30,000 a week by the age of 18 and retire by 30. In this short window, what is the impact on the relationships of these young men? Amal uses her contact book to meet girls keen to meet and sleep with footballers, players and managers to explore if this culture of permissive sex and predatory behaviour has become the norm. Using the backdrop of the ongoing Ched Evans situation, she meets the insiders in the secret world of footballers' sex lives who reveal how inflated egos, pressure, money, excessive levels of female attention and a culture of casual sex and macho competition totally out of touch with the outside world are spawning a disregard for women and sometimes the law.
Film following singer Charli XCX as she talks to fellow artists about the music industry and finds out what feminism, the real 'f-word', means in the 21st century.
A unique concert staged at the Royal Festival Hall celebrating the music of the legendary songwriter and performer Burt Bacharach. Some of Burt's most famous songs are performed by a stellar line-up of artists including Alfie Boe, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Shaun Escoffery, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Hayward, Michael Kiwanuka, Laura Mvula and Joss Stone. Burt himself also performs accompanied by his band. During the concert Burt chats to Michael Grade about the art of songwriting and shares the stories behind some of his best-loved hits.
Dan Cruickshank returns to his childhood home of Warsaw for the first time in almost 60 years. In a personal and moving film, he recalls his boyhood memories to explore the memories of the city and the memories of its people. No city in Europe suffered so much destruction in the Second World War, no city rose up so heroically from the ashes. The Nazis had razed Warsaw to the ground, but after the war the people fought hard to bring their city back from the dead in one of the greatest reconstruction jobs in history. As a boy, Cruickshank lived in the rebuilt old town and it inspired his love of architecture and made him the man he is today.
Professor Iain Stewart reveals the story behind the Scottish physicist who was Einstein's hero; James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell's discoveries not only inspired Einstein, but they helped shape our modern world - allowing the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and much more. Despite this, he is largely unknown in his native land of Scotland. On the 150th anniversary of Maxwell's great equations, scientist Iain Stewart sets out to change that, and to celebrate the life, work and legacy of the man dubbed "Scotland's Forgotten Einstein".
Mary McAleese, former Irish President, travels through Ireland, France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, to uncover the legacy of Columbanus. She discovers that the story of Columbanus shows how openness to diversity can offer lessons to the often fractured Europe of today.
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of smash hit I'm Not in Love, the original members of 10cc - Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme - reunite to tell their story. The documentary shares the secrets to some of their most successful records, from the writing and the recording to the tours and the tensions. With contributions from an impressive array of music industry legends including 10cc's band manager Harvey Lisberg, lyricist Sir Tim Rice, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, legendary producer Trevor Horn, Stewart Copeland (the Police), Graham Nash (the Hollies) and Dan Gillespie Sells (the Feeling), not only does this film highlight the diversity of these four brilliant musicians' songwriting talent, but it also delves into the influence they had, as well as the politics beneath their acrimonious split in 1976, at the height of their fame.
In a unique event to find out what British teenagers understand about rape, 24 of them are shown a specially written drama about a sexual encounter and are put to the test to see if they can work out if it is consensual sex or if a crime has been committed.
On average, seven women are killed every month in Britain by their husband, partner or ex-partner. Vanessa Engle’s ambitious and important film tells the gripping and untold human stories behind this shocking yet faceless statistic, shedding light on a majorly important subject - the continuing and disproportionate violence visited by men on women every day. This powerful and poignant landmark film by acclaimed BBC director Vanessa Engle, (Inside Harley Street, Walking With Dogs, Money) gives an unprecedented insight into the deaths of women murdered by the men who knew them intimately, and cared most about them. The film will name each of the 86 women who died at the hands of their male partner or ex-partner during one calendar year, from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013. Woven into this list are more detailed accounts of a range of individual deaths, told through personal testimony from the parents, siblings, children, friends and neighbours of the women who died. Family members give detailed accounts of what took place, as well as speaking openly about their feelings, their loved ones and their grief. The women named in the film died in widely different circumstances. Some are stories of long-term domestic violence, others are sudden and unexpected violent deaths. Some are alcohol or mental-health related, others to do with divorce, rejection or sexual jealousy. Some are newlyweds, others are older couples who have been married for decades. In a few of the most violent cases, the men killed their children too and in some instances killed themselves. The women are from different parts of the country and are of differing ages, social classes and ethnic backgrounds.
In the 1980s and 1990s the state of Israel performed two undercover, dramatic airlifts. Their aim - to rescue a lost tribe of Israelites: the Ethiopian Jews. After 2,000 years in Ethiopia the Jews faced persecution, civil war and famine. Now in Israel their community still observes the ancient biblical festival, lost to many Jews, the day of devotion: Sigd. Without the unyielding faith of a community and an elaborate Mossad hoax the Jews of Ethiopia could still be stuck in refugee camps. Behind these incredible events are the actions of a then little-known Manchester businessman. In the late 1970s Lord David Alliance received a mysterious phone call and allotted 15 minutes of his busy schedule to two Israeli diplomats. Shocked to hear how diplomacy had failed to rescue the Ethiopian Jews he cleared his diary. Over the next few years David created a fake office in Khartoum, Sudan and paved the way for Mossad agents to operate behind enemy lines. They created fake tourist villages and charities and arranged rendezvous in the desert with Israeli Air Force planes, filling them with refugees. When issues arose David himself even ventured out to Sudan, to open the border, and then to war torn Ethiopia to personally negotiate the release of the then-captive Jewish community. As Sigd approaches we join those instrumental in the operations alongside eyewitnesses who experienced the mass-airlifts of an entire community. This is the story of how so-called miracles occurred and their relevance today.
Documentary which tells the compelling story of the mavericks like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch, whose radical ideas created modern dance in the 20th century. With historical archive and the first-hand experiences of student dancers from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, it shows the ideas that challenged audiences and changed dance forever. Also, the biggest stars in dance explain what inspired them to create their own groundbreaking choreography. With contributions from Michael Clark, William Forsythe, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan, Boris Charmatz and Lea Anderson.
The Mona Lisa: bewitching, seductive, world famous. In the minds of millions, she is the ultimate work of art. Yet behind the enigmatic smile, she remains a mystery, fuelling endless speculation and theories. But is that all about to change? Is the world's most famous painting finally giving up its secrets? Presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, this landmark film uses new evidence to investigate the truth behind her identity and where she lived. It decodes centuries-old documents and uses state-of-the-art technology that could unlock the long-hidden truths of history's most iconic work of art.
Immigration is never far from the headlines. But have the lives of black and other ethnic minority groups living in the north west improved since the Race Relations Act of 1965? Fifty years after its introduction, poet Lemn Sissay challenges views on race and discovers both positive and negative experiences of living in multicultural Britain.
Dev explores what makes Star Wars one of the most loved, successful and hyped franchises of all time, and interviews new stars John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and director J.J. Abrams.
The story of the unsung heroes of Scotland's mountains. For 50 years the volunteers of the Mountain Bothy Association have been providing shelter for people travelling through the wilder parts of the country. They selflessly give up their time and dry clothes to renovate old buildings for the benefit of others. This entertaining documentary celebrates their work and the spirit of adventure and camaraderie of those who step out into the hills.
A girl haunted by traumatic events takes us on a mesmerising journey through 100 years of horror cinema to explore how filmmakers scare us – and why we let them.
Celebrating the post-war history of Scotland's gay community which, over 70 years, has seen gay men and lesbians transform from Scotland's pariahs to Scotland's pride. Using a rich mix of eye-witness testimony, jaw-dropping archive and historical research, the documentary charts radically changing attitudes. Scotland was over a decade behind England and Wales in decriminalising homosexuality but now has the best gay rights in Europe: nothing short of a revolution.
Strictly Come Dancing - today one of the most popular shows on television - is the latest manifestation of the BBC's enduring love affair with dance. Whether it was profiling stars such as Margot Fonteyn, reluctantly teaching us how to do the twist or encouraging us to dance like John Travolta, the BBC's cameras were there to capture every move and every step. From ballet to ballroom and beyond, this is Dance at the BBC.
The story of the most elegant and powerful theory in science - Albert Einstein's general relativity. When Einstein presented his formidable theory in November 1915, it turned our understanding of gravity, space and time completely on its head. Over the last 100 years, general relativity has enabled us to trace the origins of the universe to the Big Bang and to appreciate the enormous power of black holes. To mark the 100th anniversary of general relativity, this film takes us inside the head of Einstein to witness how his idea evolved, giving new insights into the birth of a masterpiece that has become a cornerstone of modern science. This is not as daunting as it sounds - because Einstein liked to think in pictures. The film is a magical visual journey that begins in Einstein's young mind, follows the thought experiments that gave him stunning insights about the physical world, and ultimately reaches the extremes of modern physics.
In September 2015, the innovative Citizens Theatre in Glasgow marked its 70th anniversary. Blood and Glitter looks back at seven decades of pioneering productions and goes behind the scenes as the 'Citz' brings classics including The Slab Boys and Lanark to the stage. Featuring contributions from some of our most successful stage and screen actors, including Mark Rylance, Glenda Jackson, Pierce Brosnan, Ciaran Hinds, Gary Oldman, Bill Paterson, Roberta Taylor and Blythe Duff.
David Hayman explores the rich history of one of Scotland's best-loved boats, the Clyde Puffer: meeting the last of the men who worked on them, exploring the communities whose lives they transformed, celebrating their fictional history in the form of the Vital Spark and taking a trip out to sea on the last remaining steam-powered puffer.
A long time ago in a TV studio not so far away, the stars of the original Star Wars film came to the BBC to promote their then-unknown movie. Want to see a Wookie on Blue Peter, or Luke Skywalker meet Michael Aspel? Then take a look through archive BBC footage – much of which has not been shown since the 70s – to see how UK viewers were introduced to the idea of ‘the force’, protocol droids and galactic princesses. Did Mark Hamill really appear on Coronation Street? Peter Serafinowicz, the voice of Darth Maul himself, will reveal the answer.
Queen: From Rags to Rhapsody Documentary telling the story of Queen as it follows their journey from a band gigging at pubs and colleges to the moment they captured the UK's hearts with Bohemian Rhapsody. To mark the 40th anniversary of Bohemian Rhapsody, this documentary digs deep into archive to tell the story of Queen as it follows their journey from a struggling band gigging at pubs and colleges to the moment they captured the UK's hearts and minds with what was to become one of - if not the - greatest song of all time. Queen's formative years have never been explored in such detail. With a wealth of unseen interviews, recently unearthed rushes of Queen's first ever video and outtakes from the recording sessions of Bohemian Rhapsody itself, this is the unique story of early Queen, told by the band themselves. This documentary completes the final part of the trilogy alongside Days of Our Lives and Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender. It's simple. It's real. It's raw. It's what happened.
In the 30 years since the Broadwater Farm riots, Tottenham has seen more than its fair share of national headlines, from the missed child abuse scandals of Baby P and Victoria Climbie to the shooting of Mark Duggan and the 2011 summer riots. This candid film shines a spotlight on the lives of those who live in Tottenham today. Viewers are given a front-row seat to watch one of the country's busiest MP surgeries in action, with behind-the-scenes access to the fortnightly advice surgery run by Tottenham's local MP David Lammy. Tottenham-born Lammy spent much of his childhood on the Broadwater Farm Estate, and experiences many of the challenges left in the wake of the riots 30 years on. His surgery deals with thousands of problems a year, never knowing what or who will come through the door next. There is Ruth, a heartbroken mother desperate to find out what has happened to her missing son Ambrose. His disappearance is causing tension between the local black community and the police. Then there is Kofi, a hard-working immigrant whose entire family is packed into a one-bedroom flat and whose wife is dying of liver cancer. Another visitor to the surgery is Shantel, a 22-year-old whose temporary residency status means she is not eligible for a student loan, even though she has been living here since she was aged nine. We also meet the unforgettable Koli, a funny and feisty young Muslim mum who is fighting for her son's life-saving operation and won't take no for an answer. From wrongful arrests to parking problems and immigration issues to regeneration backlashes, this one-off film showcases the extraordinary spirit of Tottenham's ordinary residents. It's a long, long way from Westminster.
Follow wrestler Fergal Devitt at home in Ireland and on his final tour of the UK and Japan before he joins the WWE. Smack Em Up features incredible behind the scenes footage from the bizarre world of Japanese pro-wrestling.
Dance, espionage and passion come together in this powerful and exciting docudrama that tells the extraordinary story of how Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West in 1961 and became a living legend. Spectacular dance performance is provided by Bolshoi Ballet star Artem Ovcharenko in the role of Nureyev. The film shows a thrilling recreation of the events in the four months that led to Nureyev's defection at Paris's Le Bourget airport on June 16th 1961, helping to change the course of the Cold War. It shows how those events transformed not only Nureyev's personal fame and fortune, but those of everyone else around him. This film offers an important opportunity to hear this momentous story told by those who participated in it. First-hand accounts are provided by those who were on the fateful tour with Nureyev, including former prima ballerina Alla Osipenko and rival male soloist Sergei Vikulov. Two principal figures instrumental in Nureyev's defection - his intimate friend Clara Saint and the dancer and choreographer Pierre Lacotte - also provide their version of these world-changing events. Dance to Freedom is a close-focus, multi-layered account of one of the most thrilling intrigues of the 20th century, uniquely told in a mix of revelatory testimony, tense dramatization and spectacular dance performance of Nureyev's roles, offering an original interpretation of why the defection took place. It is a timely reminder of what happens when art and politics collide and how truth can often be more astonishing than fiction.
Kirsty Young takes a unique look at the story of the Royal Christmas broadcast and how the tradition started by King George V in 1932 has found a place at the heart of Christmas Day. Beginning with tentative steps in the early days of the wireless, then providing reassurance during the uncertainty of the Second World War, it has become The Queen's televised message that we all know and love.
Nigel Planer narrates the story of the struggle to make programmes for children in the days before everything went digital.
Documentary looking at the career to date of Peter Kay. Intercut with clips from Peter's television shows and stand-up tours, the programme charts Peter's life in comedy from Bolton schoolboy to award-winning, record-breaking comic, actor, writer and director. An in-depth interview with Peter gives rare insight into his comedy roots and early ambitions, and shares the stories behind the creation and production of TV classics like Phoenix Nights, Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, Britain's Got the Pop Factor, and Car Share. Contributors include JK Rowling, Paddy McGuinness, Danny Baker, Matt Lucas, Reece Shearsmith, Richard Curtis, Susan Boyle, Cat Deeley, Jason Manford, Dave Spikey, Jo Enright, Ted Robbins, Lucy Speed, Pete Waterman and Rick Astley.
In a Slow TV Christmas special, BBC Four rigs a traditional reindeer sleigh with a fixed camera for a magical journey across the frozen wilderness of the Arctic. Following the path of an ancient postal route, the ride captures the traditional world of the Sami people who are indigenous to northern Scandinavia and for whom reindeer herding remains a way of life. Filmed in Karasjok, Norway - 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle - this journey takes us through breathtaking scenery not normally glimpsed by anyone other than the Sami. Deliberately unhurried, the rhythmic pace of the reindeer guides us along an epic two-hour trip that takes us over undulating snowy hills, through birch forests, across a frozen lake and past traditional Sami settlements. Facts about the reindeer, natural history, Sami culture and the Arctic climate are delivered by graphics and archive stills embedded into the passing landscape. With no commentary, music or presenter - just the crunching of snow and the soft tinkle of a reindeer bell - this hypnotic sleigh ride is an enchanting experience to put everyone in the Christmas spirit.
From the shop floor to head office, Cherry Healey goes behind the scenes of one of the nation’s biggest stores to find out how it survives the pressure cooker of Christmas. Christmas shopping is a national obsession, and since more than 50 percent of many retailers’ annual profits are made in the last quarter of the year, for John Lewis and its competitors Christmas has become a year-long, full-scale military campaign. Charting the relentless countdown to Christmas 2015 - from the midsummer Christmas press launch, to the honing of the ad, to the discounting frenzy of Black Friday - Cherry sees the John Lewis team tackling the multitude of challenges presented by our changing shopping habits. With British households spending on average close to £800 on goods in the six-week run-up to Christmas, today this battle for our seasonal spending is fought on the high street, online, across all media and in homes all over the country.
Actor Gregor Fisher, famous for his comedy role as Rab C. Nesbitt, sets out to discover the secrets, mystery and lies about his birth mother. From a troubled childhood to the comic genius of Rab C. Nesbitt, friends, family and fellow actors help him piece together the story of his remarkable life.
Join Wallace and Gromit for the great British success that is Aardman Animations. Julie Walters tells the story of how Morph, Shaun the Sheep and that cheese-loving man and his dog first came to life. Featuring David Tennant, Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman and many more voices from the world of plasticine.
Kate Winslet tells the story of an emperor penguin chick's first precarious months of life as it grows up in the world's most extreme nursery. Emperor penguins are the only animals to breed in the Antarctic winter, and after months of blizzards and temperatures of -60C, male emperor penguins are watching and waiting for their chicks to hatch. Snow Chick is the last to emerge into this harsh, frozen world. As he takes his first steps, he tries to fit in with the baby penguin gang, but when you're so small it's hard to be accepted by the bigger chicks. Soon he ventures too far from his mother for comfort and gets lost in a storm. Later, he's chased by chick-snatching penguins and escapes a scavenging petrel by the fluff of his back - all the while slipping and skating on treacherous ice. With the arrival of the comical and pugnacious adelie penguin, colony life is turned upside down. But it signals a bigger change - the parents who braved long and treacherous journeys across the sea ice to bring back food eventually return no more. With his band of penguin brothers, Snow Chick has no choice but to make his own way to the sea. A few more adventures lie ahead before he gets tossed unceremoniously into the open ocean - his new home for the next four years. Filmed over a whole Antarctic year, the crew endured some of the toughest conditions on earth to capture these astonishing moments of intimate behaviour.
David Beckham sets himself the challenge of a lifetime: playing a football match on all seven continents of the globe and getting back in time for his own star-studded Unicef fundraising match at Old Trafford. Playing the beautiful game in some of the most challenging and remote locations of the world, David discovers how important football is to the many different people he meets and plays with and confirms some universal truths about the game itself: it's unique ability to inspire and unite people across the world. The first three games see David play in some of the countries for which he is a Unicef ambassador: tribes in the jungles of Papua New Guinea; children from an earthquake-damaged school in Nepal and footballers from three African countries at a refugee camp in the middle of the desert near Djibouti. David flies on to Argentina where he plays in urban Buenos Aires with a community youth team from the infamous Boca Juniors then to the surreal icy landscape of Antarctica to play with an international team, then to Miami, USA where he plays a night time game on top of a skyscraper with the University of Miami women's soccer team before finally flying on to Old Trafford in Manchester for his Unicef fundraiser match with an all star line up including Sir Alex Ferguson as his team manager. Exhausting, exhilarating and logistically demanding, David's challenge is about both his own and the world's love of the game.
Curious about a powerful but violent painting that caught his eye, Michael Palin sets off on a quest to discover the astonishing story of the forgotten female artist who painted it over 400 years ago. Travelling to Italy in search of Artemisia Gentileschi's tale, Michael encounters her work in Florence, Rome and Naples. Michael unearths not only her paintings but a complex life which included her rape as a teenager and the ensuing indignity of a full trial, her life as a working mother and her ultimate success against all odds as one of the greatest painters of the Baroque age who transformed the way women were depicted in art and who was sought after in many courts across 17th-century Europe.
Recorded highlights of the debate in the House of Commons on the government's proposals to bomb the Islamic State group in Syria, from 2nd Dec 2015.
In this documentary, Stephen Fry tells the story behind his success, after presenting the BAFTAs for more than ten years. With an outstanding career in film and television which began with a chance meeting with comedy partner Hugh Laurie at Cambridge, he went on to create the outrageous Melchett in Blackadder and has become a firm favourite on BBC2 with the quite interesting quiz QI. Featuring a supporting cast of friends, including interviews with Michael Sheen, Hugh Laurie and Alan Davies.
Former Royal Ballet prima ballerina and latterly Strictly Come Dancing judge Darcey Bussell celebrates male ballet dancing with the help of some its greatest exponents, including Arthur Mitchell (founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem), Anthony Dowell, Peter Schaufuss, Irek Mukhamedov and Carlos Acosta. In the 19th century, male dancers were overshadowed by newly arrived prima ballerinas, but since then they have made a spectacular comeback. With archive footage and personal anecdotes, unique access backstage and visits to rehearsal studios in London, Copenhagen, New York and beyond, Darcey Bussell hears the story of male ballet from dancers who have dedicated their lives to ballet and transformed the art of dance.
Before Bruce Springsteen became a global superstar in the '80s with Born in the USA, he and the E Street Band released the 1980 double album The River and then began a tour that celebrated its combination of haunted ballads and joyous rock'n'roll to great acclaim. In this film Springsteen gives a first-hand account of the events and aesthetic behind the writing of The River, performing a number of the key songs on acoustic guitar. A unique account of one of the great rock 'n' roll statements, in which Springsteen explores his working-class roots and the ties that bind.
On 8 May 1945, Churchill broadcast the long-awaited announcement that the war in Europe was over. To celebrate, Britain threw the biggest street party the country had ever seen. Seventy years on, some of Britain's best-loved entertainers recall the jubilation of that unforgettable day. The extraordinary archive of celebrations all over Britain helps bring back the memories. Britain's celebrities - including Sir Bruce Forsyth, Honor Blackman, Anne Reid, Sir Patrick Stewart, Kenny Lynch, Miriam Margolyes, Una Stubbs and Dame Cleo Laine - share their memories of the tea parties, bonfires, joyful tears and dancing in the streets. After the heady days of celebration, it was back to the realities of food rationing and unheated homes, but gradually the nation got back on its feet. The gloom of austerity was replaced a new era of optimism and prosperity. This is the story of the Victory Generation.
Biography of iconic rock balladeer Roy Orbison told through his own voice, casting new light on the triumphs and tragedies that beset his career. Using previously unseen performances, home movies and interviews with many who have never spoken before, the film reveals Orbison's remote Texas childhood, his battles to get his voice heard, and how he created lasting hits like Only the Lonely and Crying. The film follows Roy's rollercoaster life, often reflected in the dark lyrics of his songs, from success to rejection to rediscovery in the 80s with the Traveling Wilburys supergroup. It uncovers the man behind the shades, including interviews with his sons, many close friends and collaborators like Jeff Lynne, T Bone Burnett, Bobby Goldsboro and Marianne Faithfull.
Marty Goes to Hollywood is a film with no budget about a guy in a film with a big budget. Despite getting gets his big break playing Tom Hanks's Irish brother in the movie Cloud Atlas, actor Martin Docherty can't afford to go to his Hollywood premiere. His pals make a pledge to get Marty to the red carpet in Hollywood and decide to film the process, but Hollywood does not welcome the idea of a film being made on their turf.
Charismatic conductor and composer Andre Previn looks back at some of his greatest television moments, from thrilling performances of orchestral favourites by Mozart and Berlioz to his classic comedy encounter with Morecambe and Wise.
A look back through the archives at some of the classic tunes from the world of indie music through the 80s and early 90s including the likes of Joy Division, Depeche Mode, the Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Primal Scream and many more.
A celebration of Placido Domingo, the world's most famous tenor, through four decades of performance highlights from the BBC film archives. Featuring great arias from Aida, Die Walkure, Simon Boccanegra and Pagliacci, as well as appearances on Wogan and Parkinson, including an unforgettable Moon River with Henry Mancini at the piano.
Kirsty Young takes a unique look at the story of the Royal Christmas broadcast and how the tradition started by King George V in 1932 has found a place at the heart of Christmas Day. Beginning with tentative steps in the early days of the wireless, then providing reassurance during the uncertainty of the Second World War, it has become The Queen's televised message that we all know and love.
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is joined by world-renowned harpist Catrin Finch on an ambitious tour to inspire young musicians in the Welsh settlement of Patagonia. They hope to crown a week of music-making with an historic performance in a converted wool warehouse - the first time a full international symphony orchestra has ever performed in the region. But it's a race against time to turn an old industrial shed into a worthy venue for a gala concert.
A host of stars take a riotous look at the world's wild and wonderful New Year's Eve traditions and compare them to our very own Hogmanay! Get ready for the biggest party night of the year! Includes fist fights, flaming effigies, snogging, singing and animal antics together with some very Scottish memories of the bells over the years. An illustrious guest list includes stand-ups, actors and national treasures. Everyone from Grado to Dorothy Paul. Also featuring Alex Norton, Sanjeev Kohli, Jane McCarry, and Robert and Iain from Burnistoun. Plus there's room for Scotland's best-loved Hogmanay-themed comedy clips. Mixing archive, comedy comment and international footage that has to be seen to be believed, it's the biggest party on the planet, broadcasting in the run-up to the bells! Planet Hogmanay is narrated by Jack Docherty.
It is a quarter of a century since the death of Leonard Bernstein, composer, conductor and icon of 20th-century music. This programme features 50 years of great archive performances and interviews, some unseen since their original broadcast, including music from West Side Story, Elgar's Enigma and Beethoven.
For the millions of tourists who flock to Edinburgh each year, The Royal Mile is a big draw ... packed with buskers, lined with souvenir shops and with its dark, intriguing little 'closes' either side. Lots of visitors will stop for a refreshment at Deacon Brodie's Tavern, a popular landmark. But how many know that the real life "Deacon" was hanged for his crimes? Who was the man who inspired Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde? And why does he remain such a figure of affection, in the city of his birth? This is the story of William Brodie - the man who had everything to lose... With expert opinion and drama reconstruction, the programme is presented by John Morrison.
Kim Howells celebrates 250 years of art in the Valleys, looking at how the place became a magnet for artists drawn by its natural splendour and the spectacle of the industries that grew up there. Former MP and Labour arts minister Kim Howells looks at how the south Wales valleys have been portrayed by artists from the end of the 18th century to the present day. He begins with JMW Turner who visited the Vale of Neath in the 1790s to paint the spectacular waterfalls, but soon discovers that it was the drama of industry that attracted the next generation of painters. By the 20th century artists became more concerned with social issues, showing the despair brought on by the Great Depression. But after the Second World War the mood changed and painters reflected the postwar optimism. Finally, Kim looks at the current generation of artists, including Valerie Ganz and David Carpanini, who portray the after-effects of industry and the natural beauty that's returned to the Valleys.
Errol Brown, who died aged 71 in May 2015, was probably the most famous and ubiquitous black British pop star of the 70s and early 80s. He co-founded Hot Chocolate with Tony Wilson in 1970 and the band went on to have a hit every year between 1971 and 1984. This compilation of BBC performances and rare interview extracts celebrates Errol and Hot Chocolate, showcasing their top ten hits alongside rarely seen early performances and cult fan favourites.
In an extended version of his first television interview since his doping confession of 2013, former cyclist Lance Armstrong talks exclusively to BBC sports editor Dan Roan in Austin, Texas, about life as sport's most notorious drugs cheat, forgiveness and his hopes for the future.
In May 1985, 56 football fans died after fire destroyed the main grandstand during a football match between Bradford City and Lincoln City. BBC correspondent Robert Hall reported from Valley Parade that day and for the 30th anniversary he returns to speak to some of those, whose lives changed forever. He also examines the circumstances which led to the disaster and why safety warnings appeared to be ignored.
Documentary in which Michela Chiappa attempts to discover the recipe for longevity.
Professor Iain Stewart reveals the story behind the Scottish physicist who was Einstein's hero; James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell's discoveries not only inspired Einstein, but they helped shape our modern world - allowing the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and much more. Despite this, he is largely unknown in his native land of Scotland. Scientist Iain Stewart sets out to change that, and to celebrate the life, work and legacy of the man dubbed 'Scotland's Forgotten Einstein'.
Fran Scott takes a unique look into some of the latest biomimetics technology and talks to some of the pioneers working on ways to interpret nature's biological mechanisms.
A compilation from the depths of the BBC archive of the creme de la creme of 1960s British psychedelic rock from programmes such as Colour Me Pop, How It Is, Top of the Pops and Once More with Felix. Featuring pre-rocker era Status Quo, a rustic-looking Incredible String Band, a youthful Donovan, a suitably eccentric performance from The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, a trippy routine from Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity, a groovy tune from The Moody Blues, a raucous rendition by Joe Cocker of his version of With a Little Help From My Friends and some pre-Wizzard Roy Wood with The Move. Plus classic performances from the likes of Procol Harum, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and The Who.
Compilation of some indelible hits by artists we hardly heard from again, at least in a chart sense. Featuring Peter Sarstedt's Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? - a number one in 1969 and a hit he never really matched, Trio's 1982 smash Da Da Da, Phyllis Nelson's 1985 lovers rock-style classic Move Closer, and The New Radicals' 1999 hit You Get What You Give. We travel through the years selecting some of your favourite number ones and a few others that came close, revealing what's happened to the one-hit hitmakers since and exploring the unwritten laws that help make sense of the one-hit wonder phenomenon.
Comedian Colin Murphy heads to Donegal with friend and fellow funnyman Jake O'Kane to find out why so many people from north of the border make it a regular holiday destination. Jake needs convincing. Along the way, they meet a man who's away with the fairies, but will they also get to meet the King of Country himself, Daniel O'Donnell?
In 1964 a missionary family from Belfast found themselves caught up in a bloody rebellion in the Central African Republic of Congo. Held under house arrest for four months, the McAllisters narrowly escaped death, but 19 of their friends and colleagues were not so fortunate. Now, 50 years on, 89-year-old Bob McAllister is making the 6,000-mile journey back into the heart of the Congo to remember those who died. This film follows Bob on that journey, and tells the story of how the McAllisters came to be in Congo, their arrest and sensational rescue.
In this documentary marking Burns Day, writer Andrew O'Hagan goes in search of the poet who inspired Robert Burns - Robert Fergusson. Fergusson died young, but his legacy was a love song to his native city, Edinburgh. Andrew tracks down his story in the streets and wynds of the Old Town. Fergusson's vivid use of Scots led Burns to declare him his 'forgotten hero' and to pay a lasting tribute to this neglected Scottish poet.
To mark the 100th anniversary of Keir Hardie's death, Simon Vaughan looks at the life of the Labour Party's founding father.
Documentary musical set in a school in Dharavi, the biggest slum in Asia. A combination of music, dance and observational footage, following five children in their daily lives.
Documentary compilation of short films selected from the BBC Three talent search website, Fresh online. Fresh online invited people to send in their films about what it's like to be young in the UK today. Over 300 films were uploaded covering a massive range of topics from dance, music and sport to identity, politics and mental health - with 90 films making it onto the website. Director Angela Russell has chosen clips from 50 of these, and interviewed some of the film-makers, to create a rich and inspiring picture of young Britain today.
With many Londoners now spending half their earnings on renting in the capital, Mark Jordan lifts the lid on this cut-throat world. He exposes the squalor, revenge evictions and soaring costs now facing the Generation Renters priced out of the housing market.
Three million girls are at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) across Africa every year and, believe it or not, a further 65,000 are at risk here in the UK. In this documentary, Zawe Ashton leads a hard-hitting investigation to uncover the truth about FGM in the UK and abroad, meeting courageous women fighting to end the practice along the way.
The sisters are truly doing it for themselves in this celebration of the legendary female singers whose raw emotional vocal styles touched the hearts of followers worldwide. Featuring the effortless sounds of Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight, Randy Crawford, Angie Stone, Mary J Blige and Beyonce, to name a few. The Queens of Soul presents the critically acclaimed and influential female singers who, decade by decade, changed the world one note at a time.
Gripping documentary that goes on a nerve-tingling ride with one of the greatest film stars of all time. In 1970, Steve McQueen set out to make 'the ultimate racing movie'. It would be called Le Mans. He would lose his marriage, close friendships and control of his film, and risk lives in the process. This is a story of obsession, betrayal and vindication, as a superstar risked everything in the pursuit of his dream.
Over the course of six short films, Simon Armitage goes behind the scenes of some of his most famous poems to help viewers understand and visualise the building blocks that create them. These captivating films provide great insights for teachers and students alike.
Stacey Dooley goes behind closed doors and speaks to the now younger face of domestic violence. She questions victims and abusers to try and understand how deep the issues surrounding domestic abuse are for those who have survived and those currently experiencing the abuse. Stacey joins the Lancashire police as they deal with their 9,000 domestic abuse cases per year, as well as getting exclusive access to the national centre of domestic violence and their frontline order server, as he comes face to face with abusers. Every 60 seconds the British police receive a 999 call to a domestic violent incident. Although constantly in the news, abuse within intimate relationships is often kept secret. Many people believe it only happens to older, married women, but girls aged 16 to 24 are as, if not more, likely to experience violence from their boyfriends than their adult counterparts. With one in four women in the UK suffering abuse from their partner or ex-partner in their lifetime, and one in six men in the UK having experienced domestic abuse, Stacey wants to find out whether there's any way to break the cycle of violence. She visits one of the few perpetrator reform programmes in the UK, and gets to quiz the home secretary Theresa May in a rare interview.
Written and narrated by the late Gerry Anderson, this documentary feature film is a beautiful portrait of what Gerry Anderson coined 'Stroke City'. A series of personal and intimate recollections of a city and its people. A story that weaves its way through half a century of history during a time that saw the city rise from poverty and neglect, to hitting the headlines across the world.
A celebration of the inimitable 'voice of golf' Peter Alliss, revealing the man behind the microphone. Renowned for his charismatic and unique style of commentary, Peter was also one of the top golfers of his era and has quietly raised millions for his wheelchair charity. There are anecdotes from the world of golf, celebrities and family members which give an insight into this charming, witty man. Contributors include Peter's wife Jackie, Tom Watson, Gary Lineker, Sir Terry Wogan, Chris Evans, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Darren Clarke, Jimmy Tarbuck, Gary Player, Hazel Irvine and Steve Rider. The programme is narrated by Sue Johnston. There is also a chance to relive top moments from Peter's popular programmes such as Pro-Celebrity Golf, A Round with Alliss and A Golfer's Travels. Alliss was a familiar figure on the BBC before setting the tone for golf commentary worldwide. His voice was iconic in the world of sports commentary, but then so was this golfer, broadcaster and gentleman.
Professor Iain Stewart reveals the story behind the Scottish physicist who was Einstein's hero; James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell's discoveries not only inspired Einstein, but they helped shape our modern world - allowing the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and much more. Despite this, he is largely unknown in his native land of Scotland. Scientist Iain Stewart sets out to change that, and to celebrate the life, work and legacy of the man dubbed 'Scotland's Forgotten Einstein'.
Premiership football is one of the most glamorous sports in the world, beamed to hundreds of millions worldwide and worth over £20 billion a year. But there's a darker element lurking close to the surface. In recent years football hooliganism has been a secret network of clashes between rival firms, planned well away from stadiums and CCTV. But last season things changed. Violence is now breaking out inside the ground, on our streets and even fighting on our transport network. Police claim arrests for disorder are down, but football's European governing body warns of a return to hooliganism's dark days. In this film we follow some of the most active youth firms in the country, home and away, to see just how far the rules of football hooliganism have changed.
In 1483, the 12-year-old King Edward V and his younger brother were put into the Tower of London by their uncle, Richard. Weeks later, Richard pronounced himself King. The boys were never seen again.
Surgical gender reassignment is now a near-commonplace procedure. But when this ‘science-fiction surgery’ arrived in the 1940s, it was a sensation.
The Scottish midge is a small beast with a big reputation. As one of the few flies in the British Isles that feed on human blood, it can cause havoc for anyone who has to live and work among them. But what makes some of us more attractive to the midge than others? On a journey around some of Scotland's midgier places, insect scientist Dr James Logan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explores the secret life of the midge to discover how best to cope with the terror of the Highlands and whether some of us might contain our own natural midge repellent.
Peter Wilkinson and his career beside the queen.
Tom Service takes a cinematic journey through Russia on the trail of the wondrous yet melancholic melodies of Russian giant Sergei Rachmaninoff. A celebration of a composer's musical triumph over critical adversity and Soviet terror, with performances and contributions from Vladimir Ashkenazy, Denis Matsuev, Steven Isserlis, Stephen Hough, Vladimir Jurowski, Lucy Parham and James Rhodes.
In August 1942, a concert took place in Leningrad that defies belief. A year earlier, the Germans had begun the deadliest siege in history which would kill three quarters of a million civilians. In the midst of the terror, a group of starving musicians assembled to perform Shostakovich's 7th Symphony in what would become a defiant moment in the city's ultimate survival. Historian Amanda Vickery and BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom Service reveal the extraordinary story of triumph of the human spirit over unspeakable terror. Amanda shows how Leningrad was simultaneously persecuted by Stalin and Hitler, the 'twin monsters' of the 20th century. Meeting with siege survivors and uncovering diaries and photographs, she reveals the reality of life in Leningrad as it literally starved to death. Meanwhile, Tom explores the thin line walked by Dmitri Shostakovich as the composer came perilously close to becoming a victim of Stalin's paranoia, and reveals how, as Leningrad starved, his 7th Symphony was performed around the world, uniting audiences against a common enemy before finally returning to the city. Shot entirely on location in St Petersburg, the story is interwoven with excerpts of the symphony performed specially by the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich, the composer's son.
This timely one-off documentary follows the story of the restoration of a forgotten and dilapidated burial ground for 27 Muslim soldiers who gave their lives fighting for Britain in two world wars. Shot over three years, the film shows the struggle of two understated pioneers - Zafar Iqbal, a Muslim from Woking Borough Council, and Elizabeth Cuttle, a local Surrey history enthusiast - as they battle to get this small plot of land restored and recogonised as a symbol of an important and largely unknown part of British history. Using archive material and interviews with historians and surviving descendants, the film also reveals the stories of some of the Muslim soldiers once buried here, and through their experiences the history of the Muslim contribution to the British war effort in World War I unfolds. The film ends with the voices of modern Muslims who believe this shared narrative is one of the ways that prejudice and distrust of Islam in modern Britain might be overcome.
It has been said that this is the 'Age of Loneliness' and Britain was recently reported to be 'the loneliness capital of Europe'. This film by award-winning director Sue Bourne explores why the loneliness epidemic in Britain is affecting so many people of all ages with the problem so widespread and deep rooted that it is now seen as a major public health issue. Bourne travels the length and breadth of the country to find people brave enough to admit how lonely they are and go on camera and talk about how loneliness affects their lives. From Isobel, the 19-year-old student, Ben the divorcé, and Jaye the 40-year-old singleton, through to Olive, the 100-year-old who says she lives on 'lonely street', this film will strike a chord with many, many people. Each story in the film reveals the painful reality of loneliness, but these stories also offer hope because they also show how different people can and have alleviated their loneliness in some small, but hugely significant, way. Loneliness is a difficult subject to make a film about because no one really wants to admit they are lonely and, as a society, we are scared of being alone. But we are going to have to learn to deal with loneliness because more and more of us are now living alone and every year the numbers are rising. Loneliness is something we have to look at and understand better. This film could be the first important step in that process.
In the early 1970s Hollywood actor Jerry Lewis started working on a Holocaust film so bizarre he ended up hiding all the footage. In this programme comedian David Schneider discovers exclusive unseen material from the film.
1964 saw the birth of a very British institution. Spanning over four decades, Top of the Pops has produced many classic moments in pop culture. Digging deep within the darkest depths of the BBC's archive, this compilation offers some memorable performances from 1964 through to 1975 from the likes of the Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Status Quo, Procol Harum, Stevie Wonder, Queen and the Kinks, and opens the vintage vaults to rare performances from Stealers Wheel, Julie Driscoll, Peter Sarstedt and the Seekers. So sit back and witness once again where music met television.
Enter the world of luxury through the eyes of the planners and suppliers who help the super rich spend their money. High-end event planners Sophie and Charlotte are launching a new venture at a stately home - a kids' Christmas party with real reindeer, a unicorn, balloons that cost £50 a pop and a cake worth £10,000. Vintage watch dealer Tom travels to Geneva for the world's top watch auction to learn whether his prized timepiece is worth the quarter of a million he wants for it. Personal stylist Daniel is in Mayfair to meet a client who, in just 10 minutes, signs off on several hundred thousand pounds of gifts.
A revealing new look at the abdication crisis of 1936 through the eyes of the two women at its very heart. In a series of dramatised monologues set in 1967, Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Wallis Simpson look back at the dramatic events which led to King Edward VIII giving up the throne for the woman he loved. Combining drama reconstructions, archive footage and a chorus of acquaintances and biographers, Royal Wives at War returns to the some of the original words and opinions of the two women at the heart of that battle and unravels the story of a frosty relationship between the Queen Mother and Wallis that lasted for decades.
For some of the UK's biggest companies, paying corporation tax seems to be optional. Using devilishly complicated - but completely legal - accounting techniques, they can run rings around HMRC. Now, the small businesses of one Welsh town are fighting back. The local traders of Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons are embarking on a mission to copy the techniques used by their multinational rivals, and to set up a DIY tax avoidance scheme of their very own. Presented by Heydon Prowse, co-presenter of BBC Three's The Revolution Will Be Televised, this film follows the owner of the local coffee shop, clothing stores, smokery, optician and bookshop of on their offshore mission. It is a journey that will take them to secretive tax havens, smart tax lawyers and even force a showdown with the taxman himself. Can they crack the secrets of the big tax avoiders and level the playing field for the small guy?
A special programme on the life and music of David Bowie, presented by Jeremy Vine. Bowie was one of the most influential musicians of his time, constantly re-inventing his persona and sound, from the 1960s hippy of Space Oddity, through Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke to his later incarnation as a soulful rocker.
Following the court verdict, which saw more members of the gang responsible for Britain's biggest ever burglary convicted, this is the full, inside story of how they nearly pulled off Easter 2015's £14 million record-breaking heist. With exclusive access to the elite Flying Squad and their dramatic investigation, including remarkable covert surveillance of the thieves boasting at what they'd done and the moment loot was discovered hidden in a cemetery, this is the definitive story of the Hatton Garden heist.
David Attenborough tells the story of the discovery and reconstruction in Argentina of the world's largest-known dinosaur, a brand new species of titanosaur. Measuring 37m long - close to four London buses put end to end - and weighing 70 metric tons, it now holds the record as the biggest animal ever to walk the Earth. In 2014, a shepherd spotted the tip of a gigantic fossil bone sticking out of a rock in La Flecha Farm in the Chubut Province in the Argentinian desert. Palaeontologists soon uncovered a massive 2.4m long (femur) thigh bone, the largest ever found. By the end of the dig they had uncovered more than 220 bones. As the programme reveals, these all belong to a new species of the giant plant-eating titanosaur. Filmed over the next two years, the documentary follows the twists and turns of this forensic investigation. Attenborough witnesses the uncovering and examination of these stupendous fossils and the dramatic construction of the complete skeleton. And using state-of-the-art graphics, the film also reveals the internal secrets of this dinosaur and what it means to be a giant.
A teenage boy is targeted by an online predator after befriending him while gaming. Murder Games tells the true story of Breck Bednar, a 14-year-old schoolboy who was lured to his death after being groomed online by Lewis Daynes. For the first time, in this gripping docudrama Breck's young gaming friends have decided to tell their story - a tale of manipulation and deceit which engulfed their friend and sent shockwaves through the gaming community. The programme also follows Breck's parents and siblings as they struggle to come to terms with their son's murder, and hears from investigators tasked with piecing together the crime - working backwards from a chilling 999 call.
It is 1939 and Europe is on the brink of war. Hitler has invaded Czechoslovakia, threatening the lives of the Jewish population. Nicholas Winton, a young British stockbroker, decides he will do everything possible to save the lives of as many Jewish children as he can. This film, transmitting on Holocaust Memorial Day, tells the extraordinary story of how Nicholas Winton rescued 669 children from the clutches of the Nazis, bringing them by train to Britain. In order to provide a degree of credibility with both the British and Nazi governments of the day, Nicholas single-handedly established the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia - Children's Section, using it to obtain passports and visas for the children. He then organised for each child to be adopted by families throughout the country and their safe passage across Europe and into Britain. For nearly fifty years, Nicholas told no-one of his heroic deeds. His incredible story might never have come to light were it not for his wife who, fifty years later, found a suitcase in the attic containing a remarkable scrapbook full of documents and transport plans. The story then emerged in 1988 when the BBC's That's Life programme reunited over two dozen of his 'children' with their rescuer for the first time in a highly emotional broadcast. Featuring Nicholas's final film interview before his death last year aged 106, dramatic reconstruction of events and the testimonies of the rescued children.
An entertaining and insightful look at the modern-day entrepreneurs behind Britain's black market - and the dogged investigators out to get them. Director Max Shapira gains unique access into the lives of these characters as they use their wit and charm to try and make a living under the radar, away from the prying eye of the authorities. The film features fast-talking veteran tout of 35 years, Slim, who hopes to make a killing during the Rugby World Cup, former slick ad man-turned-tobacco smuggler Mark as he runs the gauntlet of Dover's customs officers, market trader Eric, busted for selling fake football shirts not long ago and put on tag, and partner Mary, purveyors of Smell-a-Like perfumes. On the other side of the chase, we ride along with ex-cop Graham, who runs Britain's premier anti-counterfeiting agency, and Trading Standards officer Lee, leading raids against shops selling dodgy fags across East Sussex, clad in her stab vest and armed with her trusty handbag.
Documentary in which actor and presenter Adam Pearson explores the world of freak shows and meets people who use their medical conditions to educate, entertain and make money. Adam has neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that causes non-cancerous tumours called fibromas to grow along his nerve endings. Whilst these can grow anywhere, most of Adam's have grown on his face, causing severe disfigurement. Adam has been called 'monster', 'freak' and 'Elephant Man' because of his similarity to Joseph Merrick - one of the most famous freak show performers in history. It's a name he despises and something he has tried to distance himself from, even avoiding watching the film, but he was inspired to make this programme after being approached to work with a famous American freak show. To find out if his concerns regarding exploitation are true, Adam travels to America and spends time with travelling freak show 999 Eyes, meeting its most famous 'born freaks', Black Scorpion and Vlad Vendetta. He travels to Mexico to meet world-famous performer Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves, who is known onstage as Wolf Boy due to a condition that causes excess hair to grow on his face. Adam also meets people from modern-day freak shows such as actor Mat Fraser, who starred in the cult TV series American Horror Story: Freak Show. Will spending time with the performers change Adam's viewpoint, and could he be closer to the Elephant Man than he ever thought? Will he be inspired to take to the stage and put on his first one-man freak show?
A compelling documentary following top motorcycle road racer Ryan Farquhar, who retired from competitive racing following the tragic death of his uncle, Trevor Ferguson, in a crash at the Manx GP. Within 18 months Ryan was back on the bike again, competing at the highest level while managing his own road-racing team and building their bikes in his garage.
The Cayman Islands. It is a Caribbean paradise of sun, sea and cocktails, but there is something else going on. Big money, big corporations... and seemingly no one paying a penny of tax. Now Jacques Peretti travels to Cayman in search of the truth about this controversial British tax haven, and uncovers some shocking revelations for what this sun-drenched island means for everyone back in Britain. Jacques meets the politicians, playboys and ex-pats on the islands in a bid to unravel the truth about a place with the population of Bognor Regis... but a trillion pounds in the bank!
Ian Fraser Kilmister, a.k.a. Lemmy & Motörhead frontman/songwriter is credited with introducing punk sounds into the heavy metal mix, paving the way for a generation of thrash metal and speed metal followers. Lemmy was a one-off who walked it like he talked it and while he embodied the rock n roll lifestyle up until his recent death, his influence as a musician and songwriter should not be underestimated. This programme offers Lemmy's own overview of his journey through interviews he gave for various BBC documentaries including Metal Britannia and features material never previously broadcast, along with classic Motörhead Top of the Pops' studio performances to celebrate one of rock music's most charismatic frontmen who helped pioneer hard rock and heavy metal.
Bill McCue was a TV star in the 70s and 80s and one of the founding singers with Scottish Opera. With his powerful bass voice and endless enthusiasm for all things Scottish, Bill introduced many a Scot to the songs of Robert Burns. As a teenager, his daughter Kirsteen felt that Robert Burns was an unwanted intrusion into her life: 'Burns was on such a pedestal in our house, it almost put me off'. Now a professor at Glasgow University and a leading expert on Burns, Kirsteen has changed her tune. With Karine Polwart, Jamie MacDougall and rare archive footage.
Throughout their artistic career, Jake and Dinos Chapman have returned again and again to a single artwork by the great Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. The Disasters of War are a set of 83 etchings that offer a harrowing account of the atrocities of the Peninsular War (1807-14), but for Jake Chapman they are much more than a matter of historical record. They have provided the inspiration for countless Chapman Brothers artworks across more than two decades, from model recreations and 'rectified' prints to shop mannequins and full-scale sculptures in bronze, some of which were nominated for the Turner Prize. In this film, Jake explores why Goya's famous etching series is so central to his art. He re-examines his relationship to the Spanish artist by visiting Goya's hometown Zaragoza for the first time, and by spending time at the Prado in Madrid where some of Goya's greatest works hang on the walls. As Jake works on a new 'Disasters of War' model in his London studio, he explains why for him there is a fundamental conflict at the heart of Goya's art - in their gruesome detail his images seem to celebrate violence rather than protest against it. Jake explores this contradiction that art history has chosen to ignore, and explains how it tells us something profound about the way we see ourselves and our past.
Patrick Kielty's journey to find the truth about William Mulholland, the man who provided water for Los Angeles. Patrick's family are water men - from his great-grandfather to his father, they all worked for the water company in Northern Ireland. Water runs in his veins, along with gin on a Sunday night. Nowadays his second home is Los Angeles, so he was surprised to discover that the man who gave LA its water, and hence made the city we know today possible, was from Belfast. That man was William Mulholland, and this is Patrick's journey to find out why no-one has really heard of him.
High-profile beauty vlogger Em Ford was a victim of online abuse and fought back. Now she targets the alarming rise of online abuse in Britain by trying to track down the trolls responsible. With the help of technology journalist David McClelland, Em investigates this very modern menace. She is on a mission to put a face to these anonymous bullies and to confront them with their victims. In its most extreme form, trolling is a criminal offence - one that is being increasingly pursued by the British police - but anonymity remains a major barrier to conviction. The film investigates online anonymity and proves that it is possible to track down a troll. It shines a light on the real-world impact of online bullying and encourages cyber-victims to put a stop to the hatred levelled at them by standing up to their trolls. Trolling is a phenomenon that has swept across the web in recent years. On a daily basis, an audience of millions sits back and witnesses the ultimate humiliation of civilians and celebrities alike on social networking sites. Opponents say it is the internet equivalent of assault, while supporters argue it is about humour, mischief and freedom of speech. In any case, trolling has escalated to levels so severe that some victims are succumbing to anxiety, depression and, in the very worst cases, suicide. Ultimately, Troll Hunters is here to name, shame and lay down the law to Britain's worst offenders and to unpick the psychology of what makes a troll tick.
Tom Service presents 40 years of great BBC archive featuring the French composer, conductor and musical icon Pierre Boulez, who died on 5th January 2016 at the age of 90. Opinionated and challenging, Boulez transformed the way that musicians and audiences all over the world think about contemporary music. With orchestras including the BBC Symphony, he rehearses and performs Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartok, as well as a selection of his own extraordinary compositions. Boulez's relationship with the BBC began in the 1960s and blossomed during his years as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra - leaving a vivid legacy in the BBC's TV archive.
As YouTube celebrates its tenth birthday, vloggers now sell out stadiums and have fanbases boy bands would kill for. Jim Chapman, himself a superstar vlogger with quarter of a billion views of his videos, takes us behind the scenes of the biggest vloggers on the planet. Jim meets Tyler Oakley, whose vlogs have earned him an audience with President Obama. He hangs out with Ingrid Nilsen, whose 'coming out' video drew an audience of twelve million and hears from her viewers about the impact it has had on them. He visits Alfie Deyes, who is now immortalised in wax in Madame Tussaud's alongside his vlogging girlfriend Zoella. We hear from KSI about how a vlogger from Watford was named by Variety magazine as more influential than Taylor Swift, and from Joe Sugg, whose new movie became the fastest selling DVD on Amazon. Jim investigates just how powerful vlogs can be to legions of fans and how vlogging is being used for everything from sex education to supporting those with mental health conditions. He also investigates the darker side of vlogging, from inappropriate interactions with young fans to prank videos that lead to abuse. Jim asks just what makes vlogging so popular, and where its future lies.
Of all the dangers Elizabeth I had to survive - the Spanish Armada, a Catholic continent plotting against her incessantly, restless nobles uneasy at serving a queen who refused to marry - none was so personally intense as her rivalry with another woman - her cousin and fellow queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. This was her longest, most gruelling battle - lasting over two decades, it threatened to tear apart both Elizabeth and her kingdom. In the end, it would force her to make the hardest decision of her life. The two queens stared across the ultimate divides of their time: Protestant and Catholic, Tudor and Stuart, English and Scottish. Their fascination with one another grew into the greatest queenly face-off in our entire history. And yet, in 26 years of mutual obsession, they never actually met. Their confrontation was carried out through letters - a war of words so heartfelt and revealing that the two queens' passions can still be felt. For the first time on television, this chronicle of love turned to hatred, of trust betrayed by plot and bloodshed, is dramatised purely from the original words of the two queens and their courtiers. Expert historians examine, interpret and argue over the monarchs' motives for their 'duel to the death' - for in the end only one queen could survive such emotional combat.
Documentary which opens a window on the bizarre community of e-sports that has been almost invisible to the outside world up to now. Three young British gamers at different stages of their careers all have dreams of reaching the very top. The overnight sensation from Tottenham - gamers' name KaSing - lives in Berlin, playing in one of Europe's top teams. His 20-year-old former teammate Matt, nicknamed Impaler, is having a crisis of confidence about his once-flourishing career. And the 17-year-old hopeful Greensheep is struggling to break through on to the big stage. Over a summer of competition, we follow these three in training, at school, and at the enormous tournaments where they pit their skills against elite gamers from all over the world. Competition is fierce, and those at the top in team games need to practise for up to 12 hours a day - living together, eating together and training together in houses paid for by multinational sponsors. The film is presented by YouTube star and gaming addict Dan Howell, who's watched gaming change from a hobby into a mass spectator sport watched by millions around the world. He knew about the incredible keyboard dexterity of these gamers, but on his travels around Europe he tries to understand the risks and sacrifices they've made to reach the top of their chosen profession.
Tyger Drew-Honey has never really experienced virtual reality. But all that is about to change. With high-spec virtual reality headsets expected to become widely available within the next few months, Tyger explores how they could change everything - from how we meet up with our friends to the way we have sex. He experiences one of the most successful virtual worlds and has his own lifelike avatar created. And he meets the man who makes robot sex dolls that you can programme via an app on your tablet to be the perfect partner. 'If you don't want her to be smart she won't be smart, if you want her to be shy she will be shy.'.
Over the last five years more than 100,000 British men have done webcam shows for money. Following the lives of four men, this documentary goes inside this multi-billon-pound global industry. Martyn works full-time as a webcam model, performing sex shows, often with his male friends, for anyone who's willing to pay. 'We never touch each other. We're just in the same room.' Martyn is only 22, but has been webcamming since he was 16 and dreams of building a webcam business that will make him rich. Joseph cams five nights a week from the comfort of a shed that his parents have refurbished especially for his online career. 'Webcamming has been very good for Joey's social life', explains his mother.
With astonishingly intimate and unique access, this film tells the dramatic, unfolding story of the demise of one of Britain's best-known charities and the ultimate fall from grace of its founder Camila Batmanghelidjh. Throughout a summer of accusations and allegations award-winning documentary director Lynn Alleway follows Camila at close quarters and witnesses first-hand her fight to save the charity she founded 19 years previously. As filming begins it isn't yet public knowledge that the charity is teetering on the edge of insolvency and that the government is demanding that Camila stands down as CEO. Lynn films inside Kids Company HQ as the story breaks and the charity finds itself hitting the headlines on a daily basis. As allegations of mismanagement and money being misspent mount, Camila stands firm, resisting moves to downsize and make staff redundant, and she vows to fight on and save the charity. The film addresses questions about what really happened to Kids Company. The director shifts from confidante to interrogator, bringing an emotional resonance to a familiar news story. But while the charity is no more, those in need have not gone away. As for Camila, she remains defiant - she is down, but not out.
The latest estimates show that the number of young people in the UK who experience homelessness every year is over three times the official figures (1) and (2). In this thought-provoking new BBC Three documentary, Professor Green - aka Stephen Manderson - sets out to discover the modern face of homelessness in the UK, aiming to change our perceptions of who the young homeless are while exploring the harsh reality of their lives. With recent UK-based statistics showing that more than half of those seeking help with homelessness are under 25 (3), Stephen investigates this pressing issue which is affecting young people in greater numbers. But what do we recognise as homeless today? From the streets of Manchester, where rough sleeping has shockingly doubled in the last year (4), Stephen spends time with a 21 year-old man who has already fallen through the cracks in the system. Yet homelessness is not always so visible to society, as Stephen finds when he meets others trapped in the cycle of temporary hostel life and sofa surfing. On this eye-opening journey he’ll uncover a generation of people without access to normal society or a future - and ask whether rising levels of youth homelessness could bring us dangerously close a national epidemic. (1) Over 80,000 young people experience homelessness every year in the UK (2) Homelessness statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government (3) 52 percent of those seeking help with homelessness are under 25 (4) In Manchester rough sleeping has doubled in the last year
Made in partnership with The Open University, How To Die: Simon’s Choice tells the poignant story of one man facing the unimaginable decision of whether to end his life at a suicide clinic. "I thought they'd be indifferent to the timing of my demise,” says Simon Binner in this observational documentary about his life and eventual death. “I was so wrong.” Simon, whose story went public and became the subject of media attention following his death last year, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of motor neurone disease in January 2015 and given just two years to live. After telling his loved ones that he was considering ending his life at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, Simon and his family and friends grapple with huge moral, emotional and legal dilemmas around his choice. As this moving film shows, their conflicting perspectives mean that his heart wrenching decision lies in the balance until the very end. In a British television first, the documentary gains access to Switzerland’s second largest assisted suicide clinic, the Eternal Spirit centre, where Simon initially makes an appointment to end his life on a set date - his birthday. Simon’s final moments were filmed by medical professionals at the clinic, who are legally required to record their patients’ final decision to take the lethal dose. This has been included within the film, however it does not show the moment of death.
Cardiff Sixth Form College opens its doors to reveal the secrets behind staying on top of the independent schools' league table. Set up just ten years ago, it's the brainchild of 32-year-old self-confessed 'Tiger Mum' Yasmin, who blends Eastern and Western approaches to education, and adds her own brand of passion and discipline. But how will she deal with disgruntled students when she increases the length of the school day? And there's a difficult decision to be made when a desperate scholarship student doesn't make the grade. Showing as part of How Wales Works.
Showing as part of How Wales Works. Some children just don't fit into school life - so where do they go to learn? The programme follows the lives of the students whose daily routine is very different from school.
It was 1985. Guns N' Roses were soon to be known as the last mammoth rock entity to come out of LA after selling over 100 million albums. Jon Brewer brings alive never-before-seen video footage of Guns N' Roses in their earliest days as a fledgling band, filmed and meticulously archived over the years by their close friend. They became known as 'the most dangerous band in the world' and retained the title for reasons this film portrays, via interviews with band members and those who were there on, and off, tour. Venture down seedy Sunset Strip to the Whiskey, the Rainbow and the Roxy, all known as 'the Jungle'.
Ten years since Stephen Fry’s The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive started a national conversation about mental health, The Not So Secret Life Of the Manic Depressive: 10 Years On looks at the experiences of Stephen and others with bipolar (as it is now called) now. As a society, do we need to do more for those with the illness? Is the treatment better? Has the stigma reduced? In the new film we see how different people of all ages deal with bipolar: we meet Alika, whose manic episode on the London Underground became a YouTube sensation - damning evidence that the stigma of mental illness isn’t diminishing quickly enough; Scott, who is battling to hold down his job as a chef and his role as a husband and father, but whose early attempts to control his bipolar with medication caused intolerable side-effects; and Rachel, whose first manic episode at age 19 led to life-changing injuries when she believed she could fly, leaving her in a wheelchair. And we return to meet Cordelia who featured in the original series, an academic high-achiever struggling to find a place for herself in the world. Now in her 30s, Cordelia is still battling with bipolar so powerful that it eclipses even the cancer she is dying from. Interviews with Stephen Fry give a privileged insight into what living with bipolar really means: he talks about the time he attempted suicide when he was filming in Uganda in 2012; how his busy lifestyle exacerbates his condition and the moment he realised his condition couldn't be cured, but only managed. Stephen is now the president of Mind. Looking at the changes of the past decade, he finds cause for optimism in the increased awareness of bipolar, especially among the young. And the film gives a powerful insight into what it meant to live with bipolar in the past, what it means in the present and - most significantly for the contributors - in the future.
In this 1x30’ film for BBC Four, artist and entrepreneur Sam Roddick, founder of Coco de Mer, explores the enduring appeal of a Renaissance masterpiece: Botticelli’s Birth Of Venus. A joyous celebration of female sexuality, its journey to worldwide fame was far from straightforward and it lay in obscurity for centuries.
My Baby, Psychosis And Me reveals the frightening rollercoaster journey of two mums, for whom childbirth triggers Postpartum Psychosis, one of the most severe forms of mental illness there is, but from which there can be recovery with the right treatment. It is a condition most expectant mothers and their families have never heard of, but it affect around one in every 500 women who give birth. The sudden onset of a psychotic episode causes new mothers to be overwhelmed by extreme low or high moods, strange and dangerous thoughts, paranoia, delusions such as the belief that they have given birth to Jesus or the devil. This is the untold story of what it means to battle this terrifying condition. Filmed over six months, we closely follow the intense experiences of two women, Jenny and Hannah, and their families, as they are cared for at Winchester’s Mother And Baby Unit. Behind the closed doors of this specialist psychiatric ward, Dr Alain Gregoire and his expert team give women the care and intensive treatment needed to bring them back to recovery. While psychosis is the most severe form of mental distress psychiatrists see, with the right medication and psychological support most women can return home within six weeks. And round-the-clock support with childcare enables mums and their babies to stay together, rather than face a damaging separation. From the bedroom to the nursery, the hospital theatre to the psychiatrist’s chair, we see the most personal moments of motherhood and mental illness play out for Jenny and Hannah, as Dr Gregoire and his team face two of the most challenging cases they’ve experienced. But in one respect Jenny and Hannah are fortunate - they have access to the expert treatment they desperately need. With a severe shortage of specialist psychiatric care for mums-to-be and new mothers, it’s a postcode lottery whether women get the expert help they urgently need.
Highly sought-after British model Neelam Gill takes viewers on a Private View of the Vogue 100: A Century Of Style showcase at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition will celebrate 100 years of cutting edge fashion, beauty and portrait photography by British Vogue, and Neelam, the first British-Indian model to be cast by leading fashion brands, will take the audience on an exclusive tour of the collection.
Annabel's has long been the playground for the rich and famous, and now its story comes to life in this 50-year history of the most celebrated nightclub in the world. Renowned for its discretion, and as a haunt of some of our greatest celebrities, the film offers a hitherto unseen glimpse into the rarefied worlds behind the doors of 44 Berkeley Square. As London's very first members-only nightclub, Annabel's remains the only nightclub visited by the Queen, and once courted infamy for refusing entry to the Beatles. The documentary provides a cultural biopsy of London since the Second World War, and the club's history from inception through to the present day.
Who is the man behind Inspector Montalbano? An intimate portrait of acclaimed Italian novelist Andrea Camilleri gives us access to the man himself, his work and personal history, including Camilleri's undying attachment to his native Sicily. In Italian with English subtitles.
Shanghai is one of the biggest cities in the world and is rapidly expanding, but has it hung on to its culinary roots? Rick Stein wants to find out. 'We all love a Chinese - the sweet and the sour, the freshness, the crunchiness, the colours, the smell of five spice and soy. I'll be finding the pockets of traditional food still left in this city - the dishes that the Shanghainese long for away from home. I'm going to taste rich red braised pork, Chairman Mao's favourite, the city's cherished hairy crabs and mouthwatering dumplings, unique to Shanghai, so delicate they sag under the weight of the hot liquid inside and burst at the lightest touch. And I want to add a few more dishes to your Chinese repertoire. I'm going to share my favourite Shanghainese dishes from this trip. If, like me, you thought you knew Chinese food, you're in for a surprise.'.
Set in the North Pennines, an intimate portrait of a year in the life of tenant hill farmers Tom and Kay Hutchinson as they try to breed the perfect sheep. Through the sun, rain, sleet and snow, we watch the Hutchinsons toil away against the stark, stunning landscapes of north east England and witness the hard work it takes just to survive. Their three young children are growing up close to the land, attending the local primary school entirely comprised of farmers' children, all thoroughly immersed in their remote rural world. While the odds often seem stacked against them, the film conveys the importance of a balanced family life and the good humour that binds this tight-knit community together. An entertaining and subtle reminder of how important farming is to the economy and the social fabric of our communities. Following your passion does have its rewards, although not always financial. Beautifully observed, this heartwarming film provides an insight into the past, present and future of a way of life far removed from the high-tech hustle and bustle of modern life.
Twenty years after the Docklands bomb exploded in London, this film tells the dramatic story of the IRA operation to end its ceasefire and how the security forces in London and Northern Ireland tracked down the bombers. When US President Bill Clinton visited Northern Ireland in November 1995, there was a celebration of peace on the streets. But, unknown to him, on the same day the IRA was already planning the attack that would end its 17-month ceasefire. Against the backdrop of an extraordinary political climate and knife-edge road to peace, The Docklands Bomb: Executing Peace unpacks the events that led to the bombing and follows the trail that led police to the South Armagh team behind it.
They criss-cross Scotland going into places where others fear to tread, an all-girl extreme cleaning team led by Marie Fagan and her best friend Lesley. Running your own business isn't easy and as Marie struggles to keep her business alive, the pressure is on her daughter Rhiannon to step up to the mark and become a Grime Scene Queen.
In Cologne, large numbers of women reported being sexually assaulted and robbed on New Year's Eve by groups of men described as of North African or Arab in appearance. Stacey Dooley travels to the city to investigate the fall-out of these attacks. She gets to the heart of both the pro- and anti-immigrant protests which have broken out in the city since the attacks, but are activists just jumping on the bandwagon to further their political agenda?
A film about the sound of Australian rock and the emergence of one of the world's greatest rock bands - AC/DC, or Acca Dacca as they are known in Australia, and the legendary music company, Albert Music (Alberts) that helped launched them on to the global rock scene. Through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Alberts created a house of hits in Australia that literally changed the sound of Australian popular music. It started with the Easybeats and their international hit Friday On My Mind back in the 60s. In the 1970s when Australia was in the midst of a deep recession, a rough and ready pub rock sound emerged, characterised by bands like Rose Tattoo who were promoted by family-run company, Alberts. The raw power and fat guitar sound that characterised Aussie rock was pioneered by the Alberts and took Australia and the world by storm.
Ireland's Treasures Uncovered tells the story of the iconic Irish artefacts that have helped to shape and create modern Ireland, both north and south. The programme reveals the surprising tales behind treasures such as the Tara Broach, the Broighter Hoard, the Waterford Charter Roll and others, revealing new stories behind the artefacts that we thought we knew. It also reveals the most recent astounding finds that are adding to the list of Ireland's Treasures. Using key access to Ireland's two largest museums, in Belfast and Dublin, the programme brings together archaeologists and curators who have spent their lives working to understand the true context for these emblematic treasures.
In this up-to-date and extended version of the original programme, we catch up with the extraordinary Rowena Kincaid - young, beautiful, exceedingly funny and terminally ill. Prepare for more heartwarming revelations, side-splitting laughter and heartache as she finally reveals what's really on her bucket list and then fights against time and her illness to try to achieve it.
Going under the knife - or the needle - to improve our looks is no longer solely the preserve of Hollywood stars. This film gives a remarkable insight into what is now a huge part of everyday life in modern Scotland - the mission to stay forever young. Our cameras have been given exclusive access to follow the doctor and patients at one of Scotland's busiest cosmetic medicine clinics - we will seek to discover just why Scots are flocking to get botox, fillers and facelifts, and will meet the everyday people fuelling this multimillion-pound industry.
Film about the pop culture phenomenon that is Daft Punk, the duo with 12 million albums sold worldwide and seven Grammy awards. Throughout their career Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have always resisted compromise and the established codes of show business. They have remained determined to maintain control of every link in the chain of their creative process. In the era of globalisation and social networks, they rarely speak in public and neither do they show their faces on TV. This documentary explores this unprecedented cultural revolution, revealing two artists on a permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom. Between fiction and reality, magic and secret, future and reinvention, theatricality and humility, The Robots have built a unique world. The film combines rare archive footage as well as exclusive interviews with their closest collaborators who talk about their work with Daft Punk, including Pharrell Williams, Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers and Michel Gondry.
This documentary film follows the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling, 19th-century English writer and a Noble Prize-winner. Patrick Hennessey travels to Lahore to reassess Kipling's adventures and their impact on his literature.
As spokesman for America’s busiest execution chamber, Larry Fitzgerald’s job was to witness every execution carried out by the state of Texas. He became notorious for his appearances on television, during which he detailed the final moments of the condemned. Over the course of his career, Larry watched as 219 people were put to death. The Man Who Witnessed 219 Executions follows Larry as he comes to terms with the emotional impact of watching death on an industrial scale. Originally an unapologetic supporter of the death penalty, Larry’s views changed over time. As he watched the executions of men he’d become friends with during their years on death row, Larry started to have doubts about capital punishment – and began to believe that many of those condemned to die deserved a second chance.
With unparalleled access to Pompeii and featuring cutting-edge modern technology, Mary Beard guides us through this amazing slice of the ancient world. For the first time ever, CT scanning and x-ray equipment bring new light to the secrets of the victims of the 79 AD eruption. Mary unpacks the human stories behind the tragic figures - gladiators, slaves, businesswomen and children. She goes behind the scenes of the Great Pompeii Project, where restoration teams have gradually removed the layers of time and deterioration from the frescoes and mosaics of houses closed to the public for decades. And with the help of point-cloud scanning technology, Pompeii is seen and explained like never before. Mary has unprecedented access to hidden storerooms and archaeological labs packed to the hilt with items from daily life: plumbing fittings, pottery, paint pots, foodstuff and fishing nets. As she pieces it all together, Mary presents a film that is a celebratory and unique view of life in this extraordinary town.
David Owen Norris takes us on a journey through 60 years of BBC archive to showcase some of the greatest names in the history of the piano. From the groundbreaking BBC studio recitals of Benno Moiseiwitsch, Solomon and Myra Hess in the 1950s, through the legendary concerts of Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein to more recent performances including Alfred Brendel, Mitsuko Uchida and Stephen Hough, David celebrates some of the greatest players in a pianistic tradition which goes back to Franz Liszt in the 19th century. Filmed at the Cobbe Collection, Hatchlands Park.
Investigative journalist Darragh MacIntyre (pictured) exposes the reality of modern-day slavery and exploitation in Britain. From our factories and food producers, our carwashes and nail bars this one-off current affairs documentary lifts the lid on how exploited workers are embedded in parts of our economy. In Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, Darragh hears from one of the Hungarians trafficked to work at Kozee Sleep, a bed factory which supplied to major high street retailers. He reveals how the workers were promised a good job but were paid as little as £10 a week and forced to live in slum-type conditions. The film reveals how people are exploited up and down the country, from the fishing industry in Scotland to the car washes in London. And shockingly, it reveals that this problem not only affects migrants from Europe and other parts of the world - but also people from the UK. Darragh speaks to a vulnerable British man who was abducted off the streets, taken to a South Wales farm and forced to work unpaid for 13 years. The context and scale of modern-day slavery is outlined by Kevin Hyland, the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The Police, outreach workers, and psychologists explain how these exploited people are controlled and are often too scared to even think of escaping. The programme comes just as the National Crime Agency reveals that the number of suspected victims identified here has risen by 40 percent in just one year. Officials believe that the increase is down to better enforcement, but others worry it might be because of ever increasing exploitation.
We follow the Flying Scotsman, the world's most famous steam engine, as it returns to the tracks following a ten-year restoration which cost more than £4 million. We climb on board and join the celebrations as the 93-year-old engine sets off on its inaugural run from Kings Cross Station in London, pulling a train-load of enthusiasts and supporters 200 miles north on the mainline to York and the engine's home at the National Railway Museum.
Chris and Xand van Tulleken - doctors, part-time aid workers and twin brothers - want to see for themselves what conditions are like for migrants fleeing through Europe at the height of winter. They travel to Lesbos in Greece, through the Balkans and on to Berlin and Calais to understand what's being done on a medical and humanitarian level in response to the refugee crisis. Spending time with medics, charities and volunteers in camps and clinics, at border crossings and transit points, they find out what the situation is like on the ground and, wherever possible, lend a hand in the biggest migration crisis of our times.
'I call it the shooting, because, well... I was shot', Amy Hutchison, survivor. On 13 March 1996, a gunman walked into a primary school in the small Scottish town of Dunblane near Stirling, and shot dead 16 pupils and their teacher in a Primary 1 gym class. To date, it is one of the deadliest firearms atrocities in the UK. In a landmark film to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, 'Dunblane: Our Story' interviews many people who have never before talked publicly about what happened on that day. It features, for the first time, testimony from a survivor who was shot as a five-year-old and who details her own terrifying experience that no child should endure. Other interviewees include Ron Taylor, the headmaster of Dunblane Primary School at the time of the shootings, Debbie Mayor, the daughter of Gwen Mayor, the primary teacher who was shot dead, and two young women from separate families who talk about the sisters they never knew and the gap it has left in their lives. Other contributors include parents of the survivors and the deceased. Between them, they construct a powerful exploration of whether time can heal all wounds and love can triumph over evil.
People who are sexually aroused by disability are known as devotees. This ground breaking documentary investigates the secret world of disabled fetishes and devotee porn. Wheelchair user Emily Yates meets people who are turned on by amputated limbs, wheelchairs and leg braces; she even makes her own “porn” video to see their reactions. Emily also hears about the dark side and comes to understand just how sinister the world of devoteeism can be from disabled people who’ve fallen victim to online predators.
Violinist Nicola Benedetti explores 60 years of BBC archive to celebrate the world of the violin and its most outstanding performers. From Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman and Isaac Stern to Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and Nigel Kennedy, Nicola gives us a violinist's perspective on what makes a great performance in a tradition which stretches back to the 19th-century virtuoso Paganini. Filmed at the Royal Academy of Music Museum, London.
With unprecedented access to the Thames Valley Police domestic abuse teams and the victims of violence they are helping, this documentary gives an insight into the most common violent crime to take place in the home. Shot over 12 months, and starting from the moment a 999 call is received, the film follows three brave women who each waive their right to anonymity to show how insidious and terrifying domestic abuse can be. The complex emotions involved when someone you love becomes violent are also exposed, as are the difficulties for police when those feelings mean victims are not completely honest. The film also exposes the lack of consistency in terms of the length of sentence given to offenders. When the police repeatedly take one perpetrator to court only to have magistrates release him again and again, the film demonstrates how the huge ordeal of going to court for these victims of domestic abuse does not mean that, in their eyes, justice will automatically follow.
Documentary. Eight years as mayor of London have turned Boris Johnson into the bookmakers' favourite to be the next prime minister. Jo Coburn takes a behind-the-scenes look at how he did it and asks if the capital has done as well out of the arrangement as its mayor.
Live from Westminster Abbey in London, Her Majesty the Queen is joined by senior members of the royal family to lead a service of celebration for Commonwealth Day. Presented by Mishal Husain, the service features a live music performance by Ellie Goulding and a contribution from Kofi Annan.
Lansbury Park in Caerphilly is officially Wales's most deprived estate. We follow a group of women as they fight to improve their lives and rid the estate of its unenviable reputation.
Filmed over a year by Fran Robertson, this one-off follows homeowners and council tenants on the West Hendon estate in Barnet as they fight to save their houses and avoid eviction due to impending redevelopment. The estate was built in the 1960s to provide housing for families on low incomes, but now the local council have deemed that the buildings are beyond repair and, in partnership with private developers, the estate is being demolished to make way for a multi-million-pound regeneration which will transform the area into a luxury housing development - leading to uncertainty and stress for the long-term residents.
A rare and compelling glimpse of life on the frontline in war-torn Syria from a grandmother who is living amongst the ruins of Aleppo. Week In Week Out follows her daughter thousands of miles as she tries to rescue her. Will they get a visa and make it to Wales?
In a deeply personal film, writer and comedian Brendan O'Carroll, star of Mrs Brown's Boys, tells the story of the Irish Easter Rising. A hundred years ago, in Easter week 1916, 1,600 Irish rebels took over the centre of Dublin. Despite overwhelming odds, the rebels held out against the forces of the British Empire for six days until they were shelled into submission. Three of those rebels were Brendan's uncles. Now, on the centenary of the revolt, Brendan tells the dramatic story of the Rising and looks into the part his family played in it. He explores how the Rising, though a complete military failure, sent shock waves through the British Empire and signalled the birth of today's Republic of Ireland.
Back in January, Jo Brand embarked on a seven-day challenge to walk 135 from east to west across the country - and cameras followed her every step of the way. The comedian took on the challenge to inspire all overweight, middle-aged women across the nation - as well as raise money for Sport Relief 2016. Starting out on the Humber Bridge with the aim of reaching Liverpool within seven days, she was tested physically and mentally as she battled extreme cold, gale force winds and torrential rain. But she still found time to share a joke or two with Alan Davies, Lee Mack, Bill Bailey, John Bishop, Gabby Logan and Davina McCall, who joined her on various days.
Across Britain transgender women are competing in a pageant with a difference. Over 40 women will battle it out to be crowned the UK’s first Miss Transgender. But they’re not just fighting for first place, they're battling to be accepted as the women they were born to be. Fed up of living in the shadows and determined to take centre stage, we follow three contestants on their extraordinary personal journeys, exploring what it’s really like to be young and transgender in Britain today.
Fifty years of performances from guitarist John Williams that takes in classical masterworks, the prog rock of Sky and comedy with Eric Sykes, as well as duets with Julian Bream.
Robbie Savage on what can go wrong on the platforms used by billions. The programme speaks to a student who has shared x-rated pictures and hears how people are risking their lives for a like or a retweet.
Professor Robert Beckford looks at how immigration, radical social action, conservative morality and charismatic worship are all transforming the face of the faith and asks what that might mean for the future in an increasingly secular society.
Swansea Sparkle is the biggest transgender event in Wales - an event that is staged in the traditional heavy-industry city of Swansea. The programme follows three people from the transgender community as they overcome personal challenges in the lead-up to the event and explores themes of gender and identity. With a mix of ages and backgrounds, including the steel industry, they challenge perceptions about trans people, but also about the modern society in which we live. Will the city embrace the occasion? And are Welsh transgender people ready to stand up and be counted?
Materialist scientist Professor Mark Miodownik challenges two-Michelin-star chef Marcus Wareing to the ultimate cookery competition. Over the course of 90 minutes they cook up some of the nation's best-loved dishes, from starter to dessert, in a head-to-head contest to see who can create the most flavoursome food. Marcus has flair, passion, and experience, while Mark an understanding of cooking at the molecular level and access to state-of-the-art technology. Ultimately the question they will try to answer is this: is cooking a science or an art?
Hayley Pearce - lovable yet outspoken tea lady from BBC Three's Call Centre - is addicted to spray-tanning. And she's not alone. Nearly half of Welsh women and a third of Welsh men have self-tanned in the last 12 months. What's behind the triumph of the tan, and could there be a dark side to tanning? Hayley examines the rise in extreme tanning - 'tanorexia' - meeting tanning addicts, tanning experts and celebrity spray tanners. She investigates the illegal ways to fake it, visiting a science lab to learn just how toxic these unregulated products can be. And in a bid to understand the nature of her own addiction, Hayley attempts to forgo the glow and embrace the pale. It will be the first time she'll be her natural colour for over ten years, but how long can she last without her beloved spray tan?
Reverend Kate Bottley re-opens the case against the Bible's greatest villain, Judas Iscariot. In Jerusalem she visits the places associated with his betrayal and death and asks: can Judas be forgiven?
Every parent wants the best for their kids, and Shahzad is no exception. Ever since his wife died he’s been trying to keep his two kids Salma and Hassan on track. Salma is growing up quickly, and Shahzad wants to make sure she’s set up with the right guy to settle down with. It’s a promise he made his wife, and part of what he considers his duty as a dad. But what does Salma want? Unbeknown to Shahzad, she’s caught up in a whirlwind romance with charismatic charmer Imi. Salma knows Imi is not what her dad is expecting, but can she find a way to make everyone happy? A hard-hitting drama with a devastating finale, Murdered by My Father is a story about the power and the limits of love in communities where ‘honour’ means everything.
This warm, witty and entertaining documentary meets the pet dogs with the character and class to compete in the final of Scruffts, Crufts' competition for crossbreeds.
Documentary following Alan Gifford, who is being given the chance to receive a state of the art £30,000 bionic hand after having had his hands removed at the age of three.
This eye-opening film goes behind the scenes at two head shops in Portsmouth – businesses selling powerful legal highs, in bright packets. From cocaine substitutes 'Blow' and 'Rush', to the zombifying effects of 'Spice', these over-the-counter highs have changed the face of the local drug scenes across the country. But now, with a radical new blanket ban due to come into force, it looks like its game over for Britain’s 335 head shops. This film follows the owner Peter as he rushes to clear his stock; the users as they prepare to cope without their legal fix; and the inventor of the drugs, the elusive chemist Dr Zee, as he scrambles to figure out a way around the new law. Will the new law stamp out this trade, or just drive it underground?
BBC Chief Athletics Commentator Steve Cram, himself a former track and field athlete, goes behind-the-scenes at the IAAF to quiz president Sebastian Coe about recent controversies that have plagued the governing body. Since taking over as the the organisation's head in August last year, Cram's one-time rival Coe has witnessed his sport bear the brunt of damaging headlines, from doping scandals to allegations of widespread corruption, and here he identifies what he intends to do to stop the cheats, clean up the sport and win back the trust of the public.
Martha Kearney is joined by author Helen Oyeyemi and journalist Lucy Mangan to mark the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth by exploring the life and times of the author and her siblings Emily and Anne. Travelling to the Haworth Parsonage in West Yorkshire, the trio discover how just two years before their most famous novels were published in 1847, the sisters' prospects were bleak. Charlotte was in love with a married man, their clergyman father Patrick was going blind, and their brother, Branwell, was battling alcoholism. However, by 1848, Charlotte, Emily and Anne were literary sensations, and Martha, Helen and Lucy immerse themselves in the personal lives of the sisters to find out how this happened.
This extraordinary documentary brings to life the paradox of Janis Joplin - both insecure and brazen, with interviews from old band members, unseen audio and video, plus readings from Janis's letters home to her parents. It offers new understanding of a bright, complex woman whose surprising rise and sudden demise changed music forever. Janis Joplin is one of the most revered singers of all time. She thrilled millions of listeners with her powerful, soulful voice and blazed new creative trails before her death in 1971 at the age of 27. The film includes some of her most iconic performances which embodied the musical and cultural revolution of the 1960s. Yet her onstage bravado and uninhibited sexual persona hid hurt and insecurity stemming from her childhood in conservative Texas. On relocating to San Francisco and discovering the blues, Janis found an outlet for her loneliness and fell into a community that would embrace and celebrate her talent. Show less
An exploration of the BBC's long love affair with the lives and works of the Bronte sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne. For over half a century, the ill-fated literary dynasty has proved irresistible to drama and documentary makers alike, keen to reinvent their novels for new audiences. So we get Bronte heroines reimagined for each emerging generation, first as classic 1950s housewife material, then wild child '60s 'chicks', Gothic waifs and, finally, empowered modern women. The Bronte males, meanwhile, are restyled as assorted prigs, wife-beaters, even brooding prog rockers and, of course, wouldn't you know it, new men. Wonderful stuff.
Tim Rhys-Evans shares his personal experience of mental illness in this one-off documentary. A few years ago Tim's career was on a high - his choir Only Men Aloud won Last Choir Standing, they signed a major record deal and Tim was awarded an MBE by the Queen. But internally he was struggling to survive - he had a serious mental health crisis and had to rebuild his life. In this moving and heartfelt film, Tim reveals what happened to him with the aim of helping others going through similar experiences.
Eddie Izzard pushes his body and sense of humour to the limit for Sport Relief as he takes on an immense challenge - travelling to South Africa to run 27 marathons in 27 days to mark the 27 years that his hero Nelson Mandela spent in prison. It is a gruelling, uplifting and hilarious journey through baking heat, high roads and hospitals - but can Eddie make it to the final finish line?
BBC Newsline Special. Coverage of the commemorations in Dublin marking 100 years of the Easter Rising.
Liam Neeson narrates an account of the Dublin Easter uprising of 1916 as seen through Irish eyes. Using archival narratives of the participants, together with contributions from academics from the US, Ireland and Britain, the film puts the uprising into the context of hundreds of years of Anglo-Irish history, reveals the rebellion as its participants experienced it, and assesses its tragic cost in lives, both civilian and military, then, and in the decades that followed.
A champion of the Irish language, he founded the Gaelic League, an organisation which aimed to encourage the use of Irish in everyday life, in 1893. He was a founding member of the Irish Volunteers, a group that played a major role in the Easter Rising, in 1913 and became its chief of staff. But, he has gone down in history as the man who tried to stop the Easter Rising.
A warm and heartfelt observational documentary looking at lives lived on a shoestring in the Welsh Valleys. In one of the poorest parts of Britain, people still find ways to get what they want and to live their dreams. 34-year-old Maria is doing everything she can to find a job and keep her head above water as a single mum with a mountain of debt. Sue, a carpenter by trade, struggles to keep the bailiffs at bay while trying to find a way to give her daughters a holiday to remember. And Julie, burdened with a weight problem and a family tragedy, turns to local weight loss guru Linda to help her deal with both. While many Valleys residents are living a hand-to-mouth existence, some businesses are thriving. Linda's slimming class does a roaring trade in this obesity hotspot while pawnbroker David turns a tidy profit off the back of other people's need.
Every parent wants the best for their kids, and Shahzad is no exception. Ever since his wife died he’s been trying to keep his two kids Salma and Hassan on track. Salma is growing up quickly, and Shahzad wants to make sure she’s set up with the right guy to settle down with. It’s a promise he made his wife, and part of what he considers his duty as a dad. But what does Salma want? Unbeknown to Shahzad, she’s caught up in a whirlwind romance with charismatic charmer Imi. Salma knows Imi is not what her dad is expecting, but can she find a way to make everyone happy? A hard-hitting drama with a devastating finale, Murdered by My Father is a story about the power and the limits of love in communities where ‘honour’ means everything.
Connie Fisher won't go out without make-up. For her and many women in Wales, putting on her face is part of her daily routine. The average woman spends two years of her life putting on an estimated £12,000 worth of cosmetics. Connie asks why she and countless other women do it - and who they are doing it for. Is it to find a mate, is it insecurity or is it pressure from society? While Connie investigates women's commitment to make-up, a group of football boys find out how hard it is to put on the perfect mascara.
Welsh teenagers are among the first generation to be bombarded daily by digital images of 'perfect' bodies and lifestyles on social media. Illnesses like anorexia and body dysmorphia are on the rise, and more Welsh teenagers than ever before need support for mental health problems. Body image has never been more important and more misunderstood. Teenagers have instant access to a global selection of role models, but it's impossible to compete with the 'perfect' bodies and 'glamorous' lives on show.
Tom Service presents a tribute to the provocative composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who died in March at the age of 81. Extraordinary performances and documentary from the BBC's television archive that follow Max's journey from his radical origins as an Angry Young Man in the 1950s to his later life and work on his adopted home in the Orkney Islands and his surprise appointment as Master of the Queen's Music in 2004. With performances by the Fires of London, the Sixteen and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In 1916, at the height of WW1, armed insurgents rose up against the British in Dublin, the empire's second city. Using secret documents, cabinet papers, intelligence reports, military orders, diaries and letters, Michael Portillo pieces together the story of this uprising from the British point of view. Was Dublin just another battle at a time of war where military justice was immediate and brutal or, by their actions, did the British men who wrote these documents hasten the end of an empire? Did an unlikely band of Irish rebels, led by playwrights and poets, do more to advance the cause of Irish freedom in five days than nationalist politicians had done in the previous 50 years, or did they damage the cause and condemn the island to a history of violence? Michael looks for the answers. This is the story of Ireland's Easter Rising as told by British politicians, soldiers, spies and bureaucrats.
Dan Snow uncovers the lost Vikings in America with space archaeologist Dr Sarah Parcak. Sarah uses satellites 383 miles above the earth to spot ruins as small as 30cm buried beneath the surface. As Sarah searches for Viking sites from Britain to America, Dan explores how they voyaged thousands of miles when most ships never left the shoreline. He also tracks their expansion west, first as raiders and then as settlers and traders throughout Britain and beyond to Iceland and Greenland. In North America they excavate what could be the most westerly Viking settlement ever discovered.
Musician and advocate Bob Geldof examines the life and work of one of the 20th century's greatest poets, William Butler Yeats. Geldof argues that as a poet and statesman, at the vanguard of a cultural revolution, Yeats brought about immense change in Ireland's struggle for independence, without firing a bullet. Written by Geldof and Roy Foster, this incisive and moving documentary features readings by Bill Nighy, Van Morrison, Richard E Grant, Colin Farrell, Bono, Edna O'Brien, Ardal O'Hanlon, Noel Gallagher and Liam Neeson.
An entertaining, provocative film in which Ian explores the colourful history behind one of the most explosive issues of our times - welfare: who deserves to be helped, and who doesn't. With his customary mix of light touch and intelligence, Ian tells the stories of five individuals whose Victorian attitudes remain incredibly resonant, inspiring some revealing interviews. Iain Duncan Smith is visibly moved when describing the lack of aspiration he has encountered as minister in charge of benefits, Deirdre Kelly, also known as 'White Dee' from Benefits Street, gets on famously with Ian, teasing him for being middle class, and Owen Jones and Tristram Hunt MP provide illuminating food for thought on the questions that still haunt us. Pioneer of the workhouse Edwin Chadwick feared that hand-outs would lead to scrounging and sought to make sure that workers were always better off than the unemployed. That sounds fair - but was his solution simply too unkind? James Greenwood, Britain's first undercover reporter, made poverty a cause celebre through sensational journalism - but is the media voyeuristic when it comes to reporting on those on benefits? Helen Bosanquet, an early social worker, believed that poverty was caused by 'bad character'. Are some people genuinely more deserving than others? Bosanquet came to blows with Beatrice Webb, whose economic explanations for the causes of poverty led her to argue for the first foundations of a welfare state. Finally, even if we want to be generous, are there limits on how much we can afford to help? That question faced Margaret Bondfield, Britain's first female cabinet minister, who, despite her own working-class trade unionist credentials, controversially ended up advocating cuts at a time of national austerity.
This original and compelling documentary depicts one father’s long-term struggle with heroin addiction, told through the uniquely intimate perspective of his own son. After years of acrimony and estrangement, young film-maker Phillip Wood seeks out his father to try and understand what’s happened to him. But his father is now seriously ill and over the next few months Phillip’s visits force both to confront some uncomfortable truths about their past. Developed from Philip’s graduation film – Chasing Dad offers a strikingly stark exploration into a subject that significantly affected his childhood. This intimate, revealing documentary will show addiction from a different side and challenge our assumptions about how families can rebuild their broken relationships.
Landmark documentary telling the story of those who stood up and broke their silence about sexual abuse, changing Britain forever. This is the definitive account of a national scandal, assembling an unprecedented range of voices, from the survivors and their friends and family to the professionals who led reform of some of the country's biggest institutions. Through candid and revealing testimony, the film not only explores the devastating long-term effects of abuse, it celebrates the extraordinary resilience and spirit of ordinary British people. In 2012 Britain was shaken by horrific revelations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile, abuse that had gone unchecked for decades. Thousands of people came forward to talk about their own experiences - many for the first time - and the shocking scale of abuse was revealed. It reached far beyond Savile and into the very heart of British society. Some of those victims speak publicly for the first time about the consequence of abuse in their relationships and in their families. Alongside those survivors, this film brings together for the first time the professionals at the very heart of the story: the journalists who met the first victims of Savile to speak publicly, the police commander of Operation Yewtree who would uncover the shocking scale of his crimes, the former director of public prosecution who was forced to accept mistakes made by the CPS and overhaul the way it dealt with abuse cases, and the charities who were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people coming forward. These multiple perspectives build into a gripping account of how secrets and silence took hold of British society but in the end couldn't stand in the way of people's need to tell the truth.
Lepht is a 'transhumanist', someone who wants to improve the quality of human life through technology. Over the last eight years she has performed 50 surgical procedures to implant microchips into her body, including inserting magnets into her fingertips. We follow Lepht on her latest quest: upgrading a microchip in her hand so she can make contactless payments. Is Lepht's so-called 'biohacking' paving the way for future human integrated technology, or is it simply futile self-harm?
Penelope Keith looks into the BBC's secret dealings with some of the 20th century's most intriguing figures, including Winston Churchill, Tony Hancock and Alec Guinness.
Welcome to Sunseeker, Britain's biggest superyacht builder who has been hand-building customised boats for the world's super rich for the past 50 years. For the first time ever, they have allowed the BBC behind the scenes of their extraordinary production line in Poole and into the rarefied world of the multi-millionaire's favourite plaything. The company built their reputation on making small to mid-size yachts, but the recession saw this market flounder as even the super-rich tightened their belts, seeing Sunseeker sink into the red. So in a high stakes move, they're sinking millions into building a larger opulent superyacht to reel in the uber-rich who still have cash to splash on life's ultimate luxuries to help sail them back into profit. The film follows the build of a new £20m, forty-metre superyacht and their most challenging specification to date when a customer takes full advantage of their made to measure service and asks for more extras than any other yacht in the history of the company. When it falls behind schedule we discover it's not all plain sailing when you're in the business of engineering luxury for the super-rich. Whilst the Poole shipyard works hard to meet the customer's exacting standards, the London sales team are working just as hard to fill the order book during the all-important Boat Show season where they hope to sell over £40m worth of boats in just thirty days. Every boat is built in Poole but is found basking in the international playgrounds of the rich and famous and, filming across the summer season, we also hop on board the charter side of the business to meet the people paying £60,000 for just a week's holiday.
Unlike the 60s, says Tom Jones as he recalls his teenage years in Pontypridd, South Wales, people who lived through the 50s can usually remember them. Many of those interviewed in this enjoyably nostalgic documentary – including the Shadows’ rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch, broadcaster Joan Bakewell and journalist Michele Hanson – agree the early postwar years were grey, boring and flat. But what they experienced during this decade, whether it was American films, music, TV shows such as The Six Five Special, teddy-boy fashion or just being a teenager, excited and shaped them all. “I was 15 when rock ’n’ roll kicked in – perfect!” says Jones. It’s a glorious reminder of the cultural changes of the 50s. About this programme Former The Voice UK coach Tom Jones fronts the first of four retrospective documentaries in which celebrated musicians look back at the decades that defined them. For Tom, that decade is the 1950s, the era following the austerity of the Second World War that saw a boom in popular culture, which swept aside the old order and ushered in a new era of entertainment. The veteran singer provides a first-hand guide to his formative years in a small mining community in South Wales, revealing how he - much like many people of his generation - turned to TV, movies, radio and music to find a voice for himself. Revisiting Treforest and Pontypridd, where he spent his childhood and teenage years, Tom recalls his joy when rationing finally ended, his encounter with American GIs stationed near his home, and the arrival of rock `n' roll and the `Teddy Boys'. Includes contributions by writers Joan Bakewell, Katherine Whitehorn and Michele Hanson, and historians Alwyn Turner, Dr Martin Johnes, Tony Russell and Francis Beckett.
Documentary exploring the history of five Hindu temples across Britain, tracing their stories and the spread of Hinduism in the UK. Featuring the elaborate rituals and the moving stories of Hindu worshippers, the film gives an insight into the sheer variety of Hindu beliefs across Britain. A story of protest and love, beauty and hope.
Stacey Dooley travels to Greece to follow children on the migrant trail, as they flee wars and seek new lives in Western Europe. From small toddlers travelling with families to unaccompanied teenagers journeying thousands of miles alone, Stacey witnesses their experiences first hand. During her trip, Greece closes its borders to migrants and Stacey sees the striking impact of this on the young and vulnerable.
Kirsty Young presents live coverage of Her Majesty the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations from Royal Windsor. Together with His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen embarks on a walkabout through the town to greet well-wishers, as she becomes the first reigning British monarch to celebrate this milestone. Kirsty is joined by a host of well-known faces to celebrate this very special day.
A unique celebration of the Queen's ninety years as she reaches her landmark birthday in April. Film-maker John Bridcut has been granted special access to the complete collection of Her Majesty's personal cine films, shot by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen herself, as well as by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Much of it has never been seen publicly before. Various members of the Royal Family are filmed watching this private footage and contributing their own personal insights and their memories of the woman they know both as a member of their own close family and as queen. Among those taking part are the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent and his sister Princess Alexandra, who has never before given an interview.
Documentary which celebrates, over the period covering the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 60s, the phenomenon of the Everly Brothers, arguably the greatest harmony duo the world has witnessed, who directly influenced the greatest and most successful bands of the 60s and 70s - the Beatles, the Stones, the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel to name but a few. Don and Phil Everly's love of music began as children, encouraged by their father Ike. Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil sang on Ike's early-morning radio shows in Iowa. After leaving school, the brothers moved to Nashville where, under the wing of Ike Everly's friend, the highly talented musician Chet Atkins, Don and Phil signed with Cadence Records. They exploded onto the music scene in 1957 with Bye Bye Love, written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. After Bye Bye Love came other hits, notably Wake Up Little Susie, followed by the worldwide smash hit All I Have to Do Is Dream and a long string of other great songs which also became hits. By 1960, however, the brothers were lured away from Cadence to Warner Bros with a $1,000,000 contract. Their biggest hit followed, the self-penned Cathy's Clown, which sold 8 million copies. Remaining at Warner Bros for most of the 60s, they had further success with Walk Right Back, So Sad and the King/Greenfield-penned track Crying in the Rain.
Documentary which recounts the story of Billy Fury and the birth of British popular music. His first album, The Sound of Fury (released in 1960), has become a landmark record in British rock 'n' roll history. Born in Liverpool during the Second World War, Ronnie Wycherley became an overnight sensation in 1958 when he was asked to go on stage and sing a couple of his self-penned songs by showbiz impresario Larry Parnes. Ronnie's knees shook with nerves, but over 2,000 screaming girls welcomed the new star of British rock 'n' roll and the headline in the local newspaper the following day was 'Dingle boy with a hot guitar'. With more Top 40 hits than the Beatles during the 1960s, Billy Fury's major hits included Halfway to Paradise, Wondrous Place, Jealousy, Last Night Was Made For Love and many more. Aged just 42, Billy died of heart failure after a recording session. But his fans have never forgotten him, and every year on the anniversary of his death they gather to pay their tributes at Mill Hill cemetery. Lord Puttnam sums up Fury's contribution to modern music in the programme by saying that, 'without Billy Fury, I honestly don't think the Beatles would have happened'.
From the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, hosts David Tennant and Catherine Tate are joined by Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Meera Syal, David Suchet, Rufus Wainwright, Tim Minchin, Gregory Porter, Joseph Fiennes, English National Opera, The Royal Ballet and Akala for a very special evening. Together, they mark the life and work of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death. This unique event takes place in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and celebrates Shakespeare's extraordinary legacy and his enduring influence on all performance art forms - from opera to jazz, dance to musicals.
Clemency Burton-Hill presents a profile of the violinist to celebrate his 100th birthday. She recalls her own experiences of being trained by him and retraces the key events and musical influences of his life, from his unusual childhood as a musical prodigy in California to his travels in Europe and Asia and drive to bring classical music to a mass audience. Featuring home movie footage and interviews with family, friends and fellow musicians, including a member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz who recalls seeing him play alongside Benjamin Britten.
The end of April marks the Jewish Passover festival, when Jews remember the Israelites escaping slavery in ancient Egypt. This documentary explores a much more recent phenomenon, the decision of 8,000 Jews to leave France in 2014, concerned about terror attacks and rising anti-Semitism in the country. We hear from the families most affected and explore the reasons behind the rise in anti-Semitism. With insight from those who live in the notorious Paris suburbs, often accused of being a breeding ground for anti-Semitism, and from Lassana Bathily, a Muslim from the suburbs who saved Jewish lives during the kosher supermarket attack in 2015. Many French Jews are coming to London, and one synagogue has been transformed recently by French arrivals, with their congregation in a few years becoming 90 per cent French. Is the climate for Jews any better in Britain?
1972 was the year a great affair ended, as the human race fell out of love with the moon. Just three years after the world was gripped by Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind, the last man left the moon and we have never been back. This film tells the epic story of our love affair with the moon - what inspired it, how it faded away and how we are now falling in love all over again.
As Sir David Attenborough turns 90, this intimate film presents new interviews, eye-opening behind-the-scenes footage and extraordinary clips from some of his most recent films. The doc, which was made for the occasion of Attenborough’s 90th birthday, was shot over seven years and follows him as he travels to Borneo, Morocco and the Galapagos to shoot wildlife specials. Geffen, the CEO of Atlantic Productions, commented, “This is such a special Attenborough film because unusually he is the subject. As I look back over the last seven years, I never fail to be amazed by his extraordinary ambition and drive to use the very latest technology to communicate the natural world to audiences around the globe. This film gives audiences the chance to see what it’s like to be on the road with David.”
Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.
On the 7th May 2016, Amir Khan will fight for the WBC Middleweight World title in Las Vegas. In between him and another world crown is one of the most exciting stars of the fight game, Saúl 'Canelo' Álvarez. Khan is very much the underdog but he’s a man who believes in himself. He believes he can overcome the odds and win.
For seven days in 1941, Hitler's Luftwaffe relentlessly bombed the strategically vital port of Liverpool. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the May Blitz, actor Les Dennis - who was born in the city - discovers amazing stories of survival and loss during the attack.
It's possibly one of the most denigrated inventions in the history of music; the greatest signifier of rock star pomposity. Indeed, in some quarters, the very mention of it is likely to provoke sniggering derision, conjuring up images of quadruple-gatefold album sleeves, songs that go on for weeks and straggly-haired rockers prattling on about mystical lands, unicorns, goblins and dystopian futures. But - back when people actually took the time to sit down and listen to records from beginning to end - for many, nothing delivered a more rewarding experience than the concept album. And for some, it's still a format that provides rock music with its high watermark moments. This documentary explores the history of a musical format - usually based around a structured narrative, though sometimes tied together by a loose theme - that developed to become the equivalent of rock 'n' roll theatre, often on an operatic scale. The legendary cape-wearing keyboardmeister Rick Wakeman - himself the creator of several of history's most, ahem, 'elaborate' long players - presents this insightful and playful exploration of the greatest examples of the art form. From social commentary to collected songs of loneliness, heartache and introspection, from tales of intergalactic rock stars to anthems of isolated youth, the film takes us on a journey - examining the roots of the concept album in its various forms, unpacking some of the most ambitious - and ridiculous - projects of the past fifty years, from Woody Guthrie's Dustbowl Ballads to Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes; the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds to George Clinton's Mothership Connection; The Wall by Pink Floyd to The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Some of the mavericks who made the maddest and most memorable big ideas happen are here to provide their own perspectives, including Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull); Laura Marling; George Clinton; Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips); J Willgoose Esq (Public Service Broadcasting
In celebration of his ninetieth birthday, Sir David Attenborough shares extraordinary highlights of his life and career with broadcaster Kirsty Young, including the inspiring people he has met, the extraordinary journeys he has made and the remarkable animal encounters he has had across the globe. Joined by colleagues and friends, including Michael Palin and Chris Packham, Sir David shares some of the unforgettable moments from his unparalleled career, from capturing unique animal behaviour for the first time to the fast-paced advances in wildlife filming technology, as well as stories of the wonder and fragility of the natural world - stories that Sir David has spent his life exploring and championing.
Documentary exploring Britain's worst stadium disaster, in which 96 people were killed and hundreds more injured. The tragic events of April 15, 1989, are recounted in depth, with personal testimony from survivors, family members and police officers, many of whom are speaking publicly for the first time. The programme also explores the aftermath of the tragedy, looking at the 27-year campaign for justice fought on behalf of those who died.
Luminous beings, creatures with their own internal light, enchant and astonish us. Anyone who has seen a firefly or a glow-worm cannot help but fall under their spell. The sea at night sparkles as millions of luminous plankton reveal the shapes of dolphins in a truly magical light show. But why do animals produce living light? For centuries we could only marvel at the beauty and the mystery, but now for the first time we can begin to reveal the amazing truth about living lights. It has taken three crucial technological breakthroughs. Firstly, colour cameras have improved dramatically; they are now over 4,000 times more sensitive than a decade ago. The cameras are so sensitive they are revealing startling discoveries that until now we could not see. Secondly, scientists have entered the unknown world of the boundless deep open ocean with the help of a new generation of submersibles and robots. Thirdly, Ammonite Films have invented and built a series of unique cameras that can capture the faintest ephemeral glow of luminous life. By combining these three innovations, this film shows creatures and behaviours never seen before. Sir David Attenborough is our guide as we venture into a new hitherto unseen world. Bioluminescence is everywhere: in the soil, on the land and throughout the oceans. Join Sir David Attenborough and a team of the world's leading scientists and deep sea explorers on a quest to reveal the secrets of living lights.
Leicester City's club ambassador Alan Birchenall tells the inside story of how the team incredibly became Premier League champions.
Comedy from Charlie Brooker starring Philomena Cunk, the witless commentator from Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe. Philomena knows absolutely nothing about Shakespeare, but that won't stop her attempting to present a groundbreaking documentary about him. Fresh from her triumphs on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe investigating time ('It'll always be an unknowable mystery, like how phones work' Winston Churchill ('Imagine how good his tweets would have been', and Donald Trump ('There's this amazing stuff on his head; it's not hair, it's like a sort of furry gas', Philomena Cunk has finally been given her own show - about William Shakespeare. Cunk will leave no stone unturned as she gets to the bottom of the Bard, visiting his birthplace, exploring the Globe, studying priceless artefacts and interviewing literally six different experts, including renowned actor Simon Russell Beale, Educating Yorkshire teacher Matthew Burton and top Shakespearean scholar Professor Stanley Wells. Shorter than Hamlet, funnier than King Lear and easier to spell than Cymbeline, Cunk On Shakespeare is absolutely the last word in Shakespeare documentaries.
A revealing portrait of our closest star - the sun. Responsible for all life on Earth, the sun has always been worshipped. In the Stone Age, monuments were built to its constancy and predictability. New ways of observing the sun are revealing another side to it - a dark and violent side of turbulent storms and huge explosions. As scientists learn to understand the forces that drive it, they are also trying to control its power. If we could harness the sun's power output for a single second it would supply the world's demands for the next million years. Narrated by Andrew Lincoln
Jack to a King is the incredible true story of Swansea City AFC's momentous journey from the lower rungs of league football to the mighty heights of the Premier League, the most watched league in the world. Acclaimed director Marc Evans presents this remarkable documentary film that recounts the unbelievable tale of how a 'rag tag' band of builders, housewives, teachers and travel agents came together to save their beloved football club and ended up turning their city into a worldwide brand. Through archive footage and intimate interviews, this is Swansea City AFC's incredible journey from the sale of the club for just £1 to their £90 million promotion to the Premier League - a heartwarming and captivating must-watch whether you're a fan of the beautiful game or not. This is a film about belief, about obsession, about loyalty, about people power, and about love.
The documentary looks into the prominent role played by three Ulster women in 20th century Irish history, especially the political and cultural revival movement.
There are now over 30 million dead people on Facebook, so what happens when we leave that digital representation of ourselves behind? This film delves into the explosion of ways in which to store, advance, digitise and personalise our very own digital legacies. From avatars and holograms, to androids and algorithms that can tweet on our behalf from beyond the grave. We are now no longer resting in peace, we are resting in pixels.
Gary Lineker presents a look back at the 2015/16 Premier League season, which saw Leicester City become unlikely league champions.
Filmmaker Dan Murdoch spent last summer documenting clashes between a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, and a growing Black Power movement. Now in a follow up to ‘KKK: The Fight for White Supremacy’ he returns to America to revisit some of the people he met from the KKK and also meet members of the Black Liberation Movement: to find out what black power means, what their motivations are and why their movement seems to be gaining traction. With rare access to members of the Black Liberation Movement, Murdoch quickly finds himself in the midst of an armed black militia, outraged at the treatment of black people at the hands of police, patrolling the streets of their communities and calling for change.
This powerful two part short-form documentary follows 25 year-old James Young as he tries to regain control of his body after a terrible accident - by becoming part Cyborg. Part 1 [14:28] Following his accident, the first short film sees James, an avid gamer, respond to an advert by gaming company Konami, who are looking for an amputee who is interested in wearing a futuristic prosthetic limb. Part 2 [16:28] After months of waiting, James receives his new arm and interest in the project with the media starts to grow; he is invited to be a key speaker in the first ever ‘Bodyhacking’ conference in Austin Texas.
Thanks to a recent remarkable discovery in the BBC's film vaults, the best of David Attenborough's early Zoo Quest adventures can now be seen as never before, in colour, and with it the remarkable story of how this pioneering television series was made. First broadcast in December 1954, Zoo Quest was one of the most popular television series of its time and launched the career of the young David Attenborough as a wildlife presenter. It completely changed how viewers saw the world, revealing wildlife and tribal communities that had never been filmed or even seen before. Broadcast ten years before colour television was seen in the UK, Zoo Quest was thought to have been filmed in black and white, until now. Using this extraordinary new-found colour film, together with new behind-the-scenes stories from David Attenborough and cameraman Charles Lagus, this special showcases the very best of Zoo Quest to West Africa, Zoo Quest to Guiana and Zoo Quest for a Dragon in stunning HD colour for the very first time.
Scotland witnessed the world's first true "oil rush", when inventor James "Paraffin" Young first refined lighting fuel from a shale rock known as "torbanite" in 1851. There followed more than a century of the shale oil industry, which employed thousands and whose fortunes ebbed and flowed with industrialisation and two world wars. Presented by geologist Professor Iain Stewart, this film tells the story of shale, its lasting impact on one Scottish community - West Lothian - and the massive and unique landmarks still visible today.
As the EU referendum debate approaches its climax, Jeremy Paxman takes viewers on a journey to the heart of Europe, meeting the movers, shakers and anonymous faces who run the EU. His central question is simple - has the UK given the power to rule it to Europe, and if so, does it matter? Meeting crucial figures like Michael Gove and Nick Clegg, he hears arguments on both sides, whilst also trying to understand just how the incredibly complex organisation operates. On his journey he struggles through the Parlamentarium (an EU museum that tries to explain the place), tries on a replica of Margaret Thatcher's famous EU jumper and samples the EU-regulated wares of the Portobello Road.
One record company has been a constant presence in popular music throughout our lives. EMI brought the Beatles to the world and in every decade since has been instrumental in producing some of Britain's most celebrated and enduring music. But behind the success lay a very British institution often at odds with the music it released. It had to come to terms with psychedelia, face punk head on and find huge sums of money to feed the excesses of the 1980s. Interviews with EMI artists including members of Queen, Pink Floyd, the Sex Pistols and Pet Shop Boys reveal how their demands for more and more control ultimately led to drastic changes at EMI. Former EMI employees share the gossip and goings-on in an industry infamous for its extravagance. The British music industry is world renowned. It has produced decades of memorable music that has reached all corners of the globe. EMI has always been at the forefront and has left an indelible mark on our culture forever.
With exclusive access to the magnificent liner and its extensive archive of film and photographs, the documentary explores the action-packed life of the Clyde-built ship: an epic journey through some of the most dynamic periods of the 20th century. Built with the blood and sweat of the master craftsmen of the Clydebank shipyards, she helped drag a nation from the depths of the great depression and set sail as a symbol of new hope and a better future. Leaving Southampton on the 27th of May 1936 her maiden voyage to New York set a new benchmark in transatlantic travel. Designed in peacetime to link the old world with the new, she ferried movie stars, politicians and royalty across the Atlantic, luxuriously cocooned in an art-deco floating palace. Then, in 1939, she was transformed to challenge the fury of the Nazis in the battle of the Atlantic. With a wartime record to rival that of the highest-ranking general, she carried whole armies through enemy-infested seas. Hitler offered a bonus of $250,000 and the Iron Cross to any U-boat captain who could sink the Queen Mary. When the war was over, the Queen Mary gave passage to thousands of British war brides and children who planned a new life in the New World. The Queen Mary was a great attraction to the rich and famous celebrities of the 50s and 60s. From an exclusive interview with singer Johnny Mathis, viewers will hear about what it was like to perform on the rough seas of the Atlantic. The liner continued in service until 1967 and is now a floating luxury hotel and museum docked in a custom-made lagoon in Long Beach, California.
BBC Three examines America’s recent upsurge in Islamophobia; meeting both Texan anti-Islam groups and American Muslims as tensions rise at some of America’s mosques. Award-winning director and producer Steph Atkinson asks how did America get here, and if the fears between these different groups are justified.
Sir David Jason presents Alfie's Boys, the story of how Sir Alf Ramsey built a team to win the World Cup in 1966. Sir David takes us back to the changing times of the sixties and sets the context for the one and only time England have been at the top of world football. He charts how and why Sir Alf picked the characters he wanted and his relationship with them as they bonded into a world-class side. Featuring unseen archive from the BBC vaults and anecdotes from Sir Bobby Charlton, Jack Charlton, Jimmy Greaves, George Cohen, Tina Moore, Harry Rednapp, Terry Venables, Sir Geoff Hurst, Gordon Banks and many other squad members, this is a definitive record of their great journey as a team.
A tribute to Jimmy Hill, who passed away in December 2015 having made a remarkable impact on football and football culture. His career was unique, taking in virtually every role in the sport, from the pitch to the dugout, the boardroom to the television studio. After retiring from playing, Hill became manager of Coventry City where he pioneered new ways of developing the club's image and its relationship with fans. He was similarly forward-thinking when he moved into influential roles in broadcasting and went on to become an iconic and long-running presenter of Match of the Day. But perhaps Hill's greatest legacy was his successful campaign to abolish the maximum wage, revolutionising the careers and prospects of footballers in the early 1960s and paving the way for the multimillionaire global stars of today. The programme features contributions from former footballers, managers, broadcasters and Hill's family
Cherry Healey and Simon Lycett tell the story of how the flowers we buy travel across the world via Aalsmeer Flower Auction in Holland to reach us every day in pristine condition. We reach for flowers to express our most fundamental human emotions - from passionate love to abject apology, joyful celebration of our mums or profound grief of a loved one. We relish our flowers so much, that this year we are predicated to spend £2.2 billion on treating ourselves and others to the prefect bouquet. World's Largest Flower Market, presented by Cherry Healey and Simon Lycett, florist to the Royal Palaces, tells the miraculous story of how the flowers we buy in our florists and supermarkets travel across the globe to reach us every day in pristine condition. We follow three of Britain's favourite flowers, the rose, the tulip and the lily during the busiest time of year, Mother's Day, via Aalsmeer Flower Auction in Holland and its nearby sister markets, which together make up the biggest flower market on earth. Affectionately dubbed 'The Wall Street of Flowers', almost 30 million flowers and plants arrive every day to be bought and sold in its high paced auctions with over £3 million changing hands daily. And away from the market, Simon and Cherry continue to explore the cut flower industry. Simon visits Kenya to find out where his beloved rose starts life. And Cherry meets a conscientious tulip breeder who has dedicated a staggering 25 years of his life to breeding stunning new varieties of tulips. It's an extraordinary story of incredible logistics - one in which science, technology and human ingenuity combine to meet the demands of a multibillion-pound industry built around something as romantic and ephemeral as a flower.
Often cited as one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, the opening notes of the fifth symphony are among the most recognisable in the history of music, but the inspiration behind it is less clear. Many believe that Beethoven was railing against fate and his deafness in this piece, which was composed in Vienna between 1804 and 1808. In this documentary Gardiner argues that the music features a little-known, radical message expressing Beethoven’s belief in the ideals of the French Revolution, and shows how his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique convey that message in their performance of the Fifth Symphony. To investigate Gardiner’s theory, Hislop visits the German city of Bonn, where Beethoven was born, raised and exposed to radical ideas, and Paris, where a new wave of composers were creating original compositions in a musical revolution that mirrored the political movement of the era. He also goes to Vienna, where the composer lived from 1792, visiting the apartment where he wrote the bulk of his Fifth Symphony and the Theater an der Wien, where the premiere of the work took place in 1808. This is part of the BBC’s Revolution & Romance - Soundtrack To The 19th Century season this May and June, exploring the surge of musical creativity and the key players to emerge during this seminal era of music, revealing the real inspiration behind Beethoven’s most famous work, and with complementary programming on BBC Radio 3 in Essential Classics.
Dan Snow, Shini Somara and Nick Hewitt investigate the events and the legacy of the largest naval battle of the First World War, the Battle of Jutland. Its 100th anniversary is commemorated in 2016. Both Britain and Germany claimed victory - but both sides suffered huge losses and the significance of the battle to the outcome of the war has been questioned ever since. Fresh evidence sheds new light not only on why so many died, but also on the importance of Jutland to the eventual triumph of the Allies..
Belfast's Forgotten Hero: HMS Caroline is the story of the last remaining ship from the Battle of Jutland, the largest sea battle in the First World War. One hundred years later, we follow Caroline's journey - from ageing relic to restored museum - as Belfast unveils its newest tourist attraction.
A&E doctor Javid Abdelmoneim is on a mission to find out the truth about alcohol. In January, the government released its new alcohol guidelines. For men, the recommended weekly limit was cut by a third to 14 units per week, equivalent to about seven pints of beer, bringing it in line with the amount recommended for women. So what is behind the change? This is just one question of many that Javid aims to answer as he explores the science of drinking and the new evidence for the health risks of alcohol. Why do some people get drunk quicker than others? What is behind red wine's healthy reputation? Is a nightcap actually good for your sleep? Does lining your stomach work? And can alcohol actually make you eat more?
Companion performance piece to episode 151 - The Secret of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
Two iconic British buildings are threatened with demolition and the intrepid Nick Broomfield is on the case. In a pair of documentaries, Broomfield profiles the Wellington Rooms in Liverpool and the Coal Exchange in Cardiff. The Wellington Rooms, built in 1815 by Edmund Aikin, was originally the social hub for the super-rich, slave traders, businessmen and the elite. The Prime Minister William Gladstone's family, themselves wealthy slave owners, invested heavily in this magnificent building with the most intricate detailing and proportions. A Wedgwood ceiling and sprung dance floor, with classical columns, create a building of love and light. Despite the depression in Liverpool's fortunes, it's a building that has brought enormous happiness to many different people over a couple of centuries. Countless people seem to have fallen in love and met their future partners in the assembly room. Now in a rundown state of faded glory, the question is - what to do with the Wellington Rooms? The Coal Exchange in Cardiff, built in 1883 by Edward Seward, is a magnificent celebration of the industry of coal and its immense wealth. A glass-ceilinged exchange room with galleries on three floors and a unique lowered floor are a remarkable monument to this time. Now in serious neglect, the whole building, the size of a city block, faces demolition. It signifies the serious lack of resourcefulness on the part of Cardiff Council to celebrate and regenerate not only this building but the whole area. The once great Butetown Docks and the magnificent buildings surrounding the Coal Exchange have also been allowed to crumble and disintegrate. Rather than redevelop the docks in a way that they have been so wonderfully done in Liverpool, the docks in Cardiff have been filled in. Magnificent warehouses have been torn down, and the whole history of coal and the uniqueness of this area have been almost obliterated.
As BBC Two premieres its lavish new period drama set in the sumptuous surroundings of Versailles, Lucy Worsley and Helen Castor tell the real-life stories behind one of the world's grandest buildings. They reveal in vivid detail the colourful world of sex, drama and intrigue that Louis XIV and his courtiers inhabited. As chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy Worsley untangles Louis XIV's complex world of court etiquette, fashion and feasting, while court politics expert Helen Castor delves into the archives and unpicks the Machiavellian world that Louis created. Our historians meet the real people behind the on-screen characters. They discover what drove Louis XIV to glorify his reign on a scale unmatched by any previous monarch, examine the tension between Louis and his only brother Philippe, an overt homosexual and battle hero, and they meet the coterie of women who competed for Louis's attention. As Lucy and Helen show, Louis XIV was ruthless in his pursuit of glory and succeeded in defeating his enemies. In his record-breaking 72-year reign, France became renowned for its culture and sophistication.
World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe meets up with her former Great Britain teammate Dame Kelly Holmes, who is running the London Marathon for the first time on April 24. In this special programme, Paula talks to the double Olympic champion about her life in athletics, her personal issues with depression and self-harming, their contrasting times at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the current problems in athletics - and why she is racing the 26.2 miles more than 10 years after retiring from full-time athletics. Show less
On the day the Hillsborough inquests reach their conclusion, this special BBC documentary follows the family of campaigner Anne Williams throughout the two-year process.
Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini. His travels take him to Rome, Milan, Genoa, the new town of Sabaudia and the vast military memorials of Redipuglia and Monte Grappa. When it comes to the buildings of the fascist era, Meades discovers a dictator who couldn't dictate, with Mussolini caught between the contending forces of modernism and a revivalism that harked back to ancient Rome. The result was a variety of styles that still influence architecture today. Along the way, Meades ponders on the nature of fascism, the influence of the Futurists, and Mussolini's love of a fancy uniform.
Documentary. Twenty years on from Euro 96, when football came home to England, Alan Shearer, the tournament's Golden Boot winner, meets former teammates such as Paul Gascoigne and Teddy Sheringham and then-manager Terry Venables to recount the national side's run to the semi-finals. In this deeply personal programme, Alan Shearer reflects on the defining moment in his England career. He meets with Barry Davies and John Motson as they recount their favourite moments, while Frank Skinner and David Baddiel talk to Alan about the making of the iconic Three Lions song and look back on the summer that defined football in the nineties.
This documentary gives viewers exclusive access to a clinic that promises to make your manhood wider and longer… at the cost of £7,000. Meet truck driver Leon, who is about to go under the knife for a second time to get an even bigger penis, something his girlfriend says is unnecessary. We also follow Michael, who believes he would have had more successful relationships if he’d been more confident about his body. That’s the reason why, at the ripe age of 64, he is about to put himself through penis extension surgery.
Lily Matthias's dream is to be an ice-skating star and to represent her country - ultimately at the Olympics. What that ambition means for her family is mum Lyndsey getting up at 4am six days a week to drive Lily to her training in Blackburn, and dad Wayne spending a fortune every month on lessons, ice time, costumes and competition fees. So strong is Lily's commitment to her training that she's dropped out of school to focus on it. It has been entirely her own decision. Her trainer Kathryn Hudson says she's the most motivated 11-year-old she knows but also warns that very few actually make it to the top. Whether Lily can make it will be put to the test at the UK's biggest competition of the year, the British Figure Skating Championships. But Lily faces tough competition from two 12-year-olds - Scot Mia Gallagher who trains six days a week, morning and night, and Genevieve Sommerville, the number one skater for her age group, who is already competing in the advanced novice category. This film follows the girls' preparation across autumn 2015 as they train towards the British championships and reveals why having an ice princess in the family comes at a price - not just the time spent ferrying the girls to practices at dawn but the huge financial costs and risk of injury involved in the world of competitive skating. If you have ever harboured even the slightest desire that your child had a special talent or serious sporting prowess, then this documentary may serve as a salutary reminder to be careful what you wish for!
With never-before-seen access to the most exciting heavyweight in boxing, Anthony Joshua gives us an exclusive insight into his life inside and outside the ring. Follow AJ throughout the days leading up to title fights, the people who are closest to him, and just what it takes to become a lean, mean, boxing machine.
Ahead of the EU referendum, Laura Kuenssberg examines the economic costs and benefits of EU membership. She talks to politicians and business leaders on both sides of the debate in a bid to find out what leaving could mean for trade and jobs, for red tape and people's livelihoods. Kuenssberg also looks at what the UK brings to the EU, and what it gets back, before hearing the views of the public on whether Britain is better off in or out.
As the inquest into the death of young soldier Cheryl James delivers its verdict, former soldiers who served alongside her at the notorious Deepcut barracks speak about life there - about a culture of bullying and physical and sexual abuse which has cast a shadow over the army for over two decades.
As the country gears up for the Euros, Colin Murphy and Jake O'Kane - who both hate football - attempt to understand what it's all about. It's simple - singing, collecting stuff and onesies. They meet fans and visit Paris to see what fans can expect when there.
Documentary in which Michael Sheen returns to Port Talbot to witness first-hand the impact that job losses at the steelworks is having on families.
Documentary telling the extraordinary story of Koko, the only 'talking' gorilla in the world, and her lifelong relationship with Penny Patterson. Project Koko started as a PhD project to teach sign language to a baby gorilla, but as Koko began to communicate with Penny, an intense bond formed between them. Penny has now been with Koko for over 40 years and claims Koko can reveal fresh insights into the workings of an animal's mind. Koko's unique life with Penny has been filmed every step of the way. Over 2,000 hours of footage chart the most dramatic moments - Penny's battle to keep Koko from being taken back to the zoo in which she was born, Penny's clash with academic critics who doubted her claims and the image of Koko mourning the death of her kitten. Penny believes that Koko has moved beyond simple language to express complex emotions - such as a longing for a baby gorilla of her own, and that the empathy she evokes in people changes their attitudes to all animals. This film explores what we can really learn from this extraordinary science experiment turned love affair. Does it tell us more about animals' emotions or our own?
With the EU Referendum approaching next week, Mishal Husain offers viewers an impartial insight into the effects of migration from other EU countries on the UK. Her report takes in everything from the impact on the British economy and jobs market, through to education, housing and the NHS. Experts from both sides of the in/out debate share their views on the subject, as Mishal assesses how concepts of national identity and visions of Britain's future look set to dictate how the public will vote on Thursday, June 23.
The Big EU Reality Check gets to the facts behind the claims in the EU referendum campaign.
Lucy Worsley traces the forgotten and fascinating story of the young Mozart's adventures in Georgian London. Arriving in 1764 as an eight-year-old boy, London held the promise of unrivalled musical opportunity. But in telling the telling the tale of Mozart's strange and unexpected encounters, Lucy reveals how life wasn't easy for the little boy in a big bustling city. With the demands of a royal performance, the humiliation of playing keyboard tricks in a London pub, a near fatal illness and finding himself heckled on the streets, it was a lot for a child to take. But London would prove pivotal, for it was here that the young Mozart made his musical breakthrough, blossoming from a precocious performer into a powerful new composer. Lucy reveals that it was on British soil that Mozart composed his first ever symphony and, with the help of a bespoke performance, she explores how Mozart's experiences in London inspired his colossal achievement. But what should have earned him rapturous applause and the highest acclaim ended in suspicion, intrigue and accusations of fraud.
Professor Green, aka Stephen Manderson, delves into the murky world of illegal dogs to investigate a worrying new trend. In the last decade, 27 people have been killed by dogs and hospitalisations have risen by 76%. But who is to blame? On a journey that takes him across the country, Stephen meets young men whose illegal dogs are trained to attack, the owner of a banned breed whose dog is facing a death sentence, the head of the Met Police Status Dog Unit, and the family of Jade Anderson, a 14-year-old girl killed in a tragic attack. Stephen asks whether the controversial Dangerous Dogs Act - which is 25 years old this year - is making things better or worse.
Britain is a nation of inventors and in back gardens all over the country people are building ingenious, eccentric and brilliantly bonkers creations. From jet-propelled shopping trolleys to breakfast-making machines, the only limit is the imagination and engineering knowhow. In this show, Sara Cox and award-winning architect Piers Taylor scour the country to find the very best backyard builders. They challenge three of them to put their skills to the test and create something truly spectacular in just ten weeks and with only £2,500. Sara and Piers then choose their favourite to win the competition. The three backyard inventors let their imaginations run wild as they attempt to build a sweet-dispensing carousel, an automated breakfast maker and a giant robot.
Dr Michael Mosley investigates Britain's most secretive and controversial military research base, Porton Down, on its 100th anniversary. He comes face to face with chemical and biological weapons old and new, reveals the truth about shocking animal and human testing, and discovers how the latest science and technology are helping to defend us against terrorist attacks and rogue nations.
Scotland jails more women than almost anywhere else in northern Europe. It's expensive and it has a shattering impact on the families. One of Britain's top human rights lawyers, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, examines new plans to close down Scotland's women's prison at Cornton Vale and move many of the women from prison into communities across Scotland. She looks at the success of international attempts at prison reform and questions why more funding isn't being given to successful justice projects in the community.
British Muslim and journalist Myriam Francois discovers why the high street is increasingly targeting Muslim shoppers and examines whether this trend is here to stay.
An immersive, experiential film about the deaf world, with its unique humour and culture - a world which most of us rarely encounter. The film is in BSL: British Sign Language. There is no score, no commentary, and none of the conventions of normal film-making. The film follows some of the key characters who frequent St John's Deaf Club in north London as they face life's twists and turns and challenges. The Costis are a big deaf family. Tina Costi and her football-mad husband Marios are expecting a baby. For generations in Marios's family, boys are always born deaf and girls are always born hearing. Will this new Costi baby break with tradition? Like the Costis, Abigail also comes from a big deaf family. She has just turned 30 and is about to make one of the biggest decisions of her life. She is considering undergoing surgery to have a cochlear implant fitted to help her deteriorating hearing, and also to better connect with her hearing friends. Abigail wants to be part of both worlds. But it's a controversial decision for her family, who proudly trace their deaf heritage back eight generations. How will this affect her relationship with both her family and the wider deaf community? At the heart of St John's Deaf Club is its football team. The rivalry between deaf football teams is intense. Marios's brother Memnos is captain of the team. He eats, sleeps and breathes football. Passionate to the point of obsession, can he inspire his team to win the English Deaf Cup for the second time in a row?
Sue Barker presents a documentary looking at the life and career of tennis star Martina Navrátilová. They first met on the tennis tour in 1974, so Sue was there throughout the landmarks of Martina's life: defection, coming out and breaking records. In this programme, Martina takes Sue back to Řevnice, her home in the Czech Republic, and allows the cameras to film her wedding in New York and their glamorous celebrations in Miami. As Martina approaches her sixtieth birthday, there are also insights from her sister Jana and greatest rival Chris Evert. We also hear from some of her greatest fans - Sir Elton John, Stephen Fry and other legendary tennis stars including Billie Jean King, Novak Đoković, Rafael Nadal, Pam Shriver and Rod Laver.
Documentary following a group of primary schoolchildren over the course of a year as they learn to read. Some of them make a flying start, but others struggle even with the alphabet. The film takes us into their home lives, where we find that some parents are strongly aspirational, tutoring children late into the night, while others speak English as a foreign language, if at all. As the children master the basics, they discover the magical world of stories and look with fresh eyes at the world around them. The film gives us privileged access to a profound process that all of us only ever do once in our lives.
Rick Strawbridge and Alice Roberts explore the spectacular British landscapes that inspired children's author Arthur Ransome to write his series Swallows and Amazons. The landscapes he depicted are based on three iconic British waterlands. The beauty and drama of the Lake District shaped by ancient glaciers and rich in wildlife and natural resources, the shallow man-made waterways of the Norfolk broads so crucial to farming and reed production, and the coastal estuaries and deep-water harbours of the Suffolk coastline shaped by ferocious tides and crucial to trade. Engineer and keen sailor Dick uses vintage boats to explore the landscapes and meet people whose lives are shaped by the water, while wildlife enthusiast Alice explores the rich shorelines, interrogating the underlying geography and meeting the wildlife. Together they evoke the nostalgia of Ransome's writing and a bygone era of childhood freedom and adventure, but they also explore the economic significance of these special locations and the ways in which water was harnessed to change the course of British history.
The Heroes of the Somme uses original archive from the Western Front to uncover the stories of seven of the men whose remarkable bravery won them the Victoria Cross, Britain's most prized military medal.
Film following people at two workshops having a go at embroidery and paper-cutting.
Vlogger and body-positive internet queen Grace Victory tries clean eating on for size. Is this the lifestyle change we all need, or another fad diet in disguise - a fad diet with potentially dangerous consequences?
Welsh rugby legend Gareth 'Alfie' Thomas travels to France to unearth his great uncles' involvement in the Battle of the Somme. At Mametz Wood he joins an archaeological dig, which reveals new and groundbreaking discoveries.
An uncompromising look at the lives of sex workers in an area of Leeds where, if you're buying or selling sex, you won’t get arrested. The red light zone was introduced to try and make the lives of the women who work there safer. We meet the sisters who work together on the streets, as they talk candidly about how every night they put their lives at risk. And as one of them describes how they were brutally attacked, we ask - is this pioneering experiment working?
Geoff was an overweight, over-worked night security guard, close to having his foot amputated and resigned to a premature death due to a catalogue of dangerous conditions linked to type 2 diabetes. His sons decided it was time to step in. Documentary film-makers Anthony and Ian Whitington turned their cameras on their dad in a last-ditch attempt to save his life. There are no quick fixes as they battle to overhaul every aspect of Geoff's destructive lifestyle, from poor diet to bad habits, ingrained negativity and superhuman stubbornness - and set him the challenge of cycling 100 miles. But the brothers won't give up. With their humour, support and determination, they show that those we love make us strong and that a life we love is worth fighting for.
In Parenthesis is considered one of the greatest ever literary works about war. TS Eliot called it a work of genius and WH Auden said it did for the British and Germans what Homer did for the Greeks and Trojans. Published in 1937, it is based intimately on the wartime experiences of its author David Jones, a Londoner who volunteered to fight when he was just 19. Unlike many war poets, Jones remained a private throughout the war, and he fought for longer than any other British writer. In this programme, the poet and author Owen Sheers traces the story of In Parenthesis, from an English parade ground to the carnage of the Somme offensive. Through readings of key passages, insights from poets such as Simon Armitage, and interviews with David Jones experts, he pieces together the similarities between the poem and David Jones's own war. He explores how In Parenthesis came to be written, and just what makes it such a supreme work. His journey culminates, like the poem, at Mametz Wood in northern France, where David Jones went into battle and encountered terrifying violence first hand.
Documentary going behind the scenes of Jessica Ennis-Hill's bid to defend her heptathlon title at the Rio 2016 Olympics, seen through the eyes of her coach Toni Minichiello. Having turned a 13-year-old schoolgirl into the golden girl of London 2012, Minichiello has a unique insight into what makes Ennis-Hill tick and what it is like to coach an Olympic champion. With their greatest challenge perhaps still to come - attempting to defend the Olympic crown in Rio despite long periods away from the sport due to motherhood and injury - we hear how Minichiello and Ennis-Hill plan to rule the world once more in Brazil.
An intimate look into the life of the tennis champion and international superstar Serena Williams during her 2015-2016 season. Real, raw and authentic, 'Serena' provides a glimpse into the world of the athlete-designer-businesswoman, while offering an unvarnished portrait of this often-controversial sports icon. This feature documentary explores the uncompromising pressure that comes with being the world number one, ultimately emphasising the humanity under all the success.
In the wake of the shooting of five Dallas police officers, BBC Three investigates why tension is rising between America’s police forces and ethnic minorities. Shot on the streets of New York, the films follows ‘Cop Watchers’ – men and women who track the NYPD in a cat-and-mouse game to try and film arrests and possible cases of brutality. NYPD officers also speak out, alleging systemic racism and a policy of targeting ethnic minority communities in order hit their arrest quotas.
In 1875, Captain Matthew Webb - with little more than some brandy, beer and beef tea to keep him going - became the first man to successfully swim from England to France. Since then more people have conquered Everest than successfully swum across the Channel. To this day, it remains the ultimate open water swimming challenge. This documentary tells the story of those who keep Captain Webb's vision alive - the volunteer coaches and the unlikeliest of athletes who they tirelessly support in their dream to swim from England to France. The rules are simple - no physical aids, no wimp/wet suits, just a swimsuit, goggles, the all-important swimming cap and a spot of grease to stop the chafing. At the heart of the community are pensioners Freda, Irene and Barry. They can be found in Dover every weekend from May to September come rain or shine, ready to train, feed and grease the wannabe Channel swimmers. The swimmers do not take on this arduous journey alone, and also rely on the skill of the pilots who navigate them safely to the other side of the busiest shipping lane in the world. The community share their highs and lows both in and out of the water as they train together on this small stretch of pebbled beach shadowed by the ferry port. Feasting on jelly babies, and fuelled by adrenalin and dreams, the modern-day swimmer continues to risk it all in this, the ultimate challenge of man versus nature.
Medieval art historian Dr Janina Ramirez tells the incredible story of a book hidden for centuries in the shadows of history, the first book ever written in English by a woman, Julian of Norwich, in 1373. Revelations of Divine Love dared to present an alternative vision of man's relationship with God, a theology fundamentally at odds with the church of Julian's time, and for 500 years the book was suppressed. It re-emerged in the 20th century as an iconic text for the women's movement and was acknowledged as a literary masterpiece. Janina follows the trail of the lost manuscript, travelling from Norwich to Cambrai in northern France to discover how the book survived and the brave women who championed it.
In the summer of 1916, the First World War's bloodiest battle was fought around the river Somme in northern France. It lasted three months and there were thousands of casualties on both British and Commonwealth, and German sides. For the first time ever, British cameramen were allowed to the Western Front to film its opening stages. The edited footage that they came back with became a box office smash, and has been shaping our view of that bloody conflict ever since. Robert Hall tells the story of one of those men, Geoffrey Malins.
Award-winning filmmaker Marc Isaacs explores the secret life of Britain's truckers, discovering an uncharted world of isolation, loneliness and the open road. Finding many of these men sleeping in their own trucks in lay-by car parks and service stations, this film is an intimate and poignant portrayal of modern masculinity on Britain's motorways.
A witty and mind-expanding exploration of data, with mathematician Dr Hannah Fry. This high-tech romp reveals what data is and how it is captured, stored, shared and made sense of. Fry tells the story of the engineers of the data age, people most of us have never heard of despite the fact they brought about a technological and philosophical revolution. For Hannah, the joy of data is all about spotting patterns. Hannah sees data as the essential bridge between two universes - the tangible, messy world that we see and the clean, ordered world of maths, where everything can be captured beautifully with equations. The film reveals the connection between Scrabble scores and online movie streaming, explains why a herd of dairy cows are wearing pedometers, and uncovers the network map of Wikipedia. What's the mystery link between marmalade and One Direction? The film hails the contribution of Claude Shannon, the mathematician and electrical engineer who, in an attempt to solve the problem of noisy telephone lines, devised a way to digitise all information. Shannon singlehandedly launched the 'information age'. Meanwhile, Britain's National Physical Laboratory hosts a race between its young apprentices in order to demonstrate how and why data moves quickly around modern data networks. It's all thanks to the brilliant technique first invented there in the 1960s by Welshman Donald Davies - packet switching. But what of the future? Should we be worried by the pace of change and what our own data could be used for? Ultimately, Fry concludes, data has empowered all of us. We must have machines at our side if we're to find patterns in the modern-day data deluge. But, Fry believes, regardless of AI and machine learning, it will always take us to find the meaning in them.
When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album Film exploring the history of the concept album - a musical format usually based around a structured narrative, that developed to become the equivalent of rock 'n' roll theatre.
A Julien Temple-authored documentary essay film about Keith Richards's postwar childhood and adolescence in Dartford and London. Exploring the cultural undercurrents and transformative thinking which occurred in England between 1945 and 1962 and made possible the worldwide explosion of British rock music during the 60s, in which Keith played such a crucial role.
Fighter pilot, inventor, spy - the life of Roald Dahl is often stranger than fiction. From crashing his plane over Africa to hobnobbing in Hollywood and his remarkable encounters with everyone from Walt Disney to President Roosevelt - this is the story of his greatest adventures and how his real-life escapades find expression in his most famous books, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Matilda. Through a vast collection of his letters, writings and archive, the story is told largely in his own words with contributions from his last wife Liccy, daughter Lucy and biographer Donald Sturrock. Long-term collaborator and illustrator Quentin Blake also creates exclusive new drawings for the film which are specially animated to bring Dahl's marvellous world to life.
On 6th May 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. He was the epitome of Britain's disappearing scholar-athlete ideal. The lunchtime-trained runner, immersed in his medical school studies, injected a booster shot into Britain's flagging but still flickering morale. This documentary is as much an historical study of Britain's search for something to erase the woes of the Second World War, as it is a fresh look at the story of the quest for the first four-minute mile, previously deemed physically impossible. The story is told by Sir Roger himself, his rival John Landy, Seb Coe and the late Chris Chataway, who was Bannister's friend and pacesetter - among many others.
A colourful character who was not only ahead of her time but helped to define it, Peggy Guggenheim was an heiress to a family fortune who became a central figure in the modern art movement. As she moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century, she collected not only art, but artists. Her colourful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp as well as countless others. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo.
22 year-old Jade graduated with a degree in Fashion from Manchester Metropolitan University in the summer of 2015. But rather than work in the world of fashion, Jade - aka Carly Rae Summers - has decided to pursue a career in porn. This film follows Jade as she embarks on her new full-time career, travelling to shoots in London, Barcelona and Prague, and explores the practical and ethical issues that surround a young female porn star in Britain today. Why would a well-educated young woman with a range of career options choose to pursue a career in porn?
Professor Alice Roberts joins the team excavating a 3,000 year-old Bronze Age village in the Cambridgeshire Fens that's been called the 'British Pompeii'. The village earned its nickname because, 3,000 years ago, it burned to the ground - as it burned, it fell into the peat, preserving both the houses and their contents. Until its discovery, we had little real idea of what life was like in Bronze Age Britain. Now we can peek inside our Bronze Age ancestors' homes as archaeologists discover perfectly preserved roundhouses, and the contents inside them - right down to the utensils of their kitchens. These roundhouses were built in a style never seen in the UK before - testimony not only to the villagers' technical skills, but also of their connections to Europe. The team has made other incredible discoveries on the dig - from Britain's oldest-found wheel, to swords used in battle, and bowls still containing preserved remnants of food. One of the biggest revelations is the discovery of a complete set of the early technology used to produce cloth - a full industrial process we've never seen in Britain before. This glimpse into domestic life 3,000 years ago is unprecedented, but it also transforming our impressions of Bronze Age Britain - far from being poor and isolated, it seems the villagers were successful large-scale farmers who used their farming surplus to trade with Europe, exchanging their crops for beautiful glass jewellery and multiple metal tools per household. As part of the dig, the archaeologists are also investigating the cause of the fire - was it just a terrible accident, or did the villagers' wealth provoke an attack? Professor Roberts says - 'There are so many exciting finds - and so many revelations - it is as if we're reaching back across 3,000 years to shake hands with our ancestors'.
Documentary taking an inside look at the high-stakes and sometimes murky world of art collecting. In recent years, the value of London's art market has soared to unprecedented heights, driven by the nouveau riche of the financial world, whose money has poured into the bank accounts of dealers, galleries and auction houses.
Documentary in which Katie Derham travels to Rio de Janeiro (where her father was born) to explore the story behind Brazil's most famous and enduring song. Written in 1962 by Antonio Carlos Jobim with lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, with a later English translation by Norman Gimbel, The Girl from Ipanema defines the moment Brazil charmed the world stage with a laidback song about a haunting woman.
On 23 June, Britain was hit by a political earthquake. Within hours of the EU referendum result, the Prime Minister had resigned, the pound fell and Westminster was reeling. So how and why did this political revolution happen - and how does it stand to reshape Britain's politics? In this film, the BBC's Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg tells the inside story of how David Cameron’s huge political gamble went wrong. Talking to the politicians and the people who ran the campaigns, she'll find out how a perfect storm brewed, which would end Cameron’s premiership and throw the Labour Party into chaos, as well as reshaping Britain's place in the world for a generation. In Sunderland - an area where the result sent Britain's political classes into shock - voters, politicians and activists will describe how the groundswell of protest grew. And Laura will explore how a gulf opened up between Westminster and large parts of modern Britain. Just weeks on from the referendum, British politics is already transformed: we have a new Prime Minister, Nigel Farage has bowed out, and Jeremy Corbyn's opponents within Labour have moved against him. But that is just the beginning: the effects of this result will be felt for decades. This film tells the inside story of how it happened.
Jeremy Paxman joins art sleuth Bernadette Murphy on her amazing quest to discover the truth about the December night in 1888 when Vincent van Gogh took a blade to his own ear.
Ken Loach, who has been making socially aware dramas and documentaries for over 50 years, reflects on his often controversial career, with comments from colleagues, friends and family. Successes like Cathy Come Home, Kes and Palm d'Or winning The Wind that Shakes the Barley are matched by tales of projects shelved or pilloried, a stage play cancelled during rehearsals, and a personal tragedy.
Documentary exploring the key events of 1966, a period when British pop music, fashion and sport was making waves across the globe, but when the nation's upbeat mood was undercut by darker sensibilities. Narrated by Maxine Peake and featuring contributions from Michael Palin, Janet Street-Porter and Peter Stringfellow, who share their memories of the era.
Britain’s Most Wanted Motorbike Gangs? takes us inside a new underground phenomena involved in the “Bike Life” scene, which sees young men performing stunts on motorbikes on public roads. The bikers say that are part of a movement that showcases their skills and keeps young people away from gangs. The police say that they are dangerous criminals and are reacting by deploying increased resources to shut down the scene and lock up the most notorious riders. Our cameras follow the riders from London and the Thamesmead estate in Kent as they play a game of cat and mouse with the police, and say that they’ll never stop riding even though they run the risk of arrest, injury and even death.
A shaky video of Jo Milne hearing for the first time after she was fitted with hearing implants became an internet sensation, and reunited her with an old school friend from Bangladesh. Together, the two women embark on a mission to help deaf children from Bangladesh, many of whom can never hope to have access to hearing aids. With the support of some unlikely backers in the shape of 70s pop icons the Osmond Brothers, this is the uplifting story of how hundreds of young lives have been changed as children hear for the very first time.
Think you know who can play Juliet? Well, think again. Redefining Juliet is a unique retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet using a group of diverse actors - all with disabilities or differences. Tall, small, large, deaf, limbless or wheelchair using, but each owning the iconic Shakespearean character of Juliet for themselves.
Journalist and blind person Ian Hamilton goes back in time to find out how the thousands of soldiers who lost their sight in the First World War changed the lives of blind people forever.
Profile of the director, whose career successful spanned the Royal Court Theatre, BBC dramas including Casualty and EastEnders to movies Safe, Priest, Face and Ravenous, before her death in 2013 at the age of 62. The programme explores the struggles she faced and the stories behind her movies, and features contributions from collaborators including Kay Mellor, Robert Carlyle, Anita Dobson and Irvine Welsh.
Dr Suzannah Lipscomb reveals some of the unexpected dangers lurking in the ever-changing homes of Britain in the 1950s. For the first time, moulded plywood furniture, fibreglass, plastics and polyester were becoming fixtures of domestic life, having all been developed and created during the Second World War. However, even as this bright new era of social change progressed, bringing higher living standards and improved technologies, new, unprecedented hazards were finding their way into everyday life.
If your body carried a deadly gene that increased your chances of getting breast cancer to 80 percent - would you want to know? This poignant one-hour documentary follows 18-year-old Josie Bellerby, a gorgeous, fun-loving, typical teenager except for one thing: Her mum carries a hereditary gene that has cursed their family for generations, killing her great-grandmother and her mother. There is a test that tells you if you have the gene. Josie's Mum Julia was one of the first in the UK to take it a few years ago. She proved positive, and decided to have drastic surgery - to remove both her breasts. Now Josie and her two sisters face the same heartbreaking choice. Big sister Lucy has decided she's ready to take the test and will soon receive life-changing news. Josie has a dilemma should she find out if she has it too? Her family thinks she's too young to know, she should be enjoying her young life not worrying about the risk of cancer and a double mastectomy. Josie's an ordinary girl searching for the answer to an extraordinary question: is she old enough to cope with finding out if she carries the cancer curse?
Documentary exploring the effect of immigration on the dwindling white community of the East End, from the perspective of those who remain and those who chose to leave.
Documentary with unprecedented access inside a British jail, showing violence, drugs smoked openly, and prisoners suffering from mental health problems and self-harm.
A generation has grown up with easy access to every type of online porn any time they want it. Men, women and a couple take a frank, detailed look at the impact this is having.
In this exclusive television interview, Kirsty Wark meets two of the biggest stars of the modern art world, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. The occasion is a major new exhibition of Koons's work collected and curated by Hirst at his new gallery in London's Vauxhall. In an intimate and revealing interview, Hirst and Koons talk about how they first met and fell in love with each other's work. Both started out as rebels who provoked outrage. Now they are part of the art establishment and among the richest artists in the world. But, as Wark discovers, they retain their passionate belief in the power of art.
For the second time in as many years, Scotland is facing a choice about the future country it wants to be. This time, however, the Scots are not alone in making that choice. The forthcoming referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union will define Britain's story for decades to come. But the view from Scotland is somewhat different from the rest of the UK. Why does Scotland appear to be more pro-EU? What advantages and disadvantages have membership of the European Union brought? And what happens next? Allan Little has been travelling both in Scotland and abroad to find out.
Alex Jones introduces highlights of the band's concert from the Eden Project's biomes, which was the climax of a day of live performances at the site celebrating BBC Music Day. An audience of 6,000 enjoy the show, which is one of the first performances on a new international tour promoting the group's 14th studio album Paper Gods. The programme also features special appearances by singer-songwriter Laura Mvula, who performs with the group, and BBC Music Day ambassador Nile Rodgers.
Kate Humble sets out to breed Welsh sheepdog puppies from her beloved pet Teg, and learns about the threat facing British herding dogs. A true Welsh sheepdog is a working dog, and so Kate sets out to train Teg to work in the traditional Welsh way. Along the way, she meets a team of researchers at the University of Aberystwyth, whose groundbreaking DNA research reveals some remarkable facts about the Welsh sheepdog. If Teg can produce a litter of healthy Welsh sheepdog puppies, she can play a big part in helping one of Britain's unique herding dogs survive for generations to come.
A look back at the phenomenal life and career of the late Muhammad Ali. Considered the greatest heavyweight boxer in history, his towering achievements and personality made him one of the world's true sporting giants.
The Royal Opera House presents a double bill of two short operas, premiered within a couple of years of each other in the 1890s by two great Italian composers - Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The two operas epitomise the style known as verismo - where being true to life meant dealing directly with the real problems of real people. A star-studded cast is led by the Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko and features the sopranos Eva-Maria Westbroek and Carmen Giannattasio, alongside the Greek baritone, Dmitri Platanias. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House is conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.
The former France striker and Arsenal's all-time leading scorer looks at European Championship stories, assessing the social and cultural impact football has across the continent. As Henry's home country prepares to host Euro 2016 following last November's terror attacks in Paris, he explores how the beautiful game can unify a nation, from the success of the Netherlands in 1988 to Euro 96 in England, when `football came home'. Contributors include Cesc Fabregas, Peter Schmeichel, Ruud Gullit, Jurgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, David Baddiel and Ian Broudie.
Katie Derham introduces this year's traditional spectacular concert from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace. There's a distinctly French flavour to the evening with music from Bizet, Berlioz, Poulenc and Ravel, and a special appearance from the world-renowned French piano duo the Labeque sisters. The concert is conducted for the first time by Semyon Bychkov who, though Russian-born, is an honorary Frenchman on account of his being married to Marielle Labeque. This year's concert features such musical favourites as Ravel's exuberant Bolero and his ravishing Daphnis and Chloe. There is also a chance to dance along to the can-can from Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld plus, of course, the traditional end to the concert, Johann Strauss Junior's romantic waltz Wiener Blut. It wouldn't be a summer's night in Vienna without it!
One-off comedy satirising the EU referendum and its seismic effect, tackling the heated debate from all angles, including a Ukip follower attempting PR relations at an anti-fascist rally, a hipster campaigning for an independent state of Islington and getting stuck in a revolving door with Boris Johnson. Starring Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubenstein.
On the eve of Stevie Wonder's headline set at Hyde Park performing his classic album Songs in the Key of Life, this compilation celebrates over 50 years of covers of his classic songbook filmed at BBC studio shows over the years. Featuring Cilla Black, Jimmy Helms, Dionne Warwick, the Osmonds, India Arie, James Morrison and a storming performance of Ed Sheeran with Jools and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra taking on Master Blaster (Jammin' on Hootenanny. Expect a special emphasis on Wonder's bank of classic ballads which include Isn't She Lovely, Love's in Need of Love Today, For Once in My Life, You Are the Sunshine of My Life and many more.
In the armed forces during the First World War, unofficially battalions were expected to be white. Yet many black soldiers and sailors from Wales lost their lives fighting for king and country. This is their untold story.
Documentary following Glasgow's Tron Theatre Company as they tour China with a stage adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Kim Howells tells the story of how Welsh artists portrayed the First World War. In the works of Christopher Williams, Augustus John and David Jones, Kim finds different sides of this terrible war to end all wars. He also discovers forgotten figures like cartoonist Bert Thomas and painter Margaret Lindsay Williams, who both produced important works of art between 1914 and 1918. The conflict between 1914 and 1918 was the first industrialised war with tanks and machine guns, but it was also the first mass media war. In the course of four years, tens of thousands of posters and paintings were produced, many with official government approval. In a time when cinema was in its infancy and radio had yet to be born, art had a crucial role to play in portraying the war to the public back home. This was the golden age of the poster, and three Welsh graphic artists played a leading role. Frank Brangwyn and Gerald Spencer Pryse were both commissioned by London Underground in 1914 to create more stylish recruitment posters than the boring government issue billboards. Brangwyn had been born in Belgium to a Welsh mother, while Spencer Pryse had served with the Belgian army, and they both produced dramatic works highlighting the plight of Belgian refugees.Cartoonist Bert Thomas was born in Newport and by 1914 was well known in the comic magazine Punch. His cartoon 'Arf a Mo Kaiser was given away with cigarette packets and became the most popular illustration of the whole war. The most important Welsh battle of the First World War also produced the most important painting. The Welsh at Mametz by Christopher Williams showed soldiers of the Royal Welch Fusiliers overcoming fierce German opposition to capture Mametz Wood in the Somme, albeit at a terrible cost. Williams was sent to Mametz in the aftermath of the battle to make sketches and meet soldiers who fought there. The finished painting hung in 10 Downing Street for the remainder of the war. The poet and artist David Jon
It was the tournament that Welsh football fans will remember forever. Re-live all the goals and action from the 2016 European Championship as Wales inspired a nation by getting all the way to the semi-finals. The programme includes interviews with Dean Saunders, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Jonathan Davies.
Presented by James O'Brien and Steph McGovern, this programme examines the roots of Britain's low-pay economy and pits Brits against Germans in a productivity challenge as well as visiting the Swedes who work for just six hours a day.
Every year, spectacular seasons transform our planet. As they sweep across the world, they drive all life on Earth, bringing huge opportunities and great challenges to everything. This programme, narrated by Andrew Scott, celebrates the glorious nature of summer on Earth and the extraordinary ways animals and plants rise to the challenges it brings. With the sun shining and the flowers blooming, this is the season of splendid abundance, and the long hours of daylight make life burst out in a riot of activity. But you have to find clever ways to get your share of the good times while they last, and as temperatures soar, everything has to deal with sweltering heat. For a whole range of animals, from sneaky ring-tailed lemurs to battling ibex, and from overheated penguins to astonishing colour-changing lizards, summer is a time when the living is not always easy.
Journalist Oruj Defoite was brought up in Ebbw Vale. On this journey home, she investigates why people there voted so heavily in favour of leaving the EU. Blaenau Gwent has benefitted from European investment in many ways. So what led voters to turn their backs on the EU? And what future now for this once-booming steel town? Can a big incoming project such as the proposed circuit of Wales racetrack alleviate poverty which dogs the area? Or should Ebbw Vale look to its own entrepreneurs to build it up again from the grassroots?
This documentary tells the life story and year of one of Great Britain's most successful athletes as he hopes to make history and win two more gold medals at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. The film shows just how hard he pushes himself and what life is like in training camps in Ethiopia, Arizona and France as Mo leaves his young family behind for months at a time. Mo openly discusses recent controversies surrounding his coach and what sacrifices he feels are necessary to succeed. On a visit to Djibouti in Africa where he was born and grew up, he visits his twin brother who he was separated from for many years as the family moved to the UK to live with Mo's father. Usain Bolt, Boris Johnson, Lord Coe and Haile Gebrselassie share their thoughts on one of Britain's most successful athletes.
Award-winning documentary film, The Closer We Get, is a powerful and exquisitely-shot autobiographical portrait of loyalty, broken dreams and redemption told by its director, reluctantly-dutiful daughter Karen, who takes you under the skin of the household she returns to for this long goodbye. Karen's mother Ann suffers a devastating stroke that brings her daughter back home when she least expects it. But Karen isn't the only one who returns to help care for Ann in the crisis: Her prodigal father Ian, endearing and unfathomable, and who's been separated from Ann for years, also reappears. Armed with her camera, Karen seizes this last chance to go under the skin of the family story before it's too late, to come to terms with the aftermath of the secret her father had tried - and failed - to keep from them all, and to find that Ann's stroke has in fact thrown them all a life raft. With candour, warmth and much unexpected humour, Karen's role as family confidante, busybody, therapist and spy illuminates this extraordinary story of contemporary family survival.
Jane Lewis and Kheredine Idessane present a review of Scotland's most successful Olympic Games ever on foreign soil. Rio 2016 featured gold medal-winning performances from Callum Skinner and Katie Archibald in cycling, Heather Stanning in rowing and from Andy Murray in tennis. Scottish stars also won medals in other sports, including judo, canoeing and rugby sevens. We look back at the best of the action and hear from many of the athletes involved.
Following the success of previous BBC Four 'slow TV' programmes, including All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride & Canal Trip, and Slow Week, BBC4 is inviting viewers aboard for a very special journey through one of the most spectacular and beautiful bus routes in Britain. The 'Northern Dalesman', as the bus on the route is called, has been rigged with specialist cameras as it travels on its journey, snaking across the iconic landscape of the Yorkshire Dales. Filmed in real time, the cameras capture the road unfurling, the passing scenery and the occasional chatter of local passengers. The bus route begins in Richmond in North Yorkshire and takes viewers on a lush and varied ride, along a river valley thronged by blossoming hawthorn trees, through ancient mining villages and wild flower-filled meadows. The bus climbs high into the Dales, vast and peaceful. As it slows down to allow sheep and their lambs to cross the road, the only sounds are the wind and the cry of curlews. And then the final stretch across cotton-grass covered moorland. With the mountain range known as the Three Peaks in the distance, the bus descends towards the striking 24-arch Ribblehead viaduct, one of the great engineering achievements of the 19th century. The programme features captions integrated into the landscape to provide details about the dramatic countryside through which the bus is passing - from aspects of the natural or geological environment to specific highlights of Britain's agricultural or industrial heritage, from the ancient stone hay barns that dot the landscape to the scars left behind by the lead mining of previous centuries.
With the United States in the midst of a heroin and opiate epidemic, India Rakusen travels to the state of Ohio, where addiction has become part of everyday life.
Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Mirren, David Bowie and Margaret Thatcher are just some of the names who queued up to be interviewed by Mavis Nicholson, recently named as the greatest TV interviewer of all time. This film explores how a middle-aged woman from Wales became Britain's first female chat show host. Including contributions from Maureen Lipman, Paul O'Grady, Elvis Costello, Judith Chalmers, Eamonn Holmes and Mavis herself, alongside many others.
Alistair and Jonny Brownlee are the most loyal of friends and yet the toughest of rivals. They have the capability of bringing the best - and at times the worst - out of each other. In Rio 2016, Alistair will be aiming to become the first triathlete to successfully defend their Olympic title, while younger brother Jonny's target is to improve on the bronze medal he earned at London 2012. In the build-up to the Games, Tom Fordyce speaks to the brothers as he looks into what it is about their relationship that makes them so unique and their achievements so extraordinary.
1971, and the Los Angeles performance art scene is flourishing. Chris Burden has just ordered a studio assistant to shoot him in the left arm with a rifle, Barbara T Smith is staging provocative interventions at F-Space, and Paul McCarthy is painting his naked body with mustard and ketchup in the name of art. And among them all, Bob Parks: an energetic young artist from the UK, living with his beautiful and interesting San Fransiscan wife, Myriam Morales. Life is perfect, for a time. But when Bob's marriage fails and Myriam leaves for Santa Fe, things fall apart. He walks the streets of Los Angeles for a year in a string bikini and sees his burgeoning art career come to pieces. Having been rescued by the parishioners of a South Central gospel church, and having spent six years worshipping and singing alongside them, Bob finally moves back to the UK to live with his parents in the New Forest. Despite planning to stay for only six months to finish a series of paintings and gather his thoughts, Bob stays for thirty years. We meet him as he continues to develop his art practice, continues to sing in a gospel church and continues to explore what he calls 'the R&B feeling'. Against this backdrop, Bob attempts to break free of a constraining and mutually dependent relationship with his mother, Miggie, whose health is failing. As time goes on Bob's obsession with his mother - and her impending death - deepens, before reaching a terrible and tragic conclusion.
Dr James Fox has never really got conceptual art. And he's not alone. Conceptual art has been treated with suspicion and incredulity by virtually everyone outside the art world for nearly a hundred years. Ever since Marcel Duchamp first displayed a signed urinal and claimed it was art in 1917. So was he taking the piss? Or was he on to something, creating a whole new approach to art that has now lasted a century? Dr Fox embarks on an open-minded guide for the perplexed and asks 'What is conceptual art?' 'How should we approach it?' and crucially, 'Why should we care?'. Roaming between the past, present and future he examines a mind-bending selection of the most influential conceptual ideas and artworks, alongside meeting the leading movers and shakers of today. And who knows? In the end, Dr Fox might find himself unexpectedly seduced by this trickiest of art forms.
In this programme, three celebrities take on iconic, long-distance hikes in some of the world's most remote locations. On this expedition, ex-politician Stanley Johnson, TV presenter Melanie Sykes and German comedian Henning Wehn tackle Mexico's little explored but famous Copper Canyon. It is a stunning wilderness in the heart of the Sierra Madre Mountains of north west Mexico. Over the course of a week, our trio experience an enticing challenge through difficult and remote terrain, an unforgiving climate and unfamiliar culture. They carve a route through breathtaking scenery, endless steep valleys, gorges and plateaux, setting up camp each night. The relentless journey will take stamina, will power and even a mule or two. They climb two thousand metre peaks to meet some of Mexico's most remote cattle ranchers, trek across canyons to treacherous gold mines where prospectors still seek out their fortune, and descend into deep valleys, where the indigenous Tarahumara people hide away to protect their culture and way of life. The goal is to witness one of the most important festivals of the year and get first-hand experience of rituals and beliefs that, as a result of their inaccessibility, have survived the changes of 21st-century life. A physical and mental challenge, this is an inspiring, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our celebrities to experience alternative values in a world far removed from their own and learn something different about the culture, people and environment of this intriguing part of Mexico.
Welsh world champion and Olympic sprinter Jamie Baulch goes in search of his biological father who he believes to be Jamaican and the source of his speed. In the previous Bafta Cymru-winning documentary two years ago, Jamie, who is adopted, went on an incredibly emotional journey looking for his birth mum. In the end, he found her, met her for the first time and showed her his athletic medals. Picking up from the last film with the meeting of his two mums, Jamie then hits the streets of the black community in Nottingham, the city of his birth, to find his natural father. He questions whether his athletic talent is in his genes or a consequence of his determination and upbringing - his parents, his teachers, his coaches? Nature or nurture.
With Trident renewed for another generation, A Very British Deterrent tells the story of the remarkable events, eye-watering costs, power relationships and secret deals done half a century ago to secure Britain's very first submarine-launched nuclear missiles. In today's turbulent world, it is a story that is more relevant than ever. At the height of the Cold War, a series of political and technical crises came close to leaving Britain without a nuclear weapon of its own. In a time of unprecedented international tension and with the world locked in a terrifying nuclear arms race, one small loch in Scotland became a crucial bargaining chip to keep Britain in the nuclear game. Using the personal letters of prime ministers and presidents, eye-witness accounts and once-secret documents, this film explores how the British prime minister Harold Macmillan seized every opportunity to further Britain's nuclear ambitions, was prepared to trade a Scottish base for a new American weapon, and even jeopardised the crucial Anglo-American relationship to keep Britain an independent nuclear power.
Lauren Laverne hosts this landmark event to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, as a 100-metre-long representation of the skyline of 17th-century London floating on the River Thames is set ablaze in a dramatic retelling of September 1666. Designed by internationally acclaimed 'burn artist' David Best in collaboration with creative producers Artichoke, this fusion of art and history marks a moment that saw London devastated, only to rise from the ashes in a remarkable fashion. As well as showcasing the action from the burning sculpture, the programme contains interviews with key individuals who reflect on the process of making such an unprecedented piece of art.
The story of the creation of Massive Attack's debut album, Blue Lines, which was released 25 years ago, to critical acclaim and commercial success. How the city of Bristol found a musical identity it could claim as its own - told by the people who were there.
The design of the Severn Bridge earned British engineers a reputation as world leaders in bridge building. Fifty years on, the film reveals the behind-the-scenes battle to maintain the iconic structure and keep traffic flowing, suspended above the dangerous tidal currents of the River Severn. Featuring rarely seen archive of the bridge and the stories of those who helped design and
To mark the 100th anniversary of Dada, Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) takes us on an irreverent trip into the world of the influential avant-garde art movement. Absurd, provocative and subversive, Dada began as a response to the madness of World War I. But its radical way of looking at the world inspired generations of artists, writers and musicians, from Monty Python to punk, Bowie to Banksy. Jim restages an early Dada performance in Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire, where the movement began. And among those joining him in his playful celebration of the Dadaists and their impact are Armando Iannucci, Terry Gilliam, designer Neville Brody and artists Michael Landy and Cornelia Parker.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the first time tanks were used in battle, Rob Bell tells the story of the First World War tank men.
Following 14-year-old artist Kieron Williamson as he prepares for his latest exhibition.
We all know what fat looks like from the outside, but do we have any idea of the damage obesity is doing under our skin? In a unique TV first Obesity: The Post Mortem reveals just how dangerous too much fat is to our most vital internal organs. The programme follows a specialist pathology team as they conduct a post mortem on the body of a 17 stone woman whose body was donated to medical science. Their findings, as they dissect the body and its organs are startling, exposing the devastating impact of obesity with stunning visuals and fascinating medical fact. Morbid obesity reduces life expectancy by an average of nine years and is blamed for over 30,000 deaths in the UK every year. With 65% of us already overweight or obese, this extraordinary film is a powerful contribution to the debate about fat, food, lifestyle and how our health service will cope with our growing obesity crisis. The film was made with the backing and cooperation of some of the countries most important medical organisations and reveals in remarkable detail how a post mortem is conducted, the internal workings of the human body and the harmful effects fat can have on how our bodies function.
On 20 February 2016, then-Prime Minister David Cameron officially set the date for the British public’s vote on whether to remain a member of the European Union. What followed was months of campaigning, debate, claims, and a political drama fought out in the press which resulted in the resignation of David Cameron and the subsequent Conservative leadership contest. But what did the British public not witness? During this historic political event BBC Two had exclusive behind-the-scenes access to document every twist and turn of the Leave campaign and the race for the Conservative leadership that followed. Filmed from the early days until the extraordinary events after the vote the unseen footage lays bare the ambition, passion, strategy and animosity that existed and propelled the Leave campaign. This is the real story of the campaign for Brexit as told by a host of key people as they lived and breathed it. The programme features a range of senior politicians and campaigners including Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith, Nigel Farage and Matthew Elliott, as well as Remain campaigners Lord Heseltine, Alan Duncan and Will Straw.
Across Merseyside, there is a name which has been whispered by kids for decades - "Purple Aki". Part bogeyman; part urban legend - his real name is Akinwale Arobieke. What's his story? Why has he been feared for nearly 30 years? Is he, in some senses, a victim himself? Local lad, Benjamin Zand, goes in search of the truth behind one of the UK's strangest stories.
Documentary celebrating the British sitcom and taking a look at the social and political context from which our favourite sitcoms grew. We enjoy a trip through the comedy archive in the company of the people who made some of the very best British sitcoms. From The Likely Lads to I'm Alan Partridge, we find out the inspiration behind some of the most-loved characters and how they reflect the times they were living in. Narrated by Rebecca Front, with commentary and insider knowledge from Steve Coogan, Richard Curtis, Beryl Vertue, James Corden, Jack Dee and top writing team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Roald Dahl is thought by many to be the greatest children's writer of all time. His books have sold hundreds of millions of copies the world over and are still being made into Hollywood movies and West End musicals. But few people know that Roald Dahl was Welsh: born and raised in and around Cardiff in the 1910s and 20s. These early years were crucial for the man and the writer, helping to shape the course of Roald Dahl's entire life. This programme tells the untold story of the Roald Dahl's Welsh childhood, full of mischief and magic, but also sadness. We discover how books like Matilda and James and the Giant Peach were influenced by their author's school days. We delve into the tale of the Great Mouse Plot and get a taste of a family home described by friends as a madhouse. And we look at the darker side of Roald Dahl's young life - the loss of a sister and a father, and being sent away from the mother he loved. With contributions from Roald Dahl's wife Felicity 'Liccy' Dahl, Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon and biographer Donald Sturrock.
Capability Brown is known as the founder of landscape design. Three hundred years ago he created some of the most magnificent landscapes in England. He travelled the length and breadth of the country, improving more than 200 of the greatest estates in the land, for some of the most influential people in the eighteenth century. But there is one plan that never got off the drawing board. His own garden. The only land he ever owned was in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire. But he died before he could carry out any plans for his own garden. Today it is a piece of flat land, bisected by the A14 dual carriageway. Landscape designer and Gardeners' Question Time regular Bunny Guinness travels across England to some of Capability's finest landscapes - Blenheim, Burghley, Milton Abbey and Castle Ashby - to understand what he might have created. Rediscovering plans and letters, and using the latest technology, Capability Brown's unfinished garden is brought to life.
Martians, Morlocks and Mermaids. To mark Wells's 150th birthday Dominic Sandbrook discovers how a sleepy corner of the country inspired some of the most fantastic ideas in science fiction.
For many years our place in the universe was the subject of theologians and philosophers, not scientists, but in 1960 one man changed all that. Dr Frank Drake was one of the leading lights in the new science of radio astronomy when he did something that was not only revolutionary, but could have cost him his career. Working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenback in Virginia, he pointed one of their new 25-metre radio telescopes at a star called Tau Ceti twelve light years from earth, hoping for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Although project Ozma resulted in silence, it did result in one of the most seminal equations in the history of science - the Drake Equation - which examined seven key elements necessary for extraterrestrial intelligence to exist, from the formation of stars to the likely length a given intelligent civilisation may survive. When Frank and his colleagues entered the figures, the equation suggested there were a staggering 50,000 civilisations capable of communicating across the galaxy. However, in the 50 years of listening that has followed, not one single bleep has been heard from extraterrestrials. So were Drake and his followers wrong and is there no life form out there capable of communicating? Drake's own calculations suggest that we would have to scan the entire radio spectrum of ten million stars to be sure of contact. The answers to those questions suggest that, far from being a one off, life may not only be common in the universe but once started will lead inevitably towards intelligent life. To find out about the equation's influence, Dallas Campbell goes on a worldwide journey to meet the scientists who have dedicated their lives to focusing on its different aspects.
Reggie Yates presents a look at America as seen through the eyes of the NFL. Reggie travels to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to meet the Green Bay Packers, visit a cheese factory and meet the superfans. The Packers are the only NFL team owned by their fans, and Reggie meets key local characters who epitomise the city's passion for the game. Travelling through the small town of Green Bay and the broader Wisconsin area, Reggie soon realises why they are considered to be the most hardcore supporters in the whole of the US.
250 years ago, Edinburgh launched a competition to design a 'New Town' for the Scottish capital. The city desperately needed an upgrade - it was overcrowded, filthy and crumbling. With Scotland a partner in the new United Kingdom, it needed a capital to be proud of. At the same time, Edinburgh was seen as the intellectual capital of Europe - with Adam Smith, David Hume and other figures of the 'Scottish Enlightenment' creating an explosion of creative ideas that would change the world. The winning plan by James Craig was a masterpiece of Georgian city planning that reflected these Enlightenment ideas. This film tells the story of how the plan was made real - becoming the most ambitious building project in Britain, and transforming Edinburgh into the most perfect Georgian city on Earth.
Documentary. One Show presenter Alex Jones and her husband Charlie got married in 2015 and started trying for a baby. Alex was always reading headlines urging women not to delay motherhood and, at 38, she was worried she might be one of the 3.5 million people in the UK who struggle to conceive. She decided to find out more about the fertility issues so many people face, and this is her story. She investigates what pioneering science is doing to help people struggling to become pregnant, and she travels the world to see the cutting-edge techniques that could revolutionise fertility treatment in the future and give people new hope of having children.
Twenty one year-old Kyle Tucker was a teenager when during a family argument he found out the man that had brought him up was not his biological father. This revelation hit Kyle hard and left him feeling confused about his own identity. A number of years ago he managed to trace his father and was disappointed to discover he had been living down the road and has at least twelve other children. But Kyle became curious about the rest of his unknown family. In this programme Kyle is determined to learn about his heritage and himself. BBC Three follows his journey around the UK and beyond to track down his siblings and other extended family. So much is unknown about his blood-relations and Kyle is determined to find out why his father’s immediate family separated to move to different parts of the world. We follow Kyle as he goes on this journey of discovery and revelations. What will Kyle learn about himself by finding out about his family, and will new relatives embrace or reject him as they uncover secrets from the family’s past?
In 1976 Carl Andre's sculpture Equivalent VIII, better known as 'The Tate Bricks', caused a national outcry. 'What a Load of Rubbish' screamed the papers, 'it's not even art'. Worse still, in the midst of a severe economic depression, the Bricks were paid for with taxpayers' money. One man was so outraged he went to the Tate Gallery and threw blue food dye all over at them. BBC Four marks the 40th anniversary with award-winning director Clare Beavan's entertaining and revealing documentary looking back at the creation of the sculpture - which consists of 120 fire bricks - and the frenzied outcry that followed. With contributions from some of the key players involved at the time, as well as contemporary artists, historians and critics, Bricks! tells the tale of what happened when modern art and public opinion came up against a brick wall. Did Carl Andre's artwork pave the way for a greater appetite for conceptual art in Britain?
Every year, spectacular seasons transform our planet. As they sweep across the world, they drive all life on earth, bringing huge opportunities and great challenges to everything. This special, narrated by Andrew Scott, celebrates the drama of Autumn and how animals and plants deal with the new challenges it brings. This is the time of year that brings the world's most spectacular transformations. With winter fast approaching, life has to get ready and that means feeding up while you can, fighting for the last chance to breed and rushing to grow up before the cold returns. While chipmunks and beavers dash to stash their winter supplies, many animals from musk oxen to beetles have to battle for mates and young gannets must face life's first dangerous challenges.
Forty-five year old Lucy Owen sets out to discover what being middle-aged in the 21st century really means. With many of us working into our seventies, when does 'middle age' really start and what's the best way to approach it? Lucy fears that it's all downhill from now on, with grey hair, wrinkles and health problems to worry about. On her journey she meets the members of Tonyrefail ladies choir, who share their secrets of surviving the menopause, and tries on a special suit that replicates the effects of ageing. She's persuaded that it's time to take her physical health seriously, and discusses the pros and cons of cosmetic procedures with Dr Maria Gonzales. There's also a shock in store when she finds out she needs to act now to protect herself from the effects of old age.
Emilia Fox tells the story of how Victorian rebel Marianne North changed the face of botanical research, propelling her to the top of a male-dominated world of science and exploration. With exclusive access to Kew Gardens and Marianne's wealth of personal memoirs, letters and paintings, this is a tale of a visionary who rejected marriage and social convention for a pioneering life of conservation and adventure.
Documentary exploring mental health among black people in the UK, looking into why black people are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition which results in them being sectioned. Blogger and radio presenter Keith Dube, who is motivated by a personal experience of depression, wants to find out just why the black community is facing a mental health crisis. By spending time in a secure mental health unit, tapping into the thoughts and experiences of his 25,000 followers on Twitter and speaking to mental health experts and community leaders, Keith explores what might be behind the statistics. From racism to religion and social deprivation to stigma within the community, why do so many black people seem to be affected by mental health issues?
Four British astronomers in their 70s reunite for a 50th anniversary trek in this deceptive documentary. For what begins as a nostalgic and impeccably polite road trip across America’s South West coalesces into something more profound. Each professor has his turn in the starlight – theoretician Donald, instrument maker Roger, visionary Nick and Wallace (Wal) the observer – as the film’s director Alison Rose gets them to open up about their lives, the universe, even faith. There is banter about parochial concerns such as class and career, and on the other hand explanations of quasars and irregular galaxies. It’s a powerful juxtaposition. An elegiac film amid stunning scenery, Star Men makes it easy to appreciate the beauty of our skies, while profiling four great scientific minds that are still active and enthusiastic. “Isn’t it amazing that we get paid to do this?” says Wal. But you get the nagging feeling you’re being led somewhere… and it’s somewhere, temporarily, very sad. Summary Four veteran British stargazers go on a road trip to celebrate 50 years of work and friendship, which represents a highly productive period in astronomy. Now in their 70s, they share their reflections on a life spent looking at the universe as they journey through the south-western United States, revisiting the places where they worked and the landscape they explored together as young men.
Iconic, notorious, heroes, prats, legendary, diabolical: a lot can, and has been said about the Gallagher brothers and Oasis - but the harshest commentary often came from within. ‘Oasis in Their Own Words’ charts the band’s meteoric rise from a bunch of lads from Manchester to the biggest British band of their generation, as they saw it themselves. And all the Britpop hedonism and brotherly punch-ups that came along the way.
An affectionate celebration on one of Britain's best-loved broadcasters, Sir Terry Wogan, with classic moments from Blankety Blank to the Eurovision Song Contest. The programme features fond and funny memories from people who knew him well, including Graham Norton, Fearne Cotton, Dermot O'Leary, Len Goodman, Alesha Dixon, Ken Bruce, Rob Brydon and many more.
Embarking on an immersive authored journey, Rodney P reveals a fascinating alternative version of reality as seen from the perspective of a culture which was created in the black and Latino ghettos of 1970s New York, and has since evolved into a world-dominating cultural powerhouse. Whether it's chronicling life on the streets or offering a surprising twist on global events, hip-hop has given a voice to the powerless and dispossessed while also acting as a platform for ideas, opinions and sometimes controversial theories to be shared amongst its millions of followers. Looking at big issues such as power, conspiracy, education and money, Rodney meets iconic figures like Public Enemy's Chuck D, Def Jam's Russell Simmons, who created the template for the hip-hop mogul, and New York rapper Rakim, agreed by many to be the greatest MC of all time. Rodney's journey also gets to grips with contentious issues like police brutality, extreme language and the role of women in a culture some see as misogynistic, to provide a fascinating take on what the world really looks like with a hip-hop state of mind. As Rodney explores the important issues and powerful ideas through the lens of hip-hop, he learns more about the culture he himself has been part of for almost four decades while showing those who have never quite understood (and may even have dismissed it) just how surprising and rich that culture really is.
Documentary that tells the story of how hip-hop was vital to the truce that ended the near-apocalyptic level of gang violence in New York during the 1960s and 70s. Using interviews with hip-hop pioneers like Afrika Bambaataa (an ex-Black Spade gang leader) and Kool Herc, unseen archive footage of street gangs, and filmed over seven years, the film chronicles life during this era of gang rule, tells the story of how a few extraordinary, forgotten people did the impossible, and how their actions saved New York City and gave birth to the biggest musical genre on the planet - hip-hop.
After London 2012, having become the first British Olympian to win six gold medals, track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy retired. But having spent 20 years at the top of his sport, Chris isn't about to settle for a quiet life. Instead, he swaps two wheels for four to pursue his boyhood dream of competing in the world's toughest endurance motor race, the Le Mans 24 Hours. We follow Chris as he attempts to prove himself on the race track as he has in the velodrome. By early 2016, he is poised to join the highly successful Le Mans race team - Greaves Motorsport. But Chris's hopes of a podium finish are crushed when the team has to withdraw their car. With less than three months until race day, he finds a seat with a rookie team who have never raced at Le Mans before. Chris has to learn a new car, battle with its teething troubles and work with a team whose operation is a world away from British cycling's obsessive attention to detail. As Le Mans 2016 begins in torrential rain, competitors are reminded of the danger - 22 drivers have died since it began in 1923 and cars crash out with frightening regularity. Can Chris's team even make it through the 24 hours? And when technical troubles flare less than an hour into the race, there is a good chance that he won't even get on the track. Will Chris and his team fail the ultimate test of man and machine?
Stacey Dooley travels to Orlando in the aftermath of the Pulse Bar shootings. She attends vigils, marches and funerals to see how America responds to this latest atrocity and she’ll ask if this could be the one to finally make a difference. Stacey explores the levels of prejudice and homophobia faced daily by the LGBT community in America, levels that are often compounded if you belong to an ethnic or religious minority. With revelations that the shooter may himself have been gay, she will also try to track down and talk with gay Muslims to understand the conflict they face between their religion and their sexuality.
In August 2015 two amateur researchers declared they had found a lost Nazi train buried in a railway cutting near Walbrzych in Silesia, southern Poland. This followed decades of local folklore that a train, loaded with gold, had vanished after leaving Wroclaw in early 1945. Dan Snow follows the treasure hunters as they embark on the hunt, while also investigating this extraordinary story that leads all the way to Adolf Hitler himself and his secret plans for this remote corner of the Third Reich during the closing months of the Second World War.
Full contact medieval fighting is really a thing, who knew? Angela Scanlon narrates this quirky documentary following a group of trailblazing female fighters as they armour-up, tool-up and step-up into the medieval ring, to compete in the first women's international tournament in this phenomenal new 'sport'. Move over Iron Man, here come the Iron Maidens.
Imagine the terror of being fully awake but not able to communicate with the outside world. This is the living nightmare that Terry Newbury is experiencing - his life hangs in the balance. This short observational documentary tells Terry's story and his fight to communicate again.
Following in the footsteps of WH Auden's classic 1936 documentary Night Mail, six of Britain's best poets take the train from London to Glasgow, discovering stories of love, loss and longing among the passengers today, and capturing the journey in verse. Maxine Peake narrates.
Against the backdrop of unprecedented gun violence, Reggie Yates travels to Chicago to investigate gun crime in President Obama's adopted hometown. There were 468 murders in 2015, and this year the murder rate has soared by 72 per cent. With many of the victims being young African-American men, who is to blame? Reggie hears first-hand the accusations of police brutality, but after attending the aftermath of a shooting and funeral of a young black man, he comes to realise an even bigger problem is that the majority of killings are perpetrated by young black men living in Chicago's poorest neighbourhoods.
Documentary about Down's syndrome and the ethics of pregnancy screening fronted by Sally Phillips. This film explores the science and thinking around the proposed new screening test for Down's syndrome and its possible availability on the NHS. Driven by the experience of raising her son Olly, who has Down's syndrome, Sally explores some of the ethical implications of our national screening policy. By talking to experts in the Down's syndrome community, the world's top scientists and including people with Down's syndrome in the debate, Sally investigates a thorny subject that begs questions relevant to us all: what sort of world do we want to live in and who do we want in it?
Nicholas Parsons, Just a Minute host, and stalwart of the entertainment world explores his life-long enthusiasm for clocks when he goes in search of the most valuable and famous watch in the world. The so called Marie Antoinette, once the target of one of the biggest museum heists in history, was the masterpiece made by 18th-century genius Nicholas Breguet, for that doomed queen. Tracing the enthralling story of Breguet's rise to fame, Parsons visits Paris and Versailles, and the vaults of today's multimillion-pound Breguet business. Exploring the innovative and dazzling work of the master watch maker, Parsons unravels the mystery behind the creation of his most precious and most brilliant work. Parsons heads to Irsael to discover how in the 1980s the world's most expensive watch was then stolen in a daring heist, and went missing for over 20 years. Revealing a little-known side of one of our favourite TV and radio hosts, the film offers a glimpse into Parsons's own private clock collection, whilst also telling an enthralling tale of scientific invention, doomed decadence and daring robbery.
British pop star Boy George recalls, revisits and assesses how the 1970s moulded the person and artist he has become. This is his musical, social and sexual coming of age when he discovered the power of his own sexuality before setting about turning that persona into a pop star. Set against a backdrop of social discord, disenfranchisement and sexual repression, the seventies was also conversely the decade that revelled in colour and creative chaos, giving the world glam rock, disco and punk, and the young George O'Dowd was at the birth of them all. The documentary includes contributions from contemporaries like Martin Degville (Sigue Sigue Sputnik), Andy Polaris (Animal Nightlife), DJ Princess Julia and pop star Marilyn. This is, as George said, 'the last ever bonkers decade', and it totally and completely shaped him.
In light of the unmasking of Jimmy Savile as a predatory sex offender, and 15 years on from the BBC documentary When Louis Met Jimmy, Louis Theroux sets out to understand how a man who was at the centre of British entertainment and charitable fundraising for decades was able to get away with a long litany of crimes. In this reflective 75-minute film, Louis talks to some of Savile's victims and to people who worked closely with him, and re-examines moments from the original film as well as footage that has never aired before on television.
The migration of the painted lady has long fascinated scientists, artists and nature lovers alike. The longest butterfly migration on earth, it sees millions of these delicate creatures travel from the desert fringes of north Africa, across thousands of miles of land and sea, before settling in the UK. However, the migration has never truly been understood, the mysteries of the painted lady never unravelled - until now. This documentary reveals the secrets of this extraordinary phenomenon. Observed, investigated and analysed by presenter Martha Kearney and entomologist Dr James Logan, it employs groundbreaking techniques to unlock the secrets of the painted ladies. At a time when more than a third of Britain's butterfly species are classed as under threat of extinction or have already vanished, it documents the largest butterfly migration into the UK. Over the course of the butterflies' five-month quest from the Atlas Mountains to Great Britain, Martha and her companion - leading butterfly expert Constanti Stefanescu - follow them along the route, observing and investigating this breathtaking natural phenomenon. Meanwhile, back at the cutting-edge Rothamsted Research Centre in Harpenden, Dr Logan complements their adventures on the road, conducting experiments into butterfly biology and behaviour and, from our communications centre, he is able to follow the butterflies as they make their way from Morocco to Britain. This is a visceral journey with real jeopardy, a real-life detective story. We break away from the central narrative to unravel the mysteries of the painted lady via experiments including how they navigate and move between difference altitudes, and we examine their flight patterns. As well as experiments there are also standalone packages on a variety of subjects including the decline of the British butterfly and how some species are fighting back with the help of conservation groups. Butterfly Conversation's legions of butterfly spotters track
Director Hannah Livingston spends six months tracking two of America’s most radical Christian hate groups - a notorious pastor from Arizona, who has been banned from the UK and a network of preachers, who take their extremist message directly onto the streets. The film shows how American free speech laws allow these groups to spread homophobia and Islamophobia in an increasingly polarised and divided political climate. Drawing on what he claims is a literal interpretation of the bible, the pastor is opening new churches in America and claims to be influencing others by broadcasting his sermons over the internet.
When endurance athlete Richard Parks' godfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's it inspired him to embark on one of the most dramatic and emotional adventures of his life. Richard decides to risk his life in one of the most extreme environments on earth to explore the relationship between exercise and dementia. Richard attempts to summit Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, undertaking a series of experiments with a team of Welsh scientists.
Documentary in which director and DJ Don Letts looks at a very particular and very provocative British subculture - skinhead. He explores how skinhead has become associated with street fighting, trouble on the football terraces and violent racism in the public consciousness in Britain and around the world, but reveals that its origins lie in a cultural coming together that could not be further from its tarnished image. Don shows in fascinating detail how the roots of skinhead are in a brilliant cultural collision between the young white working-class kids and their Jamaican counterparts in British inner cities, a moment of multicultural harmony. He traces the history of skinhead from the late 60s to the present, looking at the music and styles of skinhead from the reggae-influenced ska to the punk-influenced Oi. Throughout Don meets people who were committed members of various skinhead scenes, and he considers the conflicts and the contradictions that skinhead has attracted over five decades.
Aleem Maqbool crosses the northern USA on the Empire Builder train route to find out what issues resonate amongst American voters, beyond the media spotlight.
Sue Townsend left school at 14 with no qualifications and in her early twenties was a single mother struggling to feed her three children. A decade later, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 was a critical and commercial smash and she had become the best-selling author of her era. As part of the BBC's Love to Read campaign, Julie Walters narrates this extraordinary story of a working-class woman who achieved literary stardom through sheer talent and an irrepressible will to write. From Adrian Mole to The Queen & I, Sue Townsend's books combine a brilliantly funny writing style with often biting satire, captivating not just a nation's readers but influencing a generation of writers and performers. A warm and witty celebration of Sue Townsend's life and writing, the story is told with the help of children from Sue's old school, her friends and family, as well as the comedy and literary stars she inspired - including Stephen Mangan, Ian Hislop, David Nicholls, Isy Suttie and Adrian Scarborough. Drawing on Sue Townsend's own archive of letters and notebooks, the film also features unseen photographs, footage and even her appointment diary, which includes poignant entries about her struggles with ill health, written in a humorous style instantly recognisable from her books.
From the depths of the greatest tomb on earth comes an epic new story that could rewrite history, revealing for the first time the true origin of one of the world's most powerful nations: China. In this landmark film, historian Dan Snow, physical anthropologist Dr Alice Roberts and scientist and explorer Dr Albert Lin investigate a series of earth-shattering discoveries at the mighty tomb guarded by the Terracotta Warriors, a site two hundred times bigger than Egypt's Valley of the Kings and the final resting place of China's first emperor. Mobilising the latest technology, delving into some of the oldest texts, enlisting world experts and employing forensic science, together the three reveal an explosive secret from the foundations of the Chinese empire.
We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, random bomb attacks. And those who are supposed to be in power are paralysed - they have no idea what to do. This film is the epic story of how we got to this strange place. It explains not only why these chaotic events are happening - but also why we, and our politicians, cannot understand them. It shows that what has happened is that all of us in the West - not just the politicians and the journalists and the experts, but we ourselves - have retreated into a simplified, and often completely fake version of the world. But because it is all around us we accept it as normal. But there is another world outside. Forces that politicians tried to forget and bury forty years ago - that then festered and mutated - but which are now turning on us with a vengeful fury. Piercing though the wall of our fake world.
It’s the black-and-white photos that punch hardest at the heart. The gappy smiles, the shy freckled faces, the wonky ties, the hair ribbons of children all frozen in time, a generation gone, wiped out 50 years ago by the colliery spoil that engulfed a junior school in a south Wales valley. This admirable Testimony Films documentary talks to survivors and rescuers of the Aberfan disaster that killed 116 children and 28 adults. “My childhood ended that day,” says a man who was pulled from the filthy horror after two hours. He’s suffered depression and terrible nightmares ever since. But Aberfan, we learn, has healed itself, thanks to a community that pulled together while acknowledging its deep wounds. Summary Fifty years ago, on October 21, 1966, 116 children and 28 adults lost their lives after an avalanche of coal waste crashed into a school and the houses nearby in the South Wales mining village of Aberfan. This documentary tells the story of the worst disaster involving children in modern British history.
Fifty years ago, a coal tip crashed down on a village in south Wales, killing 144 people including 116 children. Now Huw Edwards traces the story of Aberfan's decades-long battle for justice. The Aberfan disaster shocked the world. Immediately, people were demanding to know how and why it had happened. Was it a terrible accident or a preventable man-made tragedy? Within weeks, a tribunal of inquiry began hearing evidence. A cast of actors brings the tribunal to life, the script drawn from the actual evidence presented at the inquiry. Huw Edwards looks back at the testimony given. Should warnings have been heeded? Who was to blame? The publicly owned National Coal Board and the government managed to add insult to injury as they refused the demands of local people to remove the tips from above the village. Finally they gave in, but not without perpetrating another injustice on Aberfan that took decades to remedy.
As Britain continues to spend less on the public sector, do we really know where our taxes are being spent? Spending on schools, hospitals and foreign aid are well debated. In this one-off documentary, Jacques Peretti looks beyond the well-known budgets to the range of projects the public know less about, from the virtual receptionists at Brent Civic Centre to the night-vision goggles being used to spy on dog walkers in Staffordshire. Peretti uncovers what is happening behind closed doors in cash-strapped Britain and finds that local councils across the UK are signing contracts with management consultancy firms who can take a percentage of any savings they find. Peretti also reveals that hundreds of the millions of taxpayers' pounds spent on these contracts are covered by confidential deals meaning very little detail is known about them. In this revealing insight, Peretti asks if the public deserve to know more about how those charged with managing Britain's billions are spending it.
Documentary shedding light on the work of housing officers working in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham, where a shortage of affordable homes, rising rent prices and a lack of available council housing have all contributed to an increase in the number of people facing homelessness. Drawing comparisons to the 1966 television play Cathy Come Home, which depicted a young couple's descent into poverty and homelessness, the programme explains how problems first encountered 50 years ago are resurfacing. Recorded over the course of nine months, the film details how a new generation of would-be residents are looking in vain for a place to call their own.
Pink Floyd released their first single in 1967, and as their popularity around the world grew, they increasingly travelled outside the UK to perform live shows and make TV appearances. After The Dark Side of the Moon became a global smash, the band concentrated on the creative freedom of live performance, leaving the world of TV behind, but now, after painstaking research, tapes of those early historic appearances have been tracked down and compiled into a fascinating hour of early Pink Floyd. With frontman Syd Barrett, they perform Astronomy Domine and Jugband Blues, and after Syd's departure, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason can be seen playing a full range of their eclectic material, from out and out pop in It Would Be So Nice, through instrumental improvisations, collaboration with choir and orchestra on Atom Heart Mother and enduring rock material like Wot's...Uh, The Deal. Beginnings 1967-1972 tracks the fascinating gestation of one of the world's most creative and heralded groups in the less well-known period that preceded the triumphs of The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall.
A film poem to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, written by Owen Sheers and performed by a stellar cast of Wales's best-known acting talent, including Michael Sheen, Jonathan Pryce, Sian Phillips, Eve Myles and Iwan Rheon, with some contributions from the local community.
Documentary following six trans men and women in Scotland as they struggle to find love and maintain existing relationships.
Christian Fraser presents a special programme looking at the UK's journey towards Brexit. With expert analysis and contributions from all sides of the debate.
Updated documentary which follows Tulisa Contostavlos's life and the eventual fall from grace of her accuser Mahzer Mahmood, the self-styled Fake Sheikh. Combining self-shot diary footage with actuality, the programme shows what it is really like to be on the receiving end of a tabloid sting and its long term consequences. The film, shot over 3 years charts Tulisa's highs and her lows, her arrest, her charge, state of mind and suicide attempt and her treatment at the hands of the tabloid press as she travels to the brink of disaster before her case collapses and she finally regains her life and her reputation. Hard-hitting and harrowing, the film tells us about the nature of celebrity culture, how it feels to be a major celebrity facing public ruin and asks whether the fall of Mahzer Mahmood signifies the end of this kind of entrapment based undercover journalism.
Scotland has exported many great things to the rest of the world, and people like Neil Oliver have often celebrated the disproportionate impact of its ideas and energy on places like America. The role of Scots in shaping the concept of the American Dream is a story often told, but could Scottish settlers have also had a hand in America's racist nightmare? Neil Oliver travels over 2,000 miles to examine links between racism today in the Deep South and the Scottish settlers that first occupied it. Throughout the 18th century, hundreds of thousands of Scots emigrated to America, and some believe that it was their wariness and moral certainty that significantly shaped the south into an isolated, fearful society that easily took to slave-owning when the opportunity came. Walter Scott, the creator of a romantic vision of the 'Old Country' is blamed for reinforcing their fantasy world of Georgian gentility. When that world was threatened, the southern states opted for civil war rather than give it up. After the devastating war, attitudes in the south were hardened by defeat and fear of the now-freed slaves. When six Scottish-American former Confederate officers formed a fraternal society, clan turned to Klan. The oldest and most feared racist hate group in America - the Ku Klux Klan - was born. Now, well over 800 hate groups stalk the United States, and Neil finishes his journey by visiting the Neo-Confederate League of the South. The League advocates a return to a separate southern society run by what they call 'Anglo Celts', and Neil discovers that here Scottish-ness still abides and that attitudes don't seem to have changed much in the last 200-300 years.
Documentary exploring a unique musical collaboration between American jazz legend Wynton Marsalis and Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. The film follows the two musicians as they embark on a journey that culminates in the creation and performance of a violin concerto written by Marsalis especially for Benedetti. The composition, which draws inspiration from the violin concerto's first formation in the Baroque era to the 21st century and African-American spiritual music, explores Nicola and Wynton's own musical heritage in Scottish folk and American jazz music respectively. The programme concludes with the world premiere of the violin concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London.
Tim McGarry looks back at the Blame Game, a BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Radio Ulster series, over the last ten years. There're contributions from high profile fans of the show including Rory McIlroy, Tommy Bowe, Donna Traynor, Phil Jupitus, as well as featuring the first TV appearances of John Bishop and Kevin Bridges.
In a unique experiment, Dallas Campbell, Professor Danielle George and Dr Hugh Hunt join forces in an attempt to re-stage the very first official broadcast on British television, exactly 80 years after it made history. The very first official broadcast came from Alexandra Palace on 2nd November 1936 - but there are no surviving recordings. To find out just what went on, this 21st-century team attempts to piece back together and recreate every aspect of the show from scratch - from the variety acts to the cameras - using the original technology and filming techniques to capture the excitement of the day. It's not going to be easy. At the dawn of TV, two rival camera technologies competed live on air to take control of the fledgling industry. The system that went first on opening night was a seven-foot tall mechanical monster built by John Logie Baird's company. It was called the 'Flying Spot' and at its heart was a huge steel disc spinning almost at the speed of sound - meaning mechanical engineer Hugh had better be careful as he attempts to resurrect it. Meanwhile, Danielle finds out how the rival and highly experimental, all-electronic camera system had problems of its own. The team uncovers the mixed influences of high-minded radio and bawdy variety shows on early TV, at a time when it was still a science experiment and not a mass medium. They seek advice from pre-war television pioneers, including Logie Baird's former assistant, now aged 104 but still full of handy tips about how to build a mechanical camera. Dallas learns just how much harder his job would have been 80 years ago, when the very first television announcer Leslie Mitchell was plastered in bizarre make-up and given a cue for 'action' that bordered on physical assault! Dallas also meets one of the performers in front of the camera on the original night - now in her nineties - to find out what it was like to be part of television history. As they prepare for broadcast, the team discover
Documentary tracing the origins and development of the publishing house founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil to promote books by female writers. Featuring contributions from Virago authors including Margaret Atwood, Sarah Waters, Sarah Dunant, Maya Angelou and Naomi Wolf as well as founding team members Carmen Callil, Ursula Owen, Harriet Spicer, Lennie Goodings and Alexandra Pringle.
New insights on a hidden world are uncovered as former senior police officer Judith Gillespie talks exclusively to survivors, perpetrators and those working at the cutting edge of domestic violence. Is society doing enough to rid us of this scourge?
One hundred years ago, at the height of the First World War, a hospital was set up to care for Scotland's injured and limbless soldiers returning from the trenches. Established by a pioneering Scottish surgeon from Glasgow University Sir William Macewen and Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, it became a national institution, touching the lives of tens of thousands. Today it's still going strong and is known simply as Erskine. With unprecedented access to Erskine's homes and and its archives, Beyond The Battlefield: 100 Years Of Erskine tells the story of this remarkable place and of the people who live and work here. It features accounts of the very first patient from 1916, war hero Corporal James Ritson, whose arm was blown off in a trench in Gallipoli and dipped in a bucket of tar to cauterise the wound; to veterans of the Second World War; through to those wounded in Britain's recent conflicts, including Northern Ireland; the Falklands and Afghanistan, including GB rower and ex-paratrooper Scott Meenagh. It tells the story of how Erskine has pioneered the treatment and rehabilitation of Scotland's wounded, and how with the help of Clydeside shipbuilders, the very first residents became experts in making their own artificial limbs.
Eminent social commentator Peter York seeks to understand what he sees as the modern obsession with 'The Authentic'. He speaks to crafts people and expert commentators on his journey to understand the current cultural moment. He also examines where the label of the 'hipster' has its roots and whether it is too general a term for such a broad movement. He demonstrates through his years of marketing and advertising experience that subcultures have always been absorbed and repackaged by the mainstream. Contributors include Times deputy fashion editor Harriet Walters, the Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright, and Sir John Hegarty. Peter also travels to America to look at parallels between the UK and America.
Donald Trump has divided and astonished America with his own brand of politics. Once seen as the outside contender, he is now one step away from the White House as the Republican presidential nominee. Accused of being racist, sexist and a liar by some in his own party, millions of others have been inspired to join his campaign, believing he can 'Make America Great Again'. To investigate his meteoric rise Angela Scanlon meets the devoted and passionate people stumping for Trump and explores why his bold and often controversial policies appeal to them. She talks to the twin sisters who, despite his comments about women, still adore him, a second-generation Mexican American who wants nothing more than Trump to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out, and a young black American who believes Trump is precisely the president the country needs to pull itself up by its bootstraps.
Frequently referred to as 'the Mount Rushmore of country music, the Highwaymen - Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson - were American country music's first bona-fide supergroup. Between 1985 and 1995, when times were hard for country legends as country radio chased youth and the pop market, these four icons banded together, made three albums, and toured the world performing their greatest songs and the ones they'd recorded together while extending their mutual admiration for one another.
The fascinating story of Maggie's - a unique cancer charity which began life in Edinburgh in 1996. In 1993, Maggie Keswick Jencks was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she spent the last year of her life working on an idea for a cancer centre which she hoped would change the lives of other cancer sufferers. Since her death, the most prominent names in architecture from Zaha Hadid to Frank Gehry have designed astonishing landmark buildings bearing her name. 2016 sees Maggie's celebrating its 20th anniversary and the opening of its 20th centre. The programme features interviews with world-renowned architects Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster.
Art, politics and motorcycles - on the occasion of his 90th birthday John Berger or the Art of Looking is an intimate portrait of the writer and art critic whose ground-breaking work on seeing has shaped ourunderstanding of the concept for over five decades. The film explores how paintings become narratives and stories turn into images, and rarely does anybody demonstrate this as poignantly as Berger. Berger lived and worked for decades in a small mountain village in the French Alps, where the nearness to nature, the world of the peasants and his motorcycle, which for him deals so much with presence, inspired his drawing and writing. The film introduces Berger's art of looking with theatre wizard Simon McBurney, film-director Michael Dibb, visual artist John Christie, cartoonist Selçuk Demiral, photographer Jean Mohr as well as two of his children, film-critic Katya Berger and the painter Yves Berger. The prelude and starting point is Berger's mind-boggling experience of restored vision following a successful cataract removal surgery. There, in the cusp of his clouding eyesight, Berger re-discovers the irredeemable wonder of seeing. Realised as a portrait in works and collaborations, this creative documentary takes a different approach to biography, with John Berger leading in his favourite role of the storyteller.
An examination of the sordid machinations involved in becoming president of the United States. Rich Hall looks back at some of the dirtiest and nastiest presidential campaigns of the past, proving that the 2016 race to the White House is not the first time the contest has got personal.
Livvy Haydock investigates the increasing amount of contraband getting into UK prisons, uncovering the links in the chain on both sides of the law. Embedding herself with the criminals who are making 10 times the street value of drugs by selling them behind bars, she meets the key people involved, talks to a serial reoffender who admits he has ‘seen everything’, and learns how drones and corrupt prison officers can be effective means of getting contraband inside. This powerful film reveals more than ‘how it’s done’ from the criminal perspective; it also asks questions about wider prison life, what really goes on inside, and how the rise in technology combined with the lucrative black market behind bars is driving serious violence between inmates – violence that extends to the outside world.
Documentary. International fashion photographer Rankin and artist Alison Lapper explore how the explosion of digital photography, social media and selfie culture has affected people's sense of identity. Rankin and Alison challenge four individuals who all hate the camera for a variety of reasons to be photographed up-close to investigate different perceptions of self-worth, image and beauty.
In the 1970s, Jamaica came alive to the sounds of roots reggae. British rapper, poet and political commentator Akala tells the story of this golden period in the island's musical history, a time when a small group of musicians took songs of Rastafari, revolution and hope to the international stage. Growing up in London, Akala's family immersed him in roots reggae from an early age so he has a very personal connection to the culture. It has informed his own songwriting, poetry and political worldview, but it's an upbringing that he now feels he's taken for granted. In this documentary, Akala sets out to find out more about the music that has had such an impact on his life. He begins by exploring the music's origins in Jamaica where it offered hope to ordinary people at a time when poverty, political violence and turmoil were ravaging the island. Artists like Bob Marley, Big Youth and Burning Spear began to write about suffering and salvation through Rastafari in their songs. Akala unpicks how all of this evolved. Back in the UK, Akala reveals how the Jamaican artists and our own British roots reggae bands like Steel Pulse became a cultural lifeline for young black people who were experiencing racism and rejection in their own country. He shows how roots reggae also related to a wider audience, its revolutionary message connecting with an increasingly marginalised UK youth.
A group of young men brought together by the indiscriminate brutality of war struggle to maintain their humanity in an unending cycle of combat and death. A potent combination of music and choreography, this film without words is an immersive emotional journey into the reality facing young men at the extremes of human experience. These young men succumb to the terror of their situation in a myriad of ways. The ruthless, indiscriminate brutality of war takes its mental and bodily toll on these comrades, as they struggle to survive one day's destruction, only to wake to another's mortal threats. Based on the hugely successful stage production of the same name that premiered at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, in 2015, it is choreographed by Iván Pérez with a commissioned score by composer Keaton Henson.
Chernobyl - thirty years ago. A nuclear reactor exploded, spewing out massive quantities of radiation into the atmosphere. Within days, the pollution had spread across Europe. Living on land contaminated with radioactivity would be a life-changing ordeal for the people of Belarus, but also for the Sami reindeer herders of central Norway. It even affected the Gaels of the distant Hebrides. Five years ago there was a meltdown at the Fukushima reactor, and thousands of Japanese people found their homes, fields and farms irradiated, just as had happened in Europe. This international documentary, filmed in Belarus, Japan, the lands of Norway's Sami reindeer herders and in the Outer Hebrides, poses the question: what lessons have we learned?
British TV and movie star David Harewood investigates the obstacles facing black Britons in rising to positions of power and influence, and calculates the statistical chances of someone from his own background ever becoming prime minister. In this personal film, Harewood tackles some of our biggest institutions, including top universities and the BBC, to find out why so many barriers remain to black people achieving their potential.
Documentary following Ravi Singh, a Sikh charity worker who, inspired by his religious principles, puts his life on the line to help people in need. The programme follows Ravi's journey to northern Iraq, where he provides aid to Yazidi families who have fled their homes to escape the brutality of Islamic State. The film reveals the teachings of selfless service at the heart of his Sikh faith.
Documentary which sees Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller give an exclusive insight into the live, nationwide memorial that he created to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 2016. The groundbreaking event made in collaboration with Rufus Norris, director of the National Theatre, saw hundreds of volunteers dressed as First World War soldiers appear unexpectedly in areas across the UK. The project titled 'We're here because we're here' was commissioned by 14-18 NOW and produced by Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the National Theatre, together with 26 organisations from around the country.
Dr Chris van Tulleken starts his experiment by seeing what the steep rise in prescription rates means for patients. He lays out the pills an average healthy person could take in their lifetime. When he calculates that someone born today might easily consume 100,000 pills, he is shocked. He knows that many drugs do good. They save lives, but they can all do harm? Determined to find answers to this crisis in medicine he takes over part of a GP surgery. Dr Chris believes many common illnesses are best treated without drugs, so instead of handing out pills to his patients he will be taking them away! His first patient, Wendy, has been taking painkillers for the last 20 years to deal with chronic pain in her shoulder. In the last ten years there's been an almost 50% increase in prescriptions for these drugs. Chris is determined to prove to her that the drugs don't work. But Wendy will need a lot of convincing. He devises an experiment - two weeks' worth of medication with a twist. Some of the pills are placebos, and some are the real thing. She doesn't know which are which, and she must record her pain levels. Will she be in more pain when she takes only the placebos? Are the pills actually working? Soon another patient hears about Dr Chris's clinic. Like five million people in Britain, Sarah is taking antidepressants. Between 2005 and 2012, the number of young people prescribed them shot up by over 50%. Sarah's been on them since she was 16 - now a mum at 24, she's desperate to be released from the 'chemical fog' she's living in. To try and succeed where the pills have failed Dr Chris gets Sarah to try a non-drug treatment that his psychiatric colleagues would describe as 'barbaric' - swimming in a freezing cold lake. Back at the surgery, Chris is determined to tackle one of the most terrifying consequences of our pill-popping culture - antibiotic resistance. He discovers that the GPs have one of the highest antibiotic prescription rates in the area. H
Dr Chris van Tulleken has been working in a GP surgery in east London for weeks trying to treat specially selected patients without drugs. Now he wants to use what he's learnt to supersize his social experiment and offer drug-free treatments to all 14,000 patients at the practice. When no-one turns up to his drug-free clinic, Dr Chris learns that patients just want a quick fix - people are busy and they prefer to pop a pill than motivate themselves to make lifestyle changes. But with hard marketing from the receptionists, Chris finally gets a new patient. Crystal is taking 30 pills a day for extreme chronic pain in her back. Things have got so bad that she can't leave her house without a neck brace and a back corset. Over the course of five months, with a dramatic process of withdrawal from her addictive meds, Chris leads her on an extraordinary road to recovery. Meanwhile, another patient, Sarah, is struggling to complete her drug-free therapy. She's been taking antidepressants for the last eight years, and Chris is hoping that cold-water swimming will steady her mood sufficiently to come off them. But a series of tearful phone calls show Chris that giving up her medication won't be easy. He will need to find a completely new strategy to help this young mum go drug free. While working with Sarah, he discovers that one of the most common tools to diagnose depression - a questionnaire - is developed by a drugs company who make drugs that treat depression. Back at the surgery, Chris discovers the close relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and GPs is everywhere. He attends a practice lunch that is sponsored and paid for by a drugs company. Dr van Tullekkan believes this is a 'total disgrace' and 'a simple bribe'. He engages in a series of confrontations with the GPs and representatives from the pharmaceutical industry to try to put a stop to the drug-sponsored lunches. But can he pull it off? Before he leaves the practice, he comes up with on
Documentary for Children in Need showing what it is like to be a prisoner's child, giving children often lost in the system a chance to tell their own stories. The number of children with a mum or dad in prison is growing at an alarming rate. Nearly 10,000 children visit a prison every week, but while their parent is on the inside, outside the children are often bullied and left feeling isolated and ostracised. Bafta-nominated film-maker Catey Sexton gives a humane and sensitive insight into the lives of those often lost in the system and reveals how prisoners' children are twice as likely to suffer from poor mental health, while two out of three boys with a dad in prison will go on to offend themselves. The film shows that when children are given support, their futures could be bright - instead of some of them becoming the next generation of parents in prison. But other than a handful of charities and few enlightened prisons making a difference, there is still long way to go.
Following the death of Britain's greatest satirist in 1995, Peter Cook's widow Lin locked the door of his house and refused all access to the media. Until this year, when she invited her friend Victor Lewis-Smith and a BBC crew inside to make a documentary about the man she knew and loved, with unprecedented access to Peter's private recordings, diaries, letters, photographs and much more.
Bob and Roberta Smith, an artist known for eye-catching placards with slogans like 'Make Art Not War', has for years waged his own eccentric political campaigns. In recent years, he'd begun to lose faith in protest but suddenly it's all the rage. From the Brexit vote to Black Lives Matter it seems the world is reclaiming its right to protest. In this film, Bob sets out to discover what's getting everyone so angry in a wry, opinionated and passionate investigation into our age of activism. From dramatic scenes at the Republican National Convention just days after the killing of three police officers, to taking tea with pensioners fighting fracking in Yorkshire, Bob travels among this international protest movement, asking whether occupations, direct action and endless marches ever actually achieve anything. Or whether the social media revolution is transforming modern protest and the way our democracy works. Along the way, Bob meets an eclectic mix of experts to help him make sense of it all, among them Noam Chomsky and British philosopher Roger Scruton. He talks protest songs with Billy Bragg, seeks sage advice from the latest celebrity protestor, anti-fracking activist, Bez, and gets involved in some grass roots activism, trying to help the village of Newnham save their pub.
With unprecedented access to the workings of a Pentecostal church in London, this one-off documentary in the Black & British season lifts the lid on a faith that is growing fast. Featuring charismatic sermons, passionate worshipping, the full-immersion baptism of teenagers and the fabulous hats and attire of the congregation, this documentary follows the powerful personal stories of members of the congregation at defining moments in their lives. While traditional Christianity is seeing its numbers fall, how has this faith become so successful?
Sheku Kanneh-Mason made history in 2016 when he became the first black winner of the BBC Young Musician competition. Sheku has six musically gifted siblings and this film explores their extraordinary talents and issues of diversity in classical music. We follow Sheku and his brothers and sisters and examine the sacrifices that parents Stuart and Kadie make in order to support their children in pursuing their musical dreams. Told through the prism of family life we get an understanding of what it is that drives this family to be the best musicians they can be. At the heart of the story is 17-year-old Sheku, and we see him coming to terms with his Young Musician win and the pressures and opportunities it brings. His life is changing dramatically as he now has to learn to deal with the challenges of becoming a world-renowned cellist. He gets advice from those who have trodden this path already, including international violinist Nicola Benedetti and renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, discovering what it takes to be a famous international solo musician. The documentary culminates with Sheku's biggest performance to date, playing at the world-famous Royal Festival Hall in London, with Britain's first all-black and ethnic minority orchestra, Chineke!. As the preparations for this groundbreaking concert begin, the film explores what it means to be a young, black, classical musician in today's society.
A revealing look at the work of The People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, which has been helping those facing economic hardship to look after their pets for the past hundred years. We meet people who are devoted to their animals, but can't afford private vet fees. From boxing coach Tony, whose tough-guy exterior belies his love for an overweight spaniel named Sophie, to retired hairdresser Angie, whose cat Leo helps her feel less alone in the world and has film star good looks. In Aberdeen, we meet 17-year-old Jamie Leigh, who's bringing up her two-year-old daughter alongside her one-year-old American bulldog despite the disapproval she gets from others. And at the PDSA's biggest hospital in Glasgow, volunteer staff member Stefan has built a reputation as the resident joker, but the laughter hides a sad truth. A unique perspective on the lives of some of Scotland's many animal lovers.
Documentary that examines the truth behind an alleged plot by 'hardline' Muslims to seize control of British schools. With interviews from those at the centre of the story, the programme asks what really happened and whether the authorities got it right.
The sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 was a tragedy unlike any other. Surely it could never happen again? But it did. Incredibly, Titanic had a sister - Britannic - who suffered a near-identical fate. In the wake of the Titanic disaster, Britannic was re-engineered to be even stronger. And yet, on 21 November 1916, she sank in just 55 minutes - three times faster than Titanic. It's one of Britain's greatest untold disaster stories. Now on the 100th anniversary, presenters Kate Humble and Andy Torbet piece together exactly what happened in those 55 minutes. While Andy makes a dangerous dive to the wreck, Kate speaks to descendants of the survivors, tracked down for the very first time on TV. The characters she uncovers include Violet 'Miss Unsinkable' Jessops, who survived both Titanic and Britannic, Captain 'Iceberg Charlie' Bartlett and look-out Archie Jewell, who miraculously survived when those around him died. Using rarely seen and unpublished diaries and letters of the captain and crew, Titanic's Tragic Twin recreates what it was like for Britannic's survivors to fight for their lives and investigates how and why Britannic's victims died horribly - and avoidably.
Presented by 1Xtra’s A.Dot, it charts her attempt to set up the ultimate Grime Clash/Royal Rumble - ‘GRIMEAGGEDON' - allowing her to get under the skin of the modern grime scene along the way. Offering his backing, contacts, and advice to Dotty is clashing expert, Lord of The Mic’s founder and Boy Better Know member ‘Jammer'. Also featured are The Godfather of Grime ‘Wiley', DJs Sian Edwards, Logan Sama and DJ Target, as well as established & fast rising MC’s including Jammz, Nolay, Prez T, Big Zuu, Ghetts, and a host of others. A.Dot's journey culminates in ‘Grimeageddon,’ a Grime clash 'cypher' event, complete with an audience scoring the battling artists, filmed and recorded in the historic John Peel, Studio (4) at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios.
Documentary which tells the story of the thousands of Caribbean and African women who answered the call 70 years ago to come to the UK to save the then ailing health service. It's a tale of a struggle to overcome racism, their fight for career progression and their battle for national recognition.
For over a year police failed to properly investigate the deaths of young gay men and link them to a serial killer. During this time one man repeatedly tried to raise the alarm.
The voyage of the Mayflower in 1620 has come to define the founding moment of America, celebrated each year at Thanksgiving. A lavish new drama documentary by Ric Burns, based on governor William Bradford's extraordinary eye-witness account, the Mayflower Pilgrims reveals the grim truth behind their voyage across the Atlantic.
The Soul II Soul frontman tells his Back to Life tale of the decade, an against-the-odds story of a young black British musician and entrepreneur in a time of mass unemployment and radical social change. The decade saw him progress from a teen targeted by the law, with his own reggae sound system he took round London on a bus, to international superstar, as Soul II Soul topped the charts in the UK and in America, with a fashion line that sold from Camden Town to the world. In the decade defined by image, Jazzie created his own unique style, the Funki Dred, the first black British street style, and a Soul II Soul fashion brand 'before we knew what branding was'. He achieved this with the aid of the Tories' Enterprise Allowance Scheme, whilst running his business and sound system as a collective at a time of rampant individualism. They helped forge a British multicultural identity as a generation of Thatcher's unwanted kids turned their music and art, through warehouse parties and pirate radio, into a positive statement of unity and style. Their album Club Classics Vol One and singles topped the charts worldwide by the end of the decade. With Lenny Henry, Ian Wright, Viv Richards, Tony Hadley, Lord Tebbit, DJs Trevor Nelson, Judge Jules and Norman Jay, Caron Wheeler (singer, Soul II Soul), Caryn Franklin (founder, i-D Magazine) and Sheryl Garratt (editor, The Face).
Shot on location for the Manchester International Festival, this film shows the work twigs created and filmed one per day during her week-long residency. Conceptualized as an abstract autobiographical piece, Soundtrack 7 includes performances set to How's That, Ultraviolet, and Good to Love among others, and is bound together by a striking, repeated recitation of Thomas Wyatt's poem I Find No Peace (an excerpt from which opened twigs's critically acclaimed LP1).
On the 16 May 1979, an extraordinary game of professional football took place that if played today, would very possibly cause an uproar, mass protest and a media frenzy. As part of Len Cantello's testimonial at West Bromwich Albion, an all-white team took on a side comprised solely of black players - 'whites against blacks'. For the white team, it was nothing more than a lighthearted gimmick, but for the black players, it represented so much more. It was a game they had to win. Racism was rife and black people were far from welcome on the pitch, in the stands or in the boardroom. In this film, presenter Adrian Chiles journeys across England to discover the truths, taboos and the real meaning behind this remarkable game. He uncovers rarely seen footage and reunites players from both teams, including Ally Robertson, Tony 'Bomber' Brown, Cyrille Regis and Brendan Batson. Today, around 30 per cent of English professionals are black. They are role models and superstars, some earning in excess of £100,000 a week. On the surface, everything seems rosy, but how far have we really come? Through encounters with stars like Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand and Dion Dublin, Adrian contrasts the attitudes and conflicts that swirled around that infamous game with the reality of being a black player in the modern era.
Documentary about former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who passed away on 25 November 2016.
We all love a good quiz. So here's a question - when did ordinary contestants turn into the pro-quizzers of today? Giving the answers are Victoria Coren Mitchell, Judith Keppel, Chris Tarrant, Mark Labbett, Nicholas Parsons and many more. Narrated by Ben Miller.
For 150 years, the National Museum of Scotland has been at the heart of Scotland's cultural life. It holds 12 million objects in its collection - everything from whale skeletons to Bonnie Prince Charlie's al fresco picnic set. Some of its objects are billions of years old and came here from outer space. Other items - like Dolly the cloned sheep - point to a brave new world. Now, in the midst of a major £80million renovation, the museum has thrown open its doors and allowed the cameras into its darkest storerooms. Writers Muriel Gray and Alexander McCall Smith, and model Eunice Olumide explore some of the most outstanding treasures from one of the finest and most diverse collections in the world.
Midlands filmmaker Billy Dosanjh celebrates 50 years of the Sikhs in his hometown of Smethwick, from their arrival in the late 1950s and early 60s to the present day. Using rare archive and the frank personal testimony of different generations of Smethwick's Sikhs, he explores the experiences of the changing traditions and the challenges to centuries old traditions - especially in love and marriage - that life in modern Britain brings. Using rare and unseen archive Billy goes on a moving journey through space and time - from farm life in northern India to the searing heat of work in the steel factories of Britain's Black Country; from extreme rural poverty to the have-it-all consumer culture of today; from strict traditions to a world of tolerance and the modern permissive society. Billy tells of the hostility and tough working conditions the first Sikhs experienced when they arrived in Smethwick. He shows the old customs that they tried to keep from their impoverished villages in the Punjab. Examining the challenges of the modern world and how their traditions have evolved, especially when it comes to love and marriage, Billy gives a personal insight to the world of his community, and the way its culture has adapted across the generations to the challenges of life in modern Britain.
A year on from last winter's devastating floods - how is the recovery operation going? We follow families and businesses in Cumbria and Lancashire through a tough year.
One of the most commercially successful acts of all time, UB40 enjoyed decades of huge success, selling over 70 million records with global hits including Red Red Wine, Can't Help Falling in Love and I Got You Babe. But stardom and fame came at a price and the band found themselves victims of their own success; bankrupt and penniless. Featuring newly filmed interviews with Ali Campbell, Robin Campbell, Astro, Brian Travers, Mickey Virtue and Jimmy Brown, the band recount their phenomenal rise to fame and speak with candour on their ongoing dispute that has split a family and a band, as they continue to tour as two separate groups - both using the name UB40.
He's been called the 'greatest of all time' and the most compelling athlete in modern sport. Katie Gornall travels to Jamaica to meet the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, fresh from his Rio 2016 Olympics success. On her journey across the island, she speaks to some of the people who have helped shape his life along the way, from his devoted family and his best friend-turned-manager, to his first school teacher. She discovers what life is like off the track for the man who has become Jamaica's national treasure, how he hopes to influence the next generation of sprinters and what the future holds for him post-retirement.
Lawful Killing is a 90-minute documentary with dramatic reconstructions of the police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham in August 2011. The incident triggered the worst riots in living memory, with the impact extending far beyond the Duggan family and the community of Tottenham. Significant elements of what actually happened that day in August 2011 remain unclear, despite a Coroner’s Inquest and a lengthy IPCC Investigation. This documentary recounts in forensic detail the events surrounding the death of Mark Duggan, with exclusive testimony from a number of key participants. It uses a combination of personal testimony, evidential footage, dramatised reconstruction based on verbatim Inquest transcripts, and witness and expert interviews. Many of the events of the day remain in dispute, and the film accurately portrays the differing points of view of the family and friends of Duggan; the police officers involved in the operation and those tasked with investigating it subsequently. By setting out to present a 360-degree version of all of the main accounts of what happened on that day, this film asks the audience to make up their own minds about an event which continues to resonate more than five years after it occurred.
Alistair Sooke celebrates the protean genius of one of America's most prolific and original artists, Robert Rauschenberg. Fearless and influential, he blazed a trail for artists in the second half of the 20th century, and yet his work is rarely seen here in the UK. That is about to change with a major retrospective at Tate Modern in December 2016. Rauschenberg was the first artist to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1964, creating a crucial bridge between the abstract expressionists of the 50s and the pop artists who emerged in the 60s. Famous for his 'combines' that elevated the rich junk of life to the status of high art, he continued to work right up to his death in 2008, collaborating with dancers, scientists and social activists on a startlingly broad array of projects. Presenter Alastair Sooke travels to the east coast of the USA to talk to those closest to Rauschenberg to reveal the boundless curiosity and restless experimentation that kept him engaged till the very end of his six-decade career.
The extraordinary untold story of how an NYPD bomb-disposal expert played an important role in helping defuse the decades-old Troubles in Northern Ireland by bringing vulnerable children to America for a summer of peace. Featuring an exclusive contribution from Bill Clinton.
At the end of the First World War, Britain's prime minister David Lloyd George was a national hero, hailed as 'the man who won the war'. A hundred years after he became PM, Lloyd George's great-great-grandson Dan Snow explores his famous forebear's life and asks why he's not better remembered, why he's not as famous a wartime leader as his friend and protege Winston Churchill. It's a tale of sex and scandal, success and failure, with Dan discovering some home truths from his family's history. Dan's journey starts in north Wales in the village of Llanystumdwy, where Lloyd George was raised by his uncle after his father's death. It's an area Dan knows well from childhood holidays visiting his grandmother. He climbs Moel y Gest, a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea, a view virtually unchanged since Lloyd George's day. Taking the Ffestiniog railway up into the mountains Dan travels in Lloyd George's own railway carriage, reputedly a place when he would enjoy some private time with his secretary. Like Lloyd George, Dan journeys from Wales to Parliament, filming in the House of Commons where his ancestor made such an impact. Initially Lloyd George was a radical Liberal, causing outrage by opposing the Boer War in 1899, but ten years later he was chancellor of the exchequer, introducing some of the most important legislation of the early 20th century. His budget of 1909 brought in national insurance and old age pensions and, as his biographer Roy Hattersley tells Dan, laid the foundations of the welfare state. When Britain went to war in August 1914, Lloyd George was a pivotal member of the cabinet. Historian Margaret Macmillan, an expert on the First World War and another descendant of Lloyd George, points out that if he'd come out against the war the Liberal government would have fallen. Once war was declared Lloyd George was important in recruiting the new citizen's army, making speeches across the country. But in private he was making sure his sons didn't volun
Julian Lloyd Webber takes an extraordinary musical journey through the BBC archives from the 1950s to the present to celebrate the world of the cello through some of its greatest interpreters. From dazzling performances by legendary masters such as Paul Tortelier, Jacqueline du Pre and Mstislav Rostropovich to some of today's leading interpreters including Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis and Mischa Maisky, Julian gives us a cellist's perspective on an extraordinary virtuoso tradition.
Christmas is supposed to be a time for family, friends and festivities. But for thousands of people, Christmas is spent living rough – either in a hostel or on the streets. Singer and broadcaster Charlotte Church explores homelessness this Christmas in her native Cardiff. She meets the people who donate their time and energies to feeding and helping the most vulnerable in society, as well as hearing stories from some of the thousands of people who find themselves without shelter this winter. Charlotte sees the difficult reality of life on the streets, but also witnesses the power of music to give voice to those with no place to call home.
Politics, press silence and a playboy king: Carolyn Quinn tells the story of the Abdication crisis of 1936, when Edward VIII quit his throne to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Join Jamie Owen as he explores Wales's long and stormy relationship with the demon drink. With help from a range of alcohol experts, Jamie looks at his own drinking habits and finds out exactly what all that booze is doing to our bodies. Along the way he learns about a little-known but devastating condition caused by alcohol and experiences how cutting-edge science can help us to rewire our brains to control our desire to drink.
BalletBoyz directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt take you behind the scenes of the making of their first feature film Young Men, a reworking of the company's hugely successful stage production of the same name that premiered at Sadler's Wells London in 2015. The documentary follows the BalletBoyz team as they reimagine the stage show for camera and features interviews with the creative team and cast, including choreographer Iván Pérez and composer Keaton Henson.
2016 sees the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Rossini's masterpiece The Barber of Seville, one of the greatest comic operas ever written. In this documentary, internationally acclaimed soprano Danielle de Niese provides a unique backstage pass to her preparations for the role of Rosina in Glyndebourne's 2016 production. With extraordinary access, this documentary gives an unparalleled insight into how a top opera professional shapes a performance, both musically and dramatically. As well as actuality filming of all stages - from singing to warm-ups to costume fittings, lighting and set-building on stage, through to hair and make-up - there are masterclass sessions with director Annabel Arden, conductor Enrique Mazzola and other key cast members to explore key scenes in depth. Danni also visits the Rome theatre where the disastrous premiere took place in 1816. The film also features interviews with Arden, Mazzola, designer Joanna Parker and other key figures in the production, and footage from the staged version of the opera throughout.
Celebrity dogs are taking Instagram and YouTube by storm, fuelling a massive rise in demand for ‘must have’ breeds like the Pug, the French Bulldog and the Dachshund. Grace Victory investigates the dark side of the designer dog industry – from the smuggling of sick and underage puppies from puppy farms in Europe, to the crippling health problems endured by some of the internet’s most loved breeds. She explores the myths and the misconceptions, and finds out how much we really know about where our dogs come from.
Alex Norton talks to Shetland fiddler Aly Bain, now in his 70th year, about his love for American folk and roots music.
Margot Fonteyn has inspired generations of ballerinas. She was beautiful, brilliant, talented and never put a foot wrong on stage. Her late flowering partnering with a much younger man, Rudolf Nureyev, created the most dazzling ballet partnership in history. And yet behind the scenes, as Darcey Bussell discovers, Margot's life was marked by tragedy and disappointment. She barely knew her father and was dominated by her well-meaning, yet fiercely ambitious, mother. She couldn't find love and never had children. And when she finally did marry, to a man she loved from afar for many years, he turned out to be very different from what she expected: a hero to his people, but not always to his wife. Darcey Bussell goes behind the scenes at the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet and travels from London to New York and Panama looking for Margot. She finds how Margot lost out in love, got drawn into a failed foreign revolution, danced on for far too long and died alone and in poverty, miles from home. Along the way, Darcey speaks to many people who have not spoken out before about Margot. In the end, Darcey learns that by following her heart, Margot did find a kind of happiness, even though it came at a very high price.
Documentary which follows the construction of a trailblazing 36,000-tonne steel structure to entomb the ruins of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It films close up with the team of international engineers as they race to build the new structure before Chernobyl's original concrete sarcophagus - the hastily built structure that covers the reactor - collapses. Built to last just thirty years, the temporary sarcophagus is now crumbling, putting the world at risk of another release of radioactive dust. Radiation levels make it impossible for workers to build the new shelter directly over the old reactor, so engineers are erecting the new megastructure - taller than the tower of Big Ben and three times heavier than the Eiffel Tower - to one side and will then face the challenge of sliding the largest object ever moved on land into place over the old reactor.
We have now had 16 years of mainstream education for children with disabilities in Scotland. After decades of struggle for a more equal society, it is now presumed that every child will go to a mainstream school where at all possible. But does this mean real inclusion, or are we letting disabled children drift to the back of the class?
Nigella Lawson leads a tribute to food writer Anna Del Conte, who helped transform Britain's understanding and appreciation of Italian cooking. Born in Milan in 1925, Del Conte moved to England in 1949, an era when foreign cuisine was a something of a mystery to many British people. Through her books, she raised awareness of Italian cooking's subtlety and sophistication, paving the way to the foodie culture of today. With contributions from Giorgio Locatelli, Antonio Carluccio, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Prue Leith and Tom Parker Bowles.
Animal drama that tells the story of a year in the life of an extraordinary village, hidden away in the timeless French countryside. Narrated by Tcheky Karyo, this tale reveals the parallel world of incredible tiny creatures that live side by side with the unsuspecting humans. Red squirrels, wild boar, edible dormice and a cunning stone marten all take advantage of the riches of the village, whilst doing their best not to get caught! Can they outwit the villagers and survive the seasons? Seen from the perspective of these secretive animals, their adventures are happening right beneath our feet!
As he prepares to grace the Strictly ballroom for the final time, Len Goodman looks back over a dozen years beneath the glitter ball. The programme features behind-the-scenes footage, archive moments and interviews with judges and contestants past and present.
Darcey Bussell, for twenty years Britain's premier dancer with the Royal Ballet, was documented at regular intervals throughout her ballet career by BBC cameras and also appeared on many of the corporation'sbiggest entertainment shows. Darcey tells her own story through a carefully woven choice of archive from her debut appearance on Blue Peter as a 16-year-old in the early 80s to jiving on Strictly Come Dancing following her retirement from the Royal Ballet in 2007. Packed with historic archive performances from the stage of the Royal Opera House and beyond, combined with candid documentary interviews from behind the dressing room door filmed at intervals during her stellar career, this is a celebration and a history of the ballet dancer who grew up in public and conquered television on the way.
Viewers are invited to join Dame Shirley Bassey for a special night of entertainment, ahead of her 80th birthday. The event is hosted by comedian David Walliams.
Inspired by his acerbic and often hilarious diaries, this documentary shows Alan Bennett as he has never been seen before. The film follows Bennett to New York, the scene of his early triumph in Beyond the Fringe; to his community library in Primrose Hill which, he despairs, some would rather see turned into a pizza restaurant; to the East Coast railway line, which he would like to see renationalised; and to the village in Yorkshire he calls home. Intimate encounters, filmed over a year, reveal a writer who is bemused by his own popularity and is still as angry and irreverent in his 80s as he was in his 20s. Leafing through private photographs, Bennett reflects on his modest beginnings and his enduring gratitude to a welfare state that paid for his education and looked after his parents in their old age. With a satirical force that has never left him, he also attacks the politics of today.
This Christmas, step into the magical world of The Nutcracker. For the first time in many years, the Royal Ballet has given full access behind the scenes for a landmark 90-minute documentary as they prepare for this season's yuletide production. This year's Nutcracker marks the debut of one of Britain's brightest young stars, Francesca Hayward, in one of the most famous roles in ballet (and every little girl's dream) - the Sugar Plum Fairy. Stepping into the shoes of the greatest dancers ever to grace the stage - from Darcey Bussell to Margot Fonteyn - we follow her as she prepares to dance the role that made her want to be a ballerina when she was just three years old. The production also sees the debut of numerous young dancers across the company, from its youngest stars at the Royal Ballet School playing the roles of party children and battling mice to the final year students dancing as snowflakes on the journey to the Land of the Sweets. With unprecedented access to the creative departments, from set designers to tutu makers, and including beautiful performance sequences, this film takes the viewer directly into the Royal Ballet during the busiest and most magical time of the year. In so doing, it reveals not just the talent of the dancers, but also the extraordinary team behind the scenes that makes The Nutcracker one of the world's most spectacular ballets.
West Side Story is one of the best-loved musicals of all time. A modern-day Romeo and Juliet, its timeless story and exhilarating dance and music continue to excite audiences around the globe. Songs such as Maria, Somewhere, Tonight and America have all become some of the biggest hits in showbusiness. And yet, West Side Story had an uneasy birth and was even turned away by producers when it was first put together in the 1950s by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents. Now, as the world prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of West Side Story in 2017, dancer Bruno Tonioli and broadcaster Suzy Klein go in search of the true stories behind the inception of this classic show. For the first time on television, they hear first-hand from those involved in the show when it opened on Broadway in September 1957, including Sondheim himself, producer Hal Prince and original cast members from both show and movie, including Chita Rivera Carol Lawrence and Rita Moreno. With the BBC Symphony Orchestra and specially cast singers, we re-live some of the wonderful music and, in the company of Suzy and Bruno, we discover how West Side Story placed the 1950s phenomena of racial tension and teenage gangs centre stage to create a hit that changed musical theatre forever.
An intimate portrait of Judi Dench, one of the most outstanding and best-loved British actors of all time, told by some of the biggest names in entertainment - Daniel Craig, Stephen Frears, Pierce Brosnan, Samantha Bond and Sir Ian McKellen.
Sir Peter Wright is a living legend, celebrated as the founder of Birmingham Royal Ballet and for his much-loved productions of such classics as The Nutcracker and Giselle. Still at work in his 90th year inBritain and Europe, Wright gives his first major television interview about his life and career, with contributions from Darcey Bussell and other great names of the dance world, as well as rare and extraordinary archive.
Wildlife cameraman and television presenter Gordon Buchanan travels to northern Norway and the Austrian Alps to search for animals that have adapted to the snowy conditions and cold weather. The programme features polar bears raising their cubs, owls keeping their food supplies hidden under a layer of snow, penguins that huddle together for warmth, black bears battling against a storm and wolverines and ravens working together to find food. Gordon also takes a look at the lives of animals which are associated with Christmas, including robins trying to find food when the ground is frozen and reindeer, revealing the truth behind the story of Rudolph's red nose.
Enjoy the view from the driving seat of the world's most famous steam locomotive as Flying Scotsman travels the length of the Severn Valley Railway, with 'cab cameras' capturing all the action from the footplate. Veteran driver Roger Norfolk and fireman Ryan Green guide this national treasure through the beautiful countryside of the English midlands, from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster. Roger and Ryan explain the skills involved in taking control of the Scotsman, while hundreds of enthusiasts watch and wave from platforms, bridges and surrounding fields.
Every autumn, polar bears gather on the shores of Canada's Hudson Bay, waiting for the sea ice to form so they can begin their winter hunt. Right in their path lies the community of Churchill, Manitoba, where, for two months a year, locals have to share their home with the world's largest terrestrial carnivore. Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan heads north at the peak of bear season to discover what life is really like in the tiny town that has become known as the 'polar bear capital of the world'. Gordon goes on patrol with the town's polar bear cops, works alongside the bin men who have to dodge bears every day at the dump and meets a young woman who was mauled by a bear, right on the main street. Thousands of tourists also pour into town. For them, a trip to Churchill is a chance to catch a glimpse of an endangered icon. For the locals, it is just everyday life. Gordon discovers first hand that keeping everyone safe is no easy feat. The question is, can bears and people ever make good neighbours?
Stacey Dooley embeds herself on the frontline with the extraordinary all–female Yazidi battalion, who are fuelled to take revenge against the so-called Islamic State for what the UN has condemned as the ‘largest mass kidnapping this century’. As the battle to take nearby Mosul out of ISIS hands moves into its final phase in Northern Iraq, in this extraordinary film for BBC Three Stacey finds these young women’s lives have been transformed by a desire to avenge ISIS and shows what daily life is like in these war zones. In 2014 50,000 Yazidi people fled their ancestral lands in Kurdish Northern Iraq to Mount Sinjar away from the advance of ISIS. Without food and water thousands died on the mountain and the ones left behind were massacred or captured. More than 5,000 women were taken to be used as sex slaves, with an estimated 2,000 women remain in captivity. Two years after the genocide, Stacey spends a tough and moving two weeks with this battalion of brave young women. Formed by the renowned Yazidi singer Xate Shingali they have transformed into brave fighters. Many of them have escaped the incomprehensible horrors of ISIS and are determined to rescue Yazidi women still under ISIS control. These female fighters strike fear into the heart of the Jihadists as they believe if they are killed by a woman they will not make it the heavenly afterlife. Stacey meets cadets at their training camp, a former secondary school, as they prepare to join the ranks of this powerful military force. She then journeys with them in their military get up to the frontline as they prepare to fight. Along the way these women share with Stacey happy memories of their previous lives then the unimaginable trauma they have endured at the hands of ISIS. With extraordinary access, Stacey Dooley for BBC Three finds young lives transformed by a desire to avenge ISIS and shows what daily life has really become in these war zones threatened by ISIS control.
Yulia Stepanova and her husband exposed one of the greatest sporting scandals ever - the systemic Russian state-sponsored doping programme.
Sanjeev Kohli takes a humorous look at how films have shown Scots, the Scots character and stereotypes, celebrating some of our most memorable onscreen moments. Are we really as mean, parochial and up for a fight as the movies often make us out to be? Sanjeev examines which Scottish stereotypes have a whiff of truth and which ones should be fed to the Loch Ness Monster. Packed with great film clips from both famous classics and lesser-known cult gems, the programme features contributions from an impressive supporting cast list, including actors Kate Dickie, Clare Grogan, Gary Lewis, Denis Lawson, Alex Norton and Tam Dean Burn. From popular adaptations of Kidnapped and Rob Roy to war dramas such as The Great Escape, from the wily islanders of Whisky Galore to the dark urban humour of films such as Shallow Grave, we look at what stories these films have told the world about us, and what these characters can teach us about ourselves. We eavesdrop on tourists taking in the sights with an Outlander tour, drawn to visit Scotland through our most expensive ever drama production, and we celebrate an unexpected staple of Scottish cinema: Scottish men crying.
Andrew Scott narrates a special programme which celebrates winter and explores how animals and plants rise to the challenges it brings. With their world encased in snow and ice, animals must find the most inventive ways to survive and even benefit from the cold. Caribou become ice road travellers as it gets slippery underfoot, stoats make their own fur bedding, and snow monkeys find a warm bath. Emperor penguins are built for the cold weather, but even they must find their own tricks to endure the world's most savage winter.
The bagpipes may be the national instrument of Scotland, but in the past fifty years, Ulster has become the bedrock of the pipe band world. This is the inside story of two pipe bands. Thiepval Memorial is led by a fearsome female pipe major with a serious passion for the music. McDonald Memorial are a band with family traditions to uphold. From practices to competition, we follow them to the climax of their year - performing at the Belfast Tattoo.
Could you make it as a bodybuilder? MASS champion Phoebe Hagan gives Radio 1 presenter Adele Roberts a hardcore 30 day diet and training regime, to get in competition shape. Adele's month has her living out of tupperware, constantly eating smelly protein-rich fish, ditching the takeaways, sweating it out daily in the gym with extended cardio sessions and overcoming tiredness, sleep deprivation and the mental challenge of pushing through. Regular sessions with the Gym Reaper, Phoebe Hagan, keeps Adele on track to follow the strict diet and exercise regime. The Body Coach, Joe Wicks, offers Adele tips about how she can actually enjoy living a healthy lifestyle while attempting to get in shape. Adele also meets another female bodybuilding champion, Brittany Rhodes, who shows her what a winning physique looks like. Plus Adele scientifically tracks her progress with help from the University of Westminster's BodPod. From killer cravings to perfect poses, can Adele really make it through her month of hell to flaunt fab flexes and mad muscle definition?
Newsreader Jamie Owen is going on a diet that goes directly against government healthy eating advice, and common sense. For the past 30 years we have been told the key to a healthy lifestyle is cutting out fat. However, as a nation we have got bigger, Jamie included. A controversial new report says the current government advice is making us bigger, and that the food industry is telling us what to eat. The report says that it isn't butter, milk and other fat that is to blame and the problem lies elsewhere. Join Jamie as he investigates these weighty issues and makes himself a guinea pig for a diet that aims to make us rethink the way we try to control our waistlines.
The awe inspiring story of four working mums from Yorkshire who became the oldest women to ever row across an ocean.
A look at a chapter of his career that is rarely covered, MICHAEL JACKSON's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall chronicles the star's rise to fame through to the release of his seminal album Off the Wall. Viewers travel with Michael as he gets his start at Motown, strikes a new path with CBS Records and forges a relationship with legendary record producer Quincy Jones. Director Spike Lee assembles a wealth of archival footage, including material from Michael's personal collection, plus interviews with contemporary talents and family members to create an insightful portrait of how an earnest, passionate, hard-working boy would become the 'King of Pop'.
To mark the opening of the much anticipated, revamped Tate Modern, with its new Switch building more than doubling the amount of space it has on London's Bankside, a look behind the scenes to reveal new director Frances Morris's drive to increase the amount of international, female and performance-related work to make it a museum for the 21st century. With exclusive access to the Tate's 'secret stores', where some of the new work will come from, members of its congregation explain how they feel the £260m transformation of this cathedral to contemporary art is money well spent, while others think its expansion in a time of recession is sacrilegious. Andrew Marr and Brenda Emmanus present from the opening night celebrations with contributions from Tate supremo Sir Nicholas Serota, artists Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley, critics Waldemar Januszczak and Jennifer Higgie, and comedians and painters Harry Hill and Vic Reeves.
Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon talks for the first time about being winched off his capsized yacht, as David George goes behind the scenes with Cornwall's 771 Naval Air Squadron flying its final rescue missions.
Showing as part of How Wales Works. Three Welsh personalities - singer and presenter Wynne Evans, weather presenter Behnaz Akhgar and stand-up comedian Omar Hamdi - attempt to get A* grades in real GCSE exams. Wynne studies Second Language Welsh, Behnaz tackles Maths and Omar takes History. Each of them use different techniques - Wynne is mentored by a teacher from Whitchurch High School in Cardiff, Behnaz has a private tutor and Omar does minimal revision and study before taking the exam. Will they make the grade?
Poachers are wiping out Africa's elephants to feed Asia's hunger for ivory. As Kenya burns the biggest haul of tusks in history, the BBC's Alastair Leithead joins the war on poaching in the Congo and meets the hunters saving Namibia's elephants.
Mark D'Arcy reports on new research recreating the lost Royal Chapel of St Stephen's - the first permanent home of the House of Commons.
Maybe you got a drone for Christmas? But you probably didn't realise it's illegal to fly it in most of the places you're probably thinking of flying it. James Waterhouse asks, Drones: What's The Fuss? He lifts the lid on the weird and wonderful ways that drones have been used around the UK, and speaks to the Civil Aviation Authority and the Aviation Minister to find out exactly what the rules are.
Classic Bee Gees studio performances from the BBC and beyond including all the big hits, rare 60s performances from European TV, including a stunning I Started a Joke, a rarely seen Top of the Pops performance of World, the big hits of the 70s and some late performances from the 90s, with the brothers Gibb in perfect harmony
Claudia Winkleman meets Michael Buble in this entertainment spectacular. Michael performs classic tracks including Cry Me a River and Feeling Good alongside songs from his brand new album, including Nobody but Me. Michael also goes undercover as a sales assistant at a London department store to surprise a few unsuspecting fans.
From Black Watch to Tutti Frutti, The James Plays to the Glasgow Girls, in its first ten years the National Theatre of Scotland has produced an eclectic and exciting range of theatre, reaching out to audiences across Scotland and beyond. With music and song often at its heart, NTS have created a body of work that has both reflected and celebrated Scotland's place in the world. Actors, directors, writers and audience members look back on what has certainly been a dramatic decade.
At the end of the 1970s a nervy young musician topped the music charts and quickly became one of the most famous men on the planet. Three decades of groundbreaking and hugely influential music followed, then came six long years of silence. This documentary follows the godfather of electronic music on a one-way trip to crack America, break into Hollywood and return to the studio for the first time in nearly a decade. It is also an intimate story of love and second chances for Numan, wife Gemma and their family as they set up home in Los Angeles.
In the spring of 1981 Irish Republican Bobby Sands' 66-day hunger strike brought the attention of the world to his cause. Drawing on an Irish Republican tradition of martyrdom, Sands' emotive, non-violent protest to be classified as a political prisoner became a defining moment in 20th century Irish history. Sands' death after 66 days marked a key turning point in the relationship between Britain and Ireland, and brought a global spotlight to the Northern Irish conflict which eventually triggered international efforts to resolve it. 66 DAYS is a major feature length documentary exploring Sands' remarkable life and death, 35 years on from his ultimate sacrifice.
Documentary which explores how Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris's careers took off in the 1970s with very distinct takes on country, but how they ended up uniting as close harmony singers and eventually collaborated on 1987's four-million-selling debut album, Trio. In the 60s country music was viewed by most of America as blue collar and Dolly was country through and through. Linda Ronstadt's take on classic country helped make her the biggest female star in mid-70s USA. Folkie Emmylou learned about country from mentor Gram Parsons and, after his death in 1973, she became a bandleader in her own right. It was Emmylou and Linda - the two west coast folk rockers - who voiced their mutual appreciation of Dolly, the mountain girl singer from Tennessee, when they became early students of her work. The artists talk about uniting as harmony singers and eventually collaborating on their debut album, Trio. The album helped launch the mountain music revival that would peak with the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou. In 2012 Linda Ronstadt was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which left her unable to sing, but 2016 sees unreleased songs from their sessions to create a third Trio album. This is the story of how their alliance made them pioneers in bringing different music worlds together and raising the game for women in the country tradition. Contributors: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Rodney Crowell, George Lucas, Peter Asher, Chris Hillman, Laura Cantrell, Robert K Oermann, John Boylan, Phil Kaufman, David Lindley, Albert Lee, Herb Pedersen, George Massenberg & Applewood Road.
Week In Week Out reveals the inside story of how Welsh police uncovered one of the UK's biggest ever motor insurance frauds. A Blackwood family ran a huge network of people crashing cars for cash, but they made a fatal error that was to lead to their conviction and imprisonment.
Military charities are big business. Every year millions of pounds are given in donations, but how much actually reaches those who need it? Reporter Sam Poling goes undercover to investigate whether some in the industry are simply cashing in on the public's goodwill. She catches on camera the sales tactics being used by supposed former veterans to line their own pockets and secretly films racist merchandise being sold by one military charity to raise funds. And she challenges the charities' regulatory system which allows all of this to happen.
Showing as part of the How Wales Works season. Filmed at Goetre Primary School on the Gurnos estate, Merthyr Tydfil, the programme follows the charismatic head teacher, Denise Morgan MBE, in her final term after nearly 30 years at the school.
Ripley Academy in Lancaster is the biggest and one of the most successful schools in Lancashire, but despite its outstanding Ofsted report the school can't get its teenage pupils to engage in one of the most important skills imaginable - reading. It's a problem secondary schools and parents are facing across the country. Now Ripley are trying something completely new. They have invited actor and comedian Javone Prince to shake things up a bit - and life in school is about to change. With the help of local lass and reading champion Helen Skelton, Javone's mission is to inspire the school's most reluctant readers to take the plunge and make reading for pleasure a habit for life.
The sky was clearing in Belfast on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, as 180 German bombers took off from aerodromes in northern France. The pilots were in high spirits: 'We were in exceptional good humour knowing that we were going for one of England's last hiding places. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.' The city was woefully ill-prepared for attack, and the Luftwaffe bombed Belfast almost completely unopposed. At one point the chief fire officer was found beneath a table in Chichester Street fire station, weeping and refusing to come out. An eye witness recalled: 'The sky was red, pure red.
Sir Lenny Henry tells the story behind his success, after being honoured with a special award at 2016's BAFTAs. Celebrating Lenny's outstanding career in television, this one-off special delves into the archives to showcase some of his incredible work. Featuring an in-depth interview with the man himself, the special looks at everything from his big break aged 16 on New Faces through his instrumental roles in Tiswas and Comic Relief to the present day. Including interviews from people who helped shape Lenny's glittering career, such as Richard Curtis OBE, Kim Fuller, Lord Michael Grade, Sir Trevor McDonald and Chris Tarrant.
On the 23 June, Britain voted to leave the European Union. Then, on the 4 July, Nigel Farage, the man who had made it all possible, resigned saying he wanted his life back. But what sort of life has he gone back to, and how does a man forever in the spotlight fill his days now he has nothing to do? Starring Kevin Bishop as Farage, Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back is a fly-on-the-wall mockumentary following the day-to-day reality of being Nigel Farage.
Mockumentary starring Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk, who explores the traditions and trappings of Christmas. Philomena looks at pagan winter festivals, the Nativity story, 'Sir Charles Dickings' and Santa Claus, and also grills a variety of experts to try and expose hard truths about Christmas.
Fresh or processed, white or red - how does meat measure up? It's been getting a lot of bad press recently with new links to cancer and heart disease. But 98 per cent of us in the UK are still meat eaters. Chris Bavin, a greengrocer by trade and a carnivore by nature, wants to know if he can keep meat in his diet and stay healthy.
How Welsh women helped Britain to win the First World War. Historian Deirdre Beddoe meets women working today in jobs that opened up to women during the war - in arming, feeding and policing the nation. Together they explore the war's liberating impact on women's lives.
Summer 2003: Bob Monkhouse entertains a room full of comedians with stand-up, chat and a comedy masterclass. The night became the stuff of legend among comedians but was not transmitted until much later.
Prògram aithriseach mu dheidhinn Seumas MacEanraig, duine suaicheanta ann an cultar na h-Alba, fear le spionnadh gun chrìoch agus tha a bhàrdachd fhathast a' toirt togail agus a' brosnachadh na dùthcha. Tha am film aithriseach a' dèanamh luaidh air beatha ioma-fhìllte MhicEanraig; bàrd, saighdear, fear tulchuiseach, iomairtiche, sgrìobhaiche òrain agus na chùl-taic dha ath-bheothachadh ceòl traidiseanta na h-Alba. Bho thaigh nan dìlleachdan agus trannsaichean Cambridge gu bhith os cionn ghnothaichean nuair a ghèill feachdan na h-Eadailt anns an Dàrna Cogadh. An dèidh sin chaidh an leabhar "Freedom Come Aa' Ye" a sgrìobhadh - sgeulachd beatha MhicEanraig leis an fheadhainn a bha eòlach air agus a bha measail air. Tha luaidh ga dhèanamh air sàr-Albannach, a' fighe seann fhilmichean agus àrd-mholaidhean bho chàirdean agus bho charaidean. Documentary film about Hamish Henderson, a colossal figure in Scottish culture and a man of endless passion and curiosity, whose poems continue to elevate and inspire a nation. This highly anticipated documentary pays tribute to the many contrary forces and diverse facets of Henderson's life as a poet, soldier, intellectual, activist, songwriter and leading force in the revival of Scottish folk music. From an English orphanage and the draughty corridors of Cambridge to overseeing the capitulation of the Italian army in WWII and penning the most celebrated Scottish ballad in contemporary folk music, Freedom Come Aa' Ye, this is Henderson's life as told by those who knew him best and loved him most.
Documentary about the life and legacy of Walt Disney, featuring archival footage only recently released from the Disney vaults, alongside scenes from some of his greatest films and the sketches from which they were created. Those who helped turn his dreams into reality - his friends, family, animators and designers - reveal the real man behind the legend. They disclose the previously unknown processes, single-mindedness and sometimes sheer unpleasantness and discrimination that lay behind his seemingly effortless masterpieces. Through bankruptcy, strikes, great risk and more, Disney's refusal to accept failure and his determined pursuit of his creative vision produced cartoons and movies that would define an entire industry. Both an inspiring story and a cautionary tale about the price of ambition, this film offers an unprecedented look at the man who created a world and built an empire. Part one explores Disney's early days, when he created Mickey Mouse, through to the triumph of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film.
The life and legacy of Walt Disney, featuring archival footage only recently released from the Disney vaults, alongside scenes from some of his greatest films and the sketches which created them. Those who helped turn his dreams into reality - his friends, family and his animators and designers - reveal the real man behind the legend. They disclose the previously unknown processes, single-mindedness and sometimes sheer unpleasantness and discrimination that lay behind his seemingly effortless masterpieces. Through bankruptcy, strikes, great risk and more, Disney's refusal to accept failure and his single-minded pursuit of his creative vision produced cartoons and movies that would define an entire industry. Both and inspiring story and a cautionary tale about the price of ambition, Walt Disney offers an unprecedented look at the man who created a world and built an empire. Part two explores Disney's later years as he makes films such as Cinderella and Mary Poppins, and realises his dream project, Disneyland.
The reputation of Thomas Cromwell is as a notorious thug who became Henry VIII's Chief Minister yet this documentary reveals another side to him as a principled statesman and pioneering law maker who laid the foundations of the modern British State.
Another chance to enjoy the view from the driving seat of the world's most famous steam locomotive as Flying Scotsman travels the length of the Severn Valley Railway. Special 'cab cameras' and microphones capture all the action from the footplate - this time without commentary. Viewers can appreciate the evocative sound of steam transportation as this magnificent engine attracts crowds from far and wide. Veteran driver Roger Norfolk and fireman Ryan Green guide Scotsman on the leisurely journey through the countryside of the English Midlands, from Bridgnorth in Shropshire to Kidderminster in Worcestershire. Hundreds of enthusiasts also watch and wave from platforms, bridges and surrounding fields.
Livvy Haydock examines the network of exploitation of migrant workers in the UK, as she meets the men who sit outside our local car parks from dawn in the hope of finding cash in hand work From the landlords who house these men like sardines – 120 from one car park packed into 4 houses - to the white van men who exploit them to cut costs, Livvy discovers who's benefiting from this underground system and the huge risks Eastern European workers are exposed to for a £60 a day job. She meets a 27-year old Romanian worker who reveals the shocking conditions of his construction job to a Hungarian who is now homeless after being left for dead after a fall during an off-the-books demolition job. What starts as big dreams of changing their lives and sending back money to their families can quickly turn to tragedy for these men. But as supply-and-demand drives up the numbers of Eastern Europeans coming over to join this workforce, it seems this "Illegal Job Centre" will continue to thrive.
Dr Xand van Tulleken takes a satirical look back on 2016 in health news. With a round-up of the some of the most baffling medical headlines of the year, he investigates whether rollercoasters really do cure kidney stones, whether paracetamol is turning us into a nation of psychopaths and whether we need to rethink how we use the loo. Drawing on his medical expertise and personal experience as a doctor, Xand picks apart the facts behind the tabloid hype - including his take on the real reasons behind 2016's junior doctors' strike. With stunts, sketches, experiments and expert interviews, Second Opinion is the show that is knowledgeable enough to pull the nonsense out of the headlines but professional enough not to ask how it got in there.
There was nothing predictable about David Bowie - everything was designed to intrigue, to challenge, to defy all expectations. But perhaps no period in David Bowie’s extraordinary career raised more fascination, more surprise, and more questions, than the last five years. This film - to be broadcast on the night before what would have been Bowie’s 70th birthday - is an intimate portrait of one of the defining artists of our time, told by the people who knew him best: his friends and artistic collaborators. It follows the widely acclaimed film David Bowie: Five Years, first broadcast on BBC Two in 2013. It takes a detailed look at Bowie’s last albums The Next Day and Blackstar, and his play Lazarus. Through the prism of this last work the film shows how, in his final five years, Bowie not only began producing music again but returned to the core and defining themes of his career. These were artistic rebirth, a shedding of skins, a quest for a different palette to express the same big ideas - dissonance, alienation, otherness - the human condition. The film explores how Bowie was a far more consistent artist than many interpretations of his career would have us believe, by tracing the core themes from his final works through his incredible back catalogue. Viewers will see Major Tom reflected in Blackstar; Diamond Dogs in the play Lazarus; and Fame in the song The Stars (Are Out Tonight). Bowie’s urge to communicate feelings of spirituality, alienation and fame underpin his greatest works, from the 1960s to 2016. This is what lies at the heart of his success and appeal, music that deals with what it means to be human in a way that goes far beyond the normal palette of a rock star. This film is not a comprehensive overview of his entire career, but an in-depth exploration of its pivotal moments and a look at how the themes, the narrative, the approach are consistent - it is simply the palette that changes. It features every key member of the
Ten massive tower blocks once stood tall at Glasgow's Sighthill Estate. Built in the 1960s, this iconic development was home to thousands of residents before a historic regeneration project swept through the estate demolishing all the high rises over the past decade. Sighthill tells the story of a handful of these residents who lived or frequented the almost empty remaining two blocks before demolition. New houses were being constructed in the shadow of the towers, signalling the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the people who were determined to stay and help rebuild this once thriving community. Award-winning film-maker Darren Hercher follows the day-to-day existence of teenager Gary, who spent much of his troubled childhood in care and returns to Sighthill where most of his family still live. He faces one of the most challenging and uncertain periods of his life as his mother tragically dies. Robert shares a bedroom with five sisters after his room became uninhabitable due to mould and dampness on the walls. A lively and energetic young boy, he dreams of moving into a new home and having his very own space again. And Yonan, who arrived from Iraq as an asylum seeker, loves living in Sighthill after spending 13 years in an Iranian jail. This is an intimate yet unflinching documentary exploring the final chapter of the old blocks and the beginning of a new era for the people of Sighthill.
Ten years after the bloody aftermath of demonstrations at the Gdansk shipyards, a new uprising in the early 1980s is bolstered by the unexpected appearance of Lech Walesa, an electrician who had lost his job at the yards for his trade union activities, and is now gaining a reputation as an inspirational speaker prepared to defy the ruling communist party.
Documentary. As households struggle to make ends meet, illegal money lenders are preying on the vulnerable by encouraging them to take out unlicensed loans, charging huge interest rates and then using extreme levels of violence, intimidation and shame to make them pay. This progamme hears from the victims who are still living with the terrifying consequences of their borrowing and meets some who are fighting back. While business is booming for the loan sharks, the work of the Illegal Money Lending Team has never been more urgent. We follow this small but dedicated team from the moment a call comes into the hotline, through intelligence gathering, dawn raids, arrests and convictions in their battle to stop loan sharks in their tracks.
Livvy Haydock explores the secretive world of gang girls, to understand the real stories behind the rising trend in sexual exploitation and violence against girls by gang members - and discovers how quickly female victims turn perpetrators. She enters a gang safe house and meets a young woman whose 'initiation list' included the kidnap and rape of her friend. Livvy also meets a notorious gang girl whose life for the last decade has been dominated by violence – and has lost 30 friends to the streets. These girls are entrenched and traumatized. Livvy asks if it's ever possible to break out of gang life, as she visits Kings College Hospital A&E where a unique project is identifying and reaching young women at a rare moment when they are willing to trust and talk.
Around the world there has been a huge increase in the number of children being referred to gender clinics - boys saying they want to be girls and vice versa. Increasingly, parents are encouraged to adopt a 'gender affirmative' approach - fully supporting their children's change of identity. But is this approach right? In this challenging documentary, BBC Two's award-winning This World strand travels to Canada, where one of the world's leading experts in childhood gender dysphoria (the condition where children are unhappy with their biological sex) lost his job for challenging the new orthodoxy that children know best. Speaking on TV for the first time since his clinic was closed, Dr Kenneth Zucker believes he is a victim of the politicisation of transgender issues. The film presents evidence that most children with gender dysphoria eventually overcome the feelings without transitioning and questions the science behind the idea that a boy could somehow be born with a 'female brain' or vice versa. It also features 'Lou' - who was born female and had a double mastectomy as part of transitioning to a man. She now says it is a decision that 'haunts' her and feels that her gender dysphoria should have been treated as a mental health issue. This documentary examines Zucker's methods, but it also includes significant contributions from his critics and supporters of gender affirmation, including transgender activists in Canada and leading medical experts as well as parents with differing experiences of gender dysphoria and gender reassignment.
Twelve-year-old Rory Brown has Tourette Syndrome. After recently moving to secondary school his physical and verbal outbursts have exploded. In 1988 John Davidson featured in the BBC documentary ‘John’s Not Mad’. Determined that no other child should go through the horrific experience he had as a child, he’s taken Rory under his wing. Unlike when John was growing up, Rory has the advantage of support at school. Both John and his pupil support teacher introduce Rory and his Tourettes to those around him in the local community. A visit to the local police station highlights the difficulties Rory has as his uncontrollable tics cause havoc in the face of authority.
A chronology of clips from the BBC archive giving an overview of David Bowie's extraordinary career from 1964 to 2016. Blending interviews and performances from music programmes, documentaries, news outlets and chat shows, this portrait of Bowie both at his most thoughtful and his most opportunistically promotional is a series of snapshots into a rapidly evolving career across music, films and the theatre. From a 17-year-old David Jones interviewed by Cliff Michelmore in 1964, on to 1973 when in Ziggy mode Bowie, Ronson and co gave their seminal Top of the Pops performance of Starman. Then to 2000 when Bowie reimagined himself as the cover of Hunky Dory to storm Glastonbury, this is a journey through many Bowies. The programme includes other classic Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Later... with Jools' performances and looks at Bowie the actor with interviews about his roles in The Elephant Man, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Labyrinth. Bowie at the BBC gives an insight into the many ways Bowie chose to present himself at different moments in time, revealing how innovative, funny, surprising and influential he always was.
For two centuries The Scotsman newspaper has been at the heart of the nation, uncovering corruption, skewering politicians, celebrating the arts and prepared to robustly defend its trenchant views, even at the point of a pistol. The programme tells the fascinating story of one of Britain's most famous newspapers and how over two centuries it has both reflected and shaped the nation.
Almost half of the UK’s nightclubs have closed down over the past decade. In this film, broadcaster and international DJ Annie Mac investigates who is killing our nightlife. Is it property developers, the police or local councils who are contributing to the decline? Or is it just the fact young people are changing the way they go about partying, with the advent of all-day parties, illegal raves and the internet?
In June 2016, 20-year-old Briton Michael Sandford was arrested at a Donald Trump rally after trying to take a police officer's gun in a bid to shoot the then-Republican presidential nominee. Michael immediately found himself at the centre of a media storm and the mercy of America's notoriously harsh justice system. After pleading guilty, he faced years behind bars. But how did a young middle-class boy from suburban Surrey who suffers from Asperger's end up thousands of miles from home? And what drove him to attempt to kill one of the most powerful men in the world? This programme follows Michael's family as they travel to the US for his sentencing, unsure of when they might see him again. Set against the backdrop of Trump's remarkable rise to the White House, the documentary explores Michael's complicated past while using exclusive eyewitness interviews and never-before-seen archive to piece together the elaborate assassination plot and attempt to find out why he did it.
This documentary by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle tells the extraordinary story of a strange cult, which came to light in 2013 when a sensational news story broke about three women emerging from a small flat in Brixton in south London after decades in captivity. Tracing the group back to its roots in the 1970s, the film describes how its leader Aravindan Balakrishnan, a student of Indian origin, believed in an international communist revolution and created a tiny political sect that followed the teachings of China's Chairman Mao. The film features exclusive interviews with two of the women who escaped - Aisha Wahab, a 72-year-old Malaysian woman who was part of Balakrishnan's group for 40 years, and Katy Morgan-Davies, Balakrishnan's daughter, who was born and raised in captivity. The film documents how this left-wing collective evolved into a bizarre pseudo-religious cult, where members were controlled, threatened and brainwashed so that they were too terrified to leave.
A new type of business is booming on America’s high streets. The ‘Anger Room’ is a place ordinary Americans can have an extraordinary experience – smashing and bashing whatever they want and venting their anger in a safe, confined space. Filmmaker Ed Hancox follows 10-year-old Izzy, who is struggling with anger management issues and uses the Anger Room to try and help herself, and 19-year-old Christian, who uses the Anger Room to help deal with his emotions after finding out he was adopted.
After 200 years under lock and key, all the personal papers of one of our most important monarchs are for the first time seeing the light of day. In the first documentary to gain extensive access to the Royal Archives, Robert Hardman sheds fascinating new light on George III, Britain's longest reigning king. George III may be chiefly remembered for his madness, but these private documents reveal a monarch who was a political micromanager and a restless patron of science and the arts, an obsessive traveller who never left southern England yet toured the world in his mind and a man who was driven (sometimes to distraction) by his sense of duty to his family and his country. Featuring Simon Callow and Sian Thomas as the voices of King George and Queen Charlotte.
Snooker super-fan Alistair McGowan takes a trip through the BBC archives for an affectionate look at the lives and careers of three of snooker's best-loved and most charismatic stars - Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White and Ronnie 'the Rocket' O'Sullivan. We look at the early television appearances that captured each of them before they really hit the big time, chart the ups and downs of their careers and examine programmes ranging from Wogan to Top Gear to get a real sense of why each of this trio were, in their day, known as 'The People's Champions'.
Alistair McGowan looks at the legends of the green baize who helped make snooker both a national obsession and a television phenomenon. Alistair's exploration of the BBC archive's deepest pockets uncovers rare interviews with the players who set new standards in the game, from the explosion of characters and colour in the 1970s to the dominance of Davis and Hendry in the 80s and 90s, and the famous black-ball final of 1985 that shattered nerves and TV viewing figures.
Francis Bacon was the loudest, rudest, drunkest, most sought after British artist of the 20th century. 25 years after his death, his canvases regularly exceed £40million at auction. Bacon's appeal is rooted in his notoriety - a candid image he presented of himself as Roaring Boy, Lord of Misrule and Conveyor of Artistic Violence. This was true enough, but only part of the truth. He carefully cultivated the facade, protecting the complex and haunted man behind the myth. In this unique, compelling film, those who knew him speak freely, some for the first time, to reveal the many mysteries of Francis Bacon.
In a very intimate story, broadcaster and political journalist Andrew Marr is on a mission to understand the mysteries of the human brain and to achieve further recovery after suffering a life-threatening stroke four years ago. Andrew quickly regained his ability to speak and was able to resume work after his stroke, but he is still frustrated by lack of movement in his left arm, hand and leg. Andrew meets some of Britain's million stroke survivors and travels the world in search of a miracle cure.
Celebrate a milestone birthday and all things Dot Cotton as EastEnders actress June Brown chats about her life and career. Featuring famous Walford faces and one or two surprises.
Twins Rose and Charlotte lost their mum to breast cancer when they were just ten. Now, as adults, the twins have discovered they too have the BRCA2 gene that predisposes them to the same condition as their mum. We follow the twins through pre-emptive double mastectomy operations - a choice they have made to reduce their chances of developing breast cancer.
Poignant and humorous film telling the story of the hugely popular author Terry Pratchett, creator of Discworld, whose books have sold over 85 million copies worldwide. When the writer Sir Terry Pratchett died in 2015, he was working on one last story - his own. But Terry's Alzheimer's meant he never got to finish it. Back in Black reveals Terry's road to success was not always easy, from his troubled schooldays to being dismissed by literary critics, to his battle with Alzheimer's. But knighted by the Queen, adored by millions of fans and with a legacy of 41 much-loved novels - Terry Pratchett is still having the last laugh.
Drama documentary telling the story of one of the most infamous medical emergencies in recent British history, when six healthy men took part in a drug trial that went terribly wrong, leaving them fighting for their lives. Featuring candid personal testimony from doctors who struggled to bring the clinical catastrophe under control, the investigators tasked with discovering what went wrong and the patients themselves, this dramatic, thought-provoking science documentary tells the story in gripping detail.
An Australian Healer claims that he can cure people of their disabilities through Jesus. Emily Yates, a wheelchair user, attends a UK session to investigate if his claims are true.
A Northern Irish beauty queen who has had no luck with love dares to go bare in a dramatic makeunder before a series of dates to see if she can find a connection that is more than skin deep.
28-year-old Scot Christian Matlock is forging a career as a professional bounty hunter in America. Based in Virginia, he spends his days and nights hunting and apprehending fugitives who have skipped bail. This film follows Christian on the chase, and discovers how a chequered past in Scotland has helped him succeed in this dangerous job.
Luisa shot to fame following one of the most successful debut stand-up shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, described as “one of the biggest stand up hits of the decade” by the Guardian. This seventy-five minute special captures the infectious energy of Luisa’s shows by joining the queues and audience in the build-up to the event, discovering why her loyal army of fans love her unique approach to stand up and her Beyoncé ethos. The show is set to a soundtrack of Beyoncé’s best known hits.
The highly anticipated sequel to Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike sees award-winning film-maker Terry Abraham return to the Lake District to showcase 'the people's mountain' - Blencathra. This spectacular documentary looks at the lives of local residents, school children and visitors to the mountain with contributions from comedian Ed Byrne, broadcaster Stuart Maconie, mountaineer Alan Hinkes OBE and record-breaking fell runner Steve Birkinshaw. Abraham's breathtaking photography and stunning time-lapse sequences of this unique landscape will inspire newcomers and regular visitors alike.
The story of how police repeatedly allowed a serial murderer to slip through their fingers. Stephen Port date-raped and murdered four young gay men in East London within fifteen months and dumped all four bodies within a few hundred metres of each other. Yet Barking and Dagenham police failed to link the deaths, until weeks after the fourth one. The film tells the story through eyes of the families of Port’s victims, unpicking how the police failed to investigate each of the deaths properly. The police’s assumptions that these young gay men had died from self-inflicted overdoses of chem-sex drugs allowed Port to continue raping and killing innocent young men. The film also unravels Port’s sinister character and modus operandi. Port was motivated by a desire to satisfy his lust for abusive drug-fuelled sexual encounters. He found all his victims through gay dating and social media sites, using multiple online profiles. Barking and Dagenham police’s failings have led to huge anger amongst the families of Port’s victims. Some have accused the police of institutional homophobia, and asked if officers would have investigated more thoroughly, had four young women turned up dead within such a small radius. The Met police have referred themselves to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over their handling of the case and will not comment on specific allegations until the IPCC investigation is complete.
For the wildlife and people who live amongst the epic scenery of the Lake District, life is one of continuous change. Cutting-edge camera techniques give a new and unique perspective on a turbulent year in the life of England's largest national park. Time-lapse photography shows months and weeks passing in seconds - snow and ice giving way to sunshine or the frequent rain showers - whilst the animals, plants and people find extraordinary ways to cope with the challenges of this stunning, ancient landscape.
Documentary charting the final season of champion jockey AP McCoy as he attempted to do the almost impossible of riding 300 winners in a single season.
Unregulated and brutal, the subculture of white collar boxing has exploded in Britain over the last five years. We follow city boys Josh and Challon, prime examples of the successful, young and angry men who choose the ring to expel the frustrations and stress of modern life. In this film, they square up to each other for the second time in a bitter rematch.
Peter Owen-Jones takes us into heart of the UK's newest national park - the South Downs. Following the South Downs Way along the spine of the park, from the famous Seven Sisters Cliffs to Winchester - the ancient capital of England - Peter experiences an extraordinary year exploring the park's stunning landscapes, rich history, wildlife and people. What emerges is a portrait of one of Britain's most iconic landscapes, described by William Blake as 'England's mountains green'.
Tom Waits is one of the most original musicians of the last five decades. Renowned for his gravelly voice and dazzling mix of musical styles, he's also one of modern music's most enigmatic and influential artists. His songs have been covered by Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart and Norah Jones, among many others. But Waits has always pursued his own creative vision, with little concern for musical fashion. In a long career of restless reinvention, from the barfly poet of his early albums to the junkyard ringmaster of Swordfishtrombones, his songs chronicle lives from the margins of American society - drifters, dreamers, hobos and hoodlums - and his music draws on a rich mix of influences, including the blues, jazz, Weimar cabaret and film noir. Using rare archive, audio recordings and interviews, this film is a bewitching after-hours trip through the surreal, moonlit world of Waits' music - a portrait of a pioneering musician and his unique, alternative American songbook.
Robert Burns was well aware of the revolution taking place across the Atlantic as he grew up. The poet was inspired. And America was to be inspired by him. From Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan, some of the most significant figures in American politics and culture have cited Burns as an influence. During key moments in the nation's history these figures brought Burns's words to the fore. The Bard hit home too with America's public, beginning with the ex-pats he reminded of home. Those ex-pats were followed to America by two other Scots who also spread the word of Burns. The industrialist Andrew Carnegie keenly spread the word of Burns across the country. Singer Jean Redpath spread Burns's music within the folk revival in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Burns became a '19th-century Elvis' in the States, and his image was used to sell everything from cigars and tobacco to beer and fizzy pop. Today his impact upon America is further illustrated by memorials, not least in Atlanta, where a replica of Burns Cottage sits as home to the local Burns Club. Members of the club sing Burns's most famous song, Auld Lang Syne, a bona fide piece of American culture, which Americans have identified with New Year's Eve since Guy Lombardo began singing it on radio in the first part of the 20th century. It has become even more iconic since Hollywood adopted it in films such as It's a Wonderful Life. Robert Burns never visited the United States, but whether in the north or south, east or west, its people have identified with the Bard and his works.
The Six Nations is the most exciting rugby competition on the planet - but why does it bring out so much passion in Wales? Former Wales captain and rugby commentator Eddie Butler is on mission to get under the skin of the tournament by meeting the players, coaches and fans who have played their part in the Six Nations. Includes interviews with Wales star Jamie Roberts, former Wales captain Colin Charvis, former Wales coach Mike Ruddock and former England international Brian Moore.
Wales Women: Inside the Scrum is an access all areas look at what it takes to play rugby for the Wales women rugby squad. February 11th 2017 is a big day in the Welsh women's rugby calendar. For the first time in the game's history, Wales' women will be televised live on the BBC as they play their first home game of the 2017 Six Nations Championship at their new home ground - Cardiff Arms Park. But this isn't just any old game. To add to the pressure, the Welsh women's squad are playing against their bitter rivals - England, in what is set to become their biggest grudge match of the season. Women's rugby is on the cusp of change. To celebrate this turning point in the game, Wales Women: Inside the Scrum goes behind the scenes of the Wales women squad to shine a light on them as they prepare for the upcoming Six Nations championship. Getting up close and personal, we follow the women as they battle for a coveted place on the Wales Six Nations' team. Using key characters, we reflect on the challenges faced by the women, both past and present, as they play rugby for their country.
Ted Robbins traces the history of Liverpool's legendary Cavern Club, sixty years after it first opened its doors. Controversially closed, demolished and reopened, the place that put The Beatles on the road to global superstardom has a rich and often torrid history.
'We need a revolution in dementia care', says Beti George who cares for her partner David Parry-Jones - an iconic broadcaster once dubbed 'the voice of Welsh rugby'. Filmed over the course of many months, there is both laughter and tears in this moving, honest and hard-hitting film. It is a remarkable record of two people facing a terrible illness together. Through Beti's experience the film reveals the challenges and frustrations faced by thousands of carers across Wales and questions the way society supports dementia carers.
Kirsty Wark asks everything you always wanted to know about the menopause (but were too embarrassed to ask). In a quest for the truth, Kirsty cuts through the confusion and says the unsayable on this very personal odyssey. At the heart of the programme is frank and often funny testimony from famous and not so famous women, including Jennifer Saunders and Kaye Adams, while highly respected experts including the chair of the British Menopause Society give up-to-date advice. Kirsty also investigates groundbreaking research at Edinburgh University - research which has the provocative potential to extend our fertility. Kirsty examines society's reluctance to take the subject seriously and talk about it, and comes to the conclusion that if on average women are living up to 30 years after the menopause, it's time to take care of ourselves.
In the early hours of 3rd May 2015, a young black man was arrested by police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife. Less than two hours later he was dead. This film follows the family of Sheku Bayoh over 20 months as they try to find out just what happened that morning.
The remarkable true story of the woman behind the worldwide waxworks empire - Madame Tussaud. In an extraordinary life that spanned both the French and Industrial revolutions, this single mother and entrepreneur travelled across the Channel to England, where she overcame the odds to establish her remarkable and enduring brand. Determined to leave an account of who she was and the times she lived through, her memoirs, letters, and papers offer a unique insight into the creation of the extraordinary empire which bears her name.
2017 is the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. As one of the most famous women on the planet, Diana had an acute sense of the importance of fashion, controlling her image and understanding that clothing could be an art form with extraordinary possibilities to convey message and meaning. This programme, produced in collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces and presented by Brenda Emmanus, looks at some of Diana's most celebrated and exquisite dresses, brought together for a new exhibition of her clothes at Kensington Palace in February. Brenda visits the Conservation Studio at Hampton Court Palace as the dresses are prepared for display, and she hears from historians, cultural commentators and the designers who dressed Diana, including Elizabeth Emanuel, Victor Edelstein, and David Sassoon.
What’s it really like to be a young Native American? Beset with alcohol and drug problems, this South Dakota reservation is desperate to revive ancient traditions and joins the protest against the Dakota Access oil pipeline which they say threatens their land. Pine Ridge is home to the Lakota Sioux and is one of the poorest areas of America with many struggling against drug and alcohol addiction. The Lakota were forced onto the Rez in the late 1800s, their customs and religion stripped away over the decades. But things are changing. Schools are now reviving traditional ceremonies, banned by the government until 1978, and young people are returning to Lakota ways. The Natives: America's Forgotten follows a symbolic buffalo kill at Little Wound High and eighteen year-old Arthur’s journey as a new father. Transgender teen Sky and his friends join thousands of other Native activists at the Standing Rock protest camp to protect the Sioux Tribe’s water supply which they say is under threat from the Dakota Access Pipeline.
A growing number of young people in the UK are opting to be sterilised, even though they don't have any children of their own. Poppy Begum travels the country to meet some of these women and men fighting to take control over their bodies – despite some medical advice to the contrary - and discover the reasons behind their choice to remain child-free for life.
Evolutionary biologist Professor Armand Leroi believes data science can transform the pop world. He gathers a team of scientists and researchers to analyse over 50 years of UK chart music. Can algorithms find the secret to pop success? When the results are in, Armand teams up with hit producer Trevor Horn. Using machine-learning techniques, Armand and Trevor try to take a song by unsigned artist Nike Jemiyo and turn it into a potential chart-topper. Armand also takes a scientific look at pop evolution. He hunts for the major revolutions in his historic chart data, looking for those artists who transformed the musical landscape. The outcomes are fascinating and surprising, though fans of the Fab Four may not be pleased with the results. As Armand puts it, the hallmark of The Beatles is 'average.' Finally, by teaming up with BBC research and development, Armand finds out if his algorithms can discover the stars of the future. Can he predict which of thousands of demo tracks uploaded to BBC Introducing is most likely to be a hit without listening to a note? This is a clash of science and culture and a unique experiment with no guarantee of success. How will the artists react to the scientist intruding on their turf? And will Armand succeed in finding a secret science of pop?
With the government about to fire the starting gun for negotiations on Brexit, the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg investigates what is likely to be the biggest challenge we have faced since the Second World War. Will doing a Brexit deal be an impossibly complex and all-consuming process which will bog down the whole of Whitehall for years? Or could a quick and clean break be much easier than we think? Talking to key players on all sides, Laura Kuenssberg maps out the key issues facing Britain and Europe in the coming years, the political minefield Theresa May's government needs to navigate - and why it matters to us all.
Former Spice Girl Geri Horner looks back on the 1990s and reflects on her own incredible journey from working-class Watford girl to international superstar. She describes it as a decade of hope and opportunity that gave young people the freedom to be themselves and break down barriers. Set against a backdrop of great political and social change, the 1990s was also a decade which saw a homegrown cultural revolution. The music and art scenes exploded, and suddenly Britain was the place to be. Britpop and girl power conquered the charts, and Geri herself became the iconic face of Cool Britannia in her famous Union Jack dress. But fame didn't arrive until the mid-1990s for Geri, and she reflects on the key events that shaped her life before becoming part of one of the most successful girl bands of all time. She talks movingly about her close friendship with her pop idol pin-up George Michael and recalls how supportive he was when she left the Spice Girls and embarked on her solo career.
The charismatic New Zealand soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa looks back at her life in song through forty years of classic performances from the BBC archives, from her first TV performance on The Harry Secombe Show in 1971 to her appearances on Top of the Pops to sing the rugby anthem World in Union in 1991. Performances from the Last Night of the Proms and Terry Wogan's chat show also feature.
'Designer Vagina’ has become a term synonymous with vaginal cosmetic surgery in the media. In these body-conscious times, the number of these kinds of surgeries has increased five times over the last decade. But with the NHS now only carrying out vaginal surgery in the most extreme of cases, what happens to the women who are turned down but still want to have it done? We follow Antonia, whose confidence and relationships have suffered due to discomfort from her labia, as she attends a private clinic for vaginal surgery.
One of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, Martin Scorsese has created masterpieces like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Mean Streets over five decades. Captured live in conversation at London's British Film Institute, film critic Nick James quizzes Scorsese on his obsessions with masculinity, religion, crime and New York.
Margaret Mountford travels to Egypt's Valley of the Kings to discover the story of an unsung hero of British photography - Harry Burton, the man whose images of the Tutankhamun excavation created a global sensation in the 1920s. As she explores the spectacular locations where Burton worked, including Tutankhamun's tomb, she investigates how Burton's photographs inspired a craze for Egyptian designs and made the archaeologist Howard Carter an international celebrity. She discovers why Burton's images are still studied today by Egyptologists around the world. And she works with a present-day photographer Harry Cory Wright to find out how Burton pushed the boundaries of photographic art to create his extraordinary and influential pictures of the world's most famous archaeological discovery.
Dazzling duets from four decades of BBC entertainment, from Parkinson to the Proms. Whether it's pianos or banjos, violins or voices, kora, erhu or harmonica, this is a journey full of striking partnerships and extraordinary combinations. Oscar Peterson, Larry Adler, Ballake Sissoko, Kiri Te Kanawa, Nigel Kennedy and Bela Fleck are just some of the featured artists bringing us a musical feast, full of fun and surprises.
Mixed Martial Arts has become a multi-billion dollar global industry, but many athletes taking part at a professional level keep a dark secret about their training. Weight cutting is a dangerous activity that has claimed lives in the sport even before the fighters stepped into the hexagon. This documentary follows Dean, a British MMA fighter, as he cuts 7kg of weight overnight using saunas and hot baths to hit his weight category to fight. Whether he makes it or not, this film examines how the unhealthy practice of cutting weight could affect his long-term health forever.
Up to five billion tons of dust blows around the earth each year. Dust Storms looks at the growing menace created by these phenomena. Focusing on the Middle East, one of the world's worst affected areas, with the help of the world’s top scientists we look at why dust storms happen, how they affect our health and what we can do about them.
Black vomit? Aliens? When British conspiracy theorist Max Spiers died suddenly in Poland in July 2016 the case was immediately shrouded in mystery. Just before his death he asked his mum to investigate should anything happen to him. So little is known about how or why he died that the gaps have quickly been filled by fantastical theories. India Rakusen heads to Poland to try to find the answers his family are desperately waiting for.
For the last 150 years, Britain has been a nation of bike lovers. And for much of that time, one make has been associated with quality, innovation and Britishness - Raleigh bikes. Born in the back streets of Nottingham in 1888, Raleigh grew to become the biggest bicycle manufacturer in the world. For over a century, the company was known for its simple and practical bikes, built to last a lifetime. For generations, its designs were thought second to none, enjoyed by adults and children alike. Now, with wonderful personal testimony and rare and previously unseen archive film, this documentary tells the extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of Raleigh bikes - a beautifully illustrated story full of remarkable characters, epic adventures and memorable bikes. Meet the people who rode and raced them, the workers who built them and the dealers who sold them. Find out how cycling saved the life of Raleigh's founder, discover the technological advances behind the company's success and join Raleigh bike riders who recall epic adventures far and wide. Along the way, the programme takes viewers on a journey back to cycling's golden age - rediscover the thrill of learning to ride your first bike and find out what went on inside the Raleigh factory, where the company's craftsmen produced some of Britain's most iconic bikes. Finally, the documentary reveals what went wrong at Raleigh - the battles it had with its rivals, the controversy behind the design of the Chopper and the effect the closure of its factories had on its loyal workers. This is the extraordinary untold story of the rise and fall of Raleigh bikes.
Drawing on the BBC's rich archive, this programme reveals the working practices, lives and opinions of some of the greatest photographers of the last 60 years. From Norman Parkinson to David Bailey, Eve Arnold to Jane Bown, Henri Cartier-Bresson to Martin Parr, for decades the BBC has drawn our attention to the creators of what has become the most ubiquitous contemporary art form. Pioneering BBC programmes like Arena, Monitor and Omnibus have given unique insights into the careers of photography's leading practitioners. Through a selection of fascinating clips, this programme brings into focus the key genres - fashion, portraiture, documentary and landscape - and the characters behind the camera who have helped defined them. Music Played: Cliff Richard & The Shadows - Foot Tapper The Zombies - She's Not There Mohammed Rafi - Jaan Pehechan Ho Frank Sinatra and Count Basie and His Orchestra - My Kind of Girl
Documentary following the rise of The Shires, the first British country group to have a top ten album in the pop charts, and the band to have spearheaded today's interest in country music in the UK. The programme follows Ben and Crissie both as they launch their second album My Universe and on a working trip to Nashville, where they are signed by leading country label Big Machine. They play the Bluebird, the legendary club where the performances from the TV series Nashville are filmed, and meet with Scott Borchetta, who discovered Taylor Swift. Interviews include Scott Borchetta, Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes of The Shires, sisters Catherine and Lizzy of Ward Thomas and Thomas Rhett, a rising star of American country music who mixes country with funk, pop and rock.
Comedian Rich Hall takes a country music journey from Tennessee to Texas to look at the movements and artists that have shaped the genre over the years.
2017 marks the centenary year of the establishment of Imperial War Museums. It was founded while the First World War was still raging - and over the past century, IWM has expanded hugely, with five sites including the Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast. It shares stories of those who have lived, fought and died in conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth. This programme, presented by Falklands veteran and charity campaigner Simon Weston CBE, looks at ten key objects from the IWM's collection. Each of the objects has a special advocate to explore what it reveals about the story of conflict - Bear Grylls ventures onto HMS Belfast, Al Murray looks at a Spitfire at Duxford, and the artists Cornelia Parker and Steve McQueen discuss how they have responded to war and loss in their work. Kate Adie tells the remarkable tale of the typewriter in the Churchill War Rooms, Dame Kelly Holmes meets the extraordinary Johnson Beharry VC to hear about his experiences in the Iraq War, and Anita Rani explores the incredible heroism of one soldier in the British-Indian Army.
A revealing portrait how of we have documented our changing lives. In today's digital age, the classic family photo album has become an object of nostalgic affection. But it is more than just a collection of sentimental snapshots. Celebrating everyday moments and shared experiences, the family photograph offers an intimate portrait of Britain's post-war social history - from the first family holidays captured on Kodachrome to fond memories of waiting for the prints to arrive, from the father who photographed his son every day to a couple's touching love affair chronicled in pictures. Using images and stories from different families and generations, the film charts a journey from the Box Brownie to Instagram, exploring the impact of new technologies and social attitudes in an entertaining tribute to the power of the humble family photo.
This one-hour programme is a happy birthday tribute celebrating the life and work of Dame Vera Lynn, including exclusive access to Dame Vera Lynn as she watches home movies and videos from the past with her daughter Virginia. It tells the story of a working-class girl from Essex who changed the lives of so many - whose career spanned a whole century - singing at seven to help pay the family bills, falling accidentally into the limelight and still singing right up to today. Dame Vera can't read music. She has never had singing lessons and even refused to change her singing style to fit in with the fashions of the day. Yet she sang at the Queen's 16th birthday and calls the royal family her friends. We meet the war heroes whose hearts she touched as she brought memories from Britain to the front line and find out how celebrities like Miriam Margolyes, Barry Humphries, Tim Rice and Sir Paul McCartney are still touched by Dame Vera's voice. We discover why she is a national treasure, and see her humility shine through - she really can't understand what all the fuss is about, despite being one of the greatest female singers this country has ever produced.
Clemency Burton-Hill celebrates the rich and ravishing world of the string quartet in a journey through 50 years of BBC archive. Some of the world's greatest ensembles including the Amadeus, Chilingirian, Borodin and Kronos quartets perform in myriad styles and settings, from stately homes to helicopters. Music ranges from Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert to Steve Reich, Elvis Costello and Pete Townshend, in a tradition which stretches back to Haydn in the 18th century.
Documentary about the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of Tommy Byrne who, for a brief moment in the 1980s, some considered the world's greatest motor racing driver.
Phyllida Barlow's sculptures are massive and appear precarious. For decades, she has worked on a monumental scale with the most unmonumental materials. After many years of being ignored by curators and collectors, and against all odds, Barlow has only recently secured art-world acclaim. This year, she will represent Britain at the 57th Venice International Art Biennale in 2017. Journalist Lynn Barber first met artist Phyllida Barlow many years ago when they were both young mothers in north London. Over 30 years since Lynn was last in Phyllida's house, she returns to interview the sculptor. As an artist who raised five children on a part-time teacher's salary, it is only now, in her 70s, that Barlow is finally achieving international art stardom.
President Rodrigo Duterte swept to power last June, promising to clean up the country by ‘slaughtering’ anyone involved in illegal drugs. In the last eight months a staggering 7,000 people have been killed. In this hard-hitting documentary for BBC Three Livvy Haydock travels to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to investigate the world’s bloodiest war on drugs.
A unique insight into the life and work of celebrated painter Paula Rego directed by her son, film maker Nick Willing. Notoriously private, Rego opens up for the first time, surprising her son with secrets and stories of her life, battling fascism, a misogynistic art world and manic depression. Born in Portugal, a country which her father told her was no good for women, Rego used her powerful pictures as a weapon against the dictatorship before settling in London, where she continued to target women's issues such as abortion rights. But above all, her paintings are a cryptic glimpse into an intimate world of personal tragedy, perverse fantasies and awkward truths. Nick Willing combines an archive of home movies and family photographs with interviews spanning 60 years and in-depth studies of Rego at work in her studio. What emerges is a powerful personal portrait of an artist whose legacy will survive the years, graphically illustrated in pastel, charcoal and oil paint.
Solo show-stoppers from the world's greatest musicians in a journey through fifty years of BBC Music. From guitarist John Williams and cellist Jacqueline du Pre to trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and violinist NigelKennedy, this is a treasure trove of musical treats and dazzling virtuosity. Whether it's James Galway's Flight of the Bumblebee performed at superhuman speed, Ravi Shankar's mesmerising Raag Bihag or Dudley Moore's brilliant Colonel Bogey March, every performance has its own star quality and unique appeal. Parkinson, Later with Jools Holland, The Les Dawson Show, Music at Night and Wogan are among the programmes featuring instruments ranging from marimba and kora to harp and flamenco guitar.
Physics professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates the amazing science of gravity. A fundamental force of nature, gravity shapes our entire universe, sculpting galaxies and warping space and time. But gravity's strange powers, discovered by Albert Einstein, also affect our daily lives in the most unexpected ways. As Jim tells the story of gravity, it challenges his own understanding of the nature of reality. The science of gravity includes the greatest advances in physics, and Jim recreates groundbreaking experiments in gravity including when the Italian genius Galileo first worked out how to measure it. Gravity science is still full of surprises and Jim investigates the latest breakthrough - 'gravity waves' - ripples in the vast emptiness of space. He also finds out from astronauts what it's like to live without gravity. But gravity also directly affects all of us very personally - making a difference to our weight, height, posture and even the rate at which we age. With the help of volunteers and scientists, Jim sets out to find where in Britain gravity is weakest and so where we weigh the least. He also helps design a smartphone app that volunteers use to demonstrate how gravity affects time and makes us age at slightly different rates. And finally, Jim discovers that despite incredible progress, gravity has many secrets.
In May 2015 Rio Ferdinand lost his 34-year-old wife Rebecca to cancer. A year on, he is still trying to come to terms with this loss and its effects on him and his three children. This film follows Rio as he meets other families coping with bereavement and looks at what help is available for parents and children who have experienced loss.
A tribute to Brian Pern who died last month, looking back at the musician's career through his TV appearances - both with progressive rock band Thotch and as a solo artist.
David Hayman goes in search of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson, the visionary architect who, a generation before Charles Rennie Mackintosh, transformed industrial Glasgow with some of the most exotic and exciting buildings in the world.
Frank Meehan is 93 years old and quietly enjoying his retirement in Helensburgh. But it's what he retired from which marks Frank out as remarkable. He served at the heart of the Cold War for more than 40 years, in a career which took him from the aftermath of the Second World War, through the Gary Powers incident, to terms as ambassador for Czechoslovakia, Poland and East Germany.
Melting clocks, lobster telephones - the perplexing images of surrealist art are instantly recognisable to millions. But for psychotherapist Philippa Perry the radical ideas which inspired the original artists are often overlooked. In this film, Philippa takes us on a playful journey into the unconscious to discover the deep roots of Surrealism in the political upheavals of 1920s Europe and new ways of understanding the human psyche. Among her surrealist adventures, Philippa sets up her own Bureau of Surrealist Research on the streets of Paris and invites members of the public to tell her their dreams. She uncovers the role of women in the Surrealism movement and has a go at being an artist's muse herself, rolls up her sleeves to try some Surrealist techniques with art critic Adrian Searle, and puts on a screening of Dali and Bunuel's famous film Un Chien Andalou for a group of unsuspecting art students.
Since the 1960s, Desmond Morris has been known as a zoologist and expert on human behaviour, but the bestselling author of The Naked Ape and Manwatching has led a double life. By day, a rational scientist, writer and broadcaster with a mission to explain; by night, a painter of dreamlike images, which mystify even Morris himself. He began painting in the surrealist style while still at school and still does so today, at the age of 89. In his long career, he has been friends with such great surrealists as Joan Miro and Henry Moore. Every night, between 10 pm and 4 in the morning, while the rest of us are dreaming in our beds, Desmond Morris dreams on canvas.
Jaco Mylan is like any other 11-year-old boy. He loves rugby, dancing and washing machines. Jaco also has autism. In this intimate documentary, Welsh actor Richard Mylan reflects on his experience of raising a son on the autistic spectrum. Like all parents, Richard wants Jaco to be happy and independent, but he's well aware that having a child with special needs means you have to plan further into the future. Will Jaco be able to get a job? Where will he live? How much support will he need? Through spending time with adults on the autistic spectrum, Richard comes across funny, surprising and inspiring individuals who have their own unique take on living with this lifelong condition.
Waldemar Januszczak explores the impact of Mary Magdalene's myth on art and artists. All saints in art are inventions, but no saint in art has been invented quite as furiously as Mary Magdalene. For a thousand years, artists have been throwing themselves at the task of describing her and telling her story, from Caravaggio to Cezanne, Rubens to Rembrandt, Titian to van Gogh. Her identity has evolved from being the close follower of Jesus who was the first witness to his resurrection, to one of a prostitute and sinner who escaped from persecution in the Holy Land by fleeing across the Mediterranean to wind up living in a cave as a hermit in the south of France, enjoying ecstatic experiences with Christ.
Tamara Rojo, dancer and artistic director of English National Ballet, explores Giselle - the first great Romantic ballet, and a defining role for any ballerina. Through two radically contrasting 2016 productions - a traditional 19th-century recreation, and a gritty reimagining of the work by celebrated Anglo-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan - Rojo examines the cultural and social background to the ballet's genesis in 1840s Paris, and the spiritual themes that have fuelled its success over the last 175 years. Giselle is the story of a young peasant girl who personifies all that is good in life, and ultimately forgives the aristocrat who has seduced and betrayed her. With Giselle, the look and emotional heart of ballet was transformed forever, from mime-based storytelling to a fusion of emotion, music and movement, formulating a tradition that has inspired audiences, dancers and choreographers ever since.
It's 2017 and synth giants Depeche Mode are back with their 14th studio album Spirit, the band's "timeliest work yet". As the rave reviews fly in, here is a look back at the journey of one of the UK's longest-lasting and most successful bands who emerged from the UK's post-punk scene over three decades ago. Featuring clips from various BBC programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Synth Britannia, The OZone, Def II and The Whistle Test. From their first appearance on Top of the Pops in 1981 and the tales of how they got there to performing on Later...with Jools Holland in 2009, the programme shares archive testimony and recent interviews from core members Dave Gahan, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher. New Life, Just Can't Get Enough, Blasphemous Rumours and Personal Jesus are among some of the classic tracks performed.
World-famous portrait photographer Rankin journeys to Sheringham and Cromer in north Norfolk to discover why the pioneering female photographer Olive Edis has not had the recognition she deserves. Since her death in 1955, the name Olive Edis has faded from memory along with the vast body of work. She's acknowledged by many as being a cornerstone in the development of photography. Olive's work provides an incredible glimpse into the personal world of her subjects. She captured on film all walks of life from fishermen to kings, authors, poets, soldiers and politicians. Rankin uncovers what happened to the forgotten photographs of this genius and experiences how skilful Olive was by using her camera for the first time in over 50 years to photograph Lord of the Rings star, Bernard Hill.
Chris and Stacey from Bristol are getting married in summer 2017. Planning for the big day is one thing, making a success of the years that follow is another. What do they both expect of married life? Reverend Kate Bottley suggests an unusual way to help them find out. Kate wants Chris and Stacey to spend a few days living alone with their respective in-laws-to-be to explore what they can learn about the person they love from the parents who raised them. And what can their in-laws' marriage tell them about their partner's expectations of married life?
Snooker player Ding Junhui is a superstar in China. This documentary follows Ding with behind-the-scenes access as he plays in Guangzhou at the China Championship.
Britain has a serious problem with obesity - and the medical cost is threatening to bankrupt our health service. Professor Rachel Batterham, head of the obesity services at University College Hospital and a research scientist, presents this current affairs documentary. In it, Rachel explores whether there is 'fat prejudice' against obese patients within parts of the NHS that is stopping them accessing a potentially cost-effective surgery, even when recent scientific research supports it. Professor Batterham considers obesity to be a disease that needs specialist treatment, including weight-loss surgery, whereas many others contend that it is a lifestyle choice. She meets several NHS patients who say they were made to feel 'not worthy' and were denied life-changing bariatric surgery and other routine operations. This seems to show evidence of a bias within the health service. She also speaks to others who have tried to use the NHS weight management services, with one admitting it actually made her gain two stone. Professor Batterham speaks to bariatric surgeon Chris Pring and people that have had weight loss surgery to examine the dramatic effect gastric bypasses can have on person's lifestyle and overall health - and how it can even cure other weight-related illnesses. Rachel also meets patients who are successfully using the diet and lifestyle programme called Tier 3 services, which the NHS require them to do for two whole years before being considered for surgery. Could weight loss surgery actually be a more cost-effective method of treatment for the NHS?
After World War Two a newly elected government promised to protect everyone, 'from cradle to grave'. The Clark family slipped through the net, leaving 17 siblings cast to the four corners of Scotland. Three were sentenced to childhood slavery in the Highlands under the boarding-out system, a form of fostering started in the 1870s and lasting 100 years. The rest of the siblings were adopted, fostered or died and buried in unmarked graves. The welfare system swallowed them up, denied them contact and hid them from each other. Only now as they reach retirement in their 60s and after years of battling with the authorities, have the siblings begun to uncover their collective history and reunite. This is a remarkable story of the growing pains of our welfare state, the Clark family and their continued search for the two last siblings.
The story of American teenager Nathon Brooks who at the age of 14 shot his mother and father while they slept. Incredibly they both survived and are trying to come to terms with what their son did. With unique access to Nathon, his family and the police.
There is no walking without weather. It marks all experiences of being outdoors - for better or for worse. For writer, birdwatcher and radio producer Tim Dee, the weather is never an innocent bystander - especially the wind. In any walk that he makes - to watch birds, to record sounds, to reflect on the landscape and the natural world - the wind is an active agent. It carries birds, it buffets microphones, it brings and takes away much of what moves and shapes his life. In this poetic, mesmeric film, documentary film-maker Richard Alwyn follows Tim Dee on a walk along the vast open marshland of the Lincolnshire Wash, as he embarks on an idiosyncratic mission to capture the elusive sound of 'pure' wind. On the way, under extraordinary skies and dramatic light, Dee reflects on landscape and on walking, on birds and on writing, and on the 'wild track' of life - wind, bringer of birds into his world and with that, joy and inspiration about the business of being alive. The problem, of course, is that recording the sound of wind is a quixotic quest because 'in some ways, it doesn't exist as a sound, [....] what we think of as the wind is the sound that the wind is making as it rubs over the surface of the world', says Dee. Undaunted, Dee walks to the lone high spot on the terminally flat Wash, there to raise his boom in an attempt to capture the wind as it arrives fresh out of the north, pure and untouched, new and exciting. 'I'm probably the first thing this wind has hit for about 1,000 miles or so - and it's telling me so...'.
Documentary film following five friars at a Franciscan friary in Bradford on a mission to support the poor, both spiritually and materially. Can the brothers succeed? How challenging is it for friars to help those in need while they themselves must live a humble life with few material comforts? The Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal originates from the Bronx in New York and now operates friaries in the US, central America, the UK and Ireland. They believe the life and example of St Francis shows them the way to follow the teachings of Jesus. In Bradford they run regular soup kitchens for people in need. They are also hoping to restore an old, run-down Catholic Church to attract new followers. The brothers want to achieve all this while devoting time to prayer and worship. Heenan Bhatti's film is an intimate portrayal of the brothers as they work and pray, day and night. Dressed in grey habits, and sporting beards, they adopt the image of traditional friars. They also follow strict rules - avoiding possessions and sometimes begging for their own food - yet they also share a warm sense of humour and a love of music. How testing is this life and what exactly are the rules for modern friars? How do they operate in a busy, materialistic, digital world? And what can be achieved with the people they serve who often live complicated, challenging lives?
Fern Britton travels to Jerusalem on a life-changing journey of faith in search of the real story of Jesus's final days, from his triumphal arrival to his brutal crucifixion. It is an emotional trip which culminates with Fern's decision to mark her pilgrimage in a way she will remember forever. Ever since Sunday school, Fern has known of the events that took place in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Now, as an adult and a committed Christian, she wants to truly grasp their significance - how Jesus entered Jerusalem at the height of his mission, only to be betrayed, abandoned by his closest followers and condemned to suffer the cruellest of deaths on the cross. Fern wants to understand the humanity of Jesus to get a sense of what he went through during those final days. How did Jesus's crucifixion come about? What he was feeling? And what did it all mean? To find out, she meets local experts and experiences the sights and sounds of the places where Jesus once walked.
Big Gold Dream is the everyday story of how a group of disaffected youth in search of the only fun in town went on to change the world. High on theory and with only cheek, cheek bones and cheap guitars to get them through between dole cheques, they took a set of hand-me-down reference points plundered from books, TV and subtitled films, created a scene and transformed it into art. As was typical of the times, entryism was in, and subversion was from within, but like all great movements, it was never going to last. Except everything you hear today, tomorrow and knocked into the middle of next week started here. Indie-Disco, Art-Rock and Difficult Fun are all in the mix. Big Gold Dream is as much about now as then. Features contributions from Bob Last, Alan McGee, Peter Hook, Eugene Kelly, Norman Blake, Martyn Ware, Malcolm Ross, Douglas Hart and Davey Henderson.
Richard Harrington, star of Hinterland and Poldark, sets out to trace the journey of his grandfather, who went to Spain 80 years ago to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. In this journey of self-discovery Harrington travels from Wales, through Paris and across the Pyrenees into Spain, uncovering the reasons for his own lack of political motivation and discovering a story that kick-starts his own political awakening.
Simon Reeve explores Colombia at a pivotal point in its history. For 50 years, Colombia has been in the grip of a brutal civil war, but in late 2016 a peace deal was signed.
Music and readings for Holy Week and Easter from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. The world-famous Choir, directed by Stephen Cleobury, sing some of the best-loved choral music for the season, including God So Loved the World (Stainer), Hallelujah (Handel's Messiah) and Ubi Caritas (Durufle). The Choir is joined by mezzo soprano Kiandra Howarth for a glorious performance of the Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni). The story of Jesus's death and resurrection is told in the well-loved words of the King James Bible and reflected on in poems by Rowan Williams, Phineas Fletcher and Edmund Spenser, all in the magnificent setting of King's College Chapel.
Documentary exploring one of the world’s most heated and divisive debates: is it right to take monkeys lives to try to improve the lives of humans? Who decides what is acceptable and where do you draw the line? Despite huge advances in medicine, scientists argue that the use of monkeys in medical testing is still crucial to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s and HIV. However, anti-vivisection activists and three quarters of the British public disagree with testing on our closest animal cousins. In this documentary we visit the Bio-Medical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands where 200 Rhesus Macaque monkeys are used each year to help find cures to some of the world’s most deadly diseases. We meet those on the front line of this work; from the deputy director of the lab who believes their work is essential to help stop human suffering, to the animal trainers who get to know the monkeys well and have to wrestle with their emotions every day, knowing that the animals they work with will die in the research lab. We’ll also speak to the activists who protest outside the facility daily – in the hope that one day it will be shut down. The film also takes us into the world of the people whose lives rely on this kind of research. People like twenty seven year old Rich – who contracted HIV last year. Thanks to the last thirty years of research, of which monkey testing played a crucial role, Rich’s future looks very different to people diagnosed in the early 1980’s when the disease first started to strike. Twenty one year old Jordan is currently on a cocktail of drugs to help treat the symptoms of his young onset Parkinson’s. However, they have terrible side effects, and Jordan is desperate for new and improved drugs. Crucial to this is the research taking place at King’s College in London, where marmoset monkeys are given the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease before being used to test new medicines. In Oxford we meet leading neurosurgeon and advo
On September 5, 1972, Palestinian extremists infiltrated the athletes' dorms at the Munich Olympics, ultimately killing 11 Israeli athletes and setting off an international crisis that continues to raise controversy more than 40 years later. With new revelations and emotional interviews, this programme revisits that tragic day and incorporates new interviews with Israelis and Palestinians, surviving family members, eyewitnesses, Olympic authorities and government officials. It delves deeper into the tragedy, calling attention to details forgotten, ignored or obscured for more than 40 years, culminating with a look at plans for a memorial on the grounds of the Munich Olympic Stadium honouring those who lost their lives that tragic day.
Kirsty Wark asks everything you always wanted to know about the menopause (but were too embarrassed to ask). In a quest for the truth, Kirsty cuts through the confusion and says the unsayable on this very personal odyssey. At the heart of the programme is frank and often funny testimony from famous and not-so-famous women, including Jennifer Saunders and Kaye Adams, while highly respected experts including the chair of the British Menopause Society give up-to-date advice. Kirsty also investigates groundbreaking research at Edinburgh University - research which has the provocative potential to extend our fertility. Kirsty examines society's reluctance to take the subject seriously and talk about it, and comes to the conclusion that if, on average, women are living up to 30 years after the menopause, it's time to take care of ourselves.
A portrait of Amy Winehouse the artist threaded together from extracts from interviews she gave to the BBC for a variety of documentary projects including the Jazz and Soul Britannia series on FOUR, much of which material is previously unbroadcast, blended with performances from across her career, including some which are also previously unbroadcast and unseen. Winehouse had a strong relationship with many parts of the BBC from when she launched herself as an artist back in 2004. In her short musical career, the north London native changed the landscape of modern pop culture, won countless awards, achieved critical acclaim and garnered global success before tragically dying at the tender age of 27. On the eve of the release of Asif Kapadia's Amy documentary film which explores Winehouse's life and death, here is an exploration of her music and her influences in her own words. Consisting of performances and interviews entirely from the BBC archives, this film celebrates Amy's music, her influences, her challenges as an artist and her eternal brutal honesty in her own words. Featuring exclusive unseen and rarely seen songs from her triple platinum selling album Frank and revered Grammy-winning album Back to Black, the programme pays homage to the tattooed rebellious rock 'n' roll-spirited songstress who wrote smart, sad, soulful and original pop songs that became instant classics and inspired a generation.
Steve Davis goes back to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield to celebrate 40 years of the snooker world championships. If the walls of this famous regional theatre could talk, they would tell tales of tears, triumphs, occasional debauchery, laughter and top-class sport. With contributions from snooker legends Dennis Taylor, Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White and super-fans Stephen Fry and Richard Osman.
Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko will be the biggest live event in the history of British boxing. For the past two years Anthony has allowed a television production team unique access behind the scenes as he worked towards this moment. The result of that access is an intimate portrayal of a young fighter and his rise to the very pinnacle of boxing's most dangerous division. Exclusive scenes shot in his dressing room before and after fights reveal an Anthony Joshua not normally seen by the public. We also see him in his hotel, waiting for fight time; in his gym, working on his strategy; even on holiday as he winds down between bouts. As the date of the Klitschko fight draws near cameras follow him to New York and Germany as he meets up with his opponent to help promote the fight. For Joshua, this represents a defining fight on his journey towards heavyweight unification. And there's real jeopardy: this is the first fight that Anthony Joshua could lose.
Over the course of 2015, Glasgow singer/songwriter Raymond Mead visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He was so affected by what he saw there that he felt compelled to write poetry and music to express he feelings about the place and to mark those who died in the Holocaust. This documentary follows Raymond on his journey to record this music and how he invited Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor to read his poem "How Could It Be" for the recording of one of the songs, "At The Top Of The Stairs". Raymond travels to Krakow, where he meets Eva and records the poem on the Selection Platform in Auschwitz Birkenau. Eva shows Raymond the extermination camp explaining her motivation and philosophy on forgiveness and her mission to educate the younger generation about the atrocities that took place there in World War II.
Christ Bearer, aka Andre Johnson, was headline news in just about every publication during April 2014. He went from being an underground Wu-Tang Clan affiliated rapper to a humorous, worldwide tabloid sensation overnight: the wacky story of the rapper who cut his penis off and jumped off a two-story balcony. Harassed by the media while recovering in hospital, his suffering was overlooked until months later, when it emerged that Andre had been under the influence of PCP among other drugs, and had been suffering from severe depression. The act was, in fact, a reaction to the downward spiral of dark and destructive thoughts he was experiencing as a result of a far from perfect family life.
Dear Mr Shakespeare is a reinterpretation and exploration of William Shakespeare's intentions when writing Othello. The film examines the play's racial themes in a historical and contemporary setting while drawing wider parallels between immigration and blackness in the UK today. The film was commissioned by the GREAT Britain campaign and British Council as part of the Shakespeare Lives initiative. Directed by Shola Amoo and produced by Rienkje Attoh, the film is written and performed by Phoebe Boswell and stars Ashley Thomas and Elisa Lasowski.
Norway, the early 1980s. Deep-sea diver Petter is part of the Norwegian North Sea dive project, pushing new boundaries in human endurance as, with the help of the United States, Norway tries to reach its new oilfields. But when tragedy strikes Petter is absolutely determined to get to the cause and soon finds himself alienated from the ground-breaking project and mistrustful of his colleagues.
Jaco Mylan is like any other 11-year-old boy. He loves rugby, dancing and washing machines. Jaco also has autism. In this intimate documentary, Welsh actor Richard Mylan reflects on his experience of raising a son on the autistic spectrum. Like all parents, Richard wants Jaco to be happy and independent, but he's well aware that having a child with special needs means you have to plan further into the future. Will Jaco be able to get a job? Where will he live? How much support will he need? Through spending time with adults on the autistic spectrum, Richard comes across funny, surprising and inspiring individuals who have their own unique take on living with this lifelong condition.
After Brexit, thousands of Brits have applied for dual nationality. For the British Jewish community, many of whom are the descendants of those who fled Nazi Germany, this poses a dilemma. In this film we follow three British Jews as they decide whether to activate a clause in the German constitution that permits descendants of German refugees to reclaim citizenship. Whilst reclaiming German nationality offers up the possibility of maintaining benefits associated with being a citizen of an EU country, for Britain's Jews Germany has more commonly been associated with the traumas of the Holocaust. Each of the characters must therefore confront their family history. To do so involves delving into archives and tackling difficult questions that families have often found hard to confront in the past. Baroness Julia Neuberger grapples with identity and we follow the journeys of Robert and Hilary as they return to their ancestral homes in Germany for the first time. Hilary discovers where the family originally came from and that a legend she was told as a child, that they were Jews who fled Spain in 1492, may actually be true. Robert has always wanted to know what actually happened to his grandparents and his cousin Karla. He unearths their final journey and is finally able to say a prayer at the place to which they were deported to their deaths in 1942. As the journeys conclude, each has to come to terms with whether they can cope with reclaiming German citizenship. All are influenced by how contemporary Germans deal with the past, but not all can overcome the tragedy of the past.
In 1957, Britain exploded its first megaton hydrogen bomb - codenamed Operation Grapple X. It was the culmination of an extraordinary scientific project, which against almost insuperable odds turned Britain into a nuclear superpower. This is the inside story of how Britain got 'the bomb'. The BBC has been granted unprecedented access to the top-secret nuclear research facility at Aldermaston. The programme features interviews with veterans and scientists who took part in the atomic bomb programme, some speaking for the first time, and newly released footage of the British atomic bomb tests.
Half a century on from Ken Loach's seminal film Cathy Come Home, John Saunders explores modern-day homelessness in Loach's own home city of Bath. He meets people from across the West Country who are facing eviction, living in temporary accommodation or even sofa surfing with friends or family to ask if Cathy's experience rings true today.
The extraordinary story of Danny Willett, the Sheffield golfer who in 2016 became the first Briton to win the Masters since 1996. Willett's stunning success was all the more remarkable given he was the last player to arrive at Augusta - his wife was due to give birth on the final day of the tournament, but the early arrival of baby Zachariah enabled him to take part after all.
Rebecca Southworth was taken from an abusive family home aged 13 and put in care. In this deeply personal film, she explores why so many kids like her end up living chaotic lives.
Documentary investigating the greatest vanishing act in the history of our planet - the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Experts suspect that the dinosaurs were wiped out after a city-sized asteroid smashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing a huge crater. But until now, they haven't had any proof. In a world first, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod joins a multi-million pound drilling expedition into the exact spot the asteroid hit to get evidence of the link. Paleopathologist Professor Alice Roberts meets top scientists and has exclusive access to a mass fossil graveyard believed to date from the same time the asteroid hit. Alice treks across the plains of Patagonia to see if the effects of the asteroid impact could have wiped out dinosaurs across the world. Alice and Ben's investigations reveal startling new evidence of a link between the asteroid and the death of the dinosaurs, presenting a vivid picture of the most dramatic 24 hours in our planet's history.
Documentary following Red Dwarf comic actor and green energy enthusiast Robert Llewellyn's two-year campaign to persuade residents of his idyllic Cotswolds village, Temple Guiting, to generate more of their own power through renewable sources, as a model for helping to wean the nation off imported oil, coal and gas. Packed with scientific insight and explanation of the latest renewable technology, from Archimedes screws to solar photovoltaic panels, the film follows Robert as he tries to win over his fellow villagers with grand designs of a windmill atop the local hill, a water turbine in the village stream and solar arrays on parish roofs. Robert takes inspiration from the extraordinarily rapid change in energy supply happening in perhaps the most surprising of locations - Las Vegas. In the neon-drenched gambling capital of the world, a revolution is under way as the city attempts to power itself entirely by renewable electricity in 2017. Back in the Cotswolds, Robert and the village face a challenge as they find the local electricity grid cannot absorb the extra load from their proposed renewable scheme. Robert seeks out a solution in battery technology, comparing and contrasting the cutting edge science of lithiumion and air batteries. Is this technology that Temple Guiting can use? Can Robert's dream become a reality?
Frank Skinner goes on a journey to explore the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, meeting Ali's family and friends and visiting key locations in his life. To discover more about his idol, Frank travels around the UK and US, visiting key locations and people in Ali's life. In Ali's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, he meets the neighbour who witnessed the teenage boxer's single-minded dedication to his craft. He meets Ali's younger brother Rahaman, a key figure in the boxer's entourage and his closest confidante, and Ali's wife Khalilah, who was alongside Ali during the turbulent years when he was banned from boxing for refusing to fight in Vietnam and which saw him become an icon of the civil rights movement. Frank pays a visit to Ali's training compound in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, somewhere he has always longed to see. This is where Ali and his team prepared for one of his most famous fights of all time - the Rumble in the Jungle. From Ali's business manager, Gene Kilroy, Frank learns how Ali's unshakeable self-confidence and ability to manipulate the crowd were powerful weapons against his opponent George Foreman. He finds out what it was like behind the scenes in the Ali camp by talking to Ali's old sparring partner and friend Larry Holmes, who later faced him in the ring. Frank also delves into some of the lesser-known aspects of Ali's life, meeting the bare-knuckle boxer from an Oxfordshire council estate who became one of Ali's dearest friends and the actor who played alongside Ali in a little-known musical on Broadway.
This intimate coming-of-age film follows a Welsh transgender teenager, Llyr Jones, as she turns 16. Coming from a rural farming community, her transition is breaking new ground.
Hot on the heels of Donald Trump's first one hundred days in office, Alastair Sooke travels to America to ask just what the new president's impact on America's cultural landscape is going to be. Alastair finds out what the implications are of Trump's plans to eliminate all federal funding for culture and meets with major figures from the worlds of music, literature, journalism, film and television, as well as a range of visual artists who love and loathe Trump in equal measure.
Documentary in which former England footballer Jermaine Jenas returns to his home city of Nottingham to investigate the spike in knife crime that is devastating young lives and families. He meets with young men and gang members to find out why they carry knives and what is driving the brutal stabbings across the city.
The new A1 class steam engine Tornado tries to achieve 100mph on the main line. The secret speed attempt will be made in the dead of night. If it tops the ton it will be the first time in 50 years steam has gone this fast. Tornado was built over two decades and financed by enthusiasts who want to show steam has a viable future on Britain's railways.
He was lanky, he wore glasses and he sang as if permanently battling hiccups. Aesthetically, Buddy Holly might have been the most unlikely looking rock 'n' roll star of the 1950s. But he was, after Elvis Presley, unquestionably the most influential. It was an all-too-brief career that lasted barely 18 months from That'll Be The Day topping the Billboard charts to the plane crash in February 1959 in Iowa that took Holly's life. That day was immortalised in Don McLean's 1971 song American Pie, and has become known as 'the day the music died'. This film tells the story of Buddy Holly's tragically short life and career through interviews with those who knew him and worked with him. This combined with contributions from music fans paints a picture of an artist who changed music. Rock 'n' roll started with Elvis, but pop music started with Buddy Holly and The Crickets.
We are one of the most sleep-deprived countries in the world. Insomniac Michael Mosley finds out what happens if we don’t get enough sleep and looks at surprising solutions to help us get more.
A candid documentary in which Welsh entertainer Owen Money reflects openly about his life, love and career in the months leading up to his 70th birthday. As Owen looks back on his life, the programme charts his astonishing story of career highs and personal lows, from winning two Sony Radio Awards and receiving an MBE, to the affair that shook his marriage. His busy schedule takes him from the Elvis Festival in Porthcawl to the Euros in France, and this compelling documentary reveals what makes him tick, what's made him a household name, and what keeps him going after 50 years in the business.
The use of antibiotics has made more and more bacteria resistant to the medicine. Dr Michael Mosley goes in search of the cause and new solutions to overcome the superbugs.
What would you do if you were told you had a terminal illness and may only have months to live? Award-winning film-maker Sue Bourne wanted to make a film about living, not dying. She set out to find people of all ages who had managed to find positives in their terminal prognosis and were making the most of the time they had left. The 12 people in this provoking and uplifting film range from their twenties to their sixties. They speak eloquently and inspiringly about what they have discovered really matters in life. They smile and laugh and try not to cry because they say that crying and being sad is a waste of the precious time they have left. Some say they feel privileged to have been told how much time they have left. Others are pleased they are going to die before they get old because at least they know they won't have to face a miserable and sad old age. Fi says she would now rather have a good life than a long one. Kevin says he and his wife have had some of the best times of their life since his diagnosis. Lisa says she intends spending her remaining time laughing and having fun - she has been given a heads-up so she wants to do things and not just talk about them. Cindy says she is possibly happier now than she has ever been. And when Annabel discovered she may only have a couple of years, she left her husband and family. She says that a terminal diagnosis gave her the confidence to grasp the life she wanted. Everyone in the film describes the intensity that comes with knowing your time is limited - how as a result, they all appreciate and celebrate their remaining life. These are remarkable testimonies that make you go away and think about how to live your own life. And make you wonder how best to face your own death when that time comes.
While making a TV documentary about a year in the life of the rock singer from Rhyl, Mike Peters of The Alarm, his wife Jules makes a terrifying discovery - a lump in her breast. An urgent visit to the doctor confirms that a mammogram is needed, and she expects the worst. The couple decide to keep making the documentary and the resulting film turns out to be very different to what was originally planned - a powerful and honest story of a woman with breast cancer, and her personal journey through diagnosis, surgery and treatment. The couple are no strangers to cancer. The previous summer, husband Mike relapsed for a third time, 20 years after first being diagnosed. The chemotherapy was no longer working, and his doctor at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor fought to get him on a revolutionary new drug. So if anyone can deal with cancer, Jules says they're probably the best couple to do so. But with a US trip planned and several other commitments in the calendar, will they now have to sacrifice their busy rock 'n' roll lifestyle and the charity work they love? With contributions from close family friends, including U2's Bono, who says: 'Jules is a jewel - and she's precious - I know she's going to pull through'.
Simon Atkins is on a mission for BBC Three to find out if Judaism is more tolerant of his sexuality than his Catholic faith. Simon's religion didn’t seem to impact on his everyday life until he met his Jewish boyfriend Matthew, whose synagogue allows same-sex marriage, whereas in Roman Catholicism this is not allowed. In this one-off documentary, Simon goes on a personal journey as a gay man to discover if he could convert to Judaism and whether it is worth sacrificing his Catholic upbringing. Simon starts by talking to a variety of people, including other gay Jewish men and a Rabbi, before travelling to the birthplace of Judaism, Israel. He also visits Tel Aviv, where Gay Pride has been celebrated since 1979. But as he delves deeper, Simon is hit with big doubts. In Jerusalem, he is faced with more conservative and hostile views. Finally, Simon visits one of the holiest sites in Christianity, where Jesus Christ was believed to have been resurrected and meets a trainee Catholic Priest to question his own faith. If he becomes Jewish he will have to give up the Catholic core belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God - and can he do that?
Forget oil, coal and gas - a new set of materials is shaping our world and they're so bizarre they may as well be alien technology. In the first BBC documentary to be filmed entirely on smartphones, materials scientist Prof Mark Miodownik reveals the super elements that underpin our high-tech world. We have become utterly dependent on them, but they are rare and they're already running out. The stuff that makes our smartphones work could be gone in a decade and our ability to feed the world depends mostly on a mineral found in just one country. Mark reveals the magical properties of these extraordinary materials and finds out what we can do to save them.
Documentary about Rohani, an 80-year-old hunter who dives like a fish on a single breath, descending to great depths for several minutes. Set against the spectacular backdrop of the Togian Islands in Indonesia where he grew up, this award-winning film recreates events that capture the extraordinary turning points in his life, as a hunter and as a man.
Stephen Watson presents a profile of South African rugby star Ruan Pienaar, who is leaving Ulster rugby after seven seasons. The programme highlights the impact he has made, and includes behind-the-scenes footage of his final weeks in Northern Ireland.
Throughout her novels Jane Austen is well known for her use of houses and property as central themes. Equally, Jane's own life was shaped by the places she lived in and visited. Now, in a fresh take on Jane Austen, Lucy Worsley traces the houses Jane lived in to show just how much they influenced her work. Embarking on a road trip across England Lucy visits properties that still exist - and uses clever detective work to bring to life those that have disappeared. Beginning her expedition at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, Lucy sets the scene by recreating a carriage journey the cash-strapped Austens completed to visit a recently widowed relative. The Austens unsuccessfully tried to secure a share of the inheritance during this trip and, as Lucy discovers, Jane spent much of her life in this form of limbo - moving between riches and genteel poverty. It was this experience of living between two worlds that would inform much of her writing. After this revelation, Lucy travels from Jane’s birthplace in Steventon, Hampshire, to her brother’s grand property, Godmersham Park (a potential inspiration for Mr Darcy’s Pemberley). Lucy takes in the seaside resort of Lyme Regis (a setting for Persuasion) and both Bath and Southampton, where Jane’s position and financial security became ever more perilous. This is the story of the houses that made Jane Austen and the tales these locations inspired.
Last year Charlie Gilmour rescued an abandoned baby magpie. Now it's taken over his life.
Sharon Osbourne presents the story of pop deals through the decades. From Little Richard's half a cent a record to Robbie Williams's £80m deal via notorious bad deals for The Beatles, The Small Faces, The Animals and NWA and great deals for Led Zep, The Police and Moby, Sharon gets the inside story from those still chasing royalties and those who took on the music biz and won. With The Small Faces, Eric Burdon, The Police, Moby, NWA, Charles Connor (Little Richard's drummer), Art Rupe (aged 99, who signed Little Richard), Pamela Des Barres, Tim Clark (Robbie Williams's manager).
BBC News has been given exclusive access to a priceless archive of footage taken by young adventurers exploring parts of the world that were completely new to western eyes.
Fifty years ago this week, on 1 June, 1967, an album was released that changed music history - The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In this film, composer Howard Goodall explores just why this album is still seen as so innovative, so revolutionary and so influential. With the help of outtakes and studio conversations between the band, never heard before outside of Abbey Road, Howard gets under the bonnet of Sgt Pepper. He takes the music apart and reassembles it, to show us how it works - and makes surprising connections with the music of the last 1,000 years to do so. Sgt Pepper came about as a result of a watershed in The Beatles' career. In August 1966, sick of the screaming mayhem of live shows, they'd taken what was then seen as the career-ending decision to stop touring altogether. Instead, beginning that December, they immersed themselves in Abbey Road with their creative partner, producer George Martin, for an unprecedented five months. What they produced didn't need to be recreated live on stage. The Beatles took full advantage of this freedom, turning the studio from a place where a band went to capture its live sound, as quickly as possible, into an audio laboratory, a creative launch-pad. As Howard shows, they and George Martin and his team constructed the album sound by sound, layer by layer - a formula that became the norm for just about every rock act who followed. In June 1967, after what amounted to a press blackout about what they'd been up to, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. It was a sensation, immediately becoming the soundtrack to the Summer of Love - and one of the best-selling, most critically lauded albums of all time. It confirmed that a 'pop music' album could be an art form, not just a collection of three-minute singles. It's regularly been voted one of the most important and influential records ever released. In this film, Howard Goodall shows that it is the sheer ambition of Sgt Pepper - in its c
This film tells the fascinating story of how one of Hollywood's brightest and wealthiest stars finally came to face a criminal trial for sexual assault a decade after the accusations were made. On 5 June 2017, Bill Cosby faces trial charged with sexual assault. From the start of his career in 1960s, Cosby was on a trajectory to become one of the biggest television stars in the world. The eponymous Cosby Show, with Bill's alter ego Cliff Huxtable as the lead, was his career's crowning glory. With its affluent, happy black family at its heart, it redefined the way African-American families were represented on television. During this period, Cosby also became a huge philanthropist, donating millions to African-American causes. But throughout his career, Bill was allegedly privately drugging and raping women with impunity. This film explores why it took so long for allegations about Bill Cosby to be taken seriously and hears extraordinary testimony from the journalists, co-stars and the accusers who fought for years for this dark side of the Cosby story to be heard. Containing interviews with those who knew Cosby professionally and personally, such as Richard Pryor's widow Jennifer Lee Pryor and actor Joseph C Phillips, as well as accusers, fellow Cosby actor Lili Bernard, and former actor and Playboy Bunny Victoria Valentino. Bill Cosby denies all the allegations made against him.
n this new Our Lives documentary, Suzi Perry travels to Northern Ireland to meet three women who compete in the exhilarating yet highly dangerous sport of motorcycle road racing.
Paisley, Scotland's biggest town, was one of its wealthiest when local mill owners J & P Coats were at the peak of their powers and one of the world's three biggest companies. This social history tells the story of the company, its workers, and the rise and fall of their town as the centre of the world thread industry. Narrated by leading actress and one-time 'mill girl' Phyllis Logan.
Adventurer and writer Will Millard investigates Cardiff's hidden history in this urban exploration of the Welsh capital. On an exhilarating and sometimes dangerous journey, Will goes in search of the lost stories that show how Cardiff went from a tiny town to the thriving city it is today. From concealed tunnels and nuclear bunkers to a covered canal and derelict buildings, Will has unprecedented access to discover long-forgotten gems that reveal the city like you've never seen it before.
Going behind the doors of the private world of a residential rehabilitation centre in Somerset, this powerful documentary uncovers what is done to help people beat their addictions and start rebuilding their lives, through a series of intimate encounters at Broadway Lodge. From Phillip Wood, the film maker behind the acclaimed documentary Chasing Dad: A Lifelong Addiction, we meet people who come from different situations and parts of the UK who all have one thing in common: to seek a new beginning here. Observing the relationships formed between staff, clients and their families, the film explores how desperate and difficult it is for people to transform themselves when funding is scarce and emotions are running high.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Rolling Stones we delve into the BBC vaults to deliver some timeless Stones archive. From the early days of their career and some unforgettable performances on Top of the Pops with the Last Time, Let's Spend the Night Together and Get Off of My Cloud through the late 60s and early 70s era of prolific song writing when the band were knocking out a classic album every other year and offering up such classics as Honky Tonk Women and Gimme Shelter. The late 70s brought a massively successful nod to disco with Miss You and the early 80s a stomping return to form with the rock 'n' roll groove of Start Me Up. Peppered amongst the performances are snippets of wisdom from the two main men - the Glimmer Twins, aka Mick and Keith. Plus as a special treat, some lost footage of the band performing 19th Nervous Breakdown on Top of the Pops in 1966 - recently discovered in a BBC documentary from the 1960s about women with depression.
Etiquette expert William Hanson is on a mission to give us better manners. Comedian Jake O'Kane takes him on a tour of Northern Ireland to prove we get on just fine. But will William's ways win in the end?
On 16 June 2016 the murder of Jo Cox - in the heat of EU referendum campaigning - shocked the nation. Jo Cox: Death Of An MP tells the story of this horrific attack and events surrounding it through the testimony of those closest to it, including Jo Cox's family, eye witnesses and those who knew the murderer, Thomas Mair.
Brothers James Lusted, 29, and Phil, 32, both have a rare form of dwarfism. They have faced medical and physical challenges in their lives but, most of all, they always believed they would struggle to find love. They were wrong. This documentary, part of BBC One's Our Lives strand of programmes, is an intimate and emotional insight into their lives. James, three feet seven inches tall, is getting ready to marry his average-height fiancee Chloe. He still can't believe it's happening. Older brother Phil is three feet tall and has been married once before. It didn't work out, but his past experience hasn't put him off. He met average-height Kathleen from Seattle online, and the couple are also now engaged to be married. James and Phil's parents are average height. They had no idea that they were both carriers of the dwarfism gene until Phil was born and admit that the pressure of bringing up Phil and James proved such a challenge at times that the marriage almost hit crisis point. Now they are looking forward to seeing their son marry his bride.
From antibiotics to the television, steam engines to the mobile phone, what is Britain’s Greatest Invention? In a one-off special for BBC Two, the Science Museum will open the doors to the biggest invention time capsule in the world - their secret vaults - and ask the nation to vote for the British Invention which has most defined and shaped the modern world.
Liverpool hotelier and entrepreneur Lawrence Kenwright is battling to bring one of Cardiff's most historic buildings back to life in time for Cardiff hosting the Champions League final. Lawrence wants to turn the Coal Exchange into a glitzy four-star hotel, but he not only has to make the figures stack up and motivate the workforce, he also has to please the local residents and action groups. Set in the heart of Cardiff's old dockland, the Coal Exchange was where the world's first recorded million-pound business deal was struck in 1901. It's a building that people care about passionately, but after the decline of the coal industry, it was closed in 1958. For the next 50 years, the building was variously a night club, dance hall and a popular live music venue. Over the years, the Coal Exchange has been decaying. Local people and action groups have been campaigning to try and save it since its final closure in 2014. In April 2016, Liverpool developer and hotelier Lawrence Kenwright acquired the Coal Exchange - with huge plans to turn it into an impressive four-star hotel and spa. Local people and action groups were hoping that the Coal Exchange would be sympathetically restored in keeping with the building's Grade II listing. This documentary follows the entrepreneur, his builders, the workers and the objectors. Will the Exchange Hotel be ready for the football fans in time for the Champions League final, and has the Coal Exchange been restored to its former glory?
Ryan Gander OBE is a leading conceptual artist. He creates artworks full of symbolic meaning - images, sculpture, installations and films that may appear to be about one thing, but contain further messages for the thoughtful. And this, he believes, is why he is "big in Japan." Ryan believes he is appreciated there because the country has a highly sophisticated visual culture, expressed through images and symbols that broadcast cultural messages to the world, as well as to the Japanese themselves. The geisha and the samurai are obvious examples; bullet train, tattoo art, and Tokyo street style are less so.
In 2016, with the contract for Southeastern trains due to expire in six months, a group of dissatisfied but determined passengers come together to try to take a railway franchise into their own hands. Jacques Peretti follows the group as they set about executing their revolutionary plan. Is their dream far-fetched, or will the Department for Transport, looking for fresh ideas, see this new passenger-run company as a viable option for the franchise?
Celebrating Billy Connolly's 75th birthday and 50 years in the business, three Scottish artists - John Byrne, Jack Vettriano and Rachel MacLean - each create a new portrait of the Big Yin. As he sits with each artist, Billy talks about his remarkable life and career which has taken him from musician and pioneering stand-up to Hollywood star and national treasure.
This drama documentary tells the story of the Conservative Party's 2016 leadership campaign - how Boris Johnson, having won the referendum and in pole position to be the next PM, handed victory to Theresa May. Based on extensive research and first-person testimonies, this dramatized narrative goes beyond the headlines to lay bare the politicking and positioning, betrayals and blunders of this extraordinary political time. The programme also features key interviews with people who were intimately involved in the campaigns of the main contenders.
In a small town in Lancashire, 20 year-old Sophie Lancaster kicked to death in a park by a gang of kids she didn’t know. Her boyfriend Robert Maltby was severely beaten into a coma. The two of them were randomly attacked because they were dressed as Goths. Made in close collaboration with Rob, his family, Sophie’s family and the police investigating team, this factual drama is the true story of a young relationship and of the violence and chaos that destroyed their lives - for simply being different. Murdered For Being Different also follows the story of one teenage witness, Michael Gorman, who, in the aftermath of the attack, struggles with the need to speak out against the attackers and stand up for what is right. Made on the 10th anniversary of Sophie's death, this film is both a love story and a forensic examination of the causes and consequences of a brutal attack.
Ian Hamilton steps out of his comfort zone and embarks on an adventure on the high seas, joining the crew of Lord Nelson, a tall ship crewed by a mixture of disabled and non-disabled people. Everyone takes an equal share of the work, whether it is manning the night watch, cleaning the toilets or hoisting the sails. And when the wind gets up, it's all hands on deck, whatever the disability. The ship is all about challenging disabled people, and other people's perceptions of them. How will Ian, who is blind, cope? Join him aboard his ship of discovery.
Warren Gatland has won nearly everything there is to win in his sport. But one thing has eluded him - he has never masterminded a victory over New Zealand, the country where he was born. Now in charge of theBritish and Irish Lions for the second time, he is set to take on one of his biggest challenges. A decade after he became the head coach of Wales, we find out what makes Gatland tick and how he has achieved such stunning success in his career.
This episode follows a group of overweight cabbies trying to change the habits of a lifetime and go from supersize to superfit.
Born biologically a girl, 15-year-old Leo is one of the first children in Britain to be prescribed a new treatment – hormone blockers – to help him achieve what he feels is his natural gender identity of becoming a man. As he turns 16, we follow Leo as he faces big changes and life-changing decisions.
Award-winning director Patrick Forbes goes beyond the headlines to film the bitter battle to govern Britain after 2016's referendum vote. Filmed over one extraordinary year, it's a story of low politics, high ambition and bitter personal animosities - at stake the biggest decision the UK has taken for decades. Can the prime minister tame the judges, the opposition and finally the public to deliver Brexit? One thing everyone involved agrees on, get this wrong and, 'we will see another even bigger seismic change in this country's politics'.
In 1987, two brothers from Auctermuchty in Fife released an album called 'This Is the Story'. Featuring songs such as 'Letter From America', the album propelled The Proclaimers and the Scottish accent into the charts. Superfan David Tennant talks to Craig and Charlie Reid about 30 years in the business which has taken them from playing small pubs and clubs across Scotland to become one of the nation's most iconic bands.
Ian Hislop looks at the decades from the Victorian era to the First World War, when modern Britain introduced its first peacetime restrictions on immigration.
The All Blacks are the greatest rugby team in the world. But how has this small country dominated rugby for so long? Former British and Irish Lions captain Gareth Thomas goes to New Zealand to find out the secret of their success.
Being a teenager can be a traumatic time, so imagine throwing cancer into the mix too. This film tells heartwarming stories from the specially designed Teenage Cancer Trust Unit at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children, where a remarkable group of young people have been forced to grow up fast. But here they can share experiences of coping with the devastating effects of cancer and chemotherapy and of being forced to live a different life to most of their teenage friends.
The first UK film biography of the world-renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), whose print The Great Wave is as globally famous as Leonardo's Mona Lisa. With Andy Serkis reading the voice of Hokusai, the film features artists David Hockney and Maggi Hambling, and passionate scholars who study, admire and venerate this great Japanese master. The film focuses on Hokusai's work, life and times in the great, bustling metropolis of Edo, now modern Tokyo. Using extraordinary close-ups and pioneering 8K Ultra HD video technology, Hokusai's prints and paintings are examined by world experts. In the process they reveal new interpretations of famous works and convey the full extent of Hokusai's extraordinary achievement as a great world artist. Hokusai spent his life studying and celebrating our common humanity as well as deeply exploring the natural and spiritual worlds, using the famous volcano Mount Fuji as a protective presence and potential source of immortality. He knew much personal tragedy, was struck by lightning and lived for years in poverty, but never gave up his constant striving for perfection in his art. Hokusai influenced Monet, Van Gogh and other Impressionists, is the father of manga and has his own Great Wave emoji
In this emotionally charged one off one hour film, BBC Three follows the stories of three young men. All came to Britain as kids, grew up here and feel British. But after becoming adults, they discover the shocking news that the British government no longer welcomes them in the UK. 20-year-old Bashir has lived in Cardiff for eleven years but is desperately fighting deportation back to Afghanistan. He hasn’t been there since he saw his father murdered by the Taliban, aged nine, and he escaped to Britain. We meet 22-year-old Londoner Francois, a few days after his deportation to Jamaica, where he hasn’t been since he was seven. He has a criminal record but feels the Home Office deported him unfairly, by using an operation designed to expel dangerous criminals. Torn apart by the separation from his four-year-old son, he is determined to get back to the UK. 20-year-old Bok was deported back to Bangladesh in 2015 just before his A Levels, after living in Eastbourne for seven years. But has he told the full truth about why he was sent to the UK in the first place by his family? And, as a victim of trafficking, was it justifiable for the British government to send him back?
Neil Oliver recounts the story of the 1773 highland migrants who left Scotland to settle in Nova Scotia. He uncovers their terrifying journey on a filthy disease-ridden ship - the Hector. Neil describes how the migrants were deceived by speculators and goes on to meet their descendants. For some in Nova Scotia, the Hector has become little short of a Canadian 'Mayflower'.
Eighteen year-old Bradford-born Hiba Maroof faces a genuine moral dilemma: should she marry one of her cousins or go her own independent way? First-cousin marriage has gone on within Hiba’s family for generations. In this informative, authentic and deeply personal film, the BBC Three audience will get insight into one person’s complex dilemma, as Hiba finds out if it is possible and even sensible for her to desire such a close relative. We will follow Hiba as far as Pakistan where there are eligible cousins as she finally makes her decision - could she marry one of the family?
John Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, was a fabulously rich, maverick Scottish aristocrat. He spent a Welsh fortune on his many passions, creating some of the most extraordinary Gothic architecture in the world.
In this two-hour special event filmed at BAFTA, Melvyn Bragg is joined by some of TV's key figures from the last 60 years to look at the extraordinary impact British television has made since its first great unifying moment, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Through a series of archive-based films and studio discussions, Bragg and his guests examine the way TV has brought the world to us and the extent to which our television has both defined us and reflected who we are as a nation. The first film looks at the impact of TV in showing us all aspects of our planet and beyond, from history to humour, science to culture, the depths of the ocean to the surface of the moon. Joining Melvyn to discuss the scale of the TV revolution are historian and broadcaster David Olusoga and writer and broadcaster Joan Bakewell. The second film looks at the way early producers chose to represent British identity on TV and to what extent the themes that dominated the screen in TV's early years remain prevalent today. Former Channel 4 head Michael Grade and Foyle's War creator Anthony Horowitz join Melvyn, alongside Joan Bakewell. The third film looks at how successful TV has been in keeping pace with a changing Britain from its portrayal of social and regional issues to its treatment of women and diversity. Film director Ken Loach, broadcaster, writer and former politician Trevor Phillips and screenwriter Abi Morgan join Melvyn in the studio to discuss the issues raised. The fourth film examines some of the ways in which TV has challenged authority through forthright interviews, investigative journalism and satire. Melvyn discusses the points raised with Spitting Image creator John Lloyd, former politician Ed Balls and broadcaster Martha Kearney. The fifth film looks at the way TV has reported war and natural disaster from the early days when it took a week for rolls of film to be flown back to base to the instant, 24 hour news to which we have become accustomed today. The BBC
As the BBC celebrates 90 years of covering Wimbledon, Sue Barker travels the globe to meet some of the legends who have graced the famous grass courts. Tennis royalty including Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Rod Laver, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker and John McEnroe share memories and reflect on their own experiences at the iconic tennis tournament. These are their stories as never told before, emotional and self-deprecating, revealing how their lives and careers were changed by the Championships. For Sue herself, Wimbledon has been a big part of her life for nearly 50 years as a fan, player and broadcaster. She also meets the Duke of Kent, who is president of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, and the Duchess of Cambridge, who this year takes on a new role as patron.
Documentary about the child abuse revelations in Rochdale and other towns. Featuring the harrowing testimony of the victims and the shocking truth from those who spoke out, this film reveals how it wasn't just the professionals whose job it was to protect the girls who ignored their plight, but others did as well.
In this 1 x 90 BBC Four film, Chris Packham and a team of wildlife experts spend an entire year exploring every inch of eight gardens on a suburban street, to answer a fundamental question: how good for wildlife is the great British garden? Beneath the peonies and petunias they reveal a beautiful and brutal hidden world, a Serengeti in miniature, that’s far wilder than you might think. Through all four seasons, Chris delves deep into the strange secret lives of the gardens’ smallest residents, finding male crickets that bribe females with food during sex, spiders that change colour to help catch prey, and ferocious life-and-death battles going on under our noses in the compost heap. But he also shows a different side to some of our familiar garden residents, showing that a robin’s red breast is actually war paint, and a single litter of foxes can have up to five different fathers. And, come Spring, Chris witnesses the astonishing sight of a boiling ball of frisky frogs in a once-in-a-year mating frenzy. By the end of the year, with the help of a crack team from London’s Natural History Museum, as well as top naturalists and wildlife experts, Chris reveals how many different species live in the back yards of a single street, and just how good for wildlife our gardens really are. You’ll never look at your garden in quite the same way again.
Film shining a spotlight on the untold story of The Sidemen, the musicians behind some of the greatest artists of all time. The Sidemen are the forgotten 'guns for hire' that changed musical history. Featuring interviews with Mick Jagger, Billy Joel and Keith Richards, this film takes viewers from the 1960s to today, via global stars such as Prince, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Beyoncé.
Join Tristram Hunt for coverage of the Art Fund Museum of the Year Award 2017. As the newly appointed director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, winner of last year's award, Tristram has to prove his mettle running such a large institution, with tips and advice garnered from his visits to the 2017 finalists - London's Tate Modern and Sir John Soane's Museum, the Lapworth Museum of Geology in Birmingham, the Hepworth Wakefield and the National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art in Newmarket. This year's list of nominees showcases yet again the extraordinary range of museums across the UK, with temples to science, history, sculpture and modern art all making the cut. By visiting them each in turn ahead of the announcement of the winner, Tristram learns just how the sector is in such fine fettle this year.
John Patrick Crichton Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, was one of the richest men in the British Empire in the late 19th century. With an annual income in excess of £150,000 - around £15 million in today's money - he pursued his passion for architecture with a vengeance. Narrated by Suzanne Packer, The Scot Who Spent a Welsh Fortune delves into the extraordinary world of Lord Bute and reveals what connects the small Scottish island of Bute to modern Cardiff. Bute was one of the most unconventional mavericks of the Victorian age, passionate about the past but also far ahead of his time - a blue-blooded aristocrat, who supported women's rights and striking miners, a Welsh-speaking intellectual Catholic who was also a ghost hunter. Above all, Bute was a fabulously rich and visionary creator of great architecture including the Gothic fantasy of Cardiff Castle, and Castell Coch - the fairytale castle.
Two sets of holidaymakers entrust Cherry Healey and Ade Adepitan to book a getaway on their behalf. Using cheats and tips from top travel experts, the team reveal easy ways to up the scale and ambition of the trip without having to pay more. Meanwhile, Richard Madeley shows us how to beat the tourist traps and get the most out of Venice, one of his favourite cities, and Steph McGovern explores Oman to see what this up-and-coming destination can offer British tourists
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Ursula MacFarlane, One Deadly Weekend in America focuses on one ordinary July weekend - typically the time of year when the highest number of Americans are shot and killed. Conceived as a dramatic, ticking-clock thriller, the film tells the stories of that one weekend by focusing on seven very different shootings from across the USA, from South Central Los Angeles to rural South Carolina. We hear from survivors, witnesses, families and law enforcement agencies, while newsreels, CCTV and police videos take us into the heart of the action. By humanising the stories of young lives caught up in the devastation of gun crime - stories often overlooked by the mainstream media - the film paints a dramatic and moving portrait of American's troubling relationship with guns - an exploration which feels more urgent now than ever.
BBC One's Our Lives strand tells the story of child painter Kieron Williamson, nicknamed Mini Monet, who held his first exhibition at the age of six. He is already worth £2 million at the age 14, and buyers from around the world queue up to pay thousands for his paintings. While blue-chip companies want him to endorse their products, scientists have sought permission to wire up his brain. But there's a lot more to Kieron Williamson's success than just talent. This is a family affair. With exclusive access to the Williamson household, the film follows preparations for Kieron's latest exhibition. It reveals how his career is skilfully managed by his family. Newcomers to both business and the art world, they have had to learn everything - from keeping Kieron on the level to looking after his public affairs and growing fortune, at this critical moment in his career as the 14-year-old begins the transition from child prodigy to adult artist.
Thomas Quasthoff, one of the premier baritones of his generation, presents his personal guide to the love of his life, the German Lied song. Drawing on his multiple roles as maestro, teacher and founder of an international Lied singing competition, professor Quasthoff goes on a personal journey into this short, domestic but intensely expressive art form. Lied means 'song' in the German language and Lieder are poems of nature, love, and death set for solo voice and a piano. Quasthoff used to sing these songs around the world and now he has turned from practitioner to teacher, passing on this two-century-old tradition to a new generation of young singers. With a wide range of contributors, including musicians and academics, there is a focus on Franz Schubert as the first great Lieder writer. In the early 19th century Schubert, who died tragically young, seized the new possibilities of the piano and created over 600 songs. Thomas unlocks the factors that then came together to create an explosion of Lieder: the rise of the German Romanticism and the role that personal, emotional poetry played in the homes of the growing German middle class, the spectacular popularity of the domestic piano and an emerging philosophical imperative to explore the soul. Lied is the most intimate music of the great composers and in Hamburg Quasthoff goes looking for Johannes Brahms, a composer he feels a great empathy with, and discovers the grave of an almost forgotten poet who inspired a masterpiece of Lied song. The documentary goes to Heidelberg where Quasthoff chairs the Das Lied International song competition - here 26 young Lied singers and their pianists spend five days performing before an international Jury, including singers Brigitte Fassbaender, Bernarda Fink and Dame Felicity Lott. The programme includes rare archive of Thomas Quasthoff before his retirement from the classical stage, performing with pianist András Schiff in 2003 as well as a newly restored teler
Documentary following 79-year-old Tom Sivyer after he was diagnosed with vascular dementia, filmed by his grandson Dominic. Shot over two years, the film is told through Dominic's eyes as he struggles to look after his grandad while, at the same time, his grandparents' relationship begins to suffer as a result of Tom's disease. The film captures Tom's rapid mental decline and the attempts of his family to care for a once fiercely independent and proud man. But when the family is unable to cope with Tom's worsening moods and behaviour, Dominic follows his grandad as he is temporarily sectioned into a psychiatric ward. Over the following months, Tom is moved from one family home to the next, and then into a nursing home, before being temporarily sectioned again. The film also highlights the effect on Dominic's grandma Pam who, at 82 years old, is finding it almost impossible to live with the increasingly erratic Tom.
In Albany jail, New York, inmates may be held for a year before a judge’s sentence seals their fate. For many, it’s a time to confront the devastating consequences of their past. A searing portrait of four prisoners trying to escape the devastation of their past.
In this eye-opening and timely film, young pop culture icon Olly Alexander explores why the gay community is more vulnerable to mental health issues as he opens up about his own long-term battles with depression. As the outspoken frontman of British band, Years And Years - who have seen a phenomenal rise to fame - Olly is a powerful voice on mental health, bullying and LGBT+ rights. He has broken taboos with music videos that celebrate queer identities and spoken openly about his own sexuality, as well as his ongoing struggles with anxiety. In the film Olly will join young people on their journeys battling issues that parallel his own - from homophobic bullying to eating and anxiety disorders - and along the way he’ll ask what can be done to address them.
After 22 years playing for the world's greatest football teams, David Beckham has retired. For the first time in his adult life he has freedom to do whatever he wants and to mark the occasion he's going on an adventure. He's chosen Brazil, and he's taking three of his closest friends to join him on this once in a lifetime experience. Starting with beach footvolley in Rio, the friends travel deep into the Amazon, ending up with the remote Yanonami tribe, with David desperately trying to explain the beautiful game.
Jane Austen may have died 200 years ago, but the Pride and Prejudice author's legacy lives on to this day. Prepare to be dazzled and charmed in equal measure by the writer's modern-day superfans - 'Janeites', who live, read and breathe the Regency period - as they reveal what a vicar's daughter from Hampshire means to them. Hold on to your bonnets folks as there's bound to be a Mr Darcy somewhere close by causing hearts to skip a beat.
Angela Scanlon meets the Donnelly family from rural County Armagh, thought to be the oldest group of siblings in the world. Collectively they add up to an incredible 1,064 years. In a film that looks at what it means to grow older in today's society, we follow the family as they attempt to get a world record. Austin Donnelly (70) and his 13 siblings, Sean (92), Maureen (91), Eileen (89), Peter (86), Mairead (85), Rose (84), Tony (82), Terry (80), Seamus (79), Brian (75), Kathleen (74), Colm (72) and Leo (70), came to the realisation that all their ages added up to a grand total of 1,117 (at the time) after Austin decided, playfully, to do a bit of maths at his oldest sister Maureen's 90th birthday party earlier last year. From then on the seed was planted and Austin was now determined to find out if they really are the oldest group of siblings in the world. Sadly, before being able to complete his world record journey, Austin passed away earlier this year. His twin Leo, has taken up the mantle to complete the family's world record attempt in his brother's honour. Following Leo's efforts, the film weaves a stunning portrait of a large family from rural Northern Ireland growing up in the most turbulent of times. Incredible family archive helps to bring to life personal recollections and experiences. The Donnellys, in all their years, are our guides through a magical historical journey, with they themselves at the centre of it.
Killing at the Carwash explores the shocking levels of gun crime in America by tracking one shooting in forensic detail. Set against the backdrop of escalating gang violence in LA, first-time director Lindsey Mace investigates the murder of 19-year-old Tavin Price, who was shot four times for wearing the wrong colour shoes.
As his name suggests, rapper and documentary maker Professor Green has a past relationship with cannabis. Before finding success as a musician he sold weed, and between the ages of 16 and 24 he smoked cannabis every day - but things have changed since then. With those days behind him, Professor Green, aka Stephen Manderson, embarks on a uniquely personal film to take an in-depth look at our relationship with Britain’s most popular illegal drug and explores the arguments for and against legalisation. Stephen explores today’s booming UK cannabis industry, from the realities of life as a dealer, grower and even weed robber, to the consumers with ever-increasing options about how and what they buy. With cannabis laws around the world now changing – as US States like California fully legalise the drug – Stephen meets those hoping to make their future millions out of legalisation here in the UK. As he comes to reflect on his background and wrestle with his own past, Stephen explores addiction and the links between cannabis use and mental health.
Stephen Fry has been a fan of best-selling novelist Patrick Gale for 30 years, ever since he emerged as a then rare example of being an out gay novelist. Today, they meet up to look back on some of Gale's best selling novels, including Notes From An Exhibition, and discuss his latest project Man In An Orange Shirt, a two-part drama that is part the BBC's Gay Britannia season, marking the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Patrick has always mined his family history in his novels but this time he decided to dig deeper than ever before and expose a secret about his parents' marriage.
With homophobic hate crime a daily occurrence and on the rise, this film takes a look at the issue, hearing from the victims, their families and the police. What makes someone attack another person because of their sexuality? How do victims deal with these unprovoked assaults? To explore this ongoing issue, the documentary visits Alex and Becky as they prepare for a looming court date, hoping to get justice for an unprovoked attack on them in the streets of Croydon. It reveals the pressure heaped on Dain and James's relationship, a year after they were viciously attacked in Brighton, leaving Dain with a broken eye socket and both of them with multiple inuries. Connor discusses the ongoing health implications stemming from the brutal attack on him when his flatmate took a hammer to his head as Connor lay sleeping. And Jenny talks about her brother Ian, who died of injuries sustained in a homophobic attack in the centre of London. We also hear from a chorus of other LGBT people, who describe the attacks on themselves and recite a litany of the abuse that they have received, simply for being who they are.
Fifty years ago, homosexual acts between consenting male adults were decriminalised. In this documentary, former Wales and Lions rugby union captain Gareth 'Alfie' Thomas - arguably the most famous gay international sports star - takes a hard-hitting personal look at what he sees as the last bastion of open homophobia in sport - professional football. Earlier this year a committee of MPs published a report on homophobia in sport. Whilst it praised many changes for the good, reflecting sport's acceptance and inclusion of LGBT people over the past decade, it was notably scathing and damning of football. There are around 5,000 professional footballers in the UK, so it's statistically implausible that none are gay. Yet there are no openly gay footballers. Indeed, only one professional footballer, Justin Fashanu, has ever come out while playing the game. He killed himself in 1998. So what is preventing gay footballers from coming out? From Cardiff City to the House of Commons, from Arsenal to LA, Alfie meets fans, players and managers, as well as pressure groups, lawyers and police. He encounters open homophobia in the stands and suffers personal abuse by football fans online. Alfie also tries his best to meet those who run the game - but is forced to play continual 'cat and mouse' with the heads of the FA and the Premier League. Why do they seem so keen to avoid him?
On the eve of Upfest, Europe's biggest street art festival, Miquita Oliver explores the creativity and criminality of street art in Bristol.
It's the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which legalised male homosexuality. Broadcaster and gay rights activist Simon Fanshawe examines this landmark change in the law and reveals the extraordinary story of the fight for equality through the colourful history of his hometown of Brighton.
Hour-long documentary celebrating the LGBTQ contribution to the arts in Britain in the 50 years since decriminalisation. This film is part of the Gay Britannia season of BBC programming to mark the 50th anniversary celebrations. The film features interviews with leading figures from right across the arts in Britain, including Stephen Fry, David Hockney, Sir Antony Sher, Alan Cumming, Sandi Toksvig, Jeanette Winterson, Will Young and Alan Hollinghurst, and it explores the distinctive perspectives and voices that LGBT artists have brought to British cultural life
Former Olympic and three-time world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill looks at the new stars of British athletics ahead of the forthcoming World Championships. In this special programme, Jessica meets Olympic bronze medal hammer thrower Sophie Hitchon and talks to her about life as a young athlete, the expectation and scrutiny that is put on sports stars, and what it is like to deal with pressure on and off the track. There are also revealing interviews with middle-distance runner Laura Muir, marathon man Josh Griffiths, 110m hurdler Andy Pozzi and sprinter Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.
A look back at the career of Brendan Foster, who will retire after 37 years as one of the country's most popular sports commentators following 2017's World Athletics Championships. The former European 5,000m gold medallist and Commonwealth 10,000m champion began his commentary career in 1980 and has gone on to cover nine Olympic Games for the BBC.
Ahead of the London 2017 World Championships, four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson looks back to London 2012 and the subsequent journey for three of the golden heroes from Super Saturday - Sir Mo Farah, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford. Michael visits Jess in Sheffield to hear her memories of what has been described as the greatest day in British sporting history, as well as her incredible journey afterwards, which includes giving birth to her first child Reggie and going on to win gold at the World Championships just 13 months later. Greg and his family then welcome Michael to Arizona, and they discuss the ups and downs of his career over the last five years. Mo charts his extraordinary non-stop success on the track while remembering the sacrifices he made off it. The documentary explores what it takes to be a world-class athlete and the challenges of staying at the top. Through the unique stories of Jess, Mo and Greg, Michael discovers what is so captivating about athletics, what it takes to reach and perform at this level within the sport and what the next generation of stars will face as they prepare for the first World Championships to be held in the UK.
This film captures the stories of Orcadians whose lives are impacted by the onslaught of tourists. There will be 140 port calls this year, with more than 120,000 passengers. That is six times Orkney's entire population. For many, this is something to be celebrated. More people means more money coming into the islands. It is estimated that the industry brings in between seven and nine million pounds to the local economy - much needed revenue to help sustain a small and remote population. For others, it's a pain. Kirkwall can sometimes be so busy that it's hard to make your way through the main street. Many residents steer clear on cruise ship days, and some cafes and restaurants complain that they actually lose money, as passengers nurse teas and coffees for hours or head back to the liner for their all-inclusive lunches. There's also a growing concern about the environmental impact and for Orkney's world-famous Neolithic sites, including Skara Brae, Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. How long can these fragile World Heritage sites maintain coachloads of people wandering around? No matter which view people may take, the spirit of the community has stayed strong as they try to provide a genuine Orcadian experience for their guests. Cruise ship days unfold like a perfectly choreographed show, and many Orcadians play their part. From the meet-and-greeters at the pier, the free shuttle bus service into town, the tour guides, local businesses and the pipe band who play the liners out at the end of the day. This character-driven documentary uncovers what it's like to be a part of this 'show'.
John Simpson tells the remarkable story of Waheed Arian, the doctor from Chester whose life has been defined by war in Afghanistan. The former child refugee and teenage asylum seeker has now launched a telemedicine scheme which is saving lives in war zones across the world.
We are surrounded by types, the words on signs, buses, shops and documents which guide us through our lives. Two types in particular are regarded as the faces of Britain - Johnston and Gill Sans. Their story is told by typeface expert Mark Ovenden.
One in four children in Britain today are growing up in poverty. Experts say these figures are predicted to rise by nearly one million kids in the next five years. Rapper-turned-documentary maker Professor Green - aka Stephen Manderson - has done well, but he grew up in a home where there was a lot of stress over money. In this intimate documentary, Professor Green sets out to uncover what life is like for young people living on the breadline today. Over several months he spends time with 10 year-old Kelly Louise, whose family have just been evicted from their home. They can’t afford a deposit on a new property and, facing the possibility of being homeless, Kelly Louise’s life is turned upside down. Professor Green also follows the story of 14 year-old Tyler who has been living in cramped emergency accommodation for 18 months, and witnesses the damaging consequences of poverty on Tyler’s life now and in the future.
From a primate that's no bigger than a mouse to a chameleon that can fit on your fingertip, the natural world is full of fantastically small animals. Biologist Patrick Aryee explores the fascinating secrets behind these miniature marvels and shows that they're not the underdogs you might think they are. Firstly, he reveals the huge benefits that being small can bring. There's the little lemur whose diminutive frame helps it to exploit a unique gap in the ecosystem, the tiny hummingbird that uses its size to outmanoeuvre the competition and the world's smallest seahorse, which never has to leave home. He also explores why small animals are proportionally the strongest in the world and introduces a peanut-sized beetle that can pull over a thousand times its own weight. Next he explores the challenges that animals face when they shrink in size and the ingenious ways they overcome them. We find out how the smallest armadillo in the world manages to control its temperature in the searing desert sun and the how the world's smallest fish can survive in nothing more than a puddle. Patrick meets a secretive hippo that lives in the dense jungle, as well as some of the world's smallest snakes that give birth to enormous babies. He also meets a scientist that studies how really tiny spiders have a surprising trick that enables them to travel 40 miles per day, using almost no energy. Then there are the animals that refuse to be pigeonholed as small and manage to punch way above their weight. He puts some astonishing invertebrates to the test to see how they work together to become much bigger than the sum of their parts and meets a pint-sized predator that takes on some of the largest and most dangerous creatures on the planet, getting hands on to discover how its build helps it to be brave. Finally he uncovers the incredible lengths that deep sea anglerfish go to in order to be big and small at the same time, and he has an endearing encounter with a tiny carnivor
Dr Janina Ramirez goes 'In Search of Arcadia' discovering the origins of the English landscape movement in a 12-mile stretch of the Thames between Hampton and Chiswick with waterman and historian John Bailey. In the early 18th century this stretch of the river was home to a group of writers, poets, artists and garden designers who were inspired by classical landscapes of antiquity and the ancient idea of Arcadia. Janina discovers the people and the ideas at the heart of this transformative movement and the landscape of the Thames - Nicholas Poussin's painting Et in Arcadia Ego, the French formal gardens at Hampton Court, Pope's Grotto, Marble Hill House, Chiswick House, Syon Meadows and finally the view from Richmond Hill. John unpacks the role the River Thames played in their story as he explores the natural riches of its shores. He has time for fishing and contemplation along the way with his guide - Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler. Janina starts with the most famous of Arcadian paintings, Et in Arcadia Ego by Nicholas Poussin, at Garrick's Temple in Hampton. She explains the ancient concept of Arcadia - a lost paradise where man and nature lived in perfect harmony. It's an idea that emerges in many cultures, but in Britain in the 17th and 18th century this ancient philosophy inspired a revolution in painting, writing, architecture and garden design. Janina and John set off down the Thames on a traditional Thames wherry. John gives Janina his copy of Izaak Walton's fishing manual The Compleat Angler. Published in 1653 it's a book that has been reprinted over 400 times. John and Janina discover the book is much more than a practical fishing manual. It is also a philosophic treatise in which Izaak Walton first proposed an Arcadian philosophy; a vision of a world where man and nature lived in perfect harmony. He suggested that through the studied contemplation of the landscape, mankind could achieve a higher moral wisdom and virtuous understanding of th
Entomologist Dr Sarah Beynon and award-winning chef Andy Holcroft are on a mission. The Pembrokeshire couple love eating bugs and they want the UK public to eat them too. Which is why they have transformed their beef farm in west Wales into a one-stop bug shop! But will their insect food fly or get swatted? As demand grows for a sustainable alternative protein to meat, Sarah and Andy believe bug grub is the way forward. Insects need far less land and water than beef, they can feed off waste rather than edible arable crops and don't contribute to climate change to the same degree as beef production does. But has the day of the insect arrived? Are the UK ready for bug burgers and cricket cookies? We follow Sarah and Andy as they take their bug based food products developed on the farm to the mainstream food market. First up is the cricket cookie, a delicious concoction of cricket powder and chocolate chips! But before the duo pitch to UK buyers, they go to the Netherlands to meet the insect farmers Roland van der Ver and Bert Nostimos who they hope will provide them with a plentiful supply of bugs. With a regular supply of safe bugs secured, the couple decide to take their cricket cookies to the prestigious Hay Literary Festival, where Sarah and Andy hand them out to the public. Receiving rave reviews, we follow the couple as they endeavour to get their cookies scientifically assessed and on to the market. Will the UK take to their sustainable protein or will they be seen as nothing more than pests?
Documentary following 18-year-old model Connor Newall as he travels in Europe and to New York on various assignments. Turning his back on a potential career in the Govan shipyards or the British Army, Connor instead travels the world, often on his own, fulfilling the demands of a punishing schedule. Keeping in touch with his family when he can, Connor shoots with top photographers, is dressed by the best stylists and parties with celebrities. This documentary - part of BBC One's Our Lives series - examines his fast-paced life in the modelling world and also looks at whether his home life in Govan is moving on without him. Agents, family and professionals provide guidance as the teenage model tries to keep the momentum going and survive and thrive in the sometimes superficial world of fashion. The programme asks whether the teenager may be forced to reinvent himself or whether his charm, unique looks and Glasgow humour can keep brand Connor alive.
In 1960, Jane Jacobs's book The Death and Life of Great American Cities sent shockwaves through the architecture and planning worlds, with its exploration of modern city planning. Jacobs, a journalist, author and activist, was involved in many fights in mid-century New York, to stop 'master builder' Robert Moses from running roughshod over the city and demolishing historic neighbourhoods in pursuit of his modernist vision. This film retraces those battles as contemporary urbanization moves to the very front of the global agenda, and examines the city of today through the life and work of one of its greatest champions.
Seventy years ago, by the stroke of a pen, a line was drawn on a map and India was partitioned into two states. Fifteen million people were displaced, and one million died, as the British left India and religious communities were pitted against one another. Years later, some of the survivors from that period migrated again, this time to Scotland, hoping for a fresh start and peaceful future. They brought with them, incredible stories of hardship, danger and suffering. Sanjeev Kohli and Aasmah Mir search for some of those stories, beginning with their own fathers who lived on opposite sides of the line of Partition in the Punjab. As one of the strongest themes to emerge is that of difference, Sanjeev and Aasmah decide to take a DNA test to see just how genetically different they are from one another.
Documentary in which Anne Robinson asks what the secret is to a happy relationship. Journeying around the UK, Anne meets couples from very different backgrounds, all of whom think they have the answer. Entering the couples' homes, Anne finds out their different relationship secrets. How have middle-aged Janet and Malcolm survived an affair? What happens if you don't want to just sleep with your spouse? To answer this, Anne meets a polyamorous group in Leeds. She also finds out whether marrying the lord of the manor is all it is cracked up to be and whether agreeing to an arranged marriage can hold the key to long-term happiness. Anne also gets two couples to delve into each other's relationships to see what they can learn. Whitney and Megan are soulmates who can't bear to be apart - they even go to the loo together. David and Claire don't even live together and believe it keeps their marriage fresh. What will they make of each other's relationships?
Today India and Pakistan are home to one fifth of the world's population. They are rising powers but hostile neighbours. Their enmity can be traced back to the week of their birth, 70 years ago. On 15 August 1947, Britain would give up the Indian Empire, partitioning it in into two independent countries, India and Pakistan. This film tells the story of the seven days that led up to their independence and the last days of the British Raj. With seven days to go, the British were yet to announce where the border would be drawn. Millions anxiously awaited their fates, unsure in what country they would find themselves come independence. By the end of the week, one of the biggest migrations in human history is under way and countless people will have lost their lives. The film moves through each dramatic day, drawing on oral histories of survivors who were eye witnesses to the complex human tragedy that unfolded. From a Muslim boy in Punjab heading north to what would become Pakistan in an attempt to escape the escalating violence to a gang leader in Calcutta - where Gandhi was desperately preaching non-violence. We tell the story of a women whose husband attempted to kill her to prevent her being raped, as well as a Hindu man saved from a Muslim gang by his own Muslim servant who risked his own life in the process. Elsewhere, a writer sees his beloved cultured city of Lahore burn around him and hundreds of thousands lose their lives on the famed railway network as religious violence increases and spreads with each passing day. This week was marked by extreme contradictions of wild celebrations and vicious bloodshed. This film vividly retells, day by day, the unfolding events as seen through the eyes of ordinary people, caught up in an historic summer that would change the world forever.
Is Milton Keynes a soulless place or a utopian dream? It might be famous as the home of roundabouts and concrete cows, but it's also one of the most ambitious experiments in social engineering. The famous new town is about to turn 50 and so is documentary maker Richard Macer, who grew up there. This film brings the two of them back together as Macer returns to the place he left at 18 and seeks to revaluate a town he always felt a bit embarrassed by. These days MK has one of the fastest-growing economies in the country and huge approval ratings from the people who live there. But for many years it's been the butt of the nation's jokes and seen only as a concrete jungle. What's the reality of MK? Is there a chance that Macer might discover a different Milton Keynes to the one he left behind?
A look back at the life and career of Sir Bruce Forsyth, who entertained the British public for over 75 years. With contributions from Michael Grade, Anton Du Beke, Tess Daly, Ian Hislop, Natasha Kaplinsky, Arlene Phillips and Len Goodman.
Diana Her Story The Book That Changed Everything
Annie grew up believing that her Irish traveller mother tried to kill her as a baby by setting fire to the caravan in which she was sleeping, leaving her with severe facial scarring. Could Annie's mother have been driven by a fear of being ostracized by the community because she had an affair and gave birth to a mixed race baby? Thirty years later, having been adopted, the now confident and successful Annie wants to investigate her past. Armed with just a few names and dates from the original Social Services documents concerning her adoption, Annie is determined to find the people who know the truth of what happened on that night in 1986.
From 20-stone pumpkins to man-sized marrows, this documentary digs into the colourful world of Welsh giant vegetable growers as they fight it out in the first show of the season. Part of BBC One's Our Lives strand.
The Pacemakers follows the fun, surprising story of a group of men, all over the age of 90, as they pursue their dream of becoming world champion athletes. Director Selah Hennessy spent a year filming with an international sub-culture of athletes as they prepare for the Olympics of OAP sport: the World Masters Championship. Charles Eugster, 97, is considered Britain's fittest OAP and he has become a star athlete in the world of senior athletics. A former dentist, he only started running at 95 - but in the space of just two short years, he has managed to ratchet up multiple world championship titles and two world records. Now, spurred by a burning desire to break as many world records as he can, Charles has taken up a new challenge: the long jump. With the intense and unrelenting guidance of his Austrian coach Sylvia, he is training to break the world record. Meanwhile, 92-year-old Peruvian Hugo Delgado, 92-year-old Jim Sinclair from Australia, Zhiyong Wang from China and Dixon Hemphill from the United States aspire for gold in the 100m. These are a highly competitive group of athletes, all hell bent on being champions. They are also very determined old men battling major obstacles - from early onset dementia to terminal lung disease - in order to fulfil their ambitions. In this fun, warm-hearted and intimate portrait, we see the ups and downs as they prepare for two major world championships in Australia and South Korea, where they have the chance to prove themselves on the world stage - and show that we are never too old to dream big.
In this documentary, British film-maker Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend It Like Beckham and Viceroy's House, travels from Southall to Delhi to find out about the Partition of India - one of the most seismic events of the 20th century. Partition saw India divided into two new nations - independent India and Pakistan. The split led to violence, disruption and death. To find out why and how it happened, Gurinder crosses India, meeting people whose lives were torn apart by Partition and talking to historians who explain the motivations behind the split. Along the way, she discovers that Partition was caused by politicians who were more interested in their own power than in Indian unity, and finds out that the British also played a major role in the Partition.
The inaugural Ronnie Barker Comedy Lecture speaker is multi-award-winning comedian, novelist, playwright, film maker and creator of classic sitcoms The Young Ones, Blackadder, The Thin Blue Line and Upstart Crow, Ben Elton. He is introduced by Sir David Jason. Recorded at the BBC's Radio Theatre in front of an invited audience from the world of comedy, the lecture is named after the much-loved comedy writer and performer Ronnie Barker, star of The Two Ronnies, Porridge and Open All Hours.
Anti-immigrant? Islamophobic? Homophobic? Anti-semitic? We meet the young people in France campaigning for the far right, as well as those opposed. How did Front National become a popular party amongst French millennials, and could the far right ever win the popular youth vote in Britain?
Presented by Jack Whitehall, this one-hour documentary celebrates 70 years of one of the greatest arts festivals in the world - from the idealism of its glorious beginnings in 1947, when the Edinburgh Festival was conceived as a 'bond of reunion in a disintegrated world', part of a healing process in the aftermath of the Second World War, to the birth of the Fringe the same year and the creative anarchy that it unleashed. Jack recalls the miraculous encounters between artists, musicians, writers and performers that Edinburgh has witnessed over the decades, and reflects on what the Edinburgh Festival has done for culture, both nationally and internationally. Featuring interviews with Sir Ian McKellen, Shappi Khorsandi, Stephen Fry, Claire Bloom, Michael Palin, Nicola Benedetti, Alan Cumming, Alexei Sayle and many more
In August 1997, the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, stunned her family and catapulted the British public into one of the most extraordinary weeks in modern history. This programme hears from some of those most affected and those in the public eye at the time, such as Diana's sons Prince William and Prince Harry, her siblings Earl Spencer and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, former prime minister Tony Blair and members of the royal household. What was it about Diana that resulted in such an outpouring of grief? And what does that week reveal about Britain's relationship with the monarchy, then and now?
This programme tells the untold story of Britain's cross-dressing high society painter. Gluck was one of the British Establishment's go-to portrait painters of the 1930s. Her shows were attended by royalty, aristocrats and celebrities. She also dressed as a man and called her exhibitions 'one-man shows'. Her lovers were all women, including flower arranger to the stars Constance Spry, and Edith Heald, the ex-mistress of WB Yeats. How did Gluck get away with it?
Frank Lloyd Wright is probably America's greatest ever architect. But few people know about the Welsh roots that shaped his life and world-famous buildings. Now, leading Welsh architect Jonathan Adams sets off across America to explore Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces for himself. Along the way, he uncovers the tempestuous life story of the man behind them and the secrets of his radical Welsh background. In a career spanning seven decades, Frank Lloyd Wright built over 500 buildings and changed the face of modern architecture. Fallingwater, the house over the waterfall, has been called the greatest house of the 20th century. The spiralling Guggenheim Museum in New York reinvented the art museum. Wright's Welsh mother was born and raised near Llandysul in west Wales, and emigrated to America with her family in 1844. Her son Frank was raised in a Unitarian community in Wisconsin. The values he absorbed there were based on a love of nature, the importance of hard work and the need to question convention and defy it where necessary. Wright's architecture was shaped by these beliefs. He built his lifelong home in the valley he was raised in, and he named it after an ancient Welsh bard - Taliesin. It was the scene of many adventures and of a horrific crime. In 1914, a servant at Taliesin ran amok and killed seven people. They included Wright's partner Mamah Cheney and her two young children. 150 years after his birth, Adams argues that Frank Lloyd Wright is now a vitally important figure who can teach us how to build for a better world. Wright's belief in what he called organic architecture - buildings that grace the landscape and respond to people's individual needs - is more relevant than ever, in Wales and around the world.
Lachlan Goudie explores Britain's spectacular industrial landscapes and the artists and artworks inspired by them in a passionate and thought-provoking journey that challenges our national stereotypes. Travelling the length and breadth of the UK visiting an impressive range of industrial sites from shipyards to quarries, mines to abandoned wind tunnels, steelworks to space age laboratories, Goudie builds a surprising and compelling alternative picture of Britain. Featuring revelatory industrial art by the likes of JMW Turner, Graham Sutherland and photographer Maurice Broomfield, the film reveals the awesome beauty, drama and significance of our industrial heritage and proves there's so much more to these isles than the picture postcard cliche of a 'green and pleasant land'.
Documentary charting the unique relationship that Diana, Princess of Wales, had with the people of Wales, featuring rarely seen archive film and photographs. Among those who got to know her well were Captain Sir Norman Lloyd-Edwards, who looked after Diana on her many trips to the country and developed a close relationship with her. The programme also hears from fans like Joy and Robert King from Neath, Anne Daley, who became the first person to sign the book of condolence for Diana in St James's Palace, and Frances Elliston from Cardiff, who talks movingly about how Diana helped her son Kevin, who was diagnosed with Aids in 1990. Angela Incledon reveals how Diana became involved with the charity Ty Hafan after she got in touch with her with the details of her three-year-old son Daniel's illness, and royal-watcher and amateur photographer Colin Edwards, who formed an unlikely friendship with the princess over 16 years, shares some of the over 300 photos he took of her and reveals the stories behind them.
From acclaimed director Nick Broomfield comes a film about one of the greatest singers of all time. Whitney Houston was the epitome of superstar, an 'American princess' and the most awarded female artist ever. Even though Whitney had made millions of dollars, had more consecutive number ones than The Beatles and became recognised as having one of the greatest voices of all time, she still wasn't free to be herself and died at the age of 48. Made with largely never-before-seen footage and exclusive live recordings, Whitney: Can I Be Me tells Whitney Houston's incredible and poignant life story with insights from those closest to her.
James Young, 27, takes us on a personal journey to explore the latest robots being developed to engage with humans on an emotional level. After turning to cutting edge tech since an accident five years ago which left him as a double amputee, James has started to explore the limits of the human-robot connection. In this film, James goes on a journey to meet the people designing tech solutions to mental health, loneliness and even romance. From meeting a sex doll with AI to robots designed to stop us being lonely, James asks whether robots can ever truly love us.
In the week that follows Princess Diana's tragic death on 31 August 1997, four separate stories unfold as four ordinary lives are all affected in different ways. Jack is a shy 19-year-old, the only child of an adored mother who dies the same night as Princess Diana. He struggles to come to terms with her death while computing the loss of an icon who meant so much to both of them. Estranged from his father, he seeks help from a young neighbour, Russell. Yasmin is unhappily married to Hassan, an unsuccessful businessman who can't admit his failure. Affected deeply by news of Diana's death, Yasmin's patience snaps when their television is re-possessed while she is watching the coverage. Making a pilgrimage to London with their only daughter Aalia, she arrives unannounced on the doorstep of her Uncle Zaheer. Inspired by the public outpouring of emotion at Diana's death, Yasmin goes on a journey of self-discovery. Michael is a junior reporter on his honeymoon in Paris with his new wife Sophie when news of Diana's death breaks. A fluent French speaker, Michael teams up with the charismatic Laura, a star reporter flown in to cover the story. Spending more and more time on the story at the expense of his honeymoon, Michael struggles to balance his career with his fledgling marriage. Mary is a Glaswegian florist. Living alone with her mother who is battling Alzheimer's, she struggles for money. Mary hatches a plan to drive to London and sell flowers before Saturday's funeral. With the help of her adoring friend Gordon, she travels to the capital in an old coach filled with flowers. Unexpectedly caught up in the public expression of love for Diana, Mary discovers emotions she thought were long lost.
A new age of space exploration, and exploitation, is dawning. But surprisingly, some of the boldest efforts at putting humans into space are now those of private companies started by a handful of maverick billionaire businessmen. In this film, Brian Cox gains exclusive access behind the scenes at Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and Spaceport America, exploring what is really happening in privately financed space flight right now. From space tourism to asteroid mining, and even dreams of colonies on Mars, these new masters of the universe refuse to limit their imaginations. But are private companies led by Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk really going to be able to pull this off? How will they overcome the technical challenges to achieve it? And is it really a good idea, or just a fool's errand? Cox meets key players in the story - Bezos, founder of Blue Origin as well as Amazon, and Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. He wants to find out how entrepreneurs - and engineers - really plan to overcome the daunting challenges of human space travel. It certainly hasn't been easy so far. Jeff Bezos has sold a further billion dollars of Amazon stock this year to fund Blue Origin. Branson has been working on Galactic for more than a decade. Lives have been lost. And some companies have already all but given up. But real progress has been made too. The origins of the new space boom, the X-prize in 2004, proved that reusable space craft could be built by private enterprise. Now the challenge is to work out how to run reliable, safe, affordable services that will show a return on the massive financial investments. Sixteen years since Dennis Tito became the first civilian in space, Cox explores the hardware and companies that are aiming to make daily tourist flights to space. Beyond mass space travel, and even space mining and manufacturing, the dream of Elon Musk and others is true space exploration. His company, SpaceX, already delivers supplie
The horses that provided the backbone of the Australian Light Horse regiments in World War I were popularly known as Walers. Bred for Australia's tough Outback conditions, Walers were well-equipped for the harsh climate and terrain of the Middle East, where the ANZAC forces faced the armies of the Ottoman Empire. Great War Horses is a powerful, moving account of the men and horses of the Australian Light Horse and the pivotal role they played in World War I at the Battle of Romani (1916), the celebrated Light Horse charge at the Battle of Beersheba (1917) and the capture of Damascus in 1918.
Africa is in the midst of a baby boom - the median age across the continent is just 19. The BBC's Africa correspondent, Alastair Leithead investigates.
Professor Stephen Hawking thinks the human species will have to populate a new planet within 100 years if it is to survive. With climate change, pollution, deforestation, pandemics and population growth, our own planet is becoming increasingly precarious. Planet Earth has been home to humankind for over 200,000 years, but with a population of 7.5 billion and counting and limited resources, this planet might not support us forever. In this landmark film Professor Hawking, alongside engineer and radio astronomy expert Professor Danielle George and a former student, Christophe Galfard, join forces to find out if, and how, humans can reach for the stars and relocate to different planets. Travelling the globe, they meet top scientists, technologists and engineers who are working to answer our biggest questions: is there another planet out there that we could call home? How will we travel across the vast distances of space to get there? How will we survive the journey? And how will we set up a new human civilization on an alien world? Taking in the latest advances in astronomy, biology and rocket technology from the Atacama Desert to the wilds of the Arctic, viewers will discover a whole world of cutting edge research. This programme shows that Professor Hawking’s ambition isn’t as fantastical as it sounds - and that science fiction is closer to science fact than we ever thought.
In this film made before the Grenfell Tower tragedy, presenter Brenda Emmanus follows a group of emerging, diverse artists as they launch the first ever Diaspora Pavilion in a Venetian palazzo during the Venice Biennale - the so-called Olympics of modern art. One of the artists we meet is 24-year-old photographer Khadija Saye, who died on 14 June in her home. We follow Khadija and the other emerging artists as they discover new art inspiration across the city, navigate networking at VIP launch parties and, most importantly, find out what the critics' and tastemakers' verdict is on the exhibition's opening night.
Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Vanessa Redgrave, Sir Trevor Nunn and many others look back at the extraordinary life of Sir Peter Hall, the man who transformed British theatre. In a career spanning seven decades, he brought Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to the London stage and led the Royal Shakespeare Company while still only 29 years old. This film charts his life from simple beginnings as the son of a railwayman to his huge success in British theatre, through the turbulent years of the National Theatre and his other work directing opera, TV and film.
Young Brits are choosing to spend money on amazing experiences over saving for their future. Escaping their jobs and looking to have the time of their lives, five different groups from the UK head to the brand new party mecca of Zrce Beach on the island of Pag in Croatia. Adventure awaits them at one of Europe's biggest new festivals, Sonus.
This intimate biography, narrated in Marc Bolan's own words, marks the 70th anniversary of his birth and the 40th of his death. The film traces Bolan's remarkable journey from Hackney's own 'king of the mods' to Tyrannosaurus Rex, as he evolved into the artist known as 'the hippie with a knife up his sleeve'. With the dawn of the '70s and the breakup of The Beatles, Bolan became the gender-bending glam rocker whose band T. Rex revitalised the British music scene. But director Jeremy Marre - incorporating unseen movies shot by record producer Tony Visconti and Marc Bolan himself - reveals a far more complex and driven figure whose life was tragically cut short, aged 29. Featuring those who were closest to Marc, his friends, colleagues, family, partner Gloria Jones and producer Tony Visconti.
From the day it was created in 1947, Magnum Photos has represented some of the most famous names in photography whose pictures have come to define their times. But Magnum's work also includes more surprising images - pictures of cinema. This film recounts this remarkable collaboration - from Robert Capa's photos of Ingrid Bergman and Eve Arnold's intimate relationship with Marilyn Monroe, up until today with Paolo Pellegrin's portraits of Kate Winslet, providing an essential history of both cinema and photography.
Globally today, well over 1,000 wrongly convicted, incarcerated and exonerated people, exonerees, are trying to put their stolen lives back together. Wrenched from their families, homes and communities, the wrongfully convicted suffer many forms of psychological trauma as a result of their imprisonment. Their problems are exacerbated upon release, where they struggle to reintegrate into society, reclaim normality and carve out a stable existence. They return only to face poverty, employment discrimination, societal discrimination, alcohol and substance abuse and broken relationships. The long-term effects are much worse for exonerees than for guilty prisoners. There are presently no post-prison services available for exonerees in many countries, yet the guilty have every service imaginable at their disposal on leaving prison. Sunny Jacobs served 17 years on death row in the USA. Peter Pringle was the last person sentenced to death in Ireland and served 15 years. They are the only married, exonerated, death-sentence couple in the world. Paddy Joe Hill is known as one of the Birmingham Six and served 16 years. Robert Brown served the longest sentence of 25 years before being declared innocent.
The extraordinary and dramatic story of Gertrude Bell, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day. She shaped the modern Middle East after World War I in ways that still reverberate today. More influential than her friend and colleague Lawrence of Arabia, Bell helped draw the borders of Iraq and established the Iraq Museum. Using never-seen-before footage of the region, the film chronicles Bell's extraordinary journey into both the uncharted Arabian desert and the inner sanctum of British male colonial power. With unique access to documents from the Iraq National Library and Archive and Gertrude Bell's own 1,600 letters, the story is told entirely in the words of the players of the day, excerpted verbatim from intimate letters, private diaries and secret communiques. It is a unique look at both a remarkable woman and the tangled history of Iraq.
Famalam shines a comedic light on everything - from alien encounters in the outer reaches of the galaxy, to what happens when a man is left on his own in a house for ten minutes holding only a phone and a remote. With a dazzling array of accents, cultural observations and colourful costumes, Famalam gives us a glimpse of the latest Nollywood blockbuster, reveals who might be responsible for internet spam and introduces us to latest TV detective - but be warned - his methods are, well, unorthodox...
Through the Lens of Larkin explores the relationship of one of the 20th Century’s greatest poets, Philip Larkin with photography. It looks at the relationship between Larkin's photography and his work, family and lovers - seen through the thousands of photographs he took, including the many “selfies” in his collection. Presented by poet and academic John Wedgwood Clarke, the documentary studies some of the pictures he took of his loved ones, his adopted city, and of himself - charting his life from childhood to death.
He's Trump's idol - the new President took his 2016 slogan 'Make America Great Again' straight from Ronald Reagan's barnstorming 1980 campaign. But like Trump, Reagan had a long past in entertainment - and one that might have scuppered his political career before it really took off. For BBC World News, historian Adam Smith tells the extraordinary story of Reagan's last movie. In The Killers (1964), Reagan played a criminal for the first time, and portrayed California businessmen as corrupt and violent - just months before real California businessmen launched him into national politics. But why did he do it? And what might have happened if The Killers had been shown on TV as planned?
The youngest person with motor neurone disease in Scotland, Lucy Lintott, is becoming paralysed - she can no longer walk unassisted and she is losing her voice - not great for a chatterbox like Lucy. Even though she has been given only a few years to live, Lucy is determined to do what 22-year-olds do - including dating. Over a six-month period, this lover of food and country music reveals how she is struggling to hold on to her personality and her infectious laugh. Lucy visits Newcastle, where she meets a stand-up comedian who can still crack a joke even though he can't speak. At a clinic in Edinburgh, Lucy's voice is recorded with her sister's to create a personalised synthetic voice. And in an emotional photographic sitting with portrait photographer Rankin, Lucy confronts two polarised parts of herself - the perfect Lucy pre-diagnosis and the broken Lucy three years after diagnosis.
In the last two years, three Saudi princes in Europe have disappeared. All were critical of the Saudi government and there is evidence they were abducted and flown to Saudi Arabia.
More than 750,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder – but what happens when you’re a type 1 diabetic and misuse insulin in order to dramatically lose weight? In this documentary produced by BBC Three and BBC Newsbeat, we meet three young sufferers who are risking their eyesight, limbs, fertility and lives in order to be thin. We follow one young girl whose parents know she’s skipping her insulin but are struggling to understand the mental health aspect of her condition; a young mum who is not receiving the appropriate healthcare due to the lack of awareness and expertise on how to treat diabulimia; and a young woman who was saved from the brink of death and is now beginning to rebuild her life, despite the illness leaving her with physical disability.
Documentary examining the historical child sexual abuse scandal engulfing football. Reporter Mark Daly reveals fresh allegations of sex abuse and cover ups in Scottish football's most notorious paedophile scandal, at Celtic Boys' Club. He also hears powerful accounts from former footballers who talk for the first time about the abuse they say they suffered as boys in the sport.
Reporter Bronagh Munro investigates how a teenage gap year student became one of Britain’s worst ever paedophiles. In 2016, thirty year old Richard Huckle was imprisoned after being convicted at the Old Bailey of abusing twenty three children in Malaysia and Cambodia. Working as an English teacher and posing as a Christian, Huckle raped and sexually assaulted vulnerable and poor children of all ages, from babies to young teenagers. On the dark web, he shared tens of thousands of images of his crimes, boasted about them and even published a manual for paedophiles. This film investigates how Huckle escaped detection for nearly a decade and reveals that he could have been stopped earlier. Following Huckle’s trail to India, where his movements have not been investigated by the authorities, Munro uncovers previously undetected crimes. The film asks whether Huckle also abused children in Britain and reveals that the true count of his victims is likely to number into the hundreds.
The life of the most glamorous plane ever built - told by the people whose lives she touched. We uncover rare footage telling the forgotten row between the French and British governments over the name of Concorde which threatened to derail the whole project. Ahead of the opening of Bristol's multimillion-pound aerospace museum, a host of engineers, flight technicians and frequent fliers tell the supersonic story, aided by Lord Heseltine and Dame Joan Collins. And we meet the passenger who shared an intimate moment with The Rolling Stones. Narrated by Sophie Okonedo
In the 1980s a new generation of pirate radio stations exploded on to Britain's FM airwaves. Unlike their seafaring swinging 60s forerunners, these pirates broadcast from London's estates and tower blocks to create a platform for black music in an era when it was shut out by legal radio and ignored by the mainstream music industry. In the ensuing game of cat and mouse which played out on the rooftops of inner-city London across a whole decade, these rebel DJs used legal loopholes and technical trickery to stay one step ahead of the DTI enforcers who were tasked with bringing them down. And as their popularity grew they spearheaded a cultural movement bringing Britain's first multicultural generation together under the banner of black music and club culture. Presented by Rodney P, whose own career as a rapper would not have been possible without the lifeblood of pirate radio airplay, this film also presents an alternative history of Britain in the 1980s - a time of entrepreneurialism and social upheaval - with archive and music that celebrates a very different side of Thatcher's Britain. Featuring interviews with DJs, station owners and DTI enforcers - as well as some of the engineers who were the secret weapon in the pirate arsenal - this is the untold story of how Britain's greatest generation of pirate radio broadcasters changed the soundtrack of modern Britain forever.
Sir Viv Richards, Sir Wes Hall and David Lloyd recall the impact West Indian players made on the Lancashire Cricket League over the last 90 years. A story of how initial reticence and racism turned into an unlikely cricketing love affair, which has had a huge impact on both sides of the Atlantic.
Why does the poet who began as the golden boy of the 1930s and ended up as the craggy-faced laureate-we-never-had have a greater hold on our imaginations than ever before? Thirty-five years after his BBC film The Auden Landscape, director Adam Low returns to the poet and his work. Following Auden's surges of popularity from featuring in Four Weddings and a Funeral to being the poet New Yorkers turned to after 9/11, Low reveals how Auden's poetry helps us to have a better understanding of the 21st century and the tumultuous political climate in which we now live. Writers Alan Bennett, Polly Clark, Alexander McCall Smith and Richard Curtis, and poets James Fenton and Paul Muldoon share their passion for Auden and celebrate the potent impact of his work.
A spangly celebration of the outburst of far-out pop and fuzz-filled rock that lit up the British charts in the early 1970s. Top of the Pops is our primary arena and its gloriously gaudy visual effects are used here aplenty! The compilation also utilises footage from a selection of BBC concerts as well as from Crackerjack and Cilla. It features classic BBC TV performances from T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, Slade, The Sweet, Elton John, Queen, Sparks and many more.
Charles Causley was one of the great poets of his generation. Born in 1917 in Launceston, north Cornwall, on the edge of Bodmin Moor, the only time he left was for active service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. His father died when he was a boy as a result of a gas attack in the trenches of World War One and he lived the rest of his life in the same house as his mother. He knew everyone and they knew him. He devoted his life to teaching, poetry and his mum. Charles Causley said that everything you needed to know about him was in the poetry. He wrote directly from experience about the people of Launceston and the changes in the town, both world wars, his shipmates, local history, myths, animals and God.
Every year in Britain an estimated 3,000 plus children are placed into the care system. Their mothers - who have often suffered domestic violence, sexual abuse or neglect themselves - are left behind. Vilified, isolated and ignored, they form an invisible group living on the edge of society. This film gives them a voice for the first time, combining extraordinary documentary footage with poetry written by Simon Armitage. Set in Hull, as the city celebrates European Capital of Culture status, the film uses poetry to offer an arresting and emotionally charged portrait of the women's lives. The women featured are all participants of a groundbreaking new scheme called Pause, which aims to break the cycle of repeat care removals. Over the course of 18 months the women work one-on-one with a dedicated Pause practitioner who helps them reclaim their lives. "I lost my children because I was with a violent and controlling partner" says Lyndsey, an articulate and outspoken mother-of-four. When she started working with her practitioner, Lesley, she had many dark days when she wouldn't go out. Over time, they rebuilt her confidence and Lyndsey now works as a carer for the elderly and disabled. It is, it seems, a job she performs with distinction. "Lyndsey is one of the nicest, most caring people you could possibly hope to meet", says David, one of her clients. The women's stories provide a rich palette from which poet Simon Armitage can draw. Professor of poetry at Oxford University and one of the nation's most decorated poets, he was once a probation officer for ten years, an experience that has helped him to understand the lives of those who are denied a voice. Simon wrote the poems by listening to the audio of the interviews, which helped him to write to the lexicon of each woman. Pause was co-founded by Sophie Humphreys, who witnessed first-hand the trauma and loss caused by repeat removals. "There is a care crisis in this country. The numbers of children
Historian Adam Smith explores the great American divide between the small town and the big city - as anatomised in classic film noir.
Historian David Starkey tells the story of the Protestant Reformation and how it transformed the face of modern Europe. A schism at the heart of Christendom, the Reformation unleashed centuries of holy war, inspiring the kind of fundamentalism, terror and religious violence we are all too familiar with today. Timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the doors of All Saint's Church in Wittenberg, this programme charts the spread of Luther's ideas across Europe. Starkey explains how and why Luther's simple act of defiance would gain such momentum, and explores the consequences of his actions - both on the Christian faith, as well as on society as a whole. Filmed in Rome, Germany and the UK, the programme concentrates on the early years of the Reformation and concludes by revealing the impact and legacy it had on England. There it prompted Henry VIII to split with the Catholic Church in Rome and declare himself supreme head of the Church of England.
50 years ago, Penguin published its 1967 hit pop poetry book The Mersey Sound, introducing Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri to the world, thereby securing Liverpool as the cultural centre of the UK and bringing poetry to pop audiences. With the help of famous friends and fellow writers, McGough and Patten tell the inside story of this modern classic and how they made poetry cool.
BBC Three film, uncovering how gangs operating in cities have expanded their drug operations into the countryside and seaside towns. With astonishing access, the film explores how gang members are using teenage drug runners to sell large amounts of crack and heroin miles away from home. Police, youth workers and the government are all trying to tackle this rising problem. As more gangs are moving into the countryside, the competition, rivalries and violence have increased. We see how this secretive and dangerous trade works, and the impact it has on the young runners at the heart of it, as well as the rural communities across the UK.
The recent Sotheby's auction of a Jean-Michel Basquiat Skull painting for over a hundred million dollars has catapulted this Brooklyn-born artist into the top tier of the international art market, joining the ranks of Picasso, de Kooning and Francis Bacon. This film tells Jean-Michel's story through exclusive interviews with his two sisters Lisane and Jeanine, who have never before agreed to be interviewed for a TV documentary. With striking candour, Basquiat's art dealers - including Larry Gagosian, Mary Boone and Bruno Bischofberger - as well as his most intimate friends, lovers and fellow artists, expose the cash, the drugs and the insidious racism which Basquiat confronted on a daily basis. As historical tableaux, visual diaries of defiance or surfaces covered with hidden meanings, Basquiat's art remains the beating heart of this story.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 is one of the most controversial events of the 20th century. Three men - Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin - emerged from obscurity to forge an entirely new political system. In the space of six months, they turned the largest country on earth into the first Communist state. Was this a triumph of people power or a political coup d'etat that led to blood-soaked totalitarianism? A hundred years later, the Revolution still sparks ferocious debate. This film dramatizes the 245 days that brought these men to supreme power. As the history unfolds, a stellar cast of writers and historians, including Martin Amis, Orlando Figes, Helen Rappaport, Simon Sebag-Montefiore and China Mieville, battle over the meaning of the Russian Revolution and explore how it shaped the world we live in today.
To coincide with his 80th birthday, a very special documentary celebrating the remarkable career of one England's most iconic and greatest ever footballers, Sir Bobby Charlton. Sir Bobby was a key member of the England team that won the World Cup on home soil in 1966 and part of a Manchester United team touched by success and tragedy in equal measure. Charlton survived the Munich air disaster in 1958 which killed several of his teammates dubbed the Busby Babes. He became a crucial figure in the club's resurgence, winning two league titles and, unforgettably in 1968, the European Cup against Benfica. Renowned for his attacking instincts and ferocious long-range shot, until recently he held goalscoring records for England and Manchester United.
Intimate behind-the-scenes documentary about the handsome German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, one of the hottest properties in the opera world, and his triumphant return after illness.
The world-renowned Magnum Photos photographer David Hurn is Wales's most important living photographer. This year he is donating his archive to the National Museum Wales, alongside a unique collection of 700 photographs by other photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt and Dorothea Lange. It is a remarkable gift to the nation. As Magnum Photos celebrates 70 years at the forefront of photojournalism, this film celebrates one of its longest serving members and profiles David's extraordinary portfolio and bequest from a career spanning 60 years. David has spent his whole career capturing moments in time. Now 83, the film shows him pursuing new goals in his photography, in Wales and abroad, and reunites him with actress Jane Fonda, 50 years after he photographed her on the film set of Barbarella'. David's photographic career began when he photographed the Hungarian uprising against the Soviet state in 1956. His images were published in Picture Post. By the 60s he was one of London's leading young photographers. He took the iconic poster shot of Sean Connery as James Bond, was alongside the Beatles when they filmed A Hard Day's Night' and was on set with Jane Fonda. David was filmed for BBC's Monitor programme by his friend Ken Russell and was at the epicentre of a creative circle including fellow photographers, Sir Don McCullin and Philip Jones Griffiths. In this documentary, David reflects on this dynamic group, his younger self and that period in his life when he as at the heart of the Swinging Sixties.
Fifty years after the Abortion Act was passed, Anne Robinson brings together a group of nine people with conflicting views on abortion, to ask if the law is fit for purpose in 2017. One in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime, yet it is rarely talked about and continues to be a taboo subject. Anne's guests all have strong views - some are resolutely anti-abortion, some firmly pro-choice, while others are more conflicted. In every case, their personal experience of abortion has directly informed their view. Filmed over one weekend in Anne's own home in Gloucestershire, the group share their stories and grapple with some of the most contentious aspects of the law. What should the time limit be on when you can have an abortion? Should the man have a legal right to be part of the decision? Should abortions be allowed at home? Should abortion be completely decriminalised or should the restrictions on abortions be increased? Underpinning their often impassioned discussions are the results of one of the most comprehensive opinion polls ever conducted into our attitudes towards abortion in the UK. For every key issue her guests discuss, Anne examines how their views compare to those of the wider public. The group also hear testimony from experts, campaigners and medical professionals, who all offer their own unique insight on the subject. Despite their differences, can this group reach a consensus? Does Britain's 50-year-old law truly reflect what we think about abortion in 2017?
Five hundred years ago, the Emperor Babur laid out beautiful gardens in the city of Kabul, now the capital of Afghanistan. The lush, green spaces provided a peaceful retreat when he returned from battle. Over the centuries, the emperor's favourite garden was battered by war, but has now been lovingly restored to its former glory. In this film, we meet the gardeners keeping the emperor's legacy alive and we're invited into the private gardens of Afghans who find refuge among their plants and flowers from the stresses of a violent city.
For most of his life, broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham didn't tell anyone about the one thing that in many ways has defined his entire existence. Chris is autistic - he has Asperger's Syndrome, which means he struggles in social situations, has difficulty with human relationships and is, by his own admission, 'a little bit weird'. But what if there was a way of taking away these autistic traits? Would Chris ever choose to be 'normal'? In this film, Chris invites us inside his autistic world to try to show what it is really like being him. He lives alone in the woods with his 'best friend' Scratchy the dog, but he also has a long-term partner, Charlotte, who discusses the problems Asperger's creates in their relationship - she describes Chris as being sometimes 'like an alien'. Chris experiences the world in a very different way, with heightened senses that at times are overwhelming, and a mind that is constant bouncing from one subject to the next. Growing up at a time when little was known about autism, Chris wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's until he was in his forties. With scientific advances offering new possibilities to treat his condition, Chris travels to America to witness radical therapies that appear to offer the possibility of entirely eradicating problematic autistic traits, but he also meets those who are challenging the idea that autistic people need to change in order to fit into society. Confronting this deeply personal subject with brutal honesty, and reflecting on the devastating struggles of his adolescence, Chris explores the question of whether he would ever want to be cured himself or whether, ultimately, Asperger's has helped make him who he is today.
Lucy Worsley investigates the story of the most remarkable creation from the tumultuous and violent era known as the Reformation - choral evensong. Henry VIII loved religious music, but he loved power more - when he instigated his English Reformation he dramatically split from the ancient Catholic church that controlled much of his country. But in doing so set into motion changes that would fundamentally transform the religious music he loved. Following Elizabeth I's personal story, Lucy recounts how she and her two siblings were shaped by the changes their father instigated. Elizabeth witnessed both her radically puritan brother Edward bring church music to the very brink of destruction and the terrifying reversals made by her sister Mary - which saw her thrown in the Tower of London forced to beg for her life. When Elizabeth finally took power she was determined to find a religious compromise - she resurrected the Protestant religion of her brother, but kept the music of her beloved father - music that she too adored. And it was in the evocative service of choral evensong that her ideas about religious music found their ultimate expression.
As Britain's gig economy continues to grow and employ more young people, two teenagers decide to challenge the practices of one of the biggest takeaway delivery companies in the sector
To mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Janina Ramirez tells the story of three books that defined this radical religious revolution in England. Tyndale's New Testament, Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer and Foxe's Book of Martyrs are no longer commonly recognised titles, yet for nearly four hundred years these works formed the backbone of British life. Their words shaped the English language, fuelled religious division and sparked a revolt. Nina discovers how the trio of texts had a powerful cumulative effect. Tyndale's Bible made the word of God accessible to the common man for the first time; The Book of Common Prayer established a Protestant liturgy, and Foxe's Book of Martyrs enshrined an intolerance of Catholicism. Nina reveals how they formed the nation's Protestant identity, the impact of which can be seen even today.
Documentary going behind the scenes of the boxing fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium on April 29 this year, where 90,000 fans witnessed Joshua defeating his opponent. Featuring exclusive access to Joshua's camp in the week leading up to the event and on the night itself, and Joshua himself reliving all the key action from the fight, describing what happened in the ring in intimate detail.
Michael Fish presents a special programme in which he retraces the route of the storm from Dorset to Sussex, visiting some of the places left devastated by the 1987 storm.
Hull is the UK's City of Culture for 2017. In this BBC Arts documentary, the wonderful Hull-born comedian Lucy Beaumont, writer and star of the Radio 4 sitcom To Hull and Back, looks at the cultural treats that will be taking place in her home town - and whether being City of Culture will transform Hull forever. Lucy talks to key figures in this historic year for her home city, including the writer Richard Bean and actress Maureen Lipman, as well as discovering the rich cultural life that already exists in Hull. She will also explore the more avant-garde side of Hull with the performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti, who invented industrial music with the band Throbbing Gristle.
Twenty years ago, the story of Wales changed overnight. Huw Edwards witnessed the turbulent birth of Welsh devolution first-hand while broadcasting the results of the knife-edge 1997 referendum vote to the rest of the UK. Two decades later, he goes on a 500-mile journey around Wales to see how the country has changed. He meets people who are making an impact on their communities with years of frontline experience in health, education and the economy. He also finds out what difference, if any, devolved government has made to people's lives and whether attitudes have changed to the very notion of a Welsh Assembly.
This programme presents a striking and poignant portrayal of time passing in a beautiful Sussex walled garden. Using real-time and time-lapse footage, the film explores the relationship between the seasons and the plants and people who work within the walls of the garden. Locked into the clock of the solar system, the garden performs its annual display, guided by those passionately engaged with its soil.
Imagine a world in which you can think but cannot speak. For many stroke survivors like former football star Junior and landlord Barry, this is a reality. Inspired by the experience of his brother-in-law, film-maker Richard Alwyn has made an intensely moving, personal film about language and its loss. Alwyn's brother-in-law, journalist Dennis Barker, had a stroke in 2011, which made him lose his ability to produce intelligible speech. The programme tells the powerful stories of two men who can no longer take language for granted. Much of the film is made on the Neuro Rehab Unit of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London's Queen Square. There, Alwyn meets 55-year-old Barry, who has been in hospital for four months since a stroke left him barely able to speak. Thanks to being courageous and determined, Barry constantly triumphs where his language fails. And two years after his stroke when just 35 years old, former Premier League and international footballer Junior Agogo is still visiting the unit as he battles to find his way in the world with depleted language. 'I had thoughts but I'm saying, where was my voice? I was baffled, man.' The programme raises questions that straddle philosophy and science. Can we understand the world if we don't have language to name and describe it? Can we think without language? How much is our identity wrapped up in language? These questions are at the heart of conversations that Alwyn has with clinicians and therapists working to get Barry and Junior back into the world. Speechless is fascinating and moving, upsetting and uplifting in its depiction of the isolating and estranging condition, aphasia.
Jacqueline du Pre was one of the most excellent performing musicians that Britain has ever produced. She stopped playing cello at the age of 28, a victim of multiple sclerosis, and she died at 42 on 19 October 1987. This film, compiled by Christopher Nupen from the five prize-winning films he made during her lifetime, pays tribute to her on the 30th anniversary of her death. I am that the video of this concert still exists. Jacqueline du Pre had a very, very special relationship with the Dvorak Cello Concerto, and just adored playing it.".
It is 20 years since JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone first cast its spell on readers across the globe. But Rowling's fantastical creation wasn't entirely make-believe. In the run up to the exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic, JK Rowling ventures behind the scenes of the British Library, revealing the real-life counterparts to her fantastical world. From shrieking mandrakes and Elizabethan invisibility spells to the mystery of ancient Chinese oracle bones and the real life search for the Philosopher's Stone, it is the start of a warm, playful and inventive journey round some of the most magical places in the land - from wizarding wandmakers in the English forest to the beguiling witchcraft of Boscastle, Cornwall. The film features readings by actors from the Harry Potter films, including David Thewlis, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Mark Williams, while Rowling's illustrator Jim Kay illuminates her imaginary world. Narrated by Imelda Staunton.
George Lamb travels across the UK meeting the young people whose voices have been left out of the mainstream media debate.
The story of the homecoming of US Army sergeant and former Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl, after five years in captivity. After walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009, US Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and held in captivity for five years. This documentary by the film-maker and former Taliban hostage Sean Langan, who gained exclusive access to the former POW and his family, gives a unique perspective on Sgt Bergdahl's incredible story. Sgt Bergdahl was tortured and kept in a tiny cage by the Taliban, and endured the worst case of prisoner abuse since the war in Vietnam. But his real nightmare began on his return home to America. Freed in 2014 by President Obama in exchange for five Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo, he was then vilified in sections of the media as a traitor who collaborated with the enemy and 'converted to Islam'. To the American public, he was being portrayed as the real-life version of Homeland's Sgt Brody, and presidential candidate Donald Trump called for him to be shot as a 'dirty rotten traitor'. Days before his court martial in October 2017, he pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and endangering the lives of fellow soldiers but totally denied collaborating with the enemy. So what was his side of the story? Film-maker Sean Langan was himself held captive for four months by the same group that captured Bowe Bergdahl. He too was locked in a dark cell, interrogated and put through mock executions. With his special insight, Langan gets exclusive access to Bowe Bergdahl and to his parents, Bob and Jani. He presents a moving story about a soldier who made a mistake but who then in captivity fought his captors hard and paid a terrible price, and about a family caught in a storm of false allegations and fake news. Bowe Bergdahl, Sean Langan discovers, was a man with serious psychological issues who became a political football in a deeply divided America.
Behind-the-scenes archive documentary following Queen's Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon as they record their sixth album News of the World and embark on a groundbreaking tour of North America. By 1977, Queen had become a major headlining act in the UK, releasing chart-topping albums and singles as well as playing sell-out concerts in all the country's major venues. However, they were facing an increasingly hostile music press, who had a new favourite in punk and had turned against the elaborate, multi-layered recording techniques that had become the hallmark of the band's previous albums. But an unfazed Queen had their sights set on greater things. As the band announced plans to record their next album, the expectation was it would be another production extravaganza, but Freddie, Brian, Roger and John already had other ideas. News of the World showcased them at their most raw, simple and best, returning to their roots as a live act. With a self-imposed limit on studio time and produced entirely on their own for the first time, this stripped-back album took the fans and press by surprise and demonstrated Queen's ability to transcend fashions. It was to prove a seminal moment in the band's history. At the time, BBC music presenter Bob Harris was given exclusive and extensive access to the band to cover this period. Conducting insightful interviews with all four band members as well as filming them at work in the studio as they were planning and rehearsing their forthcoming North American Tour, and then following them as they performed across the US, Bob captured a band attempting to replicate their huge domestic success on the global stage. Curiously, the documentary he set out to make was never completed, and the footage lay unused in the archive until now. To mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the News of the World album, the footage has now been carefully restored and revisited to compile this hour-long portrait of a grou
Directed by acclaimed film-maker Margy Kinmonth, this bold and exciting feature documentary encapsulates a momentous period in the history of Russia and the Russian avant-garde. Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers, and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian avant-garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky, Malevich and others - pioneers who flourished in response to the utopian challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years. Stalin's rise to power marked the close of this momentous period, consigning the avant-garde to obscurity. Yet the Russian avant-garde continues to exert a lasting influence over art movements up to the present day. The film confirms this, exploring the fascination that these colourful paintings, inventive sculptures and propaganda posters retain over the modern consciousness 100 years on. It was filmed entirely on location in Moscow, St Petersburg and London, with access to the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the State Hermitage Museum and in co-operation with the Royal Academy of Arts, London. The film features paintings previously banned and unseen for decades, and masterpieces which rarely leave Russia. Contributors include museum directors Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky and Zelfira Tregulova, and film director Andrei Konchalovsky. The film also features the voices of Matthew Macfadyen, Tom Hollander, James Fleet, Eleanor Tomlinson and Daisy Bevan.
Dr Zhivago is one of the best-known love stories of the 20th century, but the setting of the book also made it famous. It is a tale of passion and fear, set against a backdrop of revolution and violence. The film is what most people remember, but the story of the writing of the book has more twists, intrigue and bravery than many a Hollywood blockbuster. In this documentary, Stephen Smith traces the revolutionary beginnings of this bestseller, to it becoming a pawn of the CIA at the height of the Cold War. The writer of the novel, Boris Pasternak, in the words of his family, willingly committed acts of literary suicide in being true to the Russia he loved, but being honest about the Soviet regime he hated and despised. Under Stalin, writers and artists just disappeared if they didn't support the party line. Many were murdered. Writing his book for over 20 tumultuous years, Boris Pasternak knew it could result in his death. It did result in his mistress being sent to the Gulag twice, but he had to have his say. This is the story of the writing of perhaps the bravest book ever published. It is the story before the film won Oscars and its author the Nobel Prize, it is the untold story of the real Dr Zhivago - Boris Pasternak.
Two worlds meet when a small Catholic town in the west of Ireland becomes the new home for hundreds of Muslim Syrian asylum seekers, brought over from refugee camps in Greece. Under an EU refugee relocation scheme, Ireland has accepted up to 4,000 asylum seekers in a single year, but plans to settle several hundred of them in a former luxury hotel in small rural community of Ballaghadereen have divided the town. Some townsfolk believe it is their Catholic duty to extend a charitable hand, while others are anxious about the impact of so many strangers on the town.
Sam Smith performs tracks from his latest album alongside some of his biggest hits, including Stay With Me and the Oscar-winning Writing's on the Wall, accompanied by his band and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
A year ago, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States; and in that time barely a day has passed without him hitting the headlines. Scotland had an early glimpse of the man and his methods. For more than a decade, he's attracted both praise and criticism over his development of a golf course in Aberdeenshire. A development he said was inspired by his mother coming from Stornoway. This programme examines his relationship with Scotland, and looks at the current condition and future plans for the Trump businesses here.
In a pretty Cotswold village, a mystery has been puzzling residents for decades. Following the death of local Boy Scout Karl in 1947, mysterious gifts and messages began appearing on his grave in Prestbury. Despite his sister Ann's best efforts, the identity of the visitor has never been revealed. Journalist Camila Ruz joins Ann on her quest to track down the stranger who has been visiting her brother's grave for up to 70 years.
Friedrich Engels arrived in Manchester in 1842 and documented the plight of the city's working classes in The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). 172 years later, Turner Prize-nominated artist Phil Collins is returning Engels to the city where he made his name - in the form of a Soviet-era statue, driven across Europe and permanently installed in the centre of Manchester as the closing event of this year's Manchester International Festival. Collins's film for BBC Four not only documents the statue's journey, but also the lives of Manchester workers today as well as a live inauguration event specially created by Collins to welcome the statue to the city. It includes a soundtrack by Mica Levi (Jackie, Under the Skin) and Demdike Stare, and a new anthem composed by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals). The film marks 100 years since the ideas in The Communist Manifesto, written by Engels and Karl Marx, changed the course of history by inspiring the Russian Revolution.
A referendum on Catalan independence, which the Spanish government deemed illegal, ended with voting civilians being beaten by riot police. With history unfolding around them, young people in Barcelona are taking to the streets to express their hopes and fears for the future. Some want to see the creation a whole new country, while others remain loyal to Spain.
This documentary tells the fascinating story of Henry McIlhenny, the American philanthropist with Ulster-Scots roots who bequeathed his County Donegal estate and historic castle to the Irish Republic.
Documentary looking at the life and times of Bill Shankly, Liverpool FC's legendary Scottish manager. Gaining promotion from the old English second division, Shankly forged two great sides at Liverpool, winning numerous trophies along the way. A product of his working-class roots in Ayrshire, his career in management spanned a period when football was very much the people's game.
Kazim and Jeremiah are two young entrepreneurs in the early stages of rolling out their home delivery service, Speedi-Kazz. Both are blessed with different skill-sets: Kazim has the energy and confidence, Jeremiah has the brains - but on occasion these differences can leave them at loggerheads. We follow their fledgling business, and this awkward bromance, as it makes its way into the homes of Kazim and Jeremiah's fellow Londoners.
The Mona Lisa: bewitching, seductive, world famous. In the minds of millions, she is the ultimate work of art. Yet behind the enigmatic smile, she remains a mystery, fuelling endless speculation and theories. But is that all about to change? Is the world's most famous painting finally giving up its secrets? Presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, this landmark film uses new evidence to investigate the truth behind her identity and where she lived. It decodes centuries-old documents and uses state-of-the-art technology that could unlock the long-hidden truths of history's most iconic work of art.
The former England international looks into the potential link between football and dementia, examining some of the latest scientific evidence from British researchers. Shearer, who remains the Premier League's all-time top goalscorer with 260 - 46 of which were headers - also discusses the issue with members of the football authorities, as well as figures of the game including Les Ferdinand and John Terry.
In 1914, the suffragette Mary Richardson attacked the Rokeby Venus at the National Gallery in London. But why did this painting fire such outrage? Professor Bettany Hughes embarks on a voyage of discovery to reveal the truth behind the Venus depicted in the painting, proving that this mythological figure is so much more than just an excuse for sensual nudity and chocolate-box romance. Because Venus Uncovered is the remarkable story of one of antiquity's most potent forces. And more than that - hers is the story of human desire, and how desire transforms who we are and how we behave.
Every day in the UK over a hundred children face the death of their mum or dad. Behind this statistic are many untold and heart-rending stories. Saying Goodbye, a special film for BBC Children in Need, features a group of seven- to 17-year-olds who have been bereaved and a few who are facing the death of a parent. In their own words, these brave children share their heart-wrenching experiences and memories, with the aim of helping other young people who are facing a similar situation.
Michael Wood explores the life, works and influence of one of the world's greatest storytellers who died 2,000 years ago. When an Elizabethan literary critic said that the witty soul of Ovid lived on in 'honey-tongued Shakespeare', they were just stating the obvious. Ovid, everyone knew, was simply the most clever, sexy and funny poet in the western tradition. His Metamorphoses, it has often been said, is the most influential secular book in European literature. Unique among ancient poets, Ovid left us an autobiography, full of riveting intimacy, as well as ironical and slippery self-justification. Using Ovid's own words, brought to life by one of Britain's leading actors, Simon Russell Beale, the film tells the story of the poet's fame, and his fateful falling out with the most powerful man in the world, the Roman emperor Augustus.
BBC Four partners with the Royal Shakespeare Company to introduce highlights from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses. Shakespeare's best lines reference these shape-shifting characters, but do today's audiences know why Niobe was "all tears", or of Phaethon and his "unruly jades"? Featuring spellbinding contributions from Britain's leading actors including Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Beale, this film delivers a series of dramatic monologues, interspersed with behind the scenes discussions chaired by RSC artistic director Gregory Doran on the significance of the original texts and their continuing influence on art and literature. By letting Ovid's original tales speak for themselves, we see exactly why the Roman poet is still regarded as one of the world's greatest storytellers, 2,000 years after his death.
A visually stunning tribute to Hull's craft traditions, produced in collaboration with artist Linda Brothwell as part of Hull City of Culture 2017. The film profiles the artisans whose skills put Hull on the map in Britain's industrial heyday, from the compass-maker whose precision-crafted instruments helped steer Hull's fishing fleet to boat builders and woodcarvers, all reflecting on the joys of their craft and its role in the city's past. A heartfelt and evocative portrait of Hull's great industrial heritage and the people who helped create it.
The story of Hedd Wyn is one of Wales's enduring tragedies. A young man with little or no education succeeds in winning The Chair, one of the main literary prizes at the National Eisteddfod, but is killed in WWI before he could claim his prize. To mark the centenary of his death, National Poet of Wales Ifor ap Glyn reassesses Wyn's life and work. His journey takes him from Trawsfynydd, where Hedd wyn was born and raised, to Liverpool, where he was trained to fight, and onwards to France and Belgium, where he was killed in action on 31 July 1917. In 2013, Hedd Wyn's home at Yr Ysgwrn was sold by his nephew Gerald Williams to the Snowdonia National Park Authority. 88-year-old Gerald wanted to preserve Wyn's legacy for future generations. Ifor visits Hugh Hayley, one of Britain's leading furniture conservators, to gain an insight into the remarkable woodcarvings embedded into the ancient oak of Wyn's Black Chair. In France and Belgium, Ifor retraces the poet's final weeks, days and minutes. His successful poem, aptly titled Yr Arwr (The Hero), was finished and sent from the trenches, and his florid yet absorbing letters from the front seem to paint a picture of a young man who still felt the creative urge, amidst all that went on around him. Featuring fascinating first-hand accounts, interviews recorded during the 1960s and 1970s with family and friends, and contemporary archive material from WWI, Ifor reassesses the poet's legacy. Why does this story continue to fascinate us so? What would Hedd Wyn have achieved had he lived? Maybe these are questions that can never be fully answered, but one thing is for certain, Hedd Wyn's legacy persists.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 sparked a political and social earthquake that would define the 20th century. 100 years on, how do Russians view the revolution that came to be known as Red October? Steve Rosenberg travels across Russia to find out.
For centuries, the forests of Sumatra have been home to the Orang Rimba tribe. But as the palm oil industry in Indonesia flourishes, the Orang Rimba have been forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and traditional beliefs, and convert to a religion recognised by the state. Rebecca Henschke investigates.
Sir Dave Brailsford and other insiders tell the story of the extraordinary triumphs and recent controversies that have rocked Britain's cycling medal factory. Sir Dave Brailsford and Shane Sutton are considered the two chief architects behind Britain's rise to cycling dominance at both the Olympics and the Tour De France. Both men are driven by a huge hunger to win and dominate their rivals. This relentless desire to beat their opponents led them to create the greatest medal-winning factory in British sporting history. Yet both men have suffered criticism for the way they ran British Cycling; questions have also been raised about Bradley Wiggins's use of a medical exemption to allow him to take a corticosteroid during the Tour de France. With exclusive interviews and access, they now tell their story - how they built a winning machine on the track and at the Tour and how they respond to the critics of the regimes they built.
As the Queen and Prince Philip approach their seventieth wedding anniversary, Kirsty Young offers a unique view of their life together. It is a love affair that is said to have started with the briefest of encounters on a rainy day in July 1939, and one that was sealed with a fairy-tale wedding on 20 November 1947. In the decades that followed, the couple have experienced the same milestones as many others - with the birth of children, grandchildren and many more moments of pride, but they have also had to survive challenges few others have had to face. Every step of their life together has been played out in public, but through it all, the Queen and her prince have not only kept their relationship strong, they have kept the nation strong too, steering it through decades of change. Kirsty looks back at their remarkable seven decades together to celebrate the longest royal marriage in British history.
Film-maker David Modell follows Labour MPs through an extraordinary six months in the life of their party, through the election and its aftermath, as the shocking result changes British politics in ways few of them predicted.
Over 1 million people are stalked in Britain every year. Yet only 1% of cases end in a criminal conviction. ‘Stalkers’ goes inside Paladin, a national charity, who are fighting to protect victims of stalking and reveals the failures in the criminal justice system which currently leaves many victims exposed and vulnerable to attack. Filmed over 12 months ‘Stalkers’ follows 3 victims who are at high risk of harm and chillingly reveals what it is like to be hunted, face death threats and live in fear of your life every single day…
In late 1943 Norman Lewis was posted by the British Intelligence Corps to newly liberated Naples. He arrived to witness a city devastated by fascism, bombings, Nazi occupation and the Allied invasion. Written 30 years later, his remarkable memoir evocatively captures the resilience and resourcefulness of the city in the desperate months following the Nazis' withdrawal. Director Francesco Patierno combines extracts from this account, read by Benedict Cumberbatch, with powerful archival footage and clips from films set in Naples in the 50s and 60s, to portray a war-torn and once-dynamic city returning to life.
Kirsty Young looks at the relationship between Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle following the announcement of their engagement.
Joe Orton Laid Bare celebrates the wit, work and world of groundbreaking sixties playwright Joe Orton in his own words and those of friends and colleagues. 50 years since his murder at the hands of his lover Kenneth Halliwell, the film charts Joe's brief meteoric rise and tragic demise, and celebrates his unique comic voice as well as his significant role in the culture of 60s swinging London.
Global business tycoon Sanjeev Gupta shot to fame as the mystery bidder in the controversial Tata Port Talbot sale. With the world in the midst of a global steel crisis, he emerged as the saviour of the British steel industry, buying up failing companies all over the UK without ever sacking the workers. With unprecedented access to the man behind the headlines, BBC business correspondent Brian Meechan follows the self-made steel baron at work, at home and on a mission to reignite a dying industry. A year on from being thrust into the limelight, his story takes us from the industrial heartlands of steel production to the glamour of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After moving his young family from the luxury of Dubai to Newport, south Wales, we see how one man's personal obsession with a rusty old steelworks in the Gwent Valleys became the start of a global takeover.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle talk to the BBC's Mishal Husain following the announcement of their engagement.
Grand Tours of Scotland's Paul Murton takes us on a journey to investigate the mysterious disappearance from history of Henry Fredrick Stuart, the forgotten Scottish prince and maybe the best king Britain never had. Not many of us will know his name but Henry started the British Museum and the Royal Collection, and was the first royal prince to back a permanent settlement on American soil in the early 1700s. In this immersive documentary, Paul brings this forgotten figure from the shadows of history into the light of the modern world. It's a detective story which reveals the tragedy of Henry's lost potential. Paul starts his quest in Stirling Castle, where Henry was born in 1594 to King James the 1st and 6th and Queen Anne, and in the queen's bedchamber he meets historian and author Sarah Fraser to start to trace out Henry's life. We learn of Henry's martial prowess as Paul tries his hand at 17th-century unarmed combat in Leeds Armoury, as his quest to uncover the story of the prince unfolds. As he came into adulthood, the British Empire was taking its first steps into North America, and, under Henry's patronage, a colony bearing the name Henricus was founded in Virginia, 14 years before the Mayflower and the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Plymouth. Paul visits the town and learns how the lost prince's legacy changed history. In the meantime Henry, little more than a teenager, was busy at home developing the arts and sciences, amassing artefacts and books that would come to form the core of the Royal Collection and the British Library. How has the story of this renaissance man, who changed the course of Scotland's history, been largely lost till now? What ever happened of the best king we never had? Join Paul Murton to find out.
In an exclusive interview, the BBC catches up with former F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg, to hear about his plans for the future, and his take on this year's F1 championship.
Hard rocking, Ardglass trucker Ryan Milligan is also an extraterrestrial, Nasa scientist, and last summer he landed his dream gig - trucking precious parts of the Lofar Radio Telescope from the Netherlands to Birr in Co Offaly. The supercomputer allows European and Nasa researchers access to cutting-edge astrophysics to observe solar storms and pulsars originally discovered by Lurgan's Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Ryan has to steer his way through logistics, customs, ferry timetables and Peter's playlist to avoid disappointing the brainiacs waiting for him in Ireland.
Oscar-winning Dame Judi Dench is one of Britain's best-loved actresses, but few people know that Judi holds another great passion, a deep love for trees. This programme, filmed over the course of a year, is a magical study of the changing seasons and their effect on Surrey, the most-wooded county in Britain. Judi has long been fascinated with trees, ever since she was a child. She shared her passion with her late husband, actor Michael Williams, and together they nurtured a collection of trees at the bottom of their six-acre garden. For the past seven years, she has continued to care for this woodland with her close companion, wildlife enthusiast David Mills. Throughout this time, Judi has continually planted trees for dear friends and family who have passed away. This film follows Judi's experience through the seasons and her mission to understand the vital role of trees in history and the future. Judi joins some of the best tree scientists and historians to unlock the remarkable secret lives of trees and the stories that they cannot tell. With the latest scientific techniques and equipment at her disposal, she is able to truly understand how trees work, and gain an insight into their secrets. She meets a designer with a special microphone to hear the trees around her pulsing with life in spring, as water rushes up the trunks to the newly-unfurled leaves. Plus a scientist with 3D scanning technology reveals her favourite oak in a new light, uncovering an astonishing 260,000 leaves and a vast network of branches measuring over 12km. Through the cycle of the four seasons, Judi discovers how trees feel, learns how they communicate and how they fight off invading armies and extreme weather. From NASA satellite imagery, Judi is shown just how effective trees are as carbon capture machines that are fighting to protect our planet. A fungi expert also shows Judi the incredible action going on beneath her feet, revealing an astonishing underground fungal network that
Claudia Winkleman and Clara Amfo look back at 2017's musical highlights - featuring the best albums, biggest artists and most unforgettable performances. Plus the winners of the prestigious 2017 BBC Music Awards are revealed. The show includes interviews with Foo Fighters, Liam Gallagher, Stormzy, Nile Rodgers, Rag'n'Bone Man, Dua Lipa, Nick Grimshaw, Mistajam and Jo Whiley, as well as an exclusive performance by Rag'n'Bone Man.
David Attenborough investigates the remarkable life and death of Jumbo the elephant - a celebrity animal superstar whose story is said to have inspired the movie Dumbo. Attenborough joins a team of scientists and conservationists to unravel the complex and mysterious story of this large African elephant - an elephant many believed to be the biggest in the world. With unique access to Jumbo's skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History, the team work together to separate myth from reality. How big was Jumbo really? How was he treated in captivity? And how did he die? Jumbo's bones may offer vital clues. Arriving in London Zoo in 1865, Jumbo fast became a firm favourite of Queen Victoria and her children, and was nicknamed the Children's Pet. Yet behind the scenes, this gentle giant was living a double life - smashing his den, breaking his tusks and being pacified by large amounts of alcohol given to him by his keeper, Matthew Scott. Scott had no human friends but had a deep empathy for animals, developing a particularly strong and near mystical bond with Jumbo. Then, quite suddenly, London Zoo caused public outrage by selling Jumbo to PT Barnum's circus in America where he travelled with his devoted keeper to start a new life. But while his time in America turned him into star with 20 million people coming to see him, his life ended tragically and mysteriously. As well as Jumbo's skeleton, Attenborough explores the lives of wild elephants to explain Jumbo's troubled mind, and he discovers how our attitude to captive elephants has changed dramatically in recent years.
British surrealist Leonora Carrington was a key part of the surrealist movement during its heyday in Paris and yet, until recently, remained a virtual unknown in the country of her birth. This film explores her dramatic evolution from British debutante to artist in exile, living out her days in Mexico City, and takes us on a journey into her darkly strange and cinematic world.
It is estimated that one in six men are victims of rape, but only 10% of these men report the crime to the police. This film tells the stories of three men who are now breaking their silence, revealing a unique perspective on male rape in Britain today.
Carrie Grant and dancer and choreographer Tura Arutura undertake a mission to get the residents of Strabane to learn how to swing dance in just two weeks.
An appreciation of John Noakes, Blue Peter's extraordinary master of derring-do from the people who knew him best.
The Galaxy Britain Built celebrates the British contribution to the original Star Wars. Presenter and Star Wars fan David Whiteley uncovers some never-before-heard stories from the geniuses who helped build the galaxy, from the costume designer and art director to the man who made the lightsabre. It was a time when science fiction films were not box office draws, and very few people in the industry believed in George Lucas's vision. But his first Star Wars film ended up being a very British endeavour. The programme documents the behind-the-scenes talent that helped bring the galaxy to life in the late 1970s. It also looks at how the British talent continues to be part of the Star Wars legacy to the present day.
Roy Orbison died 29 years ago but he's hardly forgotten. As one of rock 'n roll's pioneers he achieved superstar status in the 1960s, writing and releasing a series of smash singles such as Oh, Pretty Woman, Only the Lonely, In Dreams and Crying. But while his professional life was full of triumph, Roy suffered terrible misfortune in his personal life, losing his wife and two of his children in successive tragedies, rebuilding his life by relying on his music to distract him from desolation. Roy's legacy as a beloved rock legend and a devoted father is revealed through intimate interviews with Roy's three surviving sons, featuring previously unseen home videos as Alex, Roy Jnr and Wesley Orbison discuss the immense talent and fierce determination that provided the driving force behind their father's incredible success and the dedication to Roy's family that helped create a strong spiritual base to escape the pressures of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. This is the personal story of the relationship between three children and their father; a father who died when they were young, and who they have re-connected with and come to understand through embracing his life's work. It is not often that one gets to understand the person who is the music phenomenon, but in this film about relationships, family, love, loss and affirmation, we get to see the man behind the ever-present dark sunglasses and brooding loner persona, witnessing his struggle with personal demons, and ultimately redemption and acknowledgement from his peers.
The Attack: Terror In The UK is a drama-documentary based on real-life stories from inside the UK’s counter terrorism unit. It tells the story of an ISIS-inspired terrorist group planning a firearms attack, and follows the on-going police investigation. It focuses on Joseph, a young man who, while in prison for drug charges, is recruited by Ahmed, an Islamic extremist who converts him to the Muslim faith and along with other inmates radicalises him.
Celebrate the festive season with the perfect dusting of Mary Berry's very own Christmas magic. In a one-off television treat, Mary opens her kitchen to some of TV's best-loved faces as they join her in cooking delicious party dishes especially for her Christmas party table. With varying degrees of nerves, skill and determination, but tons of excitement, Alex Jones, Fearne Cotton, Darcey Bussell and Adil Ray take turns to join Mary beside her stove. The One Show's Alex Jones is determined to show off her family's special recipe for rissoles, while Darcey Bussell takes a break from the Strictly judging panel to find herself under the spotlight when tasked with trying to create the perfect ballet-inspired Christmas dessert. Adil Ray, screenwriter and creator and star of Citizen Khan, tries to impress with some very precise canapes, while Fearne Cotton is determined to show Mary that her delicious seasonal stuffed squash could be the party's winner. With even more delicious Christmas dishes to be made between them, from the table's centrepiece - a stunning ginger-glazed ham - to perfect squash, brie and cranberry tarts, moreish herby blinis and a magnificent white chocolate cherry and brandy cake, the pressure is on for Mary and her cooking celebrity helpers to bring together a party table festive enough for all of Mary's guests. To top it all off, classically trained pianist and singer Myleene Klass joins the celebrations and can't resist tickling the ivories on the house piano, inspiring a chorus of impromptu carol singing.
The behind-the-scenes story of Northern Ireland motorcyclist Jonathan Rea, who created history in 2017 by becoming the first person to ever win three successive World Superbike titles.
Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders are two of the country's best-loved comedy icons. In Absolutely Fabulous, their alter egos Eddie and Patsy loved nothing more than cracking open a bottle of champagne. Now, in a special Christmas treat for BBC Two, Joanna and Jennifer are reuniting on-screen to take a trip to the Champagne region of France to find out exactly how to put the bubbles into bubbly. They immerse themselves in all things fizz, joining the grape pickers during their annual two-week harvest, adventuring down the miles of underground cellars and even tasting a tipple or two. During their journey they take a trip down memory lane, sharing special stories of filming Ab Fab and reminiscing about their friendship. Packed with funny moments and favourite Ab Fab clips, this is a festive special best served with something chilled.
There's one man Darcey Bussell never got to dance with and always wishes she had - the legendary Hollywood dancer Fred Astaire, who died 30 years ago this year. In this documentary, Darcey goes in search of Fred and discovers a very different story from the one she expected. Fred was born into an immigrant family in Omaha, Nebraska, in the middle of America. His name was Austerlitz, not Astaire. And, most surprising of all, Fred was never meant to be the dancer in the family. His mother only got him dancing to partner his sister Adele. For 30 years Adele, not Fred, was the star of their brother-sister song-and-dance act. When Adele left the act to get married, Fred was finally able to shine in his own right, only to find his ambitions for a solo career thwarted when he came to Hollywood. 'What's all this about my being teamed with Ginger Rogers?', he wrote to his agent. 'I will not, repeat will not have it'. In a journey that takes her from Nebraska to New York and from London to Los Angeles, Darcey marvels at Fred's discipline as a dancer. To outshine his sister Adele, Fred worked twice as hard as she did, always seeking out inventive new dance techniques to lift the act to another level. As a teenager, Fred discovered tap dance in the heart of black Harlem, introducing African-American steps into his routine. And Fred's success with Ginger Rogers was so great that ever since the golden age of the 1930s, Hollywood has tried to repeat the magical Astaire-Rogers formula - as Darcey learns from the choreographer of La La Land. By the end of her quest, Darcey understands why there were three women who really made Fred Astaire. Not Ginger Rogers as everyone expects, but his mother, who first got him dancing, his sister, who gave him the competition to make him excel, and his wife Phyllis, whom Fred married as he made his way to Hollywood. That marriage gave Fred the love and security he needed when he broke away from his family to become a Hollywood star.
John Travolta and Barry Gibb star in Saturday Night Fever - The Ultimate Disco Movie, with Bruno Tonioli. This documentary celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the 1977 blockbuster dance movie, and sees Strictly Come Dancing's Bruno, who was a young dancer in New York in 1977, walk us through the steps that made the movie legendary. He also revisits the streets of New York where the film was shot and looks back at the success of a film that gave everyone disco fever. Travolta, Gibb and other members of the cast and crew give gripping accounts of supreme success against a backdrop of setbacks and unexpected twists and turns. Bruno unpacks the skill, athleticism and dedication of Travolta, whose incandescent performance prompted a disco dance craze. We also hear about the potent influence of impresario Robert Stigwood, whose faith in Travolta and a group who had hit a glitch in their career - The Bee Gees, proved visionary. With clips from the original movie as well as astonishing access to those involved and rarely seen on-location archive, this programme retells the nail-biting evolution of a groundbreaking US film that originated in the work of a British journalist, saw a director fired, suffered mafia threats, filmed guerrilla style on the streets of Brooklyn, had a newcomer cast, benefited from disco hits written in a weekend and delivered a white suit and a performance from the man who wore it that have gone down in history. Other interviewees include actors Karen Lynn Gorney, Donna Pesco, Joseph Cali and Paul Pape, producer Kevin McCormick, former head of RSO records Bill Oakes, writer Nik Cohn, director John Badham, dance instructor Denney Terrio, costume designer Patricia von Brandenstein and location manager Lloyd Kaufman.
Gospel Christmas returns from the heart of Cardiff to celebrate a special evening of music and spiritual cheer with Sir Tom Jones and Beverley Knight. The blend of traditional gospel, carols and songs of spiritual intent from modern greats like Prince and Bob Dylan are performed by choirs and a house band from the British gospel scene, and will add up to the freshest of winter warmers.
Five of the world's greatest professional tribute acts go head to head in this Christmas special hosted by Paddy McGuinness. The acts pay tribute to music legends Michael Buble, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Kylie Minogue and Bruce Springsteen. Each performer sings an iconic Christmas hit made famous by their musical idol, before the studio audience choose their favourite three to perform again. They then pull out all the stops with a very special collaboration as they are joined on stage by another tribute artist paying homage to an iconic music legend. After the duets round, the studio audience vote again for their favourite act of the night, and that performer is crowned the winner.
The Galaxy Britain Built: Droids, Darth Vader and Lightsabers celebrates the British contribution to the original Star Wars. This is a longer (60-minute) version of The Galaxy Britain Built, shown on 15 December 2017. Presenter and Star Wars fan David Whiteley uncovers some never-before-heard stories from the geniuses who helped build the galaxy, from the costume designer and art director to the man who made the lightsaber. It was a time when science fiction films were not box office draws, and very few people in the industry believed in George Lucas's vision. But his first Star Wars film ended up being a very British endeavour. The programme documents the behind-the-scenes talent that helped bring the galaxy to life in the late 1970s. It also looks at how the British talent continues to be part of the Star Wars legacy to the present day.
The traditional Christmas Eve celebration of Midnight Mass comes live from St Anne's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Leeds. The Mass is introduced by Monsignor Philip Moger, Cathedral Dean, while the Bishop of Leeds, the Rt. Rev. Marcus Stock, is the principal celebrant and will also preach. Leeds Cathedral Choir, led by Director of Music Benjamin Saunders, sing Haydn's joyful Saint Nicholas Mass and Leeds Trinity Cathedral Boys' and Girls' Choirs sing the beautiful German carol Still, Still, Still. The congregation, made up of local residents and Christmas visitors, join in well-loved carols including O Come All Ye Faithful, Unto Us Is Born A Son and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, accompanied by Cathedral organist David Pipe.
A traditional Christmas morning family service of Holy Communion, live from All Saints Church in Fulham, west London. Families from all generations celebrate Christmas Day, raising their voices in well-loved carols including Joy To The World, See Amid The Winter's Snow and O Come All Ye Faithful. The service is introduced by the vicar, the Rev. Canon Joe Hawes and the celebrant is the Rev. Penny Seabrook. Mozart's Credo Mass in C is sung by All Saints Choir, led by Director of Music Jonathan Wikeley, with organist Matthew Burgess plus favourite children's carol Away in a Manger is sung by the Junior All Saints Singers.
HM Queen Elizabeth II delivers her annual address in the Christmas message to the nation and the Commonwealth.
Mary Berry, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins join forces to surprise a community centre in the Rhondda Valley in Wales with a very special Christmas party and a whole host of surprises. This year, Christmas is coming early for a Welsh community centre that was set up by mum-of-three Buffy after a run of closures, from the school to the post office, threatened to kill off community spirit. Buffy and her team keep the locals united by bringing together toddlers, teens and OAPs for bingo, food and fun, funded in part by public donations and sheer willpower. Mary, Mel and Sue help Buffy throw the locals an unforgettable surprise Christmas party, with Mary in charge of the Christmas feast and Mel and Sue on decorating duty. The threesome get to know the locals as they work against the clock to pull together the best bash the Rhondda Valley has ever seen, and reveal special surprises that ensure the centre survives and thrives for years to come.
The natural world is full of the weird and the wonderful, but in wintertime - it just gets weirder. From snowboarding crows to polar bear parties, seemingly suicidal penguins, festive ice discs, the miracle revival of a man frozen solid and spooky twizzling turkeys, this Christmas serves up weird stories of the unexplained, unexpected and the unidentifiable from across the globe. Using state-of-the-art science, expert analysis and first-hand eyewitness accounts, we examine the evidence, test the theories and unravel some of the strangest stories our planet has to offer. Based in a remote hut for the winter, naturalist Chris Packham embarks on a fascinating journey to try to explain some of winter's weirdest events. With the help of leading scientists and engaging contributors, Chris reveals secrets from the natural world from bizarre science to animal oddities, crazy weather, medical marvels and remarkable natural phenomenon.
The enchanting true-to-life tale of polar bear cubs and their mother on a 400-mile journey from their birth den in Svalbard to the pack ice surrounding the North Pole. It's a fun-packed, snowy adventure as two young bears learn how to survive. The journey is triggered by the arrival of spring when the ice vanishes from the island of their birth, and with it the seals. Polar bears must follow their prey to the year-round pack ice in the far north.
It's Christmas, and wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan travels to the frozen north, deep inside the Arctic Circle, to meet the ancient Sami people and the animals they hold so close - reindeer. Known as the reindeer people, the Sami were traditionally nomadic, relying on their precious animals to help them survive the Arctic's harsh winters. Gordon lives with a Sami family in Finnish Lapland to experience their unique culture and to learn about their special bond with reindeer. He works to earn the trust of his own reindeer companion, before leaving his adopted family behind and setting off alone into this land of ice and snow. With only his reindeer to guide him, but armed with the knowledge of his hosts, Gordon wants to immerse himself in this frozen wilderness and attempt to witness the natural phenomenon the Sami most revere - the magical Northern Lights.
It has been a quarter of a century since a little-known sports reporter was given his own radio chat show by the BBC. Two radio series, five TV series, four specials, two books and one movie later, Alan Partridge has an unrivalled place in the comedy pantheon. To celebrate Alan's return to his rightful home at the BBC in 2018, this retrospective documentary looks back at his journey from broadcaster caricature to the award-winning study of complexity and pathos that he has become. We hear from the man behind the man himself, Steve Coogan, as well as the acclaimed team that created him 25 years ago. That cohort of writers and performers would become some of the most celebrated and distinctive comic voices of their generation - Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber, Peter Baynham, Rebecca Front, David Schneider and Doon Mackichan. Through interviews and a wealth of never-before-seen archive footage, including improv sessions, rehearsals and unseen outtakes, a light is shone on the genesis of the character. This is a richly textured account of the craft involved in that early development and the ongoing story of how, through Coogan's virtuoso performance, Alan remains one of the most beloved comic creations of the last few decades. The programme also features discussions with some of the best-loved characters in Alan's world - the likes of Felicity Montagu (Lynn), Simon Greenall (Michael), Sally Phillips (Sophie the receptionist), Phil Cornwell (Dave Clifton) and Tim Key (Sidekick Simon). And we hear from writers and directors Neil and Rob Gibbons, who inherited the Partridge mantle and, alongside Coogan, have taken the character to new heights, finding in each incarnation different ways of exploring Alan while being faithful to the character's legacy. Through all these voices, archive material and iconic clips from the shows themselves, the show explores Alan's unprecedented cultural influence, his impact on the comedy landscape and how the most entertainingly con
Cameras capture the natural world through the perspectives of a cheetah, a turtle and an eagle, revealing their daily routines and the places that they call home in the wild.
Supersonic, the award-winning feature documentary, tells the phenomenal story of iconic band Oasis - in their own words. Featuring extensive unseen archive, the film charts the meteoric rise of Oasis from the council estates of Manchester to some of the biggest concerts of all time in just three short years. This palpable, raw and moving account shines a light on one of the most genre- and generation-defining British bands that has ever existed, and features footage of new interviews with Noel and Liam Gallagher, their mother and members of the band and road crew.
This one-hour documentary takes an in-depth look at the early days of the legendary double act - both on and off screen - using previously unseen footage from Morecambe & Wise's home movie collection. The archive footage, shot in the 1950s and 1960s by both Eric and Ernie, their wives and friends, provides a unique insight into the pair and their lives at home and abroad, on holiday and relaxing between work engagements - the first time that the collection in its entirety has been made available to documentary makers. The new footage is combined with fresh interviews with those who knew them best, and who also appears in the home movies - from family and friends to colleagues who worked with Eric and Ernie during the early stage of their careers.
The widely accepted Elvis narrative is that The Vegas Period was the nadir of his career, but this film argues that Elvis reached his peak, both as a singer and performer in the first few years of his Vegas period. He became, in those short years, the most celebrated performer on earth. Elvis: Rebirth of The King, tracks this five-year renaissance with some of his key musical and artistic collaborators of the period, including the creator of his most memorable jumpsuits, to celebrate the greatest pop reinvention of all time!
Following the success of last year's parody review of 2016, Emmy Award-winning director Rhys Thomas has done the same thing again, but about a different year. And it's timely that the year he's doing it about this year is the year that has just happened, 2017. The Brian Pern creator seamlessly re-edits film and television footage from the top twelve months of 2017 to create a spoof take on the year's cultural events, entertainment smashes and other things.
A solo chorister sings Once in Royal David's City to begin the traditional celebration of Christmas from the candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. The world-famous choir, directed by Stephen Cleobury, sings a glorious selection of carols, including the Sussex Carol (arr. Ledger), O Holy Night (arr. Rutter), Away in a Manger (arr. Willcocks) and O Magnum Mysterium (Lauridsen). The Christmas story is told in the words of the King James Bible and in poems by Christina Rossetti and Christopher Pilling.
Frank Carson was one of Britain and Ireland's most-loved comedians. Dan Gordon explores the story of the Belfast funny man as he prepares to stage a one-man show on the comic's life.
In this snap general election year BBC Parliament looks at the evolution of TV election night graphics – from the hand-painted results of the 1950s to Jeremy Vine's swingometer in a virtual Big Ben clock-tower. Featuring BBC archive and behind-the-scenes filming from the Election 2017 studio.
Rory Bremner explores the BBC archives for an affectionate look back at the career of Barry Norman, who hosted the BBC's Film Review show for 26 years, and passed away in June 2017 at the age of 83. The programme pieces together a selection of Barry's best bits, from famous interviews to reviews of classic movies, encompassing his frequent trips to Hollywood and the Cannes Film Festival. Barry's love of language and ability to puncture the ego of Hollywood's most pompous superstars made him the nation's favourite film critic. Plus a look at his life before television beckoned, discovering how his first love wasn't films at all; he actually preferred cricket.
Explores the treasures of the Johnston Collection in Wick, a unique archive of near 50,000 photographs that provide an enthralling insight into more than a century of Highland history. From 1863 to 1976, three generations of the Johnston family ran a photography business in Caithness, documenting the social history of northern Scotland. They photographed the herring industry at its height, captured the Helmsdale gold rush, took portraits of boys before they left for the trenches of World War One, and recorded the agriculture, trades, customs, sports, weddings and people of Caithness and Sutherland. Today 50,000 of their glass plate negatives are preserved in the Wick Heritage Centre and digitised online for the global community to enjoy.
Forget oil, coal and gas - a new set of materials is shaping our world and they're so bizarre they may as well be alien technology. In the first BBC documentary to be filmed entirely on smartphones, materials scientist Prof Mark Miodownik reveals the super elements that underpin our high-tech world. We have become utterly dependent on them, but they are rare and they're already running out. The stuff that makes our smartphones work could be gone in a decade and our ability to feed the world depends mostly on a mineral found in just one country. Mark reveals the magical properties of these extraordinary materials and finds out what we can do to save them.
Britannia calls a meeting to listen to her people. Caledonia, Cymru, East Midlands, North East, Northern Ireland and the South West bring the voices of their regions. The debate is passionate, the darts are sharp, stereotypes nailed and opinions divided. Can there ever be a United Kingdom? In the days following the Brexit vote, a team from the National Theatre of Great Britain spoke to people nationwide, aged 9 to 97, to hear their views on the country we call home. In a series of deeply personal interviews, they heard opinions that were honest, emotional, funny and sometimes extreme. These real testimonials are interwoven with speeches from party leaders in this new programme by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Rufus Norris.
The story of the reserved young prodigy from Northern Ireland who became a global superstar. This is the feature-length documentary exploring the remarkable life of the footballer George Best.
Marianne Faithfull has seen it all. Success and celebrity at 17. Life with Mick Jagger through the turbulent late sixties. Scandal, drugs, addiction and hitting rock bottom before rebirth, awards and artistic recognition.
On the biggest night out of the year, Iain Stirling - stand-up comedian, presenter of Dog Ate My Homework (CBBC) and the voice of Love Island - explores the history of Saturday nights out across Scotland since the 1950s. He attempts the jive, the twist and even a little roller disco. He hears from those who were there at the Fountainbridge Palais, Edinburgh, the Locarno in Glasgow and Robbies in Dundee at their wildest. He speaks to the man who brought The Beatles to Bridge of Allan. He hears the real story of the rave scene. He savours a 1970s evening, complete with a cheese and pineapple hedgehog, and he enjoys archive footage of some of Scotland's most enjoyable nights out.
Fifty years after Celtic became the first British team to win the European Cup, we tell the amazing stories of the men who claimed it. All 11 team members came from within 30 miles of Celtic Park, and this evocative film weaves together the social and footballing history of that era in Glasgow. With beautiful, unseen archive footage, funny fan stories and moving testimony from Bertie Auld, Bobby Lennox, Jim Craig, John Clark, Willie Wallace, Rangers captain John Greig and from players' families.
Six years ago Shane Williams was preparing to play his last game for Wales facing Australia in the Autumn internationals. He finished his international career as Wales's highest try scorer of all time.
The latest documentary by award-winning filmmaker Antony Thomas, Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She sensitively explores the controversial subject of the blurring of gender as well as the serious social and family problems - even dangers - often faced by those whose gender may fall somewhere in between male and female. Narrated by noted author Gore Vidal and filmed in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America, Middle Sexes examines the ways different societies and cultures handle the blurring of gender, sexual identity and sexual orientation. Through interviews with transgender, intersexual and bisexual men and women, as well as experts from the scientific and academic communities, the film considers the entire spectrum of sexual behavior, personal identity and lifestyles among people of different backgrounds and cultures. From this, a theme of tolerance and appreciation of diversity emerges in the film.
Hazel Irvine and Colin Murray reflect on 40 years of snooker's World Championship at the Crucible, charting some of the incredible matches, memories and characters to have taken centre stage at the Sheffield theatre.
Animal lover Sue Perkins travels to America to meet a group of newly retired female chimpanzees at Chimp Haven, the US national chimpanzee sanctuary. After a recent change in US law, decades of medical testing on chimpanzees has been brought to an end and cameras follow as Jill, Whitney, Paula-Jean, Tessa, Martha and Ariah settle in to the sanctuary after an 800-mile journey from a laboratory in New Mexico to rural Louisiana. Sue meets chimpanzee Jill, 24 years old, who has been used in hepatitis research all her life. In total, Chimp Haven houses over 200 medical research chimps who have been retired from laboratories to live out their days in beautiful forested surroundings. In the wild, chimps live in mixed-sex troops but these six girls have never lived with a group of boys before. When Sue first meets them, Jill gives off a clear 'warning bark' to Sue to alert her to 45-year-old boisterous alpha male Pierre in a nearby enclosure. Pierre is poised ready to spit a mouthful of water and show newcomers who is boss. The introductions are a tense time for both the sanctuary staff and the chimps. Using fixed rig cameras inside the enclosures, the film captures the moment the two groups come together to form their new chimp family. Will it all run smoothly? How will Jill get on when she starts her new life with the boys for the first time? And after seeing undercover footage of conditions in one of the labs Jill once lived, Sue travels to meet a representative from the National Institutes of Health, the government agency responsible for federal chimpanzee testing. She wants to know if they think the medical advances to human health have been worth it, and how the US government defends the conditions in which the animals were kept.
A remarkable 200-million-year-old fossil - the bones of an ichthyosaur, a giant sea dragon - has been discovered on the Jurassic coast of Britain. David Attenborough joins the hunt to bring this ancient creature's story to life. Using state-of-the-art imaging technology and CGI, the team reconstruct the skeleton and create the most detailed animation of an ichthyosaur ever made. Along the way, the team stumble into a 200-million-year-old murder mystery - and only painstaking forensic investigation can unravel the story of this extraordinary creature's fate.
Europe's largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has lived in Stamford Hill, London since the late 1800s. But with rents soaring, they are on the move. This film follows the Hasidic community as some of them embark on their biggest exodus since World War II. They have chosen the most unexpected place, Canvey Island, on the River Thames estuary, one of the five most pro-Brexit wards in Britain. In 2013 the island was voted the most English place in Britain. The ultra-Orthodox Hasid spend most of their time in prayer or studying the 613 commandments of their holy book, the Torah. Renowned as a tight-knit and insular community, for the first time in decades they are looking to put down roots in the new 'promised Island'. Both the Hasid and the Canvey Islanders are aware of the challenges of integration, let alone finding reliable deliveries of ultra kosher food. With unique access to this tightly closed community, we follow Naftali and Miriam Noe and their four children from Stamford Hill as they join the 25 Hasidic families who have already made the move to Canvey. Chris Fenwick, a lifelong Canvey Islander, pub landlord and manager of the rock and roll band Dr Feelgood, has devised a plan to integrate everyone. He is inviting his new neighbours to a gig in his pub, taking the Hasidic children on a guided tour of the Island, and with the help of Reverend David Tudor and the next mayor of Canvey, Barry Campagna, hoping to bring both sides together during a meal at his pub. The film follows the guests, the arrangements and the challenges of organising a dinner party for the two very different communities. Mutual understanding is top of the menu but will the Hasidic guests turn up? And will the predominantly Christian islanders learn to love their new neighbours?
Chris Packham goes on an investigative journey into the mysteries of planet Earth's super predator - Tyrannosaurus rex. The latest groundbreaking paleontological discoveries combined with studies of modern animals are redefining this iconic dinosaur. Tackling everything from the way he looked, moved, socialised - even down to his terrifying roar - Chris strips away Hollywood myths to uncover the amazing truth, and utilizing the latest CGI wizardry, he rebuilds the most authentic T rex ever seen from the bones up. Chris's journey begins in the badlands of Montana, where he has the chance to touch a T rex fossil still emerging from the 65-million-year-old rocks. From here he travels to Berlin to visit Tristan, a T rex skeleton recently excavated from the badlands. These bare bones pose more questions and Chris decides his challenge is to rebuild Tristan with CGI, using the latest discoveries to fill in the gaps. He visits palaeontologist Greg Erikson in Alabama, who is exploring the power of T rex's jaws by comparing them to what we can gauge from modern alligators. Chris learns that although T rex bore similarities to reptiles, his musculature shows him to be more like a bird. He then takes a prehistoric paddle in the rivers of Dino-State Park in Texas, where exposed dinosaur footprints form long trackways that are the passion of dino-paw expert Glen Kuban. His findings lead Chris to compare T rex with modern flightless birds in an effort to work out just how fast he could move. With the help of palaeontologist and biomechanics expert John Hutchinson, he discovers that the huge tail was not a drag but the source of T rex's locomotive power - but that there were limits which we learn when they put a virtual Tristan on a treadmill. Chris visits Larry Witmer in Ohio, who has used CT scanners to look into a fossilized skull and find the precise shape of T rex's brain. From this, he has identified supersized sensory zones - proving that he is a great hunter - but al
Award-winning Irish actor Gabriel Byrne explores the life, works and passions of George Bernard Shaw, a giant of world literature, and - like Byrne - an emigrant Irishman with the outsider's ability to observe, needle and puncture. With Ireland in his heart, he made England his home and London his stage. His insight was ageless - his ideas still resonate almost 70 years after his death. He is one of only two people to have ever been awarded both the Nobel Prize for Literature and an Oscar. Gabriel Byrne sees Shaw as a revolutionary - a literary anarchist. Sharing Shaw's perspective as an 'artistic exile', Byrne explores Shaw's radical and unapologetic political thinking, and his unwavering ability to charm and satirise the establishment that so adored him. It is the story of the most relevant thinker, artist and literary genius Ireland ever produced.
In 2012 Naomi Oni was attacked with sulphuric acid after being stalked through London by someone disguised in a niqab. Since 2012, acid attacks have doubled in the UK. Now two acid attacks are carried out in the UK every single day, with 450 occurring each year in London alone. Known as ‘Face Melters’, corrosive liquids have replaced knives as the weapon of choice for gangs and others wanting to inflict maximum damage on their unsuspecting victims. The physical and psychological effects of these attacks are devastating. In an instant, a victim’s life is irreversibly transformed, as are the lives of their family, children and partners. This powerful BBC Three film reveals the story behind one of the most shocking and bizarre acid attacks of recent years. It’s a twisted story of betrayal and deceit. The documentary combines archive footage, and stylised recon with interviews with the victim, police, the medics who continue to treat her, and her family and friends.
Scotdisc Records is one of Scotland's most successful labels, embracing the tartan Scottish music tradition and selling millions of records and videos over its 40 years. It's the story of Dougie Stevenson and Bill Garden, who have recorded many iconic artists like Sydney Devine, Lena Martell, Stuart Anderson Jr, Tommy Scott, The Alexander Brothers, Eve Graham and The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. The Kilsyth-based label targeted the tourist market and has created an incredible catalogue with a style of music that has been unaffected by musical trends.
On 15 January 1968, thousands of homes were damaged when 100-miles-an-hour winds tore through the central belt. Twenty people lost their lives amid devastating scenes. But the storm shook up Scotland's biggest city in another way, too. It inspired a rethink about Glasgow's tenements. For 100 years, the city had been destroying unfit houses for new ones - but it wasn't solving the problem. It took the storm, a group of young architects and some strong-willed residents to save their city from the bulldozer. And it brought forward the transformation of Glasgow - from Britain's biggest slum to the cultural capital of Europe.
Imagine if you could change the quality of the air we breathe - in just one day. Air pollution in the UK has been declared a 'public health emergency' and Dr Xand van Tulleken is seeing what can be done about it. Enlisting the help of enthusiasts and sceptics from the Kings Heath community in Birmingham, Xand stages the first ever large-scale experiment of its kind - using people power to try and bring about a quantifiable improvement in air quality for a single day. With the pollution levels on the high street at the cusp of legal limits, the odds are stacked against Xand and his team. Can they achieve the improbable? Can the power of communities - with the help of some ingenious tech and some of the best experts in pollution science - succeed where governments have failed? Xand also becomes a case study in his own experiment. As he carefully tries to rid his body of the effects of pollution, he measures how his body functions are affected after exposing himself to a typical city street. The results are shocking.
In a special celebration of the proud history of coal mining in Wales, Lucy Owen and Will Millard explore above and below ground at the Big Pit museum in Blaenavon. A quarter of a million miners once worked in more than 3,000 Welsh collieries, risking their lives to power homes and industry. Now, ten years on from the closure of the last deep mine in Wales, Tower Colliery, the workers are reunited to celebrate their incredible achievements and reflect on their memories of life underground.
On June 2nd 1953, on one of the coldest June days of the century, after 16 months of planning, Her Majesty the Queen set out to be crowned at Westminster Abbey, watched by millions of people throughout the world. A ceremony dating back more than 1000 years was to mark the dawn of a new Elizabethan age. Now, in what has become the longest reign of any British monarch, the Queen shares her memories of that day as well as the coronation of her father, King George VI, in 1937. Exploring the role and symbolic meaning of the Crown Jewels in the centuries-old coronation ceremony, The Coronation shows these objects of astonishing beauty in new high-resolution footage. A combination of HD cameras and special 4K lenses reveal the incredible secrets and forensic details of a set of regalia that have a rich history of their own. Amongst the many glorious objects revealed, the film tells the extraordinary story of St Edward's Crown, which was destroyed after the English Civil War and remade for the coronation of Charles II in 1661. It has only been worn by Her Majesty once, at the moment she was crowned. Shedding an entirely new perspective on this world-famous event, The Coronation brings together, the eyewitness accounts of those who participated, including the maid of honour who nearly fainted in the Abbey and the 12-year-old choirboy who was left to sing solo when his overwhelmed colleagues lost their voices. Viewing rarely seen private and official film footage of the day, Her Majesty the Queen recalls the day when the weight of both St Edward's Crown and the hopes and expectations of a nation recovering from war were on her shoulders, as the nation looked to their 27-year-old Queen to lead them to a new era. Using the Queen's recollections and new footage of the Crown Jewels, The Coronation reveals the story of this glittering ceremony.
James Joyce led an eventful and turbulent life. From the beginning, he was something of an outsider. His childhood was impoverished and chaotic. Nonetheless, his alcoholic father ensured that he was educated at Ireland's elite schools. From an early age, Joyce revealed an impulse to rebel against social conventions. He not only rejected the Catholic religion, but, in his own words, 'declared open war on the Catholic church by all that I write and say and do.' He was a brilliant student - winning numerous scholarships and awards - and he was also sexually precocious, frequenting Dublin's prostitutes while still very young. Then, on June 16th, 1904, he became intimate with a young chambermaid from Galway called Nora Barnacle. That date would become the day on which he set all the action of his great novel, Ulysses. Nora became his lifelong partner, and they spent the rest of their lives outside Ireland. For many years, they lived in miserable conditions, but Joyce was ready to sacrifice himself - and others, when necessary - to further his artistic ambitions. Eventually, he won worldwide literary celebrity, but he continued to live in some chaos, and he was still subject to recurrent eye complaints and other serious illnesses. When the Nazis invaded France, he was concerned for the safety of his grandson Stephen, who was half-Jewish. Eventually, he managed to find sanctuary in Switzerland, but he died just a few weeks after he and his family had arrived there. Since then, his fame has grown, and he is now recognised by a towering figure in world literature, with Ulysses often cited as the most influential work of fiction of the twentieth century. The story of Joyce's life and work is presented by the celebrated Oscar-winning actress, Anjelica Huston. She grew up in the west of Ireland, and has had a close association with Joyce's work for many years. She delivered an acclaimed stage performance of Molly Bloom's famous soliloquy from Ulysses some years ago, an
On the shelves of the library at Cambridge University lies a book that symbolises the heart of Scottish Gaelic culture: the Book of Deer. It is a gospel book that was written in Deer in Aberdeenshire sometime between the 8th and 12th century. Within the pages of the book is the first ever writing that exists in Scottish Gaelic. "The Book of Deer is a tiny book but it has left a huge legacy for us, not only in the north east but for the whole of Scotland. We had to wait another 200-300 years after the Book of Deer to find any more evidence of written Scottish Gaelic" - Dr Michelle MacLeod, senior lecturer in Gaelic at University of Aberdeen. Without doubt, one of the most important texts in the Scottish Gaelic language, the Book of Deer was written in the ancient monastery of Deer that disappeared over 1,000 years ago. This documentary is the story of a team of archeologists, students and volunteers who spent nine days on an archaeological dig in the hunt for the lost monastery of Deer, and they found more than they bargained for.
When your husband is a multimillionaire, life can be something of a fairy tale - there will be Ferraris and Bentleys in the driveway, a yacht in Monaco and summers in St Tropez. But when it all comes crashing down, it seems the bigger the money, the bigger the fight. This programme steps inside the world of high-profile divorce cases where millions of pounds are at stake - and London is the battleground. Here women are said to get the very best deal because, as divorce lawyer Jeremy Levison explains, a change in the law means the starting point is a 50-50 split. But for the men who have spent a lifetime building their fortunes, 'it can be a bitter pill to swallow,' says divorce lawyer Julian Lipson. The film follows two ex-wives who went into battle with their exes, spending millions of pounds and years of their lives in the process. Are these women out to fleece their men for every penny they can get, as the press often suggests? Or are they simply pursuing what they are entitled to? Michelle Young has clocked up 65 court hearings and 13 sets of lawyers in her battle with her ex-husband. And 11 years on, she still hasn't given up. Michelle, aged 53, spent 18 years with Scot Young, a property tycoon who made his first millions in the 80s - but whose real fortune came from being a fixer to oligarchs and Britain's super rich. The couple had two daughters together. Both Scot and Michelle had humble beginnings - Scot grew up in a Dundee tenement block. The couple went on to have a lavish lifestyle together - country mansions, designer clothes, a different car for every day of the week. But the end came in a shocking phone call, when it was claimed that Scot had not only lost his entire fortune overnight in a big Russian property deal, but also had a breakdown - and was having an affair. Lisa, aged 52, was married for nine years to multimillionaire Vivian Imerman. He made his first fortune from his Del Monte fruit juice business before he married her. But Vivian
Singer and presenter Connie Fisher tries to answer a difficult question: does she want to be a mum? Women today are waiting later than ever to start a family, but at 34, Connie feels she still doesn't know if motherhood is for her. Happily married for seven years, and enjoying a thriving career, life seems good. Why complicate things with a baby if she's not sure? Growing up as a single child, and not having much to do with kids, babies have always seemed an alien concept to Connie. But she can see the joy that children clearly bring to so many, and she worries that she and her husband will miss out if they don't start a family soon. In an attempt to resolve this dilemma, Connie sets out on a journey across Wales, meeting different women who have each made their own decision about motherhood. Connie hopes that by exploring the worlds of parenthood, child-free life and childlessness, she'll be able to make an informed decision about her own path. But a seemingly straightforward journey becomes a revealing and personal quest as, to her surprise, Connie unearths her own complicated feelings about motherhood.
Happiness - what is it, why is it so important, and how can we attain it? These are some of the questions that Make Wales Happy tackles to mark the first ever Welsh Happiness Day. Across this one-hour live extravaganza, Alex Jones and Jason Mohammad are joined by a host of scientists, sports stars, comedians, singers and dancers, all with a single purpose - to make the nation happier. To achieve this, they explore what causes us to feel pleasure, euphoria and contentment; investigate how our own biology controls our ability to be happy; and reveal how doing just a few simple things could brighten your mood, boost your health and even put you firmly on the path to success. Using stunts, demonstrations, experiments and audience participation, the team lift the lid on the secrets of happiness. In the studio, volunteers discover why pain-inducing chillies are the ultimate in mood food. We meet three macho rugby players who have swapped mauls for meditation to see what difference it brings to their lives - and their brains. Our stopwatches are primed as judges from the Guinness Book of Records drop by to oversee an audacious attempt to try and break a world record. Comedian Mike Bubbins turns human guinea pig as he tries to find out if money really can buy him happiness, and he investigates whether he is better at bonding with a dog or a rock. Happiness researcher Bronwyn Tarrr guides us through the latest scientific findings and uncovers the surprising truth about singing, dancing and sex. Athletic legend and happiest man on the planet Kriss Akabusi pops in to explain the importance of physical activity, how it changed his life and how running for just one hour a week could protect us from mental health problems. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot demonstrates that, despite what many might claim, just about every human being is in reality an optimist. In fact, our brains are hardwired to deal with the good news and ignore the bad. Tali also reveals how this
Andrew Graham-Dixon confronts the worlds of high art and seriously organised crime to uncover the true story behind the greatest art heist of the 21st century. In December 2002, two priceless and historically important paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in a brutal and audacious robbery by experienced, professional thieves. But what happened to the masterpieces, and what is their use to criminals who can never sell or display them on the open market? Andrew travels across Europe, moving between the worlds of high art and low crime and meeting policemen, prosecutors and art experts to uncover just how the world of violent and organised crime makes extensive use of stolen art - and how lost masterpieces like these can be successfully recovered.
Stand-up comedian Rhod Gilbert is painfully shy. He might hide it well, but he can't even go into a cafe to buy a coffee. No joke. In fact, his social anxiety has had a massive effect on his life. In this documentary, Rhod's going to try find out why and what can be done. Talking to fellow shy comedian Greg Davies, other shy sufferers, and scientists, Rhod comes up with a radical solution for how we can all stand up to shyness. Rhod can stand up in front of 20,000 people and make them laugh for two hours solid. But he has always found it virtually impossible to talk to people one to one. From childhood, it has been a life-limiting condition. And in this Rhod is certainly not alone. It is estimated that nearly half the population in the UK have some manifestation of shyness and social anxiety. For many it is a minor irritation, for some it is a condition that can virtually destroy a life.
In this documentary, Michael Palin tells the story behind his success, after being honoured with a special award at the Baftas in 2013. With an outstanding career in television and film, this special delves into the archives to showcase some of Michael's incredible work, featuring an in-depth interview with the man himself. From his early days with writing partner Terry Jones to changing the face of British comedy with Monty Python, Michael has gone from strength to strength. His career encompasses award-winning drama such as Alan Bleasdale's GBH, the hugely successful feature film A Fish Called Wanda and critically acclaimed travelogues, which attracted unprecedented TV audiences. Including interviews from people who helped shape Michael's glittering career, such as John Cleese, David Jason, Connie Booth, Armando Iannucci and Clem Vallance (producer of travelogues).
Mental health affects one in four of us, but how much do we know about the relationship between our mental health and our brains? Driven by her passion for science and her family's battle with depression, Charlotte Church is going on a scientific journey to explore the cutting edge of mental health research and seek out the answers.
Actress Laverne Cox follows the case of Chrishaun Reed “CeCe” McDonald. On an outing with a group of friends, CeCe, a transgender woman of colour, was brutally attacked. As she tried to defend herself, a man was killed. CeCe was arrested for murder and incarcerated in a men’s prison in Minnesota. Laverne Cox explores the role of race, class, and gender in CeCe’s case and follows its progression and the fight against injustice, as CeCe emerges both as a survivor and as a leader.
In 1998, wildlife enthusiast and photographer Chris Packham had a remarkable encounter with the Orang Rimba, a tribe of hunter-gatherers in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was the first time he had ever seen people living in perfect harmony with their environment. One photograph in particular that Chris took, a picture of a young tribal girl, has since become immensely important to him as a barometer of how we are treating our planet. In this real-life detective story, with no clues as to her identity or whereabouts other than his original photograph, Chris sets off to Sumatra 20 years on to try to find her, the girl in the picture.
Documentary which uses the latest, most detailed imagery to reveal the monthly life cycle of the moon. From Wales to Wyoming, Hong Kong to Croydon, the programme finds out how the moon shapes life on Earth, as well as exploring its mysterious dark side and discovering how the moon's journey around Earth delivers one of nature's most awe-inspiring events - a total solar eclipse. And at the end of a remarkable year of lunar activity, we find out why so many supermoons have been lighting up the night sky.
Kirsty Wark celebrates the life and work of Dame Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and one of the 20th century's most enigmatic cultural figures, on the one-hundredth anniversary of her birth. Born in Edinburgh, Muriel's extraordinary life took her to colonial Africa, wartime London, literary New York and vibrant 1960s Rome. Her most famous novel - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - immortalised the city of her childhood but with an added darkness and acerbic wit that became her trademark style.
A mesmerising and unflinching look behind the doors of a textile factory in India, as director Rahul Jain observes the life of the workers and the oppressive environment they seldom escape from. Machines tells a story of the human cost of mass production in a globalised world, showing the gulf between rich and poor from both perspectives.
Speed skater Elise Christie received death threats after crashing out at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, but now four years on she is Great Britain's best chance of a gold medal at the 2018 Games in South Korea. And as she completes her preparation for the biggest moment of her career, BBC Sport has followed the Scottish speed skater, gaining exclusive behind the scenes access. The people who know her best - her coaches, boyfriend, teammates and friends - describe how they helped pick up the pieces after the heartbreak of Sochi as Elise talks openly about the dark times she has experienced and how she hopes to finally complete her difficult journey with Olympic gold.
As a 28-year-old British Muslim woman, Mehreen Baig finds that everyone seems to have an opinion about how she should live her life - the clothes she should wear, where she should go out and who she should date. Half the time she is told she's being held back by her religion, and the other half that she isn't religious enough. As she faces the prospect of marriage and finally moving out from her parents' house, she wants to know whether it's possible to be a strong, independent woman and a good Muslim in modern Britain. Mehreen meets the young women who claim Islam is a feminist religion that empowers them and a woman who has rejected the religion because she believes it's inherently sexist. She uses a Muslim dating app to date a selection of young Muslim men, finding out what they really want from a wife, and attends a Sharia council. Along the way, Mehreen discovers how widely women's experiences vary across different Muslim communities.
A growing number of people are finding that traditional relationships don't work for them. So instead of just one, they have multiple romantic relationships. It's known as polyamory. Polyamory requires the full consent of everyone involved, but even then things can get complicated. Existing partners can easily feel left out, jealous or hurt. So open and honest communication is essential for polyamory to work - plus some careful timetabling. Love Unlimited features polyamorous relationships of many kinds. Noni is a young woman with two boyfriends, Kima and Toms are a bisexual couple in an open relationship, and Ross, Iain and Pav are a trio of gay men in a three-way polyamorous partnership. Jayne and Dom are very much in love but feel it's important to keep their relationship open to the possibility of additional partners. What they all have in common is that they have rejected monogamy in favour of a more open and fluid approach to relationships. There is much negativity and confusion surrounding polyamory. It can be especially hard to understand for family and friends. There's also the emotional strain of dividing time and affection between partners and the stress and anxiety of opening up an existing relationship to new potential partners. Poly people insist that it's about multiple meaningful relationships and not an excuse to sleep with lots of different people - although that can happen too. Despite the challenges new research shows that overall satisfaction can actually be higher in polyamorous relationships. So how do you go about loving more than one person? And what can polyamory teach us all about happy healthy relationships?
The film tells the epic story of the Hull fishermen who did the most dangerous job in Britain and their wives whose protest ensured such a disaster never happened again. The women’s campaign was one of the biggest and most successful civil action campaigns of the 20th century. Combining rare archive and emotional testimony – including that of Yvonne Blenkinsop, the last surviving leader of the women – those who lived through the tragedy and fought for change tell their incredible stories for the first time.
South Lakes Safari Zoo hit the headlines when it was revealed that almost five hundred animals had died there in under four years. The zoo's founder David Gill was denied a new license to run the park, and in early 2017 remaining staff formed a new company to try and rescue the animal park. This observational documentary charts the events in the summer that followed, as the staff at the embattled zoo try to rescue their reputation by improving their practices, whilst struggling to meet financial targets to survive the rest of the year. The zoo has also had to take on a new director of animals, Andreas Kaufmann, to help them modernise standards. Andreas is particularly concerned with what the animals eat, which species he believes the zoo should keep, and how they play a role in global conservation efforts. Across five months of filming at South Lakes Safari Zoo, food supply problems have serious implications for one of the zoo's favourite animals and Andreas battles with the staff to vastly reduce the number of animals kept on-site. He believes they should only keep what they have capacity to care for, but others on the zoo's board worry these changes might affect visitor numbers, and the zoo's chances of survival.
Brenda Emmanus explores the art collection of Charles I, much of which is being reunited for the first time since his execution for a unique exhibition. Brenda hears the stories behind the works of art and learns how the collection was sold off by Parliament following Charles' death.
Once a mountain kingdom of ancient palaces and emperors, Korea in the 21st century is largely known for its modern cities and decades of conflict. Tensions between North and South may be what defines it to outsiders but beyond the battle scars there is another side to Korea. In the south are large pockets of untouched wilderness where extraordinary animals flourish and Koreans continue to practice age-old traditions in tandem with the seasons and with nature. It is in these connections, rather than in division, that we see the true Korea. At the southernmost tip of the peninsular we follow a pod of bottlenose dolphins through the volcanic islands of Jeju. They click at each other as they encounter a human in their midst, but the dolphins know this diver well - they have shared the ocean with the Haenyeo, or sea women, for thousands of years. We travel onwards to the isolated island of Marado, where three generations of sea women are preparing for a dive. Today is the start of the conch season, and they work hard whatever the weather to maximise their catch. In the grounds of an ancient palace on the mainland, a raccoon dog family takes advantage of a rare event. Just once every five years, hundreds of cicadas emerge from below ground providing an easy feast for the raccoon dogs who voraciously fill their bellies. Those that escape their jaws make for the safety of the trees, where they metamorphosise into their flying form. On the mud flats of Suncheon Bay we find a habitat that is neither land nor sea. Only recently has the ecological value of mudflats been recognised. A staggering 50 per cent of the earth's oxygen is produced by phytoplankton - microscopic algae that are found here in great abundance. That is why the mudflats are known locally as the lungs of the earth. Plankton is far from the only life here - the mud of the bay is rich in nutrients and supports one of the most diverse ecosystems on the peninsula. We follow the story of a young mudskippe
Programme looking at the men who backed votes for women. Suffrage campaigns were led by women, but some men played key supporting roles. These included male activists like Fred Pethick-Lawrence, who was convicted and forcibly fed in gaol, and MPs like John Stuart Mill and Keir Hardie who spoke out in the Commons. Without allies in the all-male parliaments of the day, women would not secure a change in the law.
Documentary uncovering the real story behind Charles Thomson, one of the Founding Fathers of the USA, and how he came to leave his mark on the New World.
Mary Beard is on a mission to uncover the real Caesar, and to challenge public perception. She seeks the answers to some big questions. How did he become a one-man ruler of Rome? How did he use spin and PR on his way to the top? Why was he killed? And she asks some equally intriguing little questions. How did he conceal his bald patch? Did he really die, as William Shakespeare put it, with the words Et tu, Brute on his lips? Above all, Mary explores his surprising legacy right up to the present day. Like it or not, Caesar is still present in our everyday lives, our language, and our politics. Many dictators since, not to mention some other less autocratic leaders, have learned the tricks of their trade from Julius Caesar.
Darcey Bussell steps out of the world of ballet to pick two modern dance works that take familiar genres into uncharted territory. Inspired by her own love for crossing boundaries between all forms of dance, Darcey introduces us to the people and pieces that are breaking new ground with original and exciting performances. First are Olivier Award-winners Boy Blue Entertainment (aka Kenrick 'H20' Sandy and Michael Asante), who have an established reputation for transforming street dance into jaw-dropping theatrical experiences. Emancipation of Expressionism, directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, has taken them even further - onto the GCSE dance curriculum as a key work. Darcey's next choice is the group taking ice dancing as far away from sequins as it is possible to skate. In Vertical, Canadian-based collective Le Patin Libre (literally 'the free skate') use the ice in daring and dazzling new ways to present a thrilling new perspective.
Writer and hip-hop artist Akala voyages across the Mediterranean and beyond to solve some of the mysteries behind Homer's monumental poem, the Odyssey. Travelling between spectacular ruins, such as the sacred shrine of Delphi or the Greek colonies on Sicily, Akala's journey culminates on the small island of Ithaca, where he ponders the theory that this is the destination which Homer had in mind as he composed the epic. Along the way, he finds out what Homer's works may have sounded like to their first audiences, discovers how the rhythm of those ancient words connect to the beats of modern hip-hop and comes face to face with the characters from the masterpiece. He also investigates how this epic poem became the cornerstone of Western literature and how his own experiences as an artist have been impacted by a 3,000-year-old classic. Akala has undertaken this quest as part of his mission to compose his own response to the Odyssey - a new hip hop track called Blind Bard's Vision, which turns the tale on its head all over again. This is Akala's Odyssey.
This is the epic rags-to-riches adventure story of a penniless Tyrone teenager who left Ulster in 1822 and ultimately became one of the wealthiest men in America. Robert Campbell was one of the first Ulster-Scots pioneers to open up the American west. He spent his first 10 years in the Rocky Mountain fur trade, a 'bold and dashing life' he called it, fighting native Americans, enduring the harshest of climates, suffering near starvation with he and his men forced to eat their horses and dogs. Leaving the mountains he became one of the leading citizens of St Louis with a business empire covering every aspect of commerce, property and river trade. In fact he gave Mark Twain his first job as a Missouri riverboat pilot. The film follows Campbell's great-great-great-great nephew - former tank commander and Northern Ireland politician Alan McFarland - as he travels across the American west to uncover his ancestor's life. He finds a character widely respected by both native Americans and settlers, and reveals a love story and a succession.
Reporter Livvy Haydock meets three of the UK’s newest criminals - thieves who commit their crimes using mopeds. These thieves, who talk publicly for the first time, use mopeds to sneak up on members of the public or to getaway from crime scenes. All from London, they have contributed to an alarming rise in violent crime in the City. In 2017 there were over 23,000 crimes committed on motorbikes, an average of 64 per day. This is a 163% rise on the previous year. Livvy rides pillion on the back of a moped with a thief who points out which members of the public make good targets and which ones are protecting themselves. She accompanies an armed robber as he scouts jewelers in Notting Hill to point out security flaws, and she also helps one thief, who boasts about being a good race car driver, to quit crime by giving him a chance to impress in a Formula Renault test session. She also learns about the impressive phone security hacking involved in making the thefts profitable. One thief is filmed selling five of the latest smartphones, all robbed within one afternoon, for £150-£250 each when the normal price on the black market is £30-40 per phone. This higher price is because the thief’s buyer is able to recycle the phones abroad without any loss of functionality.
On 14 July 2016, Bradford girl Samia Shahid flew to Pakistan to visit her family. Six days later she was found dead. She was 28 years old. Eight days later, her first husband and father were arrested in connection with her murder. The case was taken up by Bradford MP Naz Shah, who wrote to the prime minister of Pakistan describing the case as an honour killing. With unique access to some of Samia's closest friends, this film tells the story of Samia's life - how her arranged marriage to her cousin broke down and how her decision to divorce and re-marry for love caused a huge rift with her family. The film contains the first interview with Samia's second husband, who tells the dramatic and tragic story of Samia's return to Pakistan. Samia's father was released owing to lack of evidence. He has since died. Her first husband remains in custody and the case in Pakistan continues. He denies the allegations against him.
One in ten teenagers have a mental health problem. According to the NHS, there has been a 68% rise in hospital admissions relating to self-harm among young teenage girls in the past decade. This hour-long observational documentary follows three families whose daughters have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act to protect them from harming themselves. The teenagers are all being treated at Fitzroy House. Their detainment is indefinite and the film explores the impact on them, their parents and siblings who don't know when they will be allowed home. All have had different journeys into Fitzroy House. Jade, 17, has been sectioned for 18 months and is hoping to be discharged from hospital before her 18th birthday. Her twin sister Megan struggles with Jade's illness and finds it difficult to visit her. Jess, 17, was first sectioned when she was 13 and has been to nine different hospitals around the country. She is one of a growing number of children sent away from her area for treatment and her parents Vikki and John currently make a 300-mile round trip to visit her every weekend. Erin, 16, is nearly ready to be discharged from Fitzroy House. Her mum Emma is desperate to have her home but the responsibility of keeping her safe terrifies her. Told in their own words with directness and raw honesty, the film aims to remove shame and stigma surrounding mental illness as well as explore some of the pressures on young people growing up.
Squaddies on the Frontline tells the story of the British Army's experience of the Northern Ireland conflict through the eyes of the ordinary men and women that soldiered here. For almost 40 years between 1969 and 2007, a total of over a quarter-of-a-million soldiers served on the streets of Northern Ireland in 'Operation Banner', the British Army's longest ever operation. These men and women were at the heart of the key events of the conflict, with over 700 soldiers killed and more than 6,000 injured, and a further 305 deaths attributed to them. Squaddies on the Frontline is their story, taking viewers into the heart of 'Operation Banner' and the day-to-day realities of life and work here as a soldier through some of the toughest years of the Troubles, looking at the impact that it had, and continues to have, on their lives and the lives of those around them, both here in Northern Ireland and beyond.
The world's longest river flows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, through Sudan and into Egypt and is vital to all three countries. But who controls the water? Alastair Leithead reports.
Documentary telling the extraordinary story of the international musical collective created by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma. This uplifting film follows this group of diverse instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers as they explore the power of music to preserve tradition, shape cultural evolution and inspire hope. Named for the ancient trade route linking Asia, Africa and Europe, the Silk Road Ensemble is an international collective drawn from an ever-changing line-up of more than 50 performers. Blending performance footage, personal interviews and archival film the film focuses on the journeys of a small group of Silk Road Ensemble mainstays to create a vivid portrait of a bold musical experiment and a global search for the ties that bind.
As a baby, Annie Price was badly burnt in a caravan fire. She had life-saving operations on her face, but growing up her mum encouraged her to get on with her life rather than focusing on further plastic surgery. Now, aged 31 and about to get married, Annie is travelling to South Korea, where cosmetic surgery is so common people have double eyelid surgery and are back at work the next day. She wants to find out what some of the best plastic surgeons would recommend for her. In South Korea 60 per cent of women in their twenties have had plastic surgery, and each year hundreds of thousands of people travel there specifically to get procedures done. Annie meets Myung, who is having her eyes widened in the belief it will help her get a better job, and Viv, who is having her whole face reshaped to make herself look prettier. Having resisted pressure from doctors to operate on her face for most of her life, Annie wants to understand why these young women feel compelled to modify very normal parts of their faces. In Korean society, first impressions are very important, so Annie meets a face reader who says he can predict a person's wealth and happiness just from their features. Finally, she meets one of South Korea's top plastic surgeons to find out what they would suggest for her and tries to decide if she wants to have surgery to change her face.
Historian Lucy Worsley teams up with artist and materials scientist Zoe Laughlin to explore the explosive science and fascinating history of fireworks, using an original pyrotechnics instruction manual, and other 400-year-old historical documents, to recreate one of the most spectacular fireworks displays from the Tudor era. Lucy and Zoe are joined by a team of top class pyrotechnicians to replicate a mind-blowing fireworks display especially designed for Queen Elizabeth I - one of the first documented firework displays in England. Lucy pieces together clues from some of the earliest instruction manuals for making fireworks in England, as well as eyewitness accounts of the display laid on in 1575. Armed with this information, the team apply their understanding of cutting-edge pyrotechnics to recreate it in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, where it was originally staged. Using hands-on experiments to test their designs, the team construct Tudor rockets, firework fountains and a fire-breathing dragon, as well as discovering the secrets of Elizabethan gunpowder. Throughout the show, Lucy explores the history of the three-week extravaganza laid on by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in his final attempt to win the queen's hand in marriage - from the elaborate food the Tudor audience would have eaten, to the colours that the set might have been painted in. She also reveals the important role fireworks had during the Tudor era - from the firework effects used on stage at the Globe Theatre to the pyrotechnical experimentation that took place at the Tower of London, the MI5 of its day. But not all the clues can be found in England - some of the fireworks described need to be tracked down further afield. Lucy travels to Italy to recreate the mysterious Girandola - a horizontal spinning wheel of fire - whilst Zoe flies to South Korea to witness the ancient, and rather terrifying, rocket box launcher in action. The danger and technical challe
How did a poor boy from a tiny flat in St Petersburg become one of the world's most powerful leaders? Admired by Trump and feared by his rivals, on the eve of his almost certain re-election as president of Russia, The New Tsar reveals the story of Vladimir Putin's extraordinary rise to power - from a lowly KGB colonel to Boris Yeltsin's right-hand man and ultimately his successor. There are revelations from Putin's inner circle at the Kremlin, including former confidante Sergei Pugachev, who helped Putin to power before falling from favour. Chess master Gary Kasparov recounts his failed attempt to stand against him and oligarch Mikhail Khordokovsky, who was jailed and stripped of his wealth, speaks of the consequences of experiencing the wrath of Putin. The programme also hears from former home secretary Jack Straw, who recalls Putin's first encounter with Tony Blair - the leader Putin apparently attempted to model himself on and Straw wryly observes that the two are 'very similar'. Former foreign secretary William Hague entertained Putin during the London 2012 Olympic Games and bonded over a shared love of judo - but later found himself unable to influence the decision made to invade Crimea.
A very special event honouring one of this country's biggest and best-loved entertainers, Sir Bruce Forsyth. Join host Tess Daly, Sir Bruce's Strictly Come Dancing co-star of more than a decade, at the London Palladium, the theatre which helped propel him to stardom, for this tribute to the renowned broadcaster. The evening features some of Sir Bruce's favourite songs performed by a wealth of artists, including Dame Shirley Bassey, Alexandra Burke and Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, as well as dance performances from the Strictly professionals and Adam Garcia.
The film tells the story of well-known reggae record shop owner and music producer, Blacker Dread, his extended family, friends and the wider Brixton community. Made with Dineen’s characteristic intimacy, the film focuses on a tumultuous time in Blacker’s life - the death of his mother and the prospect of his first prison sentence. While the documentary focuses on Blacker’s journey, it also features a wider cast; best friend, former bank robber Naptali is struggling to go straight; sister June is trying to maintain family ties after their mother’s death, and partner Maureen is ensuring their youngest son maintains his exceptional school grades in Jamaica, having been excluded from school in the UK. With the unprecedented access granted by her old friend Blacker, Dineen shines a spotlight on the struggles the characters face on a daily basis and in doing so offers a particular understanding of both the challenges and triumphs of family and community togetherness in Blacker’s world. Being Blacker offers a unique insight into what it is to be black in Britain today.
Britain's most iconic dog is in crisis. Comedian, actress and dog lover Catherine Tate investigates the serious health problems affecting the British bulldog and what can be done to save it. At the start of 2018 vets launched a national campaign urging prospective dog owners to think twice about buying flat-faced breeds like bulldogs. Meeting breeders, dog owners and vets Catherine asks what's causing the bulldog's problems, as well as exploring the latest scientific research, which suggests controversial ways to save the breed. Catherine also asks the Kennel Club, the leading authority in charge of pedigree dogs, whether they're doing enough.
Broadcaster and journalist Carolyn Hitt investigates why so many men gave up their dreams of playing rugby union for Wales, seeking fame and fortune among the mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire by committing an act that was considered tantamount to treason - switching codes to play rugby league. Her journey explores the impact of class, race and economic change on the game at the heart of Welsh identity. During rugby union's amateur era (1895-1995), more than 150 full Welsh union internationals and hundreds of uncapped union players did the unthinkable and ran the risk of being both ostracised and vilified by their fellow countrymen. They may have headed north with a heavy heart, but once they had switched codes, many went on to become huge success stories across the north of England - stories that have remained largely untold in Wales. Carolyn hears open and honest reflections from former players on both sides of the border, interviewing Welsh rugby legends Gareth Edwards and Jonathan Davies in Wales, and heading north to meet the players who didn't come home. They reveal their life-changing experiences as rugby codebreakers and Carolyn uncovers the hidden history of the players who were forced to turn their back on Wales because of the colour of their skin. The Rugby Codebreakers is the story of men who were deemed pariahs and outcasts in their own country but became heroes and legends to the working men and women of the north of England - and whose achievements should now be recognised at home.
Contagion! The BBC Four Pandemic creates the first ever life-saving pandemic in an ambitious citizen science experiment for BBC Four, fronted by mathematician Dr Hannah Fry and emergency medic Dr Javid Abdelmoneim. The government has ranked pandemic flu as a serious threat to the UK. To predict the impact of the next pandemic more accurately than ever before, new data is needed - and lots of it. Dr Hannah Fry is on the case. The groundbreaking BBC Four experiment uses app technology to ‘infect’ users whilst tracking their movements and social interactions over 24 hours. The information collected from the app could inform public health policy and help save lives during the next pandemic. But will Hannah persuade enough people nationwide to download it? If she does, this will allow a team of mathematicians from the University of Cambridge to create a simulation of how a deadly flu virus could spread across the UK, predicting how many of us will be infected - and how many might die. Whilst Hannah masterminds the experiment and adopts the role of Patient Zero - walking the streets of Haslemere in Surrey to launch the outbreak - Javid finds out why flu is such a danger to society. He meets the researchers trying to discover what makes some people more contagious than others and visits a factory that will produce vaccine when the next pandemic virus emerges. Armed with the information gathered and the results of the BBC Four experiment, Hannah and Javid make a shocking revelation.
In Secrets of the Masons, cameras for the first time go behind the doors of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Scotland, in Edinburgh, the home of freemasonry, and lift the veil on the inner secrets of this normally closed world. With exclusive access to its 400-year-old archive, its members around the country and its grand master, who presides over 1,000 lodges and 100,000 Scottish Freemasons worldwide, we film at lodge meetings, the selection of new candidates and the installation of grand masters. This documentary explores the truth about an organisation characterised by many for funny handshakes and rolled trouser legs, and by others as a dangerous, secret society, "the hidden hand that has shaped Scotland". We discover famous Scots whose careers have been "helped" by being masons, including Robert Burns and leading light in the Scottish Enlightenment, James Watt. Deputy Scottish Grandmaster Ramsay McGee, ex assistant chief constable of Northern Constabulary, remembers when, in the 1970s, 50 per cent of the force under him were masons. But he defends the close links between freemasonry and the police - "I could argue all policemen should be masons, it would make them much better men!" In the bomb-proof safes below the grand lodge in Edinburgh's George Street, archivist Robert Cooper, in white gloves, finds the original minutes of the first lodge meeting in 1598. We trace how this organisation grew from stonemasons to freemasons, became enshrined in America, where 40 per cent of presidents have been masons, was banned by the Pope and Hitler, and "done in", in Robert Cooper's words, by Dan Brown. And we ask if its lasting legacy is less its influence and more its secrecy.
A new documentary by acclaimed film-maker Vanessa Engle, The Funeral Murders, follows a dramatic and deadly series of events that took place at two funerals in Belfast in March 1988. Thirty years later, those who witnessed or were intimately connected to these events tell their stories. This film offers a range of perspectives - from republicans and loyalists to the security forces and family members of those who died, who share their moving stories for the first time.
Welsh bodybuilder James 'Flex' Lewis is on a mission. The reigning Mr Olympia champion is determined to claim his sixth title in a row and equal the record of his all-time hero Arnold Schwarzenegger. Known as the Super Bowl of bodybuilding, the Mr Olympia competition in Las Vegas is the biggest event of the bodybuilding calendar. A star attraction among the competitors is Flex. With more than a million Instagram followers and a host of successful businesses, he is a huge celebrity in America. He has more than 30 national and international titles under his belt and graces covers of numerous bodybuilding magazines. By contrast, back on home soil in Wales, the fame of this Llanelli-born star has barely caused a ripple. Over several months, we follow Flex in the run-up to his sixth Mr Olympia competition. We see the punishing daily regime it takes to have a shot at winning. We join him in his bespoke Florida gym where, at his daily training sessions, he can bench up to the same weight at a grand piano. But sweat and tears in the gym alone won't cut it. Flex must also stick to the superstrict diet set by coach Neil if he has any hope of shredding every last ounce of excess fat to qualify for his weight category in Vegas. Every grain of rice is accounted for. But as the calorie intake drops, the daily routine gets harder and harder to achieve. Flex has won the 212lb weight category every year since 2012. But just weeks before his sixth Mr Olympia, Flex faces the double blow of both personal tragedy and a natural disaster that forces him from his home. Out of the blue, life throws a couple of curveballs that look certain to disrupt his dreams. It falls to the tight team around Flex and his family who travel from Wales to Vegas to pull him through. As his legions of devoted fans descend upon Vegas to watch with the competition with baited breath, will Flex make it to the finish line and take his sixth consecutive title, or will his desire to equal his hero Arnold Schwarz
Picasso's Last Stand reveals the untold story of the last decade of the great artist's life, through the testimony of family and close friends - many of them the people he allowed into his private world in the 1960s. As his health declined in these final years, Picasso faced damaging criticism of his work and intimate revelations about his bohemian lifestyle for the first time. And yet, in the midst of disaster, he rediscovered his revolutionary spirit with a creative surge that produced some of his most sexually frank and comic work. Exhibitions of the new style horrified and disappointed contemporaries. But now his biographer Sir John Richardson and granddaughter Diana Widmaier Picasso argue that this last enormous effort produced some of his greatest and most profound art: the stunning counter-attack of a protean genius coming to terms with old age.
To celebrate the centenary of the Royal Air Force, Ewan and Colin McGregor take to the skies in some of the world's most iconic planes which were involved in aerial combat at every stage of the RAF's story.
Harry Gration dips back into the archives as Look North celebrates half a century of broadcasting in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Former presenters including Judith Stamper and Sophie Raworth relive their time in front of the Look North cameras - while Harry catches up with some of the people who have made the news during the programme's 50-year history.
George Alagiah explores the fascinating history of Queen Elizabeth II and the Commonwealth. He discovers how the role of heading this family of nations has affected the Queen as she grew and developed, both as a monarch and as a person. His journey starts in Tonga, one of the furthest-flung stops on the Queen's first Commonwealth tour in 1953. From there, George's Commonwealth tour takes him to Australia, Ghana, India and South Africa. In each country he discovers how the shy young Queen grew into a monarch who commands respect, exploring moments of triumph, diplomacy, challenge and political intrigue. Gathering testimony from people who have met the Queen across the years and from experts who have followed her journey, George builds a picture of how deftly the Queen has played her role as head of the Commonwealth. Her daughter Princess Anne also talks about the Queen's role as a woman in a male-dominated world.
Reggie Yates meets people whose lives have been devastated by the Grenfell fire, hoping to piece together the human stories behind some of those lost in the tragedy. With a police investigation and public inquiry examining how and why it happened, Reggie takes a step back to ask who were those people before they became victims of one of Britain's deadliest fires. Through their families and friends in the local community, Reggie learns about some of the individuals who lost their lives - a young British Moroccan, Yasin El-Wahabi, who was believed to have run back into the tower to save his family, a Filipino woman, Ligaya Moore, whose niece arrives in London to get answers about how her aunt died, a Syrian man, Mohammad Alhajali, who escaped war with his brother only to lose his life in the fire, Tony Disson, a well-known local figure whose family had lived in the area for generations, and a 12-year-old girl, Jessica Urbano Ramirez, who was one of 18 children to lose their lives. As a Londoner, and having grown up on a council estate himself, Reggie discovers that these stories aren't just the stories of individuals, they are the story of a community.
People say having a baby is a magical experience - full of cuddles and lullabies. But what is the reality for most new parents when they first bring their tiny baby home? Annie Price has been through her fair share of tough times - surviving a caravan fire at four weeks old and being left with extensive scarring. Now she's about to become a mother for the first time. Annie brings her unfiltered honesty to the first six weeks of motherhood. How easy is breastfeeding really? What's the difference between baby blues and postnatal depression? And is it normal to take your baby to hospital nearly a half a dozen times in the first two weeks?! Annie meets a professional breastfeeding counsellor, learns infant first aid and visits a centre supported by Sport Relief that specifically helps mums who are experiencing postnatal illness.
Ben Zand explores allegations surrounding the sex life of R&B legend R Kelly, including accusations of holding women against their will in his home in Atlanta and running a degrading sex cult - allegations he denies.
In January 2017 Finland began a bold social experiment: the government started paying 2,000 unemployed Finns basic income.
A cruise ship steward is sentenced to hang after an actress disappears on-board a voyage from South Africa to Southampton, but was he really guilty? Richard Latto presents fresh evidence in this fascinating cold case investigation. Hear from a key witness who didn't give her vital evidence at the 1948 trial at The Great Hall in Winchester. For the first time, see the full story of events as detailed in the extensive police file, saved by the Hampshire Policy Society from incineration. Author Antony M Brown reveals his incredible research into the death of an actress who dreamt of Hollywood, but never made it back to England.
In a revealing and emotional journey, Lenny Henry travels to the Caribbean to investigate his own heritage and the relationship between the Commonwealth, the Caribbean and the UK. Lenny's life would be very different without the influence of the Commonwealth. Because of it, his parents were able to move to Dudley from Jamaica in the 1950s, putting Lenny on the path to fame and fortune in the UK. Lenny examine the deep-rooted and complicated connection between the Caribbean and Great Britain and the role the Commonwealth plays in this relationship. Where did this organisation, made up of 53 countries and 2.3 billion people, come from? How can it survive its legacy of empire and slavery? Does it have any role in the 21st century? Lenny sets off on a tour into the body, mind and soul of the Caribbean, to investigate the experiences of those who live so far from the UK, but remain members of this vast and populous club. He travels back to Jamaica to investigate his own beginnings and finds out why, 60 years ago, his mother uprooted the family to travel thousands of miles to the rainy Midlands. He meets his older brother Seymour for a tour of the remote and rural plot he would have called home if the Henrys had remained on the island. He visits a lush rum plantation in an attempt to understand what life was like for his ancestors - African slaves brought to the Caribbean against their will. Lenny spends time with Commonwealth champion Rasheed Dwyer and Olympian Sashalee Forbes and hangs out at a Chronixx gig to hear what importance, if any, the Commonwealth has to Jamaicans today. In Antigua, Lenny traces the roots of why the British ended up in the Caribbean in the first place, and meets some of the ex-pats who have decided to make the Caribbean their home. Finally he travels to Barbuda to visit the island community devastated by Hurricane Irma, to hear tragic tales from survivors and consider the role the Commonwealth could play in the future around the world
To mark the 40th birthday of BBC Young Musician, a look back at this hugely influential competition, focusing on the soaring careers of the three finalists from 2016, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, saxophonist Jess Gillam and French horn player Ben Goldscheider. From its inception in 1978, BBC Young Musician has been a national institution and performers who've won or taken part amount to a roll call of contemporary British classical music. It's a showcase keenly watched by the music business and an appearance in the final often opens the door to a major career. Even by the high standards set by the competition, the most recent final in 2016 was very special indeed. The winner Sheku Kanneh-Mason is now Britain's most talked about young musician - he topped the classical charts with his first CD and played twice at the Bafta Awards. His co-finalists Jess Gillam and Ben Goldscheider are also making waves, Jess already featured as a soloist at the Proms and both tipped for stellar careers. This programme follows Sheku, Jess and Ben over the two years since the final, seeing how these young players, all are still in their late teens, are balancing the demands of a blossoming career with their studies at music school. The pressures faced by Sheku, Jess and Ben are nothing new and alongside telling the stories of the 2016 trio, the programme also meets many former winners and finalists. These include violinist Nicola Benedetti, winner in 2004 and now an ambassador for the competition, cellist Natalie Clein who won in 1994, percussionist Adrian Spillett, victor in 1998, violinist Jennifer Pike who triumphed aged just 12 in 2002, and pianist Martin James Bartlett the winner of the 2014 final. Also interviewed is acclaimed trumpeter Alison Balsom, now a regular presenter of BBC Young Musician, who feels that while she didn't win in 1998, still sees the competition as an important springboard for her career. The programme interviews Humphrey Burton who co-created the
The behind-the-scenes story of how Dippy the diplodocus came to Dorset on the first stop of his nationwide tour. As the nation's favourite dinosaur is squeezed into Dorset County Museum, Jon Cuthill discovers how Dippy was originally made and explores the world-famous Jurassic Coast.
Patrick Kielty was born in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and was only sixteen when his dad was murdered by paramilitary gunmen. Despite his loss, just 18 months later Patrick was taking to the stand-up stage in Belfast, forging a comedy career by telling jokes about life in what felt like a warzone. Year after year, the sectarian killings continued. Then in 1998, along with the majority of the Northern Irish population, Patrick voted in favour of the Good Friday Agreement. It meant those convicted over his dad's murder would be released from prison, but it brought a promise of peace after 30 years of conflict, with the potential to build a new society based on reconciliation. Now, on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Patrick wants to find out if the historic peace deal has delivered on its pledge to create a new Northern Ireland, free of the hatred that took Jack Kielty's life. Patrick returns to his home village of Dundrum, where his dad was killed, and then travels around Northern Ireland meeting other people whose lives were shattered by the Troubles. He confronts those responsible for committing acts of violence on both sides, asking why they became radicalised by the bloodshed and why some still seem to be wedded to their weapons. Patrick also meets other people caught up in the conflict, including Richard Moore, who was a ten-year-old boy on his way home from school when he was shot and blinded by a British army officer's rubber bullet. He wants to know whether it's possible for victims to be reconciled to a peaceful life alongside those who hurt them. Patrick visits the border country, exploring why Brexit has put the peace deal back in the spotlight, and meets politicians from both sides. Hearing their personal stories of how their families were also caught up in the conflict, he asks DUP leader Arlene Foster and a young Sinn Fein representative, Emma Rogan, why the power-sharing government between nationalists and uni
From the morning commute, to lunch hours, to the way people are hired and fired - the nature of work is set to change radically in the next two decades.
From the conflict in Ukraine to accusations of hacking and then sanctions, relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated dramatically under Vladimir Putin.
Cyborg presenter James Young journeys across the world to meet the makers and users of sex robots who have plans for a Westworld future where sex bots live amongst us. In Barcelona, James visits Dr Sergi Santos and his wife Maritsa, creators of one of the world’s most advanced sex robots and the answer, they suggest, to many couples' miss-matched libido. Sergi tests out his latest robot and James finds out how Maritsa copes with Sergi using the dolls himself. Elsewhere in Barcelona James also finds simple versions of the robots - not yet fitted with AI - being used in a brothel, and visits a professional sex toy tester who tries out one of the latest male sex dolls to hit the market. Back in the UK, James visits Sergi’s business partner Arran who has been demo’ing a Samantha robot in a sex shop near Liverpool. Arran tells James about his latest plan - to offer his sex robots to elderly people’s homes. In Japan, James meets two of the most human-like robots to have been created before discovering a darker side to the sex robot industry when he visits a factory mass-producing ultra-realistic dolls. So do we really want sex robots in our lives?
Professor Bettany Hughes investigates the story of Bacchus, god of wine, revelry, theatre and excess, travelling to Georgia, Jordan, Greece and Britain to discover his origins and his presence in the modern world, and explore how 'losing oneself' plays a vital role in the development of civilisation. In this fascinating journey, Bettany begins in Georgia where she discovers evidence of the world's oldest wine production, and the role it may have played in building communities. In Athens she reveals Bacchus's pivotal role in a society where his ecstatic worship was embraced by all classes, and most importantly women. On Cyprus she uncovers startling parallels between Bacchus and Christ. Finally, Bettany follows the god's modern embrace in Nietzsche's philosophy, experimental theatre and the hedonistic hippie movement to conclude that, while this god of ecstasy is worthy of contemporary reconsideration, it is vital to heed the warning of the ancients - "MEDEN AGAN" - nothing in excess.
Bringing up kids and getting them through exams is far from easy. There are countless reasons why some students do well academically and others don't, but experts agree that parental influence is one of the main factors that can affect a student's performance in school. In a groundbreaking experiment, this programme will put that to the test. Chessington Community College in Greater London, like all schools, has some students who excel and others who are failing to make the grade. In an attempt to change the paths of two of their students the school have decided to embark on a radical experiment. Like many teenagers, Year 11 students Jack and Hollie struggle with results and behaviour but with their crucial GCSEs on the horizon it is time to try and change things. In order to do this they will move into the homes of two of the highest achieving pupils in their year, for half a term. Can this complete change in home environment improve things for them? Hollie moves in with Holly H, a wannabe lawyer with a clutch of A*s in her sights and a dizzying rota of extra-curricular activities. Jack goes to live with Tharush, who arrived in the UK only a year ago from Italy but is already shining at school. Tharush's work efforts are exceptional - he does at least two hours homework every night, and that is on top of extra tuition. How will Hollie and Jack cope as they have to fit into every aspect of their new families' lives, living by their strict rules and routines? As they wrestle with the early bedtimes, tough homework schedules and curfews, can this revolutionary change in family life bring about a lasting change in their results and futures?
The story behind the world's richest art dynasty.
Documentary exploring Sikh identity in modern Britain. Actor and comedian Sanjeev Kohli goes on a heartwarming personal journey to explore the importance of wearing the Sikh turban in Britain and investigate why it is becoming more popular. Sanjeev, most famous for his role as Navid in the BBC1 comedy Still Game, comes from a proud Sikh heritage, but is the only male member of his family not to wear the turban and sees this journey as a reconnection with the Sikh community. He starts off by looking into his own family history, how his turban-wearing brothers were bullied at school, and questions whether he was right to make the decision at the age of 14 not to wear one. As a father of teenagers, Sanjeev tries find out whether attitudes towards the turban have changed over generations by meeting passionate young Sikhs in all walks of life. Over the course of his journey he discovers that, while many first-generation Punjabi immigrants wanted to try to fit in, their children and grandchildren are trying to stand out, and there is a resurgence of British Sikhs - both men and women - wearing the turban and reclaiming their identity. He also attempts to find out what lies behind this new-found enthusiasm to publicly embrace their religious identity.
A dead man is found on waste ground in Pennsylvania 2013. He had been stabbed twenty-two times. The 42-year-old municipal worker, Troy LaFerarra, had answered an Internet ad from 18-year old Miranda Barbour and they had arranged to meet. Three weeks later Miranda confesses she’d killed him in self-defense. But local Sunbury police officer, Travis Bremigen, suspects the young wife has something to hide. He brings Miranda’s husband, Elytte Barbour, in for questioning. The 22-year-old admits he and his new wife just wanted to murder a stranger, “We had no reason… other than that.” Headlines brand them "The Craigslist Thrill Killlers". While awaiting trial, Miranda makes an astonishing confession to a local reporter that Troy was not her first victim. She tells Francis Scarcella she’d killed more than 22 others as part of a Satanic murder cult that began in Alaska. The resulting headlines about a Satanic teen serial killer rocked the world. Elytte Barbour also reveals to officer Bremigen that the newly weds would cut each other, “having sexual intercourse in their own blood”. Elytte firmly believes that his wife is "demon possessed". In Alaska, where Miranda was brought up, local journalist Jill Burke believes there must be more to this story than than the lurid headlines. Digging deep into Miranda's past, Jill uncovers dark secrets about her upbringing and her complex history. Do these hold the key to explaining Miranda's apparent "thrill kill" and her claims to have murdered many more people?
The Wales women's football team are so far unbeaten on their journey to qualify for the World Cup. On the eve of their crucial clash with England, we go behind the scenes to meet the player making waves across the Atlantic with Seattle Reign, as well as Wales's all-time top scorer, who juggles motherhood with football, and the new generation of women footballers dreaming of their first pro contracts.
The Naked Truth: Obesity is a revealing short-film that features five obese young people being interviewed naked talking in raw and revealing detail about what it’s like to be obese, how and why they think they became obese and how they feel about their bodies.
Art historian Dr Janina Ramirez embarks on a journey through six decades of the BBC archives to create a television history of one of the most celebrated figures in art - Leonardo Da Vinci. RamireArt on the BBC: The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci (30 April 2018) mp4z shows how experts and art presenters - from Andrew Graham-Dixon to Fiona Bruce to Kenneth Clarke - have turned to television to bring Leonardo's artwork out of galleries and into our living rooms. Through television they have explored the origins of Leonardo's boundless curiosity, his pioneering use of light and shade, and his remarkable scientific exploration. Along the way Dr Ramirez discovers Britain's little-known version of The Last Supper, the gruesome ways Leonardo acquired his anatomical knowledge - and even what lies beneath the Mona Lisa.
Glenn Campbell travels to his home island of Islay and to the United States to tell the little-known story of the SS Tuscania and HMS Otranto. 100 years ago, in the closing months of the First World War, unimaginable tragedy and death came to the Hebrides. Within eight months, two US troopships taking their country's men to the Western Front sank off the coast of Islay. Hundreds died, and were washed up on the island's shores. Many others managed to find their way to shore, where they were rescued and taken care of by local people. What happened in 1918 forged links between two nations and their people, and would touch the lives of the families of both the survivors and the dead.
Jaw-dropping exploration of our obsessions with high places and how they have come to capture our imagination. Only three centuries ago, climbing a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. The idea scarcely existed that wild landscapes might hold any sort of attraction. Peaks were places of peril, not beauty. Why, then, are we now drawn to mountains? Filmed by the world's leading high-altitude cinematographers and set to a specially curated musical performance by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Mountain captures the fierce beauty of some of the world's most treacherous landscapes and the awe they inspire.
Ballet’s Dark Knight - Sir Kenneth MacMillan is a new film exploring the life and work of celebrated yet controversial choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan, whose pioneering creativity unleashed over sixty new ballets that changed the dance landscape forever. Weaving together stunning specially-shot footage, never seen before family films and MacMillan’s own voice from the archives alongside those who were closest to him, the documentary reveals MacMillan to have been a complex figure who lit up the ballet world with his bold choreographic genius while struggling privately with alcoholism, anxiety and depression.
For many people, musicians and fans alike, Jeff Beck is the greatest ever British guitarist. For more than 50 years he has blazed an uncompromising trail across the musical landscape. Always an innovator, never a follower, Jeff has steadfastly refused to pander to the demands of the record industry. This maverick attitude required some difficult career decisions; he left The Yardbirds at the height of their popularity, deserted his own group days before their billed appearance at Woodstock and often shifted his attention to his other great passion of building hot rods rather than continuing a tour or returning to the studio. Jeff's adventurous spirit led him to embrace a wide range of musical styles and he is one of a handful of artists who have transcended and redefined the limitations of their instrument, be it the Fender Telecaster, Esquire, Strat or Gibson Les Paul. He pioneered the use of feedback on record and his ability to capture the zeitgeist made The Yardbirds forerunners of psychedelic blues. With The Jeff Beck Group and the album Truth, he nurtured two of rock music's finest performers, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, and gave birth to a sound that would later mutate into heavy metal. He turned even the loss of Rod Stewart to his advantage by almost single-handedly inventing the guitar instrumental album with the release of Blow By Blow, which embraced the influences of Jan Hammer and John McLaughlin whilst developing a sound that was uniquely his own. Moving forward Jeff continued to push the envelope, amassing a fantastic body of work spanning many musical genres whilst constantly developing and evolving his inimitable approach and technique. This film tells Jeff's story from his earliest days growing up in Wallington, Surrey with his homemade guitars, teenage friendship with Jimmy Page and the influences of guitarists such as Les Paul, Cliff Gallup and James Burton. With essential tracks from throughout his career it follows his journey from ar
In 1955, the African-American congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie announced a new Cold War weapon to combat the Soviet Union - America's iconic jazz musicians and their racially integrated bands would cross the globe to counter negative propaganda about racism in America. Over the next decade, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck would tour the world in service of US Cold War interests. But the unfolding Civil Rights movement back home forced them into a moral bind; how could they promote a tolerant image of America abroad when racial equality remained an unrealised dream? This documentary tells the story of how the state department unwittingly gave the Civil Rights movement a voice on the world stage when it needed one most.
21-year-old Emma takes a no-holds-barred look into the world of plus-sized love and sex by asking questions that everyone may be curious about but are too embarrassed to ask. If Emma believed everything she read in the media, then she’d conclude that, as a plus-size girl, she was simply too big for romance. Not only are there almost no positive role models for “big love” in popular culture, often there is actual hate. Emma is introduced to the extraordinary Athena May, a self-styled “goddess of love”, who performs a masterclass in plus-size sex at an “erotic emporium” in east London. Emma wonders whether the dating game is any easier for men so she chats to members of a plus-size football league to find out. Despite her self confidence, Emma admits that she still has some hang-ups about her body image so in an attempt to face her demons head-on, she quite literally bares it all. Her journey ends in London, where she discovers the wonders of a plus-size club night - at last, an oasis in an often hostile dating jungle.
A short film, exploring the female within the world of ballet. Yasmine Naghdi and Beatriz Stix-Brunell - two of the Royal Ballet's brightest young stars - discuss and perform an all-female pas de deux, showcasing not just grace and beauty but strength, athleticism and power.
With an introduction from the inimitable Jarvis Cocker, who credits Michael Clark with introducing him to the world of dance, the latest work by groundbreaking choreographer Michael Clark. Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, the London Evening Standard called the production 'an adrenaline shot that sends you away buzzing'. The triple bill pays homage to three of Clark's most significant musical influences. Act 1, features commanding choreography, pulsating with a propulsive force to the punk rock of Patti Smith's landmark album, Horses. Act 2 is a reflection on Erik Satie and his influence on Clark's mentors past and present, the dance meticulous, minimalist and coolly refined. Act 3 is an iridescent tribute to David Bowie, intricate, sublime, the mood moving from elegiac to joyously rebellious. Recorded at the Barbican, London in 2017, this Olivier Award-nominated production features gorgeously arresting choreography performed by a company of fearless dancers including Harry Alexander, who won the Critics' Circle 'Emerging Artist' National Dance Award in 2017. The production also features a stage adaptation by Charles Atlas - long-time collaborator with Michael Clark - of his multi-channel video installation Painting by Numbers.
A pioneering team of zoologists and botanists, in search of new creatures and plants, gets rare access to Brazil's highest and most isolated mountain, the Pico da Neblina.
A documentary which follows historian Dan Cruickshank and photographer Don McCullin into the heart of war-torn Syria, on a dangerous mission to document the cultural destruction wrought by so-called Islamic State, and understand what it means to the people of the nation. Their final destination is the ancient city of Palmyra, to find out what remains of the ruins. For Dan and Don these stones represent the very soul of Syria, and for Syrians and the world the debate about what to do with them is about to begin. For both men, it is a return journey to a place with which they have long been obsessed. But to get there, they have to travel through a country that is in still in the grip of war.
Documentary exploring a growing battle in the countryside between anonymous 'hunt saboteurs' and the groups they are targeting.
In 1968 Joan Bakewell was one of the few female TV presenters, fronting the BBC's Late Night Line-Up and addressing daily the most pressing issues of the time. In this film, she looks back at the events that led to what for many became the defining event of that extraordinarily turbulent year - the protests in France in May. While the rest of the world was in turmoil, with the Vietnam War causing increasing dissent, the Civil Rights movement growing in intensity and young people finding new ways of expressing themselves, as 1968 began it seemed to France's president, General de Gaulle, that his country was immune to the kind of protest sweeping the rest of the world.
Shot over five years, leading to its 250th anniversary this film is an intimate portrait of one of Britain's most enduring cultural institutions. With unique access, the documentary illuminates the inner workings of the Royal Academy of Arts and reveals how it embraces the challenge of balancing tradition and innovation.
On 22 May 2017 the worst terror attack in the UK since 7/7 took place at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. The majority of the 14,000 fans were young girls, there to enjoy a night of freedom. 22 people were killed, more than 250 injured and countless lives were impacted. This observational documentary hears from a number of young women aged 11-20 who were directly involved, many of whom reflect on their experiences for the first time. Following three of them in the months after the attack, this intimate film also explores the lasting psychological impact and how their lives have been changed forever. Erin (11) walked through the site where the bomb exploded. She witnessed the aftermath and is unable to speak about what she saw; she battles with flashbacks and is scared to leave the house. Her mum and sister Caitlin (14) try to support her but feel helpless. For Amelia (18), it was the first concert she had been to without her mum. She was stood 6ft away from the bomber and was physically injured in the attack, now her mum struggles to let her out of her sight, terrified of losing her. Louise's (20) whole life has been put on hold; plans to go to university have been stopped as she struggles to deal with the loss of her brother Martyn Hett, who was killed in the attack. Told in their own words with raw honesty, the film gives a unique insight into their worlds following a tragedy of national significance.
30 years of Care in the Community, the biggest change in the treatment of mental health in the history of the NHS. Ian Hamilton speaks with those affected and asks if the policy has delivered its promises, or if it was just a an attempt to save money and shift responsibility for the most vulnerable.
Based at The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, one of Europe's leading multi-organ transplant centres, the film follows a group of seven patient's ranging in age from eight months to 56 years old, all in desperate need of a new heart.
On 14th April 2014, 276 school girls aged between 16 and 18 were kidnapped form a school in Chibok, northern Nigeria. They were taken by Boko Haram, a violent Islamic insurgent movement, and hidden in the vast Sambisa forest. Following a global social media campaign around the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, featuring global celebrities and Michelle Obama, huge pressure was brought to bear on the Nigerian Government to get the girls back. Four years later more than 100 of the girls have been freed - they have been kept in a secret safe house in the capital Abuja. For the first time TV cameras have been granted access to the girls and in this powerful 60-minute documentary we follow them as they adapt to life after their traumatic imprisonment at the hands of Boko Haram. We witness reunions with family members they have not seen since they day they went missing and the process of coming to terms with what has happened to them. The Chibok Girls live in a gilded cage, cut off from contact with the world's media and provided with education and counselling that continues as they move into government funded places at the American University of Nigeria. Their fate could not be more different to the thousands of other Nigerian women who have fallen prey to Boko Haram. In the brutalised city of Maidugari we meet some of these Forgotten Girls. They have deeply disturbing stories of their treatment at the hands of Boko Haram and their troubles haven't ended on their escape from the forest - in Maidugari they are often treated with suspicion because of their connection with Boko Haram. Female suicide bombers have killed scores of people in the city. And for the Forgotten Girls there are none of the privileges afforded the Chibok Girls - many live hand to mouth in the slums and refugee camps, abandoned by the Nigerian state. Nigeria's Stolen Daughters is a moving and terrifying insight into Nigeria's brutal civil war.
In 1955 US evangelist Billy Graham arrived on an 'All Scotland Crusade' aimed at saving the country for Christianity. During the Cold War, amidst great austerity and mounting agnosticism, Graham arrived like a Christian Elvis and wowed more than a million people during a six-week residency at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall and major stadium events at Hampden, Ibrox and Tynecastle football grounds. Six Weeks to Save the World tells the story of Graham's crusade through the eyes of the people who were there and the cameras which followed him.
Dave Woods presents a programme looking back at the 1968 Rugby League Challenge Cup final Leeds and Wakefield Trinity, which witnessed one of the most dramatic moments ever seen at a major sporting event. With what looked like the easiest of kicks to win the Wembley showpiece, Don Fox of Wakefield stepped up but somehow missed. Leeds won 11-10, and so began one of the most talked about and replayed scenes of all time in British sport. The programme looks back at that amazing match - which was played in horrific and wet conditions, hence becoming known as the Watersplash Final. Dave speaks to surviving members of both teams, including Don's brother Neil, who talks about the impact that fateful miss had on Don's life and career. It also sparked one of the most famous commentary lines: 'he's missed it, he's missed it... he's a poor lad' by Eddie Waring, as the BBC Grandstand cameras captured all the drama.
Clarke Peters, the writer of Five Guys Named Moe and actor in the likes of The Wire and Three Billboards, explores the origins, development and modern significance of a great American vernacular art form he has loved since a child - tap dancing. From 17th-century accounts of the dances performed by African slaves on American soil to celebrated 19th-century dance-offs and contests between Irish and African-American dancers, through to the troubled Hollywood heyday of tap dancing in the 1930s and 40s when black dancers were routinely excluded from the film roles their talent deserved.
In this second episode, Philomena's odyssey takes her from King Henry VIII to Lord Horatio Nelson.
This season marks John Motson's 50th and final season working for the BBC. This special documentary charts his poignant, but fun-filled, journey around the football grounds that have provided the backdrop for so many remarkable commentaries and football stories from this unique broadcaster, famed for his love of a sheepskin coat. Along the way, we catch up with the key characters that have played starring roles in those famous Motty commentaries - starting with Hereford legend Ricky George. The programme relives some of his immortal commentary lines with the stories behind them from 'The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club' at the 1988 FA Cup final to 'things are getting better and better' when England won 5-1 in Germany. What has been the secret to the success of the man found to have the perfect commentary voice? Famed for his love of statistics, he is a wonderful orator and a much loved friend to many. With unique access to Motty's farewell tour, we also hear from those closest to him including his beloved wife Annie and son Freddie, football legends Gary Lineker and Ian Wright, his two co-commentators Sir Trevor Brooking and Mark Lawrenson, plus celebrity football fans Noel Gallagher and Sir Rod Stewart.
Match of the Day's Gary Lineker introduces a special countdown of some of John Motson's greatest football commentaries from over 50 years as a broadcaster. A rare chance to indulge in commentary from classic matches with contributions from some of the biggest names in football, and of course from the man himself. No programme on Motty would be complete without some of his funnier moments, such as his famous report from Wycombe Wanderers in the snow wearing his beloved sheepskin coat.
In the shadow of the steelworks lies Taibach Rugby Club. For more than 100 years it has been the foundation stone of the community. The club is a cross-section of the town. All Port Talbot life is here. It's a place where people come together for the important things in life - rugby, weddings, birthdays and funerals. The club hosts them all. But there is one event that is the highlight of the year - the annual Christmas pantomime, written and performed by the men of the club.
How did the Scottish east coast port town of Kirkcaldy become the world centre for linoleum? The Town That Floored the World traces the history of that 'magic material' to its origins in the mid 19th century, and tells how one town built its fortunes on its manufacture. Current and former linoleum workers, and Kirkcaldy bairns including crime writer Val McDermid, share their stories of a life in flooring. Lino's role in high art and design is also traced.
Property tycoon Robbie Tchenguiz was once among Britain's super-rich. As one of the 'one per cent', this flamboyant tycoon amassed a fortune worth billions in the days when it was possible to have £16bn of assets - and yet £13bn of debt. But over the last ten years, Iranian-born Robbie's once gilded life - complete with superyacht, private jets and fast cars - has been in meltdown. He lost billions in the financial crash and then faced professional humiliation when arrested on suspicion of fraud. Though he was exonerated of any wrongdoing, today his empire is in tatters, and he is now fighting to save his home - a mansion next to London's Royal Albert Hall, worth an estimated £20million. Ten years ago, Robbie's success in the City meant he was viewed as something of a god - a dealer with the Midas touch. Robbie and his brother Vincent were notorious for their extraordinary deals, each worth hundreds of millions. But it was an empire based on debt, and these were the boom years. What goes up, often comes down. Robbie lost around 80 per cent of his net worth in the 2008 financial crash - though his real problem was to be a £1.4bn loan from an Icelandic bank that collapsed. It was this that led to his arrest in 2011. Since then, Robbie has been at war, fighting everyone from the Icelandic bank Kaupthing to the bank's receivers, Grant Thornton, who swooped across his empire, trying to recoup money for the creditors of the bank. And then there are his former trustees, Investec Trust Guernsey, who ran his offshore empire - and last but not least, the Serious Fraud Office, who arrested him. It took three years for the brothers to clear their names. They successfully sued for wrongful arrest, receiving a public apology and millions in compensation. But it is far from over. Robbie claims he is the victim of injustice, and he has been fighting the consequences for his business and family over the years. Robbie's war is run from his Mayfair office. It used to be f
A powerful retelling of the 2017 terrorist attack for BBC2. On 22 May 2017, a Manchester-born man detonated a homemade bomb at an Ariana Grande pop concert, killing 22 people and himself. It was Britain's deadliest terrorist attack since 7/7. The documentary tells the story of that night in forensic detail, through the eyes of teenage girls who survived the attack and key members of the emergency services. It features unseen mobile phone video and unheard audio recordings. The film also explores the identity and motives of the suicide bomber. Featuring interviews with counter-terrorism police and Manchester residents, the film sheds light on what may have led Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Manchester boy of Libyan parentage, to target a group of children attending a concert celebrating the independence and empowerment of young women.
A view of rural life set in the village of Ballycarry. Hidden away on the north Antrim coast is a village with a 400-year history. It's a place with strong Ulster-Scots traditions and close family ties but, with housing developments on the rise and services declining, they must work hard to keep their village community alive.
Could a lively bunch of three- and four-year-olds be the surprising key to tackling dementia? In a bold new experiment, the first of its kind in the UK, a group of toddlers head to a dementia day-care centre to share three days of time and activities with adults in their 70s and 80s. Overseen by expert psychologists from Bangor University, north Wales, this ambitious project tests if children might be the secret weapon in helping fight the sometimes crippling effects of dementia. Despite an age gap of eight decades, the two groups have one thing in common, they both ordinarily receive day-care support. But for the adults there is one significant difference - each person has a formal diagnosis of dementia or significant memory loss. The latest research reveals that one in every three children born this year in the UK will later develop a form of dementia, for which there is currently no cure. Can these little kids crack the way we all deal with dementia? Can they find the person behind the diagnosis? The psychologists set a series of specially designed activities to see if the young children can bring the adults back from their memory loss. Using rigged cameras at the centre in Colwyn Bay, they observe every moment of this unique social experiment unfold. They tap into the passions of the adults' younger years: a vintage-car ride for chauffer David alongside four-year-old Leo, song for musicals star Iris and talk of the beautiful game for a former footballer. The aim is to trigger memories and good moments but not all older participants are immediately convinced.
Anita Rani and JJ Chalmers journey to Italy's stunning Dolomite Mountains for a raucous three-day mini adventure. Incredible food, stunning hiking, a bit of bottom slapping and a rather itchy alpine spa experience await. Stepping off the tourist trail completely, Anita and JJ want to uncover the true Dolomites experience, ditching the tourist guides and uncovering the hidden gems the locals know about. While former Royal Marine JJ is keen to get stuck into the 'Via Ferrata' high mountain walkways built during WW1, Anita delves into the rich food culture of the region - which borrows from both Italian and German influences - as well as discovering some rather peculiar traditions - notably a very itchy alpine spa experience and the schuhplattler, a violent dance that mimics the courting ritual of the wild grouse. With a guide itinerary that packs in a week's worth of activities into just one long weekend, the travel-mad duo want to show us that you don't have to go to the ends of the Earth and spend a fortune to have the holiday adventure of a lifetime. Follow their lead and you can find everything you could ever want at the end of a short hop flight.
In this provocative television essay, writer and broadcaster Jonathan Meades turns his forensic gaze on that modern phenomenon that drives us all up the wall - jargon. In a wide-ranging programme he dissects politics, the law, football commentary, business, the arts, tabloid-speak and management consultancy to show how jargon is used to cover up, confuse and generally keep us in the dark. He contrasts this with the world of slang, which unlike jargon actually gets to the heart of whatever it's talking about even if it does offend along the way. With plenty of what is called 'strong language', Meades pulls no punches in slaying the dragon of jargon.
Narrated by Eamonn Holmes, Ads on the Frontline looks at a controversial series of adverts produced by the Northern Ireland Office during the last 10 years of the Troubles. The aim was to encourage people to pass on information to a confidential phoneline to help end the violence. To some, the ads were British government propaganda, to others a cultural snapshot of Northern Ireland's brutal past. Ads on the Frontline hears from people on different sides of the debate.
Crash diets have long had a bad reputation, but some experts say it's time to think again about the black sheep of the dieting world. Dr Javid Abdelmoneim teams up with some of Britain's top scientists in a bold new experiment that puts the latest research on crash dieting to the test. Four obese volunteers with serious weight-related health issues, including type 2 diabetes, go on an extreme weight-loss programme and give up real food, surviving on a very low calorie soups-and-shakes diet. Will they lose weight in the long run and turn around their health problems? If it works, this radical approach to weight loss could help millions, save the NHS billions of pounds and revolutionise the way we diet.
In January 2015, Jerome Rogers, a popular nineteen year old from a council estate, finally got what he’d been working for – a new motorbike and his first real job, as a courier. But in the hands of bailiffs, two £65 traffic fines rose to over a thousand pounds. Some weeks, take-home pay in his zero hours job was as low as £12. Under the pressure of his debt, Jerome went to the woods where he’d played as a kid, and took his own life. This is his story…
Unveiled in 1968, this is the story of the iconic 747 jumbo jet - from its nail-biting launch to a teary eyed crew on a final flight to the Arizona desert scrap yard.
A chance to hang out with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright and enjoy sparkling conversation spliced with a raft of astonishing archive Together, they are 342 years old. They are in their seventh decade of cutting-edge, epoch-defining performances on stage and on screen. Funny, smart, sharp, competitive, tearful, hilarious, savage, clever, caustic, cool, gorgeous, poignant, irreverent, iconic, old... and unbelievably young. Special friends, special women and special dames - and this special film is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hang out with them all, at the same table, at the same time, and enjoy sparkling and unguarded conversation spliced with a raft of astonishing archive. Atkins, Dench, Smith, Plowright. The dream dame team. Don't miss it
In 1979, Panorama reporter Tom Mangold led an investigation into the trial of Jeremy Thorpe and others for the alleged conspiracy to kill Thorpe's former lover, Norman Scott. Convinced that the former Liberal Party leader would be found guilty, a special post-trial programme was prepared. This was scrapped, however, when the jury returned its verdicts of not guilty for all defendants, and the programme has remained unseen for almost 40 years. Edited and updated with new information about a fresh 2017 police inquiry into the case, Tom Mangold finally presents his story about how powerful political forces tried to protect Thorpe. The programme features revealing interviews from 1979 with Norman Scott, chief prosecution witness Peter Bessell and the alleged hitman Andrew 'Gino' Newton.
2018 marks 100 years since the first women over the age of 30, who owned property, were allowed to vote in the UK. The fight for the vote was about much more than just the Pankhurst family or Emily Davidson's fateful collision with the king's horse. In this film, Lucy is at the heart of the drama, alongside a group of less well known, but equally astonishing, young working-class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that Edwardian society had about them. Lucy explores the actions of these women as their campaign becomes more and more dangerous, while their own words are delivered in simple but strikingly emotive pieces of dramatised testimony. Lucy also tells this story from a range of iconic original locations, from the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street to the Savoy Hotel, and has access to an amazing range of artefacts, from hunger-striking medals to defused bombs and private letters between the government and the press. In this Edwardian history drama, Lucy and her group of suffragettes from the Women's Social Political Union reveal what life was like for these young women, as she follows the trail of increasingly illegal and dangerous acts they would end up committing. For while they would start with peaceful protests, but they would go from to obstruction to vandalism and finally to arson and bomb making. Lucy investigates what drove them to break the law, to the prison conditions they experienced, including violent force feedings and the subsequent radicalisation of these women that occurred, driving them to more and more extreme actions. Lucy looks at the ways in which the press responded to the suffragettes and their own use of PR and branding to counteract the negative portrayals - from WSPU postcards to pennants and exhibitions. The decisive and largely negative role that members of Parliament played is unpacked, as they would throw out numerous attempts to give women the vote. The role of the police is explored, bo
Glasgow artist Lachlan Goudie examines the life, work and legacy of Scotland's most celebrated architect and designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh - the man Lachlan Goudie calls "The greatest genius in the history of Scottish art". The film examines Mackintosh's iconic buildings, notably the Glasgow School of Art. Interwoven with his architecture, design and watercolours is the personal story of Mackintosh. Little known at home, his work found favour on the continent. In later years he struggled for work, and came to endure real poverty, but continued to create remarkable pieces of art.
A colourful history of the Collins family who founded the first theatrical agency in Scotland, nurturing some of the greatest stars of the 20th century for over 60 years
Documentary exploring body dysmorphic disorder, a condition which causes people to believe they are extremely ugly. The film follows 29-year-old Liane and her boyfriend Mitch over a year as Liane starts therapy to try and conquer this crippling condition. Each week Liane meets Professor David Veale, one of the world's leading experts on BDD, who attempts to undo some of her deeply entrenched habits, often leading to uncomfortable and revealing realisations. The documentary also hears from a range of people who are in recovery from BDD. Talking movingly about their own personal experiences helps illuminate Liane's journey and reveals more about this illness
The story of one of the world's most valuable racehorses, Shergar, who disappeared in 1983 at the height of the Troubles. Thirty-five years on, Alison Millar sets out to see if changed times will help her unearth the secrets of this famous mystery.
This documentary from Bafta-winning director Ben Anthony brings together multiple stories from the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy - the most devastating tower block fire in British history. It was made over the course of one year, with filming starting on the day after the fire. The meticulously crafted film draws from hundreds of hours of interview, archive, social media content and observational footage to form a compelling, moving and lasting record of the events before, during and after the fire. It features intimate accounts from many of the men, women and children whose lives were forever intertwined and irrevocably changed that night - some of whom have never spoken publicly before. The film remembers those who tragically died, while hearing from survivors, the bereaved, members of the local community, faith leaders, the police and the local councillors from Kensington and Chelsea. The documentary contains the largest collection of interviews with people connected to the tragedy to be gathered together in one single film. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the documentary team were in the area around Grenfell Tower recording the effects on the community - in the emergency relief centres, on the streets, in temporary accommodation, in hotels and in people's homes. Over the following months, the team spent significant amounts of time filming with many of the people who were most affected, documenting both their immediate experiences and the longer-term challenges they faced as they waited to be rehoused and attempted to rebuild their lives. The documentary captures the trauma, tragedy and grief alongside extraordinary moments of courage, unity and resilience. The film tells the story from within the community with unique access to Grenfell United - the campaign group set up by the survivors in the wake of the fire - and Grenfell Speaks, the online streaming news channel created by one local resident and his iPhone which now has over five million v
Is the human body perfect? Professor Alice Roberts doesn’t think so. Alice has been challenged by the Science Museum to embark on a bold scientific stunt: to find solutions for our anatomical flaws and design a human body that’s perfect for life in the 21st century. Millions of years of evolution have helped to make humans one of the most successful species on the planet. We have some incredible adaptations, but we’ve also inherited plenty of physical flaws. That’s why we have ears that go deaf, knees that ache, and skin that’s easily damaged. Through natural selection animals have evolved incredible biological designs, from super-sharp senses to super-powered limbs. By meeting leading medical and animal experts, Alice learns what the human body’s biggest problems are and discovers how amazing anatomical adaptations found in the animal kingdom could provide inspiration for designing a perfect human body. With the help of a virtual anatomical artist and an expert prosthetics sculptor, Alice redesigns her own body into a hyper-realistic new form - but is banished from the studio as the life-size model is made. Then, in a big reveal in front of 150 people at the Science Museum, Alice comes face to face with her ‘perfect’ self for the first time – has she really designed a body better than evolution could? Ambitious, audacious and packed with cutting-edge science, Can Science Make Me Perfect? With Alice Roberts challenges everything you thought you knew about the perfect body.
What is it like being Germaine Greer? This observational documentary spends time with her and finds out. Fearless, original and utterly charismatic, the 31-year-old Germaine Greer burst in to the national consciousness in 1970 with her game-changing bestseller The Female Eunuch. What did it feel like to be at the eye of the storm? What did the events at the time mean to the people caught up in them? Germaine takes us back to those giddy days and reflects with honesty, candour and caustic wit about what it was about then and how it all feels now. A rich seam of archive, including previously unseen footage, and an explosive soundtrack immerses us in those revolutionary times. Is The Female Eunuch still relevant? Are women and girls today any less slavish when it comes to male approval? And what does Germaine think of Me Too? Germaine Greer: funny, clever, contrary, sensitive and caustic - there is simply no one like her. This film gets to know her.
Kate Adie re-examines her historic coverage of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in June 1989. In a long-form interview, Kate recalls how she was wounded by gunfire and narrowly escaped death herself as she and her cameraman remained in the line of fire while an estimated 2,000 pro-democracy demonstrators were shot down by Chinese government troops. Kate reviews the reports she made on the ground, with additional insight from leading historian Professor Steve Tsang, and draws on the BBC's archive to assess how film-makers have portrayed China before and after the upheaval.
Justin Rowlatt interviews the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Nicholson.
As football fans across the globe look forward to Russia 2018, Dan Walker delves into the BBC archives for a look back at England's World Cup-winning team of 1966, and what happened next. With rarely seen interviews and clips featuring the likes of Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore, Gordon Banks and the Charlton brothers, we get the players' own perspectives on that famous victory over West Germany. We also explore how the football fame-game has changed dramatically over the years, and discover the different paths the heroes of 66 followed in the decades after the triumph, with careers that ranged from football manager to more unexpected jobs like travel agent and undertaker.
Kirsty Young presents a unique celebration of the centenary of women winning the right to vote featuring live coverage of PROCESSIONS, commissioned as part of 14-18 NOW and created by Artichoke. This vibrant and immersive art experience takes place across Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London. The event sees tens of thousands of women and girls process through the streets of the four UK capitals in the spirit of the original campaigners for women's suffrage. Carrying artworks they have created especially for the occasion, they form a living banner in columns of green, white and violet, the colours of the Suffragettes, as they mark this moment in history. As well as celebrating such a significant centenary, Kirsty Young looks across the 100 years to mark the achievements of women past and present.
As the football fans across the globe look forward to Russia 2018, Dan Walker delves into the BBC archives for a look at the talismanic England players who have, over the years, carried the World Cup hopes of the nation. Through rarely seen interviews and clips we explore how every England World Cup squad has featured an individual star player, whose reputation elevated them above their teammates in the eyes of the public. From Kevin Keegan in 1982 right through to Harry Kane today, via Gazza's tears and Lineker's Golden Boot, we see how these big names met the challenges of football's biggest competition and matched up to the expectations of fans increasingly desperate to see England bring the trophy 'home'.
David Bond is a filmmaker and a father. Things have really changed since he was a kid. His children are hooked on screens and don't want to go outdoors. They want iPads, TV and plastic toys. The marketing departments of Apple, Disney and Mattel control his children better than he can. Determined to get them up and out, David appoints himself as the Marketing Director for Nature. With the help of branding and outdoor experts, he develops and launches a nationwide marketing campaign to get British children outside. But the competition is not going to lie down and let some upstart with a free product steal their market. Project Wild Thing is the entertaining, real-life story of one man's determination to get children out and into the ultimate, free wonder-product: Nature. Research shows that children are happiest when playing in nature. But according to a recent UNICEF report, children in the UK and US are among the least happy in the world. Britain's children are becoming increasingly disconnected from the outdoors, with far-reaching and serious implications for their happiness, their health and for the environment. Increased traffic, fear of stranger danger and the explosion of indoor electronic entertainment all contribute to this sedentary, nature-free existence.
A hybrid of observational documentary and audio reconstruction takes viewers in to the world of three people who hear voices as a result of mental illness.
In the months leading up to, and days following Ireland’s historic referendum to repeal the eighth amendment, investigative journalist Ellie Flynn follows the story of the landmark vote to legalise abortion. Ahead of the referendum, Ellie travels to Ireland to meet activists and campaigners from both sides of the debate to try and understand the impact of the Law for young Irish voters and discovers that this incredibly divisive and emotionally charged issue is not as black and white as it seems. She meets a young ‘No’ vote campaigner who believes he's only alive because the amendment stopped his mother from aborting him in her youth and speaks to a woman who made the tragic decision to travel to the UK to abort her much wanted daughter after discovering she would be in extreme pain for the few moments she was likely to survive. In a behind the scenes look at UK abortion clinic, Ellie speaks to Irish women who have travelled abroad to abort and meets the woman facilitating medical abortions on Irish soil. On May 25th, Ireland voted Yes to the constitutional amendment to legalise abortion and Ellie returned to discuss the reaction.
When Grenfell Tower caught fire in June 2017, the disaster revealed a deep division between rich and poor in this part of west London. Now, residents of the community around the tower tell the extraordinary story, 150 years in the making, of how their borough became the most unequal place in Britain. This film reveals little-known stories of how the divisions began, such as the building in the nineteenth century of a huge wall that still stands today. The wall was intended to separate the homes of the Victorian middle class from what was then the worst slum in London. Residents share their memories of the dramatic events that shaped their community - from exploitation by notorious landlord Peter Rachman in the 1950s to the first Notting Hill race riots and the construction of Grenfell Tower in the 1970s. When Grenfell Tower opened in 1974, Britain was more equal than it has ever been, before or since. For the residents who moved in then, the tower was a symbol of hope for the future. But since Grenfell opened, we have become steadily more unequal, until today levels of income inequality are the same as they were in 1850. This is the untold story of a unique part of west London, revealing how its past has shaped its present.
When Anne Robinson and women of her generation broke the glass ceiling 50 years ago she imagined that we'd be much further along the road to equality by now. In the light of MeToo, Times Up and recent revelations about the gender pay gap, Anne can't help wondering whether women today have become too fragile? To explore this provocative view, she meets women from across the UK to find out - 100 years on from suffrage - what's still preventing them from achieving equality and what women are doing to fight back. In an immersive journey that explores the experience of women from all walks of life, Anne starts by visiting a primary school to carry out an eye-opening experiment that reveals how young girls are still limiting their ambitions. She steps into the heart of the debate about female sexualisation by meeting grid girls at Brands Hatch who hope to hang onto their jobs despite the recent backlash, and talks to millennial women frustrated by the everyday sexism they face. Anne also tackles the thorny issue of working motherhood, meeting Gwen, a mother-of-five whose husband looks after their children and the house while she works full time. Frustrated by the fact that 50 years after the equality act there's still no equal pay, Anne challenges women's reluctance to ask for what they're worth, before meeting home carers and campaigners from Glasgow who have been fighting for ten years to receive the same wages as local bin men and gardeners. After having her opinions challenged - and in some cases changed - Anne, with her usual wit and fervour, makes a plea for all women to be free to do whatever they want, so that in the next 100 years they will have travelled further along the road to equality.
When Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan stepped on the moon in December 1972, he left his footprints and his daughter's initials in the lunar dust. This film takes Cernan back to the launchpads of Cape Kennedy to tell his story of burning ambition, fulfilment, love and loss. Using a wealth of rare archive, home movies, scrapbooks and interviews, it recounts how Cernan's burning ambition carried him from a quiet Chicago suburb to the spectacular and hazardous environment of space.
Kyffin Williams was Wales' best-loved artist, famous for his brooding mountain landscapes. However, his work was never fully accepted by either critics or the art establishment, and the man himself remained an enigma. Now, in his centenary year, the presenter and painter Josie D'arby goes on the trail of Kyffin Williams both as man and artist. She visits the beautiful places where he grew up, lived and painted, in Anglesey, Snowdonia and London. She meets the people who knew him best, uncovering a personal story of loneliness, stigma and emotional damage. But she also finds in Kyffin Williams a core of talent, determination and belonging. Looking again at his art, Josie finds landscapes, portraits and seascapes that rank with the very best of their kind. These are not just depictions of the external world, but expressions of Kyffin Williams' own interior life, and often troubled emotions. Kyffin's output was huge, and the quality varied, but the best of his work is world class, and deserves to be celebrated. The programme includes interviews with Rian Evans, author of a major new study of Kyffin Williams; photographer and godson Nicholas Sinclair; and art historian Peter Lord.
Emmeline Pankhurst led an army of women onto the streets of Britain as the leader of the suffragettes. In this documentary, actress Sally Lindsay takes a rare look at the personal loves, losses and political passions that transformed this working mum from Manchester into a militant activist campaigning for women's right to vote.
Out of the tumult and fervour of the late 1960s emerged a generation of artists who set out to start a revolution. As women around the world joined forces to fight for liberation, the formative art movement of the last four decades was about to explode into being. On both sides of the Atlantic, women were tearing up art history and reinventing the arena of art with experimental new mediums and provocative political statements. Questioning everything from the way women were presented in magazines to the right to equal pay, female artists aimed to radically change the way women were perceived. Mary Kelly caused outrage in the tabloids by displaying dirty nappies at the ICA, Margaret Harrison's depiction of Hugh Hefner as a bunny girl resulted in her exhibition being shut down by the police, and in Los Angeles Judy Chicago founded the first feminist art course and told her students to only study work by women. Alongside interviews with Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid, Suzanne Lacy, Carolee Schneemann, Rose English, Laurie Simmons and Barbara Kruger, The Great Art Fight Back tells the story of these revolutionary artists and celebrates the grit, humour and determination that wrote women back into art history for good.
BBC Sport traces the history of one of the toughest jobs in sport - the England football manager. Using rare archive and new interviews with current manager Gareth Southgate and former England managers Sven-Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello, Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce, we hear first-hand the personal toll the so-called impossible job has taken on some of the game's most successful club managers. With contributions from former England captains Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand, along with key decision makers from within football, we take a closer look at what it will take to end England's years of hurt.
Mad About Elvis is part of BBC Wales's contribution to the BBC's Our Lives strand. Elvis is alive and well and partying hard in Porthcawl, South Wales. He may have died in August 1977 but, every September, this small seaside resort is invaded by Elvises of all shapes, sizes, and talents - and his disciples. Attracting 35,000 visitors, the majority in costume, the Porthcawl Elvis Festival is the biggest Elvis festival in the world!
PrEP is a drug that experts believe could end the HIV and AIDS epidemic. But in 2016, after 18 months of consultation, the NHS made the controversial decision that they could not fund it. Thirty five million people have died from HIV and AIDS, but today advancements in medical science mean that HIV no longer has to be a death sentence, as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) prevents the virus developing in the body. This is the incredible story of the battle for PrEP on the NHS: a legal fight which saw doctors, activists and AIDS charities come together to overturn the NHS decision. It was the start of an emotive battle which would see the cost of the treatment publicly pitted against the cost of prosthetic limbs, blood cancer drugs and drugs for children with cystic fibrosis. At the heart of the story is one man, Greg Owen, pictured, who helped stop thousands becoming HIV positive by setting up a website which allowed people to buy generic PrEP from drug manufacturers in India. Despite being homeless and without a wage, Greg found himself running Britain’s main gateway to PrEP from his mother’s kitchen in Belfast.
Documentary chronicling Scotland's performance in the 1978 World Cup, when the team was under the aegis of manager Ally MacLeod. In 1978, Scotland had a team of brilliant footballers and mercurial manager in Ally MacLeod. Featuring rare archive footage, this is the story of when a nation dared to dream
BBC Radio 6 Music's Shaun Keaveny presents a special documentary celebrating the Great Exhibition of the North. Visiting key landmarks in the north east of England, including the Swing Bridge over the River Tyne, Shaun looks ahead to the Great Exhibition of the North, a programme of exhibits, technology, performance and culture taking place across the north of England this summer. The documentary also profiles artists featured in the exhibition's opening ceremony, including Maximo Park, poet Lemn Sissay and artist Glenn Brown
Danielle de Niese explores the lives and works of five female composers - from the Middle Ages to the late 20th century - who were famous in their lifetimes, but whose work was then forgotten. Western classical music has traditionally been seen as a procession of male geniuses, but the truth is that women have always composed. Hildegard of Bingen, Francesca Caccini, Clara Schumann, Florence Price and Elizabeth Maconchy - all these women battled to fulfil their ambitions and overcome the obstacles that society placed in their way. They then disappeared into obscurity, and only some have found recognition again.
In the football World Cup 20 years ago, Iran and the USA came face to face in one of the most politically charged matches in history. Relations between the two countries had been hostile for two decades. Pressure on the players to prove themselves on the pitch was intense and would result in a thrilling game watched by millions. But what aren't widely known are the stories behind the scenes - an al Qaeda plot, the attempted sabotage of the game by an anti-Iranian government group and an intervention by Iran's Supreme Leader that caused a headache for match officials. In this film we bring together the players, coaches, FIFA officials and the referee to hear their untold stories and emotions as they reflect on the match of their careers.
Nature's Turtle Nursery: Secrets from the Nest features the extraordinary natural history event of an 'arribada' - the mass nesting phenomenon of olive ridley sea turtles in Costa Rica, Central America. Dr George McGavin joins a team of international scientists as they investigate the complete story from the moment the female turtles gather offshore, then lay their eggs, to when the next generation are born. The programme embraces the larger conservation story of these ancient mariners and how they're adapting to our ever-changing world. And in a scientific first, the complete story inside a single turtle nest is revealed, using recent scientific discoveries and the latest technological advances. An egg-to-egg turtle talk is listened in on, adult females on their migration are tracked, and behaviour under the waves is analysed with a turtle shell-mounted camera. How tiny turtles behave as they hatch out of their shells and work together to dig upwards is also revealed.
Anita Rani tells the story of one man who has devoted his life to helping the homeless. Randeep Singh started his small Southall charity with just a handful of volunteers but has now transformed it into a sophisticated national task force that feeds and clothes thousands of people every week. As the charity tries to expand to other outposts they face obstacles and challenges that test their dedication. Part of the BBC's Our Lives strand.
Anita Rani and Nick Robinson present the centrepiece of the BBC's NHS at 70 season, a live broadcast from Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They celebrate 70 years of the NHS before asking the big questions about the NHS today and in its future, in front of an audience of patients and NHS professionals at the heart of the debate about Britain's best-loved institution. We all remember the Olympic ceremony celebrating and championing the NHS as the best health service in the world. But how good is it at keeping us alive when compared to other countries? While arguments continue in Westminster over a birthday present boost to the NHS budget, how much money does it really need to keep Nye Bevan's promise of free health care for all in the years to come? With an ageing population taking up hospital beds, obesity costing more than all cancers combined and the numbers of children and young people self-harming up threefold in just four years, how does the NHS born in 1948 reinvent itself beyond its 70th birthday? For the first time, the country's leading health and economic think tanks, including the King's Fund, the IFS, the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation, have all joined forces to tackle the most important questions facing the NHS at 70. Anita Rani and Nick Robinson are joined by Helen Skelton, who is live at the maternity ward of the Birmingham Women's Hospital next door, while Dr Kevin Fong looks at how new technology could transform the NHS, and Dr Zoe Williams investigates the obesity epidemic.
This film tells the moving story of 29-year-old Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, who in May 2017 shocked Japan when she went public with allegations that she was raped by a well-known TV journalist. Through Shiori's testimony, the film outlines her allegations against Noriyuki Yamaguchi, on the night the two met for a business dinner in Tokyo. Mr Yamaguchi, the biographer of Japan's prime minister, strenuously denies her claims. It recounts what led Shiori to take the unprecedented decision to go public with her allegations in a country where speaking about sex crimes remains strictly taboo. Following Shiori over the next year, the film tells the story of how criminal charges against Mr Yamaguchi were never brought, and her decision to pursue a civil case against him - a case which he is defending. It also portrays the consequences Shiori faced by speaking out in Japanese society. While the #MeToo movement saw women coming forward in solidarity across the globe, in Japan, Shiori was met with hate mail and public humiliation. Interweaving in the wider social issues of gender and traditional attitudes in Japan, the film follows Shiori on her personal journey, as she visits the institutions she believes failed her, meets with other women who are too frightened to even report assaults, and fights to affect change in Japan.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the birth of the NHS, acclaimed poet Owen Sheers takes us on a journey that weaves the extraordinary story of the birthing of Nye Bevan's vision of free healthcare for all people with personal stories of the NHS in British society today. Based on scores of interviews with NHS workers - ranging from brain surgeons to cleaners - The NHS: To Provide All People charts the emotional and philosophical map of what defines the NHS and the personal experiences at the heart of the service, and recognises its achievements and the challenges it faces. From first breath to last breath, the film poem journeys through the joy, pain, triumph and loss that unites us all in our experiences of health and sickness, birth and death, regardless of race, gender or wealth. Featuring a stellar cast, including Michael Sheen, Eve Myles, Martin Freeman, Sian Phillips, Jonathan Pryce, Celia Imrie, Meera Syal, Susan Wokoma, Michelle Fairley, Rhashan Stone, Michelle Collins and Tamsin Greig.
Rana Mitter visits Tokyo to talk to directors, critics and students about how today's Japan tells itself the story of World War Two through its movies.
France and America are leading counter-terrorism operations in the Sahara desert amid fears IS fighters driven from Iraq and Syria are heading there to create a new caliphate.
Award-winning comedian Rich Hall explores the American dream and the dictum that came over with the very first pilgrims who set foot on Plymouth Rock - work hard and you will succeed. With his sharp wit and acerbic insight, Rich looks at how Americans strive to achieve this dream and how it's been explored and perpetuated by politicians, industrialists, artists, writers and film-makers. Rich also looks at the dark heart of the American dream and considers what happens when the dream turns into a nightmare, including the Great Depression of the 1930s, the boom and bust of Detroit and the modern demise of America's shrinking middle class. The land of opportunity has attracted all comers to live the American dream, and Rich Hall explains if it actually exists or if it's just a myth that's become unobtainable for Americans.
Sue Barker meets commentator Barry Davies to reflect on his outstanding career as the voice of sport during more than 50 years at the BBC. As Barry takes the microphone at Wimbledon for the final time, BBC Sport celebrates some of the iconic occasions featuring his unmistakeable voice, including World Cup, FA Cup and Wimbledon finals, Olympic golden moments and the Boat Race, to name but a few. Colleagues such as fellow commentator John Motson and footballing legends Gary Lineker, Rio Ferdinand and Alan Shearer reveal their memories of Barry. Other high-profile stars from a variety of sports all have their tales to tell of him, including Sir Matthew Pinsent, Jayne Torvill, Sean Kerly and Kate Richardson-Walsh, while the programme also hears about Barry away from the mic from his devoted wife and children.
With exclusive access, Duran Duran open up about their extraordinary career and talk candidly about the highs and lows they have endured together over four long decades. This is the band at their most relaxed, intimate and honest. The film spends time with John at his LA home, Simon pays a visit to his former choir master, Roger goes back to where it all started in Birmingham, and Nick dusts off some of the 10,000 fashion items that the band have meticulously catalogued and collected over the course of their career. Features fellow singer Boy George, fan and record producer Mark Ronson, friend, fan and supermodel Cindy Crawford and Highlander film director Russell Mulcahy.
A celebration of one of the UK's most enduring pop bands of all time, Duran Duran. The programme joins Simon, John, Roger and Nick as they sit back, relax, watch and talk through personally selected clips of archive television, music shows, movies, performances, adverts and children's shows that have inspired them across their career spanning four decades. In this exclusive hour-long special, they discuss their influences from the worlds of music, film, TV and art. From The Beatles and Sex Pistols to Top of the Pops, Tomorrow's World and the Apollo 11 moon landing, A Night In is a trip down memory lane with the band as they remember the shows that capture a particular moment in their creative lives.
Sophie Raworth's grandfather was one of the first pilots in the newly-formed RAF. In this special programme ahead of the centenary of the RAF, Sophie finds out what life was really like for those pioneers in the skies.
Welcome to a world of 'pawdicures' and technicolour fur coats - this is a 'dogumentary' like no other! This programme opens the doors to the weird and wonderful world of pampered pooches, where obsessive owners, or should we say puppy parents, bring their fur babies in for five-star treatments, such as the Claudia Schniffer, luxurious mud baths, 'furcials' and bright pink dye jobs. Mucky Pups luxury doggy boutique and spa business has busy salons in Cardiff and Chepstow. Owner and boss is dynamic, dog-dotty entrepreneur and young mum of five Leanne Couch. Pink-loving Leanne believes 'there is nothing better than the love of a dog' and is always thinking up madcap ideas to combine her passion for pedigree pooches and her next business venture. Dragged along for the ride are her long-suffering husband Leigh and most of her friends and family, including mum and sidekick Evelyn - who is at her side every step of the way. We follow the highs and lows of the lives of Leanne, her family, the staff and puppy parents, who all spend their time and extortionate amounts of money pampering their pets - and they all have one thing in common, they are all totally fur baby crazy! From pooch photoshoots to dog walks and fashion shows, everyone's blinded by their puppy love at the dog spa.
A unique insight into one of the West Country's craziest and most dangerous rural traditions - cheese rolling. Seb Choudhury meets the people behind the annual event, when people travel from around the world to throw themselves down a very steep hill in pursuit of a double gloucester cheese. How will Seb get on when he decides to take part in the terrifying race? Part of the Our Lives series.
Once upon a time there was a large Finnish company that manufactured the world's best and most innovative mobile phones. Nokia's annual budget was larger than that of the government of Finland and everyone who worked there shared in the windfall. But global domination cost the company its pioneering spirit and quantity gradually took over from quality, with new phone models being churned out by the dozen. Market share eroded, until in 2016, mobile phone production in Finland ceased. The Rise and Fall of Nokia is a wry morality tale for our times, told by those that lived and worked through the rollercoaster years in a company that dominated a nation.
Sophie Raworth presents live coverage of events to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force. Her Majesty The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, dignitaries and veterans gather at Westminster Abbey for a service to celebrate 100 years of aviation and endeavour. Events continue on The Mall and at Buckingham Palace, where over a thousand servicemen and women from across the RAF take part in a magnificent parade. A spectacular flypast ends the celebrations to wish the RAF a very special happy birthday.
Documentary offering an intimate portrayal of life in an intensive care unit, revealing the life-changing decisions made by doctors, patients and their families.
Documentary looking back at the 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest matches of all time. The programme uses archive footage to tell the story of both men from their childhood years to becoming the best two players in the world, with Nadal the King of Clay and Federer the master of the Wimbledon grass. Both players describe their emotions throughout the remarkable contest that lasted nearly five hours, and there are also contributions from tennis legends such as John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
At the age of 23 and suffering from depression and shyness, Sarah Moore moved from her family home near Edinburgh to the beautiful but remote Scottish island of North Ronaldsay, a place with a population of fewer than fifty people. One's Our Lives, this documentary follows Sarah's life on the island and the people she meets there. Like many remote communities, North Ronaldsay has its fair share of struggles - whether it's the cancellation of air services that bring vital supplies, extreme weather conditions or the need to hold down multiple jobs to make ends meet, Sarah has had to adapt to an entirely new way of living and thinking to survive. But the island has changed Sarah. She is much happier and she says can be the person she was always meant to be here. She has more opportunities to work, try new things and broaden her horizons. Ironically, she has a far better social life than when she lived in Edinburgh and has become an integral part of the community. But that community is under threat, with a spiral of depopulation, little employment and nowhere for people to live. Recent years have seen an exodus, particularly of young people, from the island. If things don't change soon she may no longer be able to live on the island that she says saved her life. This character-driven documentary looks at a unique way of life in an incredible place that may not be around for much longer. As Sarah works her six jobs, can she help save the island that saved her?
When Britain’s Anthony Joshua fought Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley in 2017, it turned out to be the sporting event of the year. First Joshua knocked the former champion down, then he too was punched to the canvas in a fight that was more dramatic than a Rocky movie. After looking destined for defeat, Joshua produced an astonishing comeback to beat the Ukrainian in an epic 11th round. Now the two fighters will meet for the first time since that dramatic night last April. And in a brilliant new encounter they describe what really happened in the ring that night. Featuring extended highlights of the fight for the first time on free-to-air television, it provides fans with a brilliant insight into the minds of the two men as well as looking forward to Joshua’s potential defences of his heavyweight crown against fellow Britain Tyson Fury and the American champion Deontay Wilder.
As Trump touches down for his first Presidential visit to the UK, BBC Three reporter Ben Zand goes behind the scenes with young Trump lovers as well as those who think he has gone too far. Over the course of one weekend will Britain go crazy for President Trump?
Documentary fans are in for a treat as renowned documentarian Louis Theroux dived into the BBC Archives and selected his favourite documentaries. Each of them had an impact on Louis. They cover a range of styles - some vérité-driven, others told more through interview - but in all of them you see life at its most raw, its most strange and therefore its most human. In Louis Theroux: Docs That Made Me Louis explains why he chose the documentaries and how they have inspired his work. All the documentaries are available to watch on BBC iPlayer right now: Philip and His Seven Wives (2006) Life and Death Row: Truth (2016) Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds (2014) Between Life and Death (2010) Inside Story: Mini (1975) Fourteen Days In May (1987) Rain in My Heart (2006)
Elephants On The Move goes behind the scenes at Twycross Zoo as the herd of elephants which has been attracting crowds for 50 years, are set for a big change – a new home. Elephant Creek in Twycross Zoo has been a public favourite for generations, but it’s time for its inhabitants to move house – nearly 150 miles away to the seaside – to Blackpool Zoo. Mike Dilger follows Minbu, Tara, Noorjahan and Esha, a family of four female Asian elephants, as they embark on their epic journey to relocate to Blackpool as part of a European breeding programme. However, persuading a family of elephants to get into a giant transportation crate for a three-hour drive north is not that simple. It’s one of the biggest challenges the team of zoo keepers has ever had to face. As part of their daily routines the elephants are being trained to get into the crates with treats and rewards after every milestone reached. It’s going to be a long process!
Against the backdrop of President Trump's much-trumpeted wall, Reginald D Hunter takes a 2,000-mile road trip along the US-Mexico border to explore how romance and reality play out musically where third-world Mexico meets first-world USA on this broken road to the American dream. Classic American pop and country portray Mexico as a land of escape and romance, but also of danger - think of Marty Robbins's El Paso, The Drifters' Mexican Divorce or Ry Cooder's Across the Borderline. Against this evocative western soundtrack, Hunter explores the border music as it is today, much of it created by musicians drawn from the 36 million Mexican-Americans who are US citizens. Robin Hood tales of Mexican cartels, South American dance, Tex-Mex accordion, Mexican-American rap, border fence sound art and country music of both Mexican and American flavours shed fascinating insight into the topical issues of immigration, drug smuggling and Mexican-American identity, and throw the western songwriter's dream of Mexico as a place of romance, fun and escape into sharp relief. Reg's natural empathy and gentle humanity guide us on this cinematic journey, featuring Lyle Lovett, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Frontera Bugalu, Calexico, Carrie Rodriguez, Asleep at the Wheel, Los Texmaniacs, Glenn Weyant, Eva Ybarra and Cecy B.
Drama set in the 16th century. Horse trader Michael Kohlhaas is wrongfully taxed by a corrupt baron, his horses taken from him and his servant attacked. Thwarted in his attempts to seek compensation through the courts, he raises an army and begins a revolt in search of justice.
Brenda Emmanus follows acclaimed artist Sonia Boyce as she leads a team preparing a new exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, highlighting artists of African and Asian descent who have helped to shape the history of British art. Sonia and her team have spent the past three years scouring public art archives to find out just how many works of art by artists of African and Asian descent the nation really owns. They have found nearly 2,000, but many of these pieces have rarely, if ever, been displayed before. We go into the stores to rediscover these works - and more importantly, meet groundbreaking artists from the Windrush generation, 60s counterculture revolutionaries and the black arts movement of the 80s. Contributors include Rasheed Araeen, Lubaina Himid, Yinka Shonibare, the BLK Art Group and Althea McNish.
A real-life murder mystery about the life and untimely death of a national boxing hero, who is often described as Britain's first sporting celebrity. Set in 1960s Soho, the film delves into the world of UK and US organised crime, with gangland figures such as the Krays, boxing, gambling, police corruption and a string of brutal unsolved murders that would become synonymous with the name Freddie Mills. With access to eight hours of previously unseen home movies, this is an intimate portrayal of a man who rose from the humble surroundings of the fairground boxing booth to become world light-heavyweight champion and became a household name appearing on television and in films. But it all ended on 25 July 1965, when he was found shot dead in the back seat of his car.
Angela Carter's surreal imagination produced some of the most dazzling fiction of the last century. Pioneering her own distinctive brand of 'magic realism,' works like The Magic Toyshop and Nights at the Circus cracked open the middle-class conventions of the postwar novel and influenced a new generation of writers. Yet in her lifetime, Carter's fierce politics, frank exploration of gender and fondness for the supernatural unnerved the macho literary establishment. She never won the Booker Prize or received the staggering advances of her male contemporaries - and regularly struggled to pay the bills, despite creating the acclaimed film The Company of Wolves. Four decades on, Carter's powerful tales of desire, fearless women and monstrous sexual predators have never felt more relevant. As Jeanette Winterson says in the film: 'Every woman writing now has a debt to Angela Carter whether or not they have read her. She was ahead of her time. And that's why we're so interested in her now because she's coming into her time almost prophetically.' Narrated by Sally Phillips, this film is a dark and delicious foray into Angela Carter's extraordinary life. While Carter's early work drew on her creepily claustrophobic childhood and miserable early marriage, it was her experience of living in Japan in the 1970s that liberated both her writing and her sexuality. And she continued to live out of kilter with polite society - horrifying critics with expletive laden put- downs, falling in love with a teenage builder in her thirties, becoming a mother at 43 and, tragically, winning the reviews of her career for Wise Children, the week after her death at the age of 51. Made by the team behind The Secret Life of Sue Townsend (Aged 68 3/4), with animation by Emmy award-winning Peepshow Collective, this film is a visual treat inspired by the surreal imagery of Carter's fiction. Hattie Morahan plays the young Angela (with extracts from unpublished letters and diaries), while Maur
The gripping true story of a boy abducted from the streets of Elizabethan London, and how his father fought to get him back. Presented by acclaimed children's author and academic Katherine Rundell, this intriguing tale is set behind the scenes in the golden age of Shakespeare and sheds a shocking light on the lives of children long before they were thought to have rights. Thirteen-year-old Thomas Clifton was walking to school on 13 December 1600, when he was violently kidnapped. And what's most extraordinary is that the men who took him claimed that they had legal authority to do so from Queen Elizabeth I herself. Children are so often missing from history, but this tale has survived by the skin of its teeth. This inventive film pieces together Thomas Clifton's story from contemporary accounts, court documents, plays and poetry, with the missing gaps beautifully illustrated by vivid hand-drawn animation. Shedding light on politics, religion, money and fame at a time when society's anxieties were played out nightly on the stage, it is an unknown slice of British history, both bizarre and sinister. The snatching of Thomas Clifton had been organised by a theatrical impresario, who intended to put him on the stage as part of a company of child actors, who were enormously popular with the Elizabethan theatre. He wasn't the only boy lifted from the streets for this purpose - a whole host of others suffered a similar ordeal. It was a practice known as impressment - forced recruitment into public service - which meant that children could be legally taken without their parents' or their own consent.
Lost Voice Guy Lee Ridley doesn’t like the voice on his tablet computer that he uses to speak, as it makes him sound like a posh Robocop. So he travels to Newcastle to see if he should adopt the Geordie accent.
In 2014, Glasgow businesswoman Celia Sinclair decided that she wanted to rescue the old Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street and restore them to their former glory. They were one of the earlier works of artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Celia was inspired by pioneering Glasgow businesswoman Miss Cranston, who in 1903 commissioned the young and still largely unknown Mackintosh to design the luxurious, cutting-edge tea rooms with iconic chairs, tables, wall decorations and chandeliers. Celia bought the remains of the old Willow Tea Rooms building on Sauchiehall Street to save it for Glasgow and had a grand vision to reopen in time for Mackintosh's 150th birthday in 2018. This hour-long documentary follows Celia on her mission to raise the money to push the £10m capital building project forward, waiting anxiously to find out if her Willow Tea Rooms Trust will be granted the heritage lottery funding they need, and organising VIP events for the private donors who have given generously to her ambitious project. Celia also meets with historian Perilla Kinchin and, over a cup of tea, she learns how women came out of their homes in 1903 to take tea in the new respectable drinking establishments, and how Miss Cranston expanded her franchise. Also featured are some of the expert craft makers under pressure to deliver to tight deadlines as they attempt to exactly recreate some of the 400 pieces of Mackintosh furniture needed for the reopening of the tea rooms.
In July 2016 Jules Peters was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, 15 months after successful treatment, the programme follows the mother-of-two and wife of Alarm frontman Mike Peters as she undergoes reconstructive surgery, meets other women at different stages in their own journey through the disease and explores how such a devastating diagnosis affects women's ideas of body image, femininity and sexuality - and how she now sees her experience of cancer as an 'unlikely blessing'.
Simon Schaffer tells the stories behind some of the most extraordinary engineering wonders of the 19th century. These were enormous feats of technology which transformed everyday life but also had the capacity to challenge the Victorians' faith in God, their place in the universe and their hopes for the future. Through stunning images of these beautiful creations, this film investigates the origins of our love-hate relationship with technology.
Profiling two weddings in Uganda, this film contrasts the cost and impact of the growing trend for large, lavish and very expensive white weddings in the country's capital Kampala.
Bringing to life that 'queer sultry summer' of 1953, this is the first film to unravel the story behind Sylvia Plath's seminal novel. The book captures the struggles of an ambitious young woman's attempts to deal with the constraints of 1950's America - the bright lights of New York dim, turn to depression and attempted suicide. The film weaves the autobiographic narrative of the book with the testimony of her friends, and daughter Frieda Hughes - some speaking for the first time.
Following UK teenagers who do stunts on tall buildings and ride on top of trains and buses, then post their dangerous exploits online, with access to a world famous teenage Parkour group from Guildford called Brewman. Co-founder of the group Rikke Brewer’s Train Surfing Paris Metro clip opened a new chapter in British Train Surfing. It sparked a new generation of copycat surfers keen to create their own viral presence and satisfy their need for an adrenaline fix. This film shows how the death of one of the group has created conflict in the crew, and how this and train surfing threatens to rip the group apart and ruin their friendship forever
Over the last few years, the story we have been hearing about British Asian men has been overwhelmingly negative. But for some British Asian communities there are real problems. In this personal film, Mehreen Baig, a British-Pakistani woman, goes behind the headlines and meets a range of young men to understand their experiences of growing up in modern Britain. As a state school teacher, Mehreen saw British Asian boys from some communities falling behind. Now she wants to know why there are such huge disparities in how well different communities have integrated into the UK, why some are faring better than others in jobs and education, and why women from South Asian backgrounds are now outstripping their male peers. Mehreen begins her journey with British-Pakistani men. She travels to Bradford, which has the highest proportion of Pakistani residents of any British city. Here, there are signs that young British-Pakistani men are struggling - youth unemployment stands at 26% (nationwide the figure is 12%), and drug crime has risen in recent years, with British-Pakistani men making up a disproportionate number of convictions. Mehreen meets young men such as 17-year-old Luqman, who lives in one of the most deprived areas of the country, and who has been supporting his family since the age of 13 by working six days a week. And she talks to Nav, who grew up locally and left for university before dropping out. He gives Mehreen an insight into some of the attitudes that prevail around education in the community, and suggests some reasons why British-Pakistani boys are one of the worst performing groups at GCSE, and British-Pakistani girls are now outperforming them. And she meets some of the young recruits to a new business enterprise which is attracting lots of British-Pakistani men in the city. Setting the statistics in a historical context, Mehreen explores the story of Pakistani immigration to the northern towns of Britain, and how the closure of the mills and f
Documentary about the last Maharajah of Punjab, Duleep Singh, who was wrenched from his mother's arms as a child in the 1840s and put into the care of an official of the British Empire. Growing up in a colonial enclave in India, the boy king abandoned his Sikh religion and signed away his ancient kingdom to the British - decisions he would come to regret bitterly. He moved as a teenager to Britain, where Queen Victoria became his godmother. The Maharajah Duleep Singh lived most of his adult life here as a supremely wealthy English country gentleman, part of the British social elite. But, in time, his relationship with Britain turned sour. This film retraces the journeys of Duleep Singh and his family: from the royal palaces of Punjab to royal palaces in Britain, to his English country estate, Elveden in Suffolk, to bohemian Paris. The programme uses recently rediscovered letters by Singh, letters and diaries written by those whose knew him, extraordinary photographs and surviving artefacts. We interview historians to get at the motives and inner life of the Maharajah Duleep Singh as he set out to recover his Sikh heritage and turn his back on his colonial past.
John Minton was for a time one of the most popular 20th-century British artists, more famous than his contemporaries Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. He has also been something of an obsession for actor and writer Mark Gatiss since he first saw one of his paintings as a teenager at the National Portrait Gallery. Mark plunges back into Minton's world to celebrate his remarkable life and work, but also to find out why Minton remains all but forgotten. As well as discovering unseen photographs of the artist and previously unknown works by him, the film also gives Mark the chance to hear Minton's voice for the first time in a rare broadcast he made for the BBC Third Programme in 1947. The connections deepen further as Mark meets some of those who knew him well - former models such as actor Norman Bowler recall posing for Minton, and fellow artist David Tindle discusses the rivalries between Minton and his contemporaries, notably Francis Bacon. Drawing on all these remarkable first-hand reminiscences, Mark explores the reasons behind Minton's fall from grace and the tragic circumstances of his death at the age of just 39.
Writer and actor Frank Vickery's premature death in June 2018 was a huge loss to Welsh theatre. A Rhondda boy who wrote about the place and people he loved, Frank left school at 15 without a single qualification - and yet became Wales's most commercially successful playwright. Celebrities and friends pay tribute to the man dubbed 'the voice of the Valleys'.
With access to HMP Edinburgh, this film follows the prison chaplains as they give spiritual guidance and religious support to offenders - including those convicted of the most serious crimes. Can anyone be forgiven, regardless of what they've done?
When Tate Liverpool opened in 1988, it was England's first gallery of modern art, but its origins were mired in the politics of the decade. It was part of the government's response to the Toxteth riots and was not universally welcomed. Now, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary, comedian and former art student Alexei Sayle assesses its impact on his home city and meets Lord Heseltine, the politician who was made minister for Liverpool to try to solve the city's economic and social problems in the 80s.
This tribute pays respect to the voice and life of Aretha Franklin, who died on 16 August 2018 aged 76. The daughter of legendary preacher CL Franklin, who hailed from the same Deep South as many of the blues legends, Aretha was raised in Detroit where her father preached at the New Bethel Baptist Church and where she grew up singing gospel. She had her first child at 13 and signed to Columbia in 1960, and her career ignited when she signed to Atlantic in 1967. Global hits such as I Say a Little Prayer and Respect then quickly established her as the queen of soul, while her majestic delivery and regal presence made her an iconic figure in the emerging civil rights movement. Aretha enjoyed renewed success in the 1980s when she collaborated with Luther Vandross, had a cameo in The Blues Brothers and duets with the likes of Annie Lennox and George Michael. She was also the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and has sold over 75 million records. As recently as 2015 she stunned audiences with her extraordinary performance of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman in front of President Barack Obama and the song's co-writer Carole King at the Kennedy Center.
Across Wales thousands of properties are stuck on the market, leaving families in limbo, unable to move and concerned that they may never sell their house. In this new property makeover show, Welsh interior design expert Leah Hughes and property specialist Becky Buck help homeowners who are stuck in a property rut to sell their house in just one week. Our experts have just five days to get the property in shape before a raft of potential buyers arrive to view their newly madeover home. Throughout each episode, Leah and Becky take ordinary homeowners and turn them into property supersellers, teaching homeowners to makeover, market and sell their own homes. At the end of the week, our homeowners will lead the house viewings, as a raft of potential buyers look around the property and leave sealed bids - but will our experts have done enough to help them sell their house in just one week?
Retired police detective David Swindle investigates the deaths of two young Scots killed abroad. In May 2012, 26-year-old Craig Mallon, from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, travelled to Lloret de Mar in Spain for his brother's stag weekend. Within a few hours of arrival he was killed by a single punch to the head. Six years later, the Spanish police have still not been able to identify his killer. In April 2017, 27-year-old Kirsty Maxwell, from Livingston, West Lothian, arrived in the Spanish town of Benidorm for her friend's hen party. Having returned home from their first night out, all the women fell asleep - but Kirsty awoke and left her room. She ended up in a tenth-floor appartment with five men from Nottingham whom she did not know. It was from a window in this appartment that she fell to her death. The men denied all responsibility for her death. Stricken by grief and feeling abandoned by the authorities, both in Spain and at home, the families of Craig and Kirsty are desperate for answers. Drawing on his 34 years of police experience, across hundreds of murder enquiries, David sets out to discover the truth of what really happened to Craig Mallon and Kirsty Maxwell.
This documentary explores the lives of dwarfs through centuries of representations in art and culture, revealing society's shifting attitudes towards people with dwarfism. Presented by Richard Butchins, a disabled film-maker, artist and journalist, the film shows how people with dwarfism have been seen as royal pets, creatures from a separate race, figures of fun and freaks; and it reveals how their lives have been uniquely intertwined with mythology in the popular imagination, making it it all but impossible for dwarfs to simply get on with their everyday lives. The film features interviews with artists, like Sir Peter Blake, who saw dwarfs in the circus as a young man and has featured them prominently in his work; academics, like Professor Tom Shakespeare, who has dwarfism himself and feels strongly about how dwarfs are represented in art; and ordinary people with dwarfism who would just like dwarfs to be seen like everybody else. It also features artists with dwarfism who offer us a glimpse of the world from their perspective, revealing the universal concerns that affect us all, regardless of stature. Taking in relics from antiquity, garden gnomes and some the greatest masterpieces of Diego Velazquez, the film uncovers a hidden chapter in both the history of art and the history of disability.
In a unique science experiment, Dr George McGavin and Dr Zoe Laughlin chronicle the history of rubbish and explore how what we throw away tells us about the way we live our lives. With unprecedented access to one of the UK's largest landfill sites, the team of experts spend three days carrying out tests all over the site, revealing the secret world of rubbish. They also carry out three other 'archaeological' digs into historic landfills to chart the evolution of our throwaway society. Ultimately, their quest is to discover whether the items we throw away today have any value for tomorrow's world.
An enduring love story of one man's time in London during the early 1960s. Coming of age as a young homosexual in a society where male gay sex was illegal, and prejudice ran deep, Bryan Robert Bale discovered the illicit ways gay men still sought to live and love freely in the city. It drew him into a world where sexual liberty and romantic frivolity persevered through the darkest of days for Britain's gay community. Among the "small ads" on the back page of The Sunday Times, he was introduced to a secret message board used by homosexual men to seek out some company. Illegally connecting with one another to arrange a night of forbidden intimacy or pursue a lifetime of romance. These small ads opened up a boundless world of sex, adventure and possibility. Few people would ever realise that hidden on the back pages of these newspapers, printed in plain sight for all to see, were countless untold stories of first loves, irrepressible desires and true romance.
There may be more music festivals in a British summer than you can shake a stick at, but the very first one took place in the summer of '68... and you could only get there by boat. The original Isle of Wight festival was organised by brothers Ray, Ronnie and Billy Foulk as a fundraiser to build islanders their first public swimming pool. Over three short years, legendary names including Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Doors, Joni Mitchell and Miles Davis made this small holiday island the epitome of cool. It's claimed 600,000 fans attended the 1970 event, but its popularity was also its downfall. The island's council banned it until 2002 when rock promoter John Giddings stepped in. With its place in music history secured by those early events, the Isle of Wight Festival is on the bucket list of bands and music fans alike. This short film takes a fond look at the festival at 50, told entirely by those who were there, then and now.
Pump up the Bhangra is the story of how British Asians came of age as they found their voice and celebrated their identity through Bhangra music. Fronted by BBC Asian Network DJ Bobby Friction, the film recounts how a simple folk tradition from India was transformed in the 1980s to become a unique part of the British club music scene, outselling many mainstream UK acts. It’s a story of cassette tapes, corner shops and glitter-clad musical heroes; of teenagers bunking school to attend secret daytime gigs and music that soundtracked battles against racism and discrimination.
Journalist Andrew Gold visits an internationally renowned exorcist in Buenos Aires, who claims to cure the sick of their demons and battle against evil. As well as running the world’s first ‘school for exorcists’, Padre Manuel Acuña often appears alongside models and celebrities on Argentinian TV and radio. He has fostered a huge following in the poor suburbs of Buenos Aires, where he uses controversial techniques in an apparent attempt to heal the sick, with seemingly great success. With bizarre interactions, violent exorcisms and one particularly tense argument, this presenter-led documentary sets to uncover the murky truth about modern exorcisms.
How to have a happier life and a better world all thanks to maths, in this witty, mind-expanding guide to the science of success with Hannah Fry. Following in the footsteps of BBC Four's award-winning maths films The Joy of Stats and The Joy of Data, this latest gleefully nerdy adventure sees mathematician Dr Hannah Fry unlock the essential strategies you'll need to get what you want - to win - more of the time. From how to bag a bargain dinner to how best to stop the kids arguing on a long car journey, maths can give you a winning strategy. And the same rules apply to the world's biggest problems - whether it's avoiding nuclear annihilation or tackling climate change. Deploying 'The Joys Of...' films' trademark mix of playful animation alongside both oddball demos and contributions from the world's biggest brains, Fry shows how this field of maths - known as game theory - is the essential key to help you get your way. She reveals ways to analyse any situation, and methods of calculating the consequences of getting what you want. Expect tips on taking advantage of what your opponents do, but also pleasing proof that co-operation might get you further than conflict. Fry also hails the 20th-century scientists like John von Neumann and John Nash who worked out the science of success. They may not be household names, but they transformed economics, politics, psychology and evolutionary biology in the process - and their work, Hannah demonstrates, could even be shown to prove the existence and advantage of goodness. Along the way the film reveals, amongst other things, what links the rapper Ludacris, a Kentucky sheriff, a Nobel Prize winner and doping in professional cycling. And there's an irresistible chance to revisit the most excruciatingly painful and the most genius scenes ever seen on a TV game show, as Hannah unpacks the maths behind the legendary show Golden Balls and hails Nick Corrigan, the contestant whose cunning gameplay managed to break the suppos
For 40 years, Alex Macdonald has stalked the hills and glens above Fort William, as did his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him. Now he wants to hand his expertise onto a fifth generation - his 15-year-old son. In this intimate portrait of a unique way of life, we follow Alex through the ferocity of one of Scotland's worst winters to the high heat of summer, as he manages the 3,000 red deer that populate the Achnacarry estate.
In this revealingly intimate documentary for BBC2, Adrian Chiles takes a long hard look at his own love of boozing. He wants to find out why he and many others don't think they are addicted to alcohol, despite finding it almost impossible to enjoy life without it. Adrian, who drinks almost every day, decides to start a drinking diary and soon finds out his intake is way over the recommended limit. He decides to visit his parents to find out what it was that motivated him to start drinking as a teenager and reveals that sneaking into pubs underage was all about friendship and being part of something, and that the allure of the social side of drinking has never really left him since his teens. So after drinking far too much for far too long, Adrian decides to get his liver checked out. The results come as a shock and after seeing an addiction therapist Adrian begins to realise that like many other people he needs to do something about his excessive boozing. His big question is does he need to quit completely or can he 'to use the world's most boring phrase drink more responsibly'. His first port of call is old mate Frank Skinner. Frank was a Pernod in the morning bed wetting kind of drinker but quit 30 years ago. His advice to Adrian is unexpected.
Nikki Bedi interviews one of Britain's most successful - and outspoken - actors, Riz Ahmed. He is currently writing Englistan, a multi-generational drama for BBC Two, and has starred in numerous critically lauded films and TV series including The Reluctant Fundamentalist, HBO's The Night Of (for which he won an Emmy) - and Rogue One - part of the world-conquering Star Wars franchise. Nikki meets Riz in Brooklyn where he has been rehearsing a new film: over a career-spanning interview, they talk about movies, music and politics, as well as the obstacles that Riz has overcome. Riz opens up about his childhood in Wembley as the son of immigrants from Pakistan, and he talks about growing up in a 'cultural no-man's land' - switching identities as he moved between his (traditionally Muslim) family-life, his predominantly white school and his mates who were into British Asian street culture. Riz discusses working with talents such as Chris Morris, his roles in films such as Nightcrawler and The Night Of, and blockbusters such as Jason Bourne, the Marvel film Venom and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Exactly 50 years ago, in 1968, the Abortion Act came into force. It was passed in response to the numbers of women dying from unsafe and illegal abortions. The legislation was hugely controversial at the time and abortion continues to be an issue that arouses strong views. In this film, we talk to people on both sides of the debate. We meet women who had backstreet abortions, many sharing their stories for the first time, as well as people whose lives were affected by the passage of the law including doctors, nurses and police officers. Many people opposed the act, often from religious conviction. Opposition also came from some doctors who felt that they had been put in an impossible ethical position. We talk to people who fought against the legislation and also to Lord David Steel who as a young MP at the time, championed the bill.
In February 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, carrying a semi-automatic rifle. He killed fourteen pupils and three members of staff. In the aftermath of one of the worst mass school shootings in recent history, students from the school organised what became a global, youth-led movement, campaigning for stricter gun laws in America. With filming beginning shortly after the shooting, this documentary follows pupils from the school, including Lewis Mizen, a 17-year-old British senior, as they take on the establishment to demand change. The film also tells the stories of some of the other students affected by the shooting.
The story, both thrilling and dark, of the world's most famous perfume. In 1921, Coco Chanel's revolutionary perfume concept was as audacious as her outlandish designer clothing. At its launch, it was an instant hit. From the 1920s to the 1940s the Number 5 brand was at the centre of a war between the celebrated designer and her entrepreneurial business partners, the Wertheimer brothers. During WWII, with the help of her high-ranking Nazi lover, Coco Chanel attempted to oust her Jewish partners - who had fled German-occupied France and were operating the business from New Jersey - to take control of the highly lucrative business.
Maxine Peake's exploration of the true story of Lillian Bilocca, a largely forgotten but formidable figure in the fight for safer trawlers. When three fishing boats sank within 10 days with the loss of 58 lives in 1968, Lillian Bilocca launched a campaign of direct action to improve safety in the notoriously dangerous fishing fleet. She proved successful in bringing about new safety legislation in Parliament but faced a backlash from sections of the community in Hull. The programme explores Lillian Bilocca's fight at the time through archive and dramatic reconstructions based on the play The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca, written by Maxine Peake. Maxine meets with a group of local women from the Hessle Road community - the heart of what was once the fishing industry - to hear first hand about Lillian Bilocca's story and what it means to the women today.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili looks at how we have created machines that can simulate, augment, and even outperform the human mind - and why we shouldn't let this spook us. He reveals the story of the pursuit of AI, the emergence of machine learning and the recent breakthroughs brought about by artificial neural networks. He shows how AI is not only changing our world but also challenging our very ideas of intelligence and consciousness. Along the way, we'll investigate spam filters, meet a cutting-edge chatbot, look at why a few altered pixels makes a computer think it's looking at a trombone rather than a dog and talk to Demis Hassabis, who heads DeepMind and whose stated mission is to 'solve intelligence, and then use that to solve everything else'. Stephen Hawking remarked 'AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation. Or the worst'. Jim argues that AI is a potent new tool that should enhance our lives, not replace us.
Golden, Geishas and Gordon The Gopher. Dermot O’Leary and Kylie Minogue settle down in the cinema to watch back the twists and turns of a career spanning 4 decades. Looking back with a mixture of pride, curiosity and occasional embarrassment, Kylie relives moments of her life as handpicked by Dermot. Sometimes emotional, often bizarre, always fabulous, Kylie has lived her life on screen, but has never sat down and watched it… until now.
Documentary. Dr Hannah Fry and a virtual host present a new way of making television, as the BBC research and development department uses artificial intelligence to delve into the treasures of the BBC Archive. Computers trawl through more than quarter of a million shows using a variety of machine learning techniques, then let loose to create short programmes-within-a-programme in the style of BBC Four.
Most people have dreamed of winning the lottery. It’s a dream that has become ever more common around the world as jackpots get bigger and lotteries more numerous. But does money really make us happy, and how much does this depend on where we live and how we spend it? To find out, the BBC’s Mike Thomson meets lottery winners from around the globe. Mike dines with Arab/Israeli restaurateur, Jawdat Ibrahim, who spends much of his $23 million windfall on trying to bring Palestinians and Israelis closer together, through good food and dialogue. Mike tours rural Idaho with American businessman Brad Duke, who is determined to put his mountain of money to work. Brad won’t be happy, he insists, until he has trebled his $220 million winnings. Mike goes nightclubbing with the self-declared ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ of Ghana, a man with a very different plan. The young pop video producer likes to flash his cash and seems determined to spend his way to happiness. Mike also meets Canada’s Rebecca Lapierre, who spurned a big lump sum in favour of $1000 a week for life. The former Miss Quebec has dedicated her winnings to helping the poor. True joy, she tells Mike, lies in giving rather than getting. So, what can we learn from these lottery winners, and are they any happier than the rest of us? This documentary will air as part of Money & Power - a major new season of programmes and features across the BBC’s global TV, radio and online networks exploring how the basic building blocks of our lives are being shaped and reshaped by money.
The BBC's Amanda Kirton journeys from Britain to Jamaica and finds her family's hidden past tells a story about the history between the two islands. She discovers why the Windrush scandal was about more than the politics of immigration.
In the summer of 2018, on the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park, world-renowned artist Christo created his first public work of art in the UK. Inspired by ancient Mesopotamian tombs, the Mastaba is constructed from 7,506 painted oil barrels and weighs six hundred tonnes. It is the latest work in a career spanning half a century and stretching across the world. His work to date have included surrounding 11 islands off the Florida coast with pink polypropylene and wrapping Berlin's Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in Paris. This programme charts the creation of the Mastaba - from the first barrels being put on the water to its final unveiling - and paints a portrait of Christo as he looks back on a life spent making provocative works of art with his wife and partner Jeanne-Claude. Christo reveals how he funds his projects with a unique business model, and how the long, tortuous and often combative process of gaining permissions and winning people over is part of his artistic endeavour. He also talks about his escape from the communist east and his early work in 1960s Paris. A cast of friends, fellow artists, collectors and critics lend their voices to the documentary, including performance artist Marina Abramovic, New Yorker journalist and architectural critic Paul Goldberger, former New York major Michael Bloomberg, writer and art critic Marina Vaizey and architect Sir Norman Foster.
A remarkable travel guide compiled from first-hand records of Tudor seafarers in the 16th Century. Professor Nandini Das explores Hakluyt's 'The Principle Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation' (1589), which records accounts of ventures in search of lucrative spices and dyes. It is a prototype for today's travel guides with advice, warnings, descriptions of remarkable people and a list of vocabulary to converse with foreigners. It became a book that all English seafarers kept on board ship. But the descriptions of encounters with foreigners also laid the foundations for later colonialism and conquest.
With exclusive access to a major new excavation, Alice Roberts pulls together all the latest evidence to reveal what Dark Age Britain was really like. In the fifth century, the future of Britain hung in the balance; after four centuries of straight roads and hot and cold running water the Romans upped and left, called back to support their own ailing Empire. The country quickly descended into chaos, plunging the native population into poverty and instability as their livelihoods - many dependent on the Romans - disappeared almost overnight. The nation was vulnerable and it didn't take long for Anglo-Saxon invaders to take advantage; a vast bloodthirsty army quickly overran the country, killing the locals and settling down to change the history of the British Isles forever. At least, that is what the fragmentary historical texts record, but the truth is we don't actually know what happened. There is no reliable written account of events and for two whole centuries sources provide the names of less than ten individuals. This pivotal moment in our national history has been shrouded in mystery until now. In this landmark history film, Professor Alice Roberts uses exciting new archaeological discoveries to decode the myths and medieval fake news, piecing together a very different story of this turning point in Britain's history. The story begins with exclusive access to the excavations of an unprecedented stone palace complex on the Tintagel peninsula in Cornwall. Long known to have been a Dark Age settlement the new evidence reveals that Tintagel was also a seat of power, but who ruled there? The rocky outcrop has mythical connections with the legendary King Arthur, but there has never been any evidence found that he actually lived there or even existed. Alice explores the link between the Arthur legend and the location, tracking down the early sources for the period and the first written reference to King Arthur. She discove
Exploring the enduring influence of the Scotch-Irish in American politics, from the American Revolution to the present day, and how they helped guarantee the freedoms many American's take for granted today.
It is 1918 and the end of WWI. Millions have died, and the world is exhausted by war. But soon a new horror is sweeping the world, a terrifying virus that will kill more than fifty million people - the Spanish flu. Using dramatic reconstruction and eyewitness testimony from doctors, soldiers, civilians and politicians, this one-off special brings to life the onslaught of the disease, the horrors of those who lived through it and the efforts of the pioneering scientists desperately looking for the cure. The film also asks whether, a century later, the lessons learnt in 1918 might help us fight a future global flu pandemic.
Should we all be making plans for the end of the world? In America, a movement of people, called preppers, are doing all they can to make sure they survive global disaster. Stacey spends time with three prepper communities who are gearing up for uncertain futures, with concerns ranging from civil unrest and nuclear war, to climate change and natural disasters. Some have bought bunkers to escape to, others have isolated themselves from society. Stacey explores the reasons why they are going to such lengths to protect themselves. And she asks - should I be following their lead?
We are consuming fashion at a rate never before seen on our planet. 100 billion garments are manufactured every year and the fashion industry continually tempts us to buy more with new ranges in the shops. But this so-called fast fashion is taking a toll on the environment. Clothes production can cause pollution and uses lots of precious natural resources, as well as creating mountains of waste that go to landfill. So what, if anything, is the fashion industry doing about this? Fashion lover Assefeh Barrat follows every stage of the production process - from cotton growers in the USA, to factory owners in Turkey and designers in the West to see who is leading the way in reducing fashion's environmental impact. And she asks consumers if they are really willing to change their fast fashion habits.
Documentary about Hollywood wild-child Hedy Lamarr. Fleeing to America after escaping her Nazi sympathiser husband, Hedy Lamarr conquered Hollywood. Known as 'the most beautiful woman in the world' she was infamous for her marriages and affairs, from Spencer Tracy to JFK. This film rediscovers her not only as an actress, but as the brilliant mind who co-invented 1940's wireless technology.
In May 2017, the musician and presenter George Shelley tragically lost his sister in a sudden accident. Harriet Shelley was 21 and her brother's closest confidante. In his first documentary, George courageously opens up about his struggles with grief. Having spent the last 12 months struggling to talk about his loss and to deal with it, George embarks on a series of extraordinarily candid and raw discussions with his parents and best friend in a bid to help him cope with, and better understand, the process of grieving. He opens up to them in ways he has never done before and, for the first time, also speaks to other young people who have suffered the loss of a sibling, and to others from his generation who can share advice and guidance about coping mechanisms. Research suggests that bereavement is linked to high rates of suicide and mental health problems among young people. Bereavement is an extremely important issue because of the enormous and serious impact it has on wider society, especially with people under 30 being renowned for not talking about grief. George explores the relationship between his own grief and mental health. He spiralled into a deep depression when his sister died and discusses some of the revelations he has subsequently discovered about himself following conversations he has had with medical professionals.
Could dyslexia be a gift? Or can it only ever be a disability? Documentary maker Richard Macer sets off on a road trip with his dyslexic son Arthur to find the answer. En route, they meet Richard Branson and Eddie Izzard, and many other successful dyslexic people. Dyslexia is a difficulty with reading and writing that affects one in ten people. It causes misery to many schoolchildren, and it can lead to greater problems later in life. Fifty per cent of prisoners are thought to be dyslexic, but at the same time, many successful people are also dyslexic, and businesses like Google, Nasa and GCHQ see the benefit in a neuro-diverse workforce. Richard and Arthur are looking for an answer to this conundrum and interview academics, scientists and designers. But there is a personal narrative too. Richard struggled at school just like his son, and now 40 years on, he is assessed for dyslexia. Will the result give him closure on a lifetime of feeling different? And if he is dyslexic, does that mean his son has inherited a gift or a curse?
Our blue planet is facing one its biggest threats in human history. Trillions of pieces of plastic are choking the very lifeblood of our earth, and every marine animal, from the smallest plankton to the largest mammals, is being affected. But can we turn back this growing plastic tide before it is too late? In this 90-minute special, wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin visits scientists working at the cutting edge of plastics research. She works with some of the world's leading marine biologists and campaigners to discover the true dangers of plastic in our oceans and what it means for the future of all life on our planet, including us. Liz travels 10,000 miles to a remote island off the coast of Australia that is the nesting site for a population of seabirds called flesh-footed shearwaters. Newly hatched chicks are unable to regurgitate effectively, so they are filling up on deadly plastic. Then, in America, she joins an emergency mission to save an entangled grey seal pup found in some of the world's busiest fishing areas, and visits the Coral Triangle that stretches from Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands to find out more from top coral scientists trying to work out why plastic is so lethal to the reefs, fragile ecosystems that contain 25 per cent of all marine life. Liz learns that the world's biggest rivers have been turned into huge plastic arteries, transporting 50 per cent of all the plastic that arrives in the ocean. She travels to Indonesia, where she watches a horrifying raft of plastic rubbish travel down one of the main rivers, the Citarum. Here, 60 per cent of fish species have died, so fishermen are now forced to collect plastic to sell instead of fish. With the world only now waking up to this emerging crisis, Liz also looks at whether scientists have found any solutions. She meets the 24-year-old inventor of a monumental 600-metre construction that will travel across the ocean's 'garbage patches' collecting millions of pieces of plastic pollution.
Across Britain more than four million people have debts considered unsustainable. Responsibility for advising and helping these vulnerable people is increasingly falling to charities. One of the biggest is Christians Against Poverty (CAP), led by its charismatic founder, Dr John Kirkby CBE, pictured. In this access all areas documentary, director Phillip Wood follows Dr Kirkby and some of the charity's debt coaches. CAP has more than 6,000 staff and volunteers around the country providing help to people who often face losing their homes. The film shows how the home visits often include an offer to pray with clients and asks whether the real motivation is debt relief or bringing people to Jesus, or both.
Ten years on from the global financial crash, this documentary tells the extraordinary story of how a small Scottish bank briefly grew to become the biggest in the world before collapsing and triggering the largest financial bail-out in British history. It focuses on a single day, 7 October 2008, when the Royal Bank of Scotland collapsed and almost took the entire UK banking system down with it. This dramatic financial thriller, set over 24 hours, is intercut with the story of the amazing rise and shocking fall of RBS. The film reveals how much of RBS's growth lay in the lucrative American subprime market and acquisitions of banks like Greenwich Capital, which were using CDOs to generate huge profits. And as RBS's profits grew spectacularly, so did its lavish spending. Goodwin flew in private RBS jets and commissioned a new £350m HQ on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Never-before-seen footage reveals the spectacular opening party at Gogarburn, attended by the Queen and the cream of Scottish society. But less than three years later, thanks largely to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the US, Goodwin's bank was on its knees, and those charged with protecting the British economy were faced with a stark choice - save RBS or risk the country's banking system being taken down by its collapse. Alistair Darling and the team reveal what it was like to have just 24 hours to come up with a plan and strike a deal with all of Britain's major banks, with the nation's economy at stake. In all, the bailout was to cost the taxpayer well over a trillion pounds and would effectively take RBS into public ownership. Fred Goodwin was forced to leave the bank that he had run for eight extraordinary years, but public anger centred on the fact that he hung on to most of his huge RBS pension and that no further action was taken against him, his team or the board of RBS. However, in 2012 he was stripped of his knighthood. Ten years on since that dramatic collapse and bailout,
On the other side of the world under the crystal clear blue waters of the Pacific Ocean lies one of the most enchanting places on the planet. Over ten thousand miles away on the north eastern coast of Australia lies the Great Barrier Reef, one of the natural wonders of our world. It provides shelter to some hidden wildlife sanctuaries that contain some magical marine creatures. Invited on a reef adventure by Emmy Award-winning underwater cinematographer and marine biologist Richard Fitzpatrick, conservationist and naturalist Iolo Williams dives deep beneath the surface of the coral sea to discover what state this natural wonder is in. Together they travel from the extreme swells of the northern part of the reef right down to the cooler pristine corals of the south. They discover how healthy the Great Barrier Reef really is in some of its key locations to see and find out if there are real signs of hope the reef can survive the threat of global warming.
Poetic, intimate account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, told through the stories of a handful of people who lost loved ones during the conflict. The Life After marks not only the 50th anniversary of the start of the Troubles but is a timely reminder of what could be at stake when the still fragile peace comes under new pressures, in the event of a hard border following Brexit. From 1969 to 2001, 3,532 people were killed and 47,541 injured as a result of the Troubles. Many of these were civilians caught in the crossfire as conflict and murder became part of the daily narrative. A steady succession of British and Irish politicians made promises, looked for solutions, formed unlikely alliances and wondered privately what could possibly be done to bring peace to Northern Ireland. Politicians and diplomats around the world strove for a solution, and even American presidents felt compelled to get involved. Amidst the headlines and the rhetoric ordinary people were being killed, maimed and terrorised. This film, directed by multiple Bafta winner Brian Hill and first-time director Niamh Kennedy, tells some of their stories. Stories like that of Virtue Dixon, whose daughter Ruth was killed on her 24th birthday when she was celebrating at the Droppin' Well Inn in 1982. An INLA bomb brought the roof down, killing both civilians and British soldiers. Virtue tells the story of the aftermath, of how life changed forever after the murder of Ruth. She does so partly in interview but also in specially written verses from Northern Irish poet Nick Laird. Each person in the film has their own poem, which crystallises and amplifies elements of their story. Moving from the particular and the individual to the general, Laird has written a poetic narration, spoken by Northern Irish actress Bronagh Gallagher, in which issues such as collusion are discussed. Archive footage is also employed to reveal more about the conflict and the times. Within the narratives are important question
AN Wilson explores the life and work of TS Eliot. From the halls of Harvard University to a Somerset village, via a Margate promenade shelter, he follows the spiritual and psychological journey that Eliot took in his most iconic poems. From The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock to The Waste Land and from Ash Wednesday to Four Quartets, Wilson traces Eliot's life story as it informs his greatest works. Wilson travels to the places that inspired them, visiting Eliot's family's holiday home on the Massachusetts coast, following the poet to Oxford, where he met and married his first wife, Vivien Haigh-Wood, and on to London. He explores how Eliot's realisation that he and Vivien were fundamentally incompatible influenced The Waste Land and examines how Eliot's subsequent conversion to Anglicanism coloured his later works. Wilson concludes his journey by visiting some of the key locations around which the poet structured his final masterpiece, Four Quartets. Eliot's poetry is widely regarded as complex and difficult; it takes on weighty ideas of time, memory, faith and belief, themes which Wilson argues have as much relevance today as during the poet's lifetime. And whilst hailing his genius, Wilson does not shy away from confronting the discomforting and dark side of his work - the poems now widely regarded as anti-Semitic.
A profile of the 75-year-old journalist and political activist, who was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Foyle constituency in 2016 after 50 years as a political outsider. McCann was one of the founding organisers of the Derry Housing Action Committee and was central to the setting up of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign
It's 100 years since Nelson Mandela was born and 70 years since the official introduction of the Apartheid laws in South Africa. Director Dhivya-Kate Chetty tells her family's story, following her parents Radha and Maggie - a mixed, and once 'illegal' couple - on a trip from Glasgow back to South Africa. Stories of the past begin to unfold, with tales of resistance, protests, surveillance, an uncle in jail and a surprise connection with Mandela, in hiding. The film blends stories of several family members to create a personal and moving account of apartheid and the fight for its downfall, illustrated by a rich archive of 8mm home movies shot in South Africa and Scotland in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It is an intimate portrayal of the effects of apartheid on one family spread across two continents - from the pain of migration, to the daily indignities of one of the abominations of the 20th century. It is a film about the past and the present, truth and reconciliation, a city united and a Glasgow love story in Super 8.
Nature fanatic Mike Dilger and BBC World News broadcaster Rico Hizon go in search of rich culture and rare wildlife in the Philippines. Travelling through the beautiful, tropical islands of Palawan, Coron and Luzon, Mike and Rico discover creatures living deep in an underground river, visit the eerie hanging coffins of Sagada and team up with local conservation teams as part of their journey to explore the distinct beauty, history and contemporary culture of these islands.
Almost 20 years on from its first beginnings, grime dominates the music charts and awards ceremonies, and even influences politics. Here, rapper Rodney P examines how grime rose from the council estates of east London to become the most important British musical movement since punk. He discovers that its success rests upon the original styles and contributions of previous generations of artists and learns that grime can only be truly understood when viewed as part of a broader social narrative and ever-evolving musical culture that goes back to the 1980s.
Former Scissor Sisters singer Ana Matronic along with Martyn Ware, who was in both The Human League and Heaven 17, reveal a playlist packed with disco classics and more. Each song is hand-picked, and as they watch the performances, they explain the reasons behind their choices. Discover why the Scissor Sisters owe a debt to Boney M, and how Martyn Ware helped revive the career of a singing icon. From Donna Summer to the Doctor Who theme tune and The Temptations to Tina Turner, their playlist holds dance-along gems interwoven with candid stories.
The Man Booker Prize is the world's most distinguished literary award for English fiction. Its winners instantly acquire a level of fame and wealth of which most writers could only dream. To commemorate its fiftieth birthday this documentary looks back over the six decades of the prize, exploring how from humble beginnings the Booker quickly went on to revolutionise the sleepy world of literary fiction and become a central part of British cultural life. We hear the inside story of scandal, gossip and intrigue from a host of former winners, judges and prize administrators. Over the years, the prize has changed its rules, its sponsors and its name. But it's never lost sight of its core purpose: to stimulate debate and encourage the reading of literary fiction. This film is a tale of bruised egos and bickering judges and, most importantly of all, of countless brilliant books. Contributors include Booker-winning authors Peter Carey, Penelope Lively and John Banville.
Believer follows Imagine Dragons’ Mormon frontman Dan Reynolds on a new, personal, mission to explore how The Mormon church treats its LGBTQ members. With the suicide rate rising amongst teens in the church’s home state of Utah, his concern with the church’s teachings forbidding same-sex sexual behaviour sends him on path of acceptance and change. Believer follows Dan and openly gay ex-Mormon and lead singer of Neon Trees, Tyler Glenn, as they create LoveLoud, a festival they hope will reconcile the church and members of the LGBTQ community.
The North Korean regime maintains one of the world's largest forced labour systems. The government, short of cash due to international economic sanctions, sells its own people as labourers to work in construction in Russia, China and other countries around the world - including member states of the European Union. Experts estimate that since Kim Jong-un has come to power, the number of ‘Work Brigades’ has risen to more than 150,000. While in North Korea they are lured with a promise of high wages. They find themselves in completely foreign territories, often unable to speak the language and working up to 14-hour days, under harsh conditions, for little or no pay. Their wages are transferred directly to the government. They live under constant surveillance by Korean agents and local supervisors, and their contracts last for years. The film is based on covert footage and conversations with workers, middlemen and employers in Poland, Russia and China. The workers’ sometimes shocking stories show the cynicism and inhumanity of this system. The beneficiary is the North Korean state, which finances its nuclear programme with money generated through this forced labour. However, this film also shows how construction companies, food manufacturers and shipyards in dozens of countries around the world are complicit in this gigantic scheme of modern-day slavery. Filmed over two years, this documentary shows how the North Korean regime and the forces of globalization have made a Faustian pact: Underpaid workers toil for the dictator's nuclear program while the United Nations and the European Union look away.
Mim Shaikh is a radio broadcaster, actor and spoken word artist. He’s loved to entertain since he was a child, but there’s always been something or someone missing. When Mim was just six months old his mother left his father in the West Midlands, taking him with her to South London. Mim never saw – or heard from – his father again. He grew up surrounded by his mother’s family, with barely a mention of his father. They have no idea where he is, or whether he is alive or dead. Mim’s mother has suffered from mental health problems all her life and it has been impossible for Mim to ask her about his father. In this film Mim embarks on a deeply personal journey, delving into his family history to discover the truth of what happened to his parents’ marriage. His main quest is to find his dad and ask him why his mother had to leave all those years ago – and why he’s never been in touch. Information on his father is almost non-existent. Mim starts his search with three photos of his dad taken in 1991 that he’s never seen before. Speaking for the first time to close family members about his parents’ marriage he begins to build a picture of his father’s character. As he delves deeper into his father’s story, he discovers his Dad is far older than he expected – he fears that he may have died and his search will be in vain. His search takes him to Dudley, where he was born and is his dad’s last known location. But every lead turns out to be a dead end, until he meets a group of his dad’s old friends who break his case wide open. Mim sets out on an unforgettable global journey to finally get the answers he’s been wanting for 26 years.
Grammy award-winning singer Tina Turner talks to Will Gompertz about her five-decade-long career as one of the biggest stars in rock music - as her memoir My Love Story is published. In a candid interview she discusses her music, her health problems, her relationship with her late ex-husband Ike and the recent death of her eldest son.
On 23 October 1993, the IRA placed a bomb in Frizzell's fish shop at Saturday lunchtime on a packed Shankill Road. Nine people died and scores were injured. One of the bombers was also killed. Twenty-five years on, using first-hand eye-witness interviews, Stephen Nolan tells the story of what happened that day, not only to those caught up in the explosion but also to those who handled the aftermath.
Drug overdose is now the main cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, they are more likely to die from a drug overdose than a car accident or gun. More than 70,000 people died from overdoses last year as opioids and illegal fentanyl – which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin – unleashed the worst public health crisis in American history. Two years ago, BBC News reported on the growing problem of opioid addiction in the US, now we return to find out what happened to the people we met along our journey down the notorious I-95, the interstate that runs from Florida to Maine, and to see what has become of their struggle against addiction.
The Ghan follows one of the world's great rail journeys, taking viewers on an immersive and visually stunning ride on Australia's most iconic passenger trains. Known as the Ghan, it travels for 2979 kilometres over 54 hours from the bottom to the top of the country. It begins in the suburban city of Adelaide, traversing a seemingly endless outback that includes the magnificent red centre, ending in the tropical coastal town of Darwin at the north western tip of Australia. The transcontinental train line led to the development of central Australia and the growth of towns along its path - Port Augusta, Alice Springs and Darwin. It took an epic 127 years to complete and was constructed by local Aboriginal surveyors and early immigrants, including the famous Afghan camel drivers, after whom the train is named.
In June 2014 so-called Islamic State fighters occupied huge areas of Syria and Iraq, overwhelming the Yazidi settlements grouped around Mount Sinjar. Yazidi men were killed, young women forced into slavery. This film tells the story of Shirin and Lewiza, two Yazidi women captured by IS, who escape to Germany thanks to the intervention of Dr Jan Kizilhan, an expert on trauma. In all, he brings a thousand women and girls - all victims of IS sexual violence - from the refugee camps in Iraq to his clinic in the Black Forest for treatment. Yazidis believe that sexual contact with a non-Yazidi, even through rape, results in a loss of Yazidi identity. As a way of destroying the community, the rape of women and girls is almost as effective as the execution of the men. Kizilhan believes it will aid the women's recovery if they know that the enormity of what happened to them is recognised. With international lawyer Philippe Sands he explores the possibility of a genocide trial. We observe investigators gathering evidence of IS crimes, meet a German prosecutor intent on bringing perpetrators to justice, and consider the relevance of ongoing trials in Iraq.
As more children in Northern Ireland are diagnosed with mental health issues than ever before, presenter Tara Mills meets young people and their families fighting for help and support.
This 60-minute documentary is the dramatic, haunting story of five fires that foretold the Grenfell disaster, told through the eyes of those directly involved. This vivid and moving film for BBC Two collates the memories of survivors, the bereaved, fire-fighters, safety experts and the politicians linked to five intensely fierce fire disasters that preceded Grenfell. This telling collection of interviews and archive footage shows the clear warnings that existed and could have predicted a Grenfell-type inferno happening in Britain. The programme focuses on three factors: the application of flammable material and cladding to buildings, the 'Stay Put' advice given by fire services, the absence of sprinklers - and how they contributed to each of the previous five blazes, sometimes with fatal consequences. Made over the course of 12 months, the film tells the story of the legislative history of building regulations from 1973 to the present day through five fires. It explores the causes, subsequent investigations and the recommendations that were sent to successive UK governments, ultimately posing the question: if lessons had been learned as a result of tragic repetition of errors over the decades, could Grenfell have been avoided? The five fires revisited include the Summerland disaster, Douglas, Isle of Man (1973), Knowsley Heights fire, Liverpool (1991), Garnock Court fire, Irvine, N Ayrshire (1999), Harrow Court fire, Stevenage, Herts (2005), and Lakanal House, London (2009).
DJ and broadcaster Cerys Matthews and acclaimed blues photographer Val Wilmer select their best-loved blues singers, several of whom Val has met and photographed.
Designer and engineer Zoe Laughlin explores the world of material science, uncovering the innovations in manufacturing that are set to change the world we live in.
To mark the centenary of the end of World War One, Huw Edwards embarks on an emotional and explorative journey of remembrance. Travelling from Wales to the western front, Huw reveals the untold story behind the unique way in which Britain and the empire honour their fallen soldiers, who sacrificed their lives in the fight for freedom. The British government refused calls to return its war dead for burial, unlike France and America. This policy meant hundreds of thousands of families were effectively prevented from visiting the graves of their loved ones. A mothers' movement emerged fighting the ruling. But when it failed, bereaved families were left to come to terms with their grief in other ways. This is the story of the ritual of remembrance that occurs each year. The story of war memorials and commemorative events, and it's a story that still resonates so deeply, a hundred years on.
Documentary about the 2.8 million migrant women who work as maids in the Middle East. They are bound to their employers under a system known as Kafala. Often trapped and abused, this is their story.
Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder and Creation Records boss Alan McGee reveal a selection of their all-time favourite tracks. From first jobs to private jets, longtime friends Ryder and McGee unpack the songs that formed the soundtrack to their lives. In an hour of eclectic tunes, Shaun Ryder also discovers his lost Top of the Pops appearance and Alan McGee declares an alternative Scottish national anthem. Theirs is a blistering playlist of indie, punk and ska classics from Buzzcocks to The Specials, Junior Murvin to Marc Bolan, Orange Juice to Underworld and many more.
New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert unpack a playlist of electro, pop and new wave classics spanning four decades. Stephen and Gillian have been married for 24 years and have been in New Order together for even longer, but they still manage to surprise one another with their musical tastes. While Stephen declares Captain Beefheart an early influence, Gillian confesses her teenage love for a disco classic. During an hour of top tunes, Stephen also reveals the moment he was mistaken for Stevie Wonder, and Gillian recalls how her Dad was a fan of punk. From Kraftwerk to Can, David Bowie to Kate Bush, Magazine to Grace Jones and many more, this stellar playlist by Stephen and Gillian is brimming with iconic performances.
A hundred years ago, with German U-boats and battleships terrorising Allied shipping and zeppelins bombing Britain's towns and cities, Ulster-Scots teenager Jack McCleery was one of 12 young men tasked with a deadly mission on board the navy's 'mystery ship'. In Captain Jack and the Furious Few, David Hayman reveals the story of the test pilots of the world's first aircraft carrier, HMS Furious. The top guns of their day, their secret mission would revolutionise warfare. A gifted pilot, Jack McCleery was head-hunted by the navy after just nine months of intensive flight training. He was posted to the newly commissioned HMS Furious in 1917, where he would serve for two years as part of an elite squadron of test pilots. Their mission was to land a wheeled plane on the deck of a moving vessel in order to develop and test the techniques and technology that would convert the Furious into the world's first dedicated aircraft carrier, capable of launching a strategic air attack on Britain's enemies - but nothing like this had ever been attempted before. Flying from the deck of HMS Furious, the bravery and sacrifice of those 12 Royal Navy test pilots would change the course of warfare forever. Jack McCleery's diaries, letters and personal archive of sketches and previously unseen photographs are a unique record of that extraordinary period in his own life, and in the history of aviation.
Davina McCall chats to Ariana Grande in this musical extravaganza. Ariana performs songs from her latest album and some of her biggest hits accompanied by her band and an all-female orchestra.
On 8 November 1918, an Englishman, a Frenchman and a German gathered in secret, on a train carriage in a forest near Paris. Their meeting would last for three days. Its aim: bring peace to Europe, and an end to four long years of brutal and deadly war. One hundred years after the end of the First World War, this documentary uncovers the extraordinary events leading up to the Armistice negotiations, and the repercussions that would ripple across the continent, and throughout the 20th century - sometimes with catastrophic consequences. Now, leading historians have examined the meeting from the perspectives of the three key players on the train, as well as the people who sent them there. Each had the weight of their nation on their shoulders. Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss joined the Navy at just 13, and grew up to be the commander of the most powerful navy on earth. Britain had ruled the waves for over 100 years, and Wemyss has been sent to the meeting with one objective - keep it that way. He had to make sure that the negotiations not only gave Britain the upper hand at sea, but ensured that Germany never threaten Britain's naval dominance again - whatever the cost. Marshall Ferdinand Foch was in charge of the war on land. He had seen his beloved France decimated by a war of attrition which had cost millions of lives, on a front line which never moved more than a few miles. He was single-minded and unapologetic in his aim: dismantle Germany and prevent them from ever invading France again. German Matthias Erzberger was, unlike his French and British counterparts, not a military man, but a politician. Sent to negotiate for a nation on its knees, he had little room for manoeuvre, but still faced harsher terms than he had ever expected. While fighting his corner in the train carriage, events in Germany were unfolding faster than he could possibly imagine. This programme follows the meeting and its consequences - not only for the individuals on the train, but the countr
On the centenary of the end of the conflict, Dan Cruickshank reveals the extraordinary story behind the design and building of the iconic World War One cemeteries and memorials - including those at the Somme and Gallipoli - and of the remarkable man whose vision created them.
A special documentary to mark the seventieth birthday of HRH the Prince of Wales. For this observational documentary, film-maker John Bridcut has had exclusive access to the prince over the past 12 months, both at work and behind the scenes, at home and abroad. He speaks to those who know him best, including HRH the Duchess of Cornwall and the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex. His sons discuss their upbringing and their feelings about the prince's working life. As the prince reaches his seventith birthday, he has been involved in public affairs for 50 years, championing environmental and social issues long before they reached the mainstream, from plastic waste and global warming to lack of opportunity for young people. The documentary charts the prince's working life at a time when he is taking on an increasing amount of duties in support of the Queen. He is seen on working visits to County Durham, Cornwall and the Brecon Beacons, and at home at Highgrove in Gloucestershire and Birkhall in Aberdeenshire. The film features behind-the-scenes footage of the Prince with the Queen in Buckingham Palace at the time of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April, when the prince was named as the next head of the Commonwealth. Also included is the stunning ceremonial welcome given to the prince in the Pacific island republic of Vanuatu, when he was invested as a high chief, and his visit to three Caribbean countries struggling to recover after hurricanes Irma and Maria a year ago. What emerges is a revealing and intimate portrait of the longest-serving heir to the throne, who still feels he has a lot more to do.
Struck down by the Spanish Flu in 1918, aged just 28, in his short life Egon Schiele created over 3,000 drawings and paintings, self-portraits and nudes. An agent provocateur of the modernist era, he was a taboo-busting rebel whose art looks like it was made yesterday - self-obsessed, exhibitionist and unafraid to confront questions of sexuality and identity. To mark the anniversary of Schiele's death a century ago, this film tells Schiele's dramatic story in his own words, using original letters and writings - many of them translated for the first time. The film celebrates his remarkable artistic achievements but also debates the controversies around his work. His sexually frank images shocked early 20th-century Vienna and still challenge us today. But are these the images of empowered women in control - or figures of voyeurism? And how do we view his images of young girls from our modern perspective? Schiele didn't just make groundbreaking art; he was also a new kind of artist, carefully crafting his own myth, pioneering the notion of the artist as personality and performer in a way that would influence generations of other cultural trailblazers. With contributions from Iggy Pop, Lily Cole and Jake Chapman, and visually striking dramatic reconstructions choreographed by acclaimed physical theatre company Gecko, the film conjures up the passionate, provocative world of Egon Schiele. Egon Schiele: Dangerous Desires is a BBC Studios Production.
DJ Trevor Nelson and singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae present their ultimate soundtrack in an hour of classic and contemporary soul and R&B gems. As they watch their selection, they reveal the reasons behind their choices. From childhood favourites such as The Jackson 5 and Gladys Knight to inspirational tracks from Prince, Mary J Blige, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, this is a playlist to satisfy any soul fan.
In a huge submarine canyon in California's Monterey Bay, there is an illuminating twilight zone. It is a world of countless exotic creatures, including sparkling jellyfish and deep sea fish that give off flashes. Using an ultra-high sensitivity 4K camera specifically developed for deep sea filming, together with experts in the field, Lights in the Abyss captures bioluminescent creatures in their natural habitat, deep in the Pacific Ocean.
Dan Snow investigates a century of war trauma from WW1 shell shock to modern PTSD. Historian Dan Snow breaks the silence around the devastating impact of war on the mental health of our soldiers. For 100 years, men and women who risked their lives for their country have continued to suffer on their return. In this film for BBC Two, Dan explores the challenge presented by an ongoing mental health crisis among war veterans. Dan discovers how the shell shock of WW1 has evolved into the cases of PTSD that modern soldiers suffer with today. Shockingly, lessons learnt from previous conflicts were soon forgotten. Battle trauma leads to alcoholism, broken families, violence and suicide on a shocking scale in the UK. He asks military psychiatrists and experts why we're still struggling to help the psychiatric casualties of war. Dan shares frank and moving conversations with veterans of World War Two, the Falklands and Afghanistan, and also with relatives of those who fought in World War One. Jimmy Smith was traumatised after fighting in many of the major battles of the Great War. He was sentenced to death by court martial at only 26 years old for misbehaviour and desertion. A few decades later, Victor Gregg's marriage collapsed after witnessing the horrific violence of WWII bombing raids as a prisoner of war in Dresden. With each subsequent war, the symptoms changed, but the story remained the same. Ex-paratrooper Dave Brown has struggled with adjusting to civilian life since his service in the Falklands. Sean Jones survived an IED attack in Afghanistan in 2008. He was sent back for a second tour, without realising that he had been diagnosed with suspected PTSD. Dan has many close family ties to the military campaigns of the First World War. Delving into previously unseen archives he reveals the difficult history of how Britain has reacted to the psychological consequences of warfare.
Thousands of black soldiers fought in the First World War. Poet Jackie Kay tells the story of one of them - Arthur Roberts. Arthur grew up in Glasgow and joined the King's Own Scottish Borderers in 1917. He fought at Ypres and kept a detailed diary, which gives us a unique account of the war. Arthur's evocative writing and sketches paint a vivid first-hand picture of life in the trenches. Like Arthur, Jackie Kay is a black Glaswegian, and she explores what it was like being black 100 years ago.
In July 2017, Northern Ireland's Air Ambulance finally took to the skies. This documentary reveals the remarkable and poignant story of the doctor who was determined to make this critical service a reality and follows the air ambulance team as they respond to emergency calls during their first weeks of service.
A young man is killed in a devastating crash. At first it looks like yet another tragic accident, but as the police investigation gets under way, a dark mystery emerges. Who was the driver? Who were the victims? Who's lying? This documentary is a compelling single narrative documentary that tells the story of an unlikely group of friends in a close-knit community in Hampshire, who find themselves at the centre of an intense police investigation. With access to never-before-seen police bodycam footage of the crash site, viewers are taken directly into the heart of the aftermath of a catastrophic collision between a car and a tree on a dark country road. The immediate impact of the crash leaves a young man stumbling, dazed but unharmed, from the car. Telling the on-duty sergeant he was the driver, he is clearly shocked and expresses obvious concern for his friends still in the car, before asking for a hug. As more details emerge and the young man, Dannylee, comes under police scrutiny, it's clear the events of that night have changed their friendship group forever. 'We trusted Danny, we never thought he could do anything like that.' Emotional interviews from the family members and friends of the gravely injured teens highlight what they believe happened that night, but the only ones who know the true story are those who were in the in car. As their stories change, conflicting testimonies emerge and rumours spread amongst the community, it's down to the police to unpick the mystery of what really went on that night. With the critical hard evidence and real truths finally eked out, almost a year to the day after the crash, the truth emerges.
Historian Amanda Vickery and broadcaster Tom Service unearth the fascinating story of the life-long friendship between composers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst, whose music gave birth to the 'English sound' in the first half of the 20th century. They retrace the walking trips the two composers took together across the country to discover how influences ranging from the Renaissance masters to folk music imbued their music with the 'Englishness' we recognise today. Illustrating the story, the BBC Concert Orchestra perform excerpts of both composers' music.
David Rodigan's unlikely career as a reggae broadcaster and DJ has developed in parallel with the evolution of Jamaican music in the UK. His passion and his profession have given him a privileged, insiders' view of the UK's love affair with Jamaican music that began in the 1950s. His constant championing of it has afforded him national treasure status with generations of British Jamaicans and all lovers of reggae music. This is a film about the career of David Rodigan but it's also a window through which to see a wider human story about social change in the UK: a story of immigration and integration, and music's role within it. The beginning of his career conjures up a forgotten era when reggae was reviled by liberal, hippyish music fans because of its association with skinheads. At one point, his fellow students agreed to share a house with him only if Rodigan agreed not to play reggae. Instead, he would haunt London's specialist record shops and sneak out to Jamaican clubs alone. His break first came on BBC Radio London, where his knowledge and infectious enthusiasm won him the gig. Since that first break, he's had shows on Capital, Kiss and now BBC Radio 1Xtra and BBC Radio 2. In the 80s, his radio show became such a Sunday lunchtime fixture in London's West Indian households that it was colloquially known as 'rice 'n' peas'. Bob Marley personally chose Rodigan's show to play out the world exclusive of Could You Be Loved. As well as being a DJ, Rodigan also began to 'soundclash' on a global stage. This musical competition where crew members from opposing sound systems pit their skills against each other involves the playing of records in turn, with the crowd ultimately deciding who has 'killed' the other crew, by playing the better chosen track. But standard versions of tracks don't cut it in a clash, where the true currency is 'dubplates' - versions of tracks recut, often by the original artist, with lyrics changed to praise the playing crew or diss
The programme shows Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie's fascination with music from an early age, listening to the sounds of Elvis and Aretha Franklin before graduating to punk. He talks about his passion for music and how to keep creativity on the right track. In the early 90s the UK music scene was changing - with Oasis and Blur emerging, this alternative rock band was recording in Memphis but suddenly sounded out of step with the music scene. As the documentary reveals, nine songs were recorded for the band's 1994 album Give Out But Don't Give Up, including Jailbird, Rocks, and Cry Myself Blind, but the album that was released, after further mixes were made to make the new album more contemporary, was not the mix Primal Scream wanted. In the film Bobby Gillespie talks candidly about how this process led him to question his own judgement and that for many years the experience left him feeling that he had failed himself and his audience. With exclusive, previously unreleased footage of behind-the-scenes studio sessions, this is the story of how the original mixtapes of the album were rediscovered in a basement by Andrew Innes, Primal Scream's rhythm guitarist. The sessions recorded by the band in Memphis with the legendary record producer Tom Dowd, along with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section musicians Roger Hawkins, drums, and David Hood, bass, did not make the light of day, because some of the mixes were not suitable in the musical climate at the time. Bobby and Andrew go back to Memphis 25 years later to revisit Ardent Studios, where the band first recorded the original album, and meet some of the musicians and engineers involved in the process. It gives Bobby the chance to remaster the album he had originally envisaged all those years ago. The film has new interviews with Bobby, Andrew, David and Jeff Powell, the original engineer, giving their own, unique perspectives of the events of more than 20 years ago. Plus, there are archive interviews with the Me
Following the remarkable story of 18-year-old Billy Monger, one of Britain's most exciting young racing drivers, who in April 2017 was involved in a devastating crash, resulting in the amputation of his legs. Incredibly, soon after his accident, Billy resolved to get back to racing, in the hope of becoming the first ever amputee to race competitively in a single-seater racing car. This film follows the extraordinary story of Billy and his family, as he pursues his dream to one day race in Formula One. With the support of the racing community and his hero Lewis Hamilton, Billy has to change the rules of motorsport and learn to drive again without legs, all while coming to terms with life as a disabled person - a term Billy is reluctant to accept. This heartwarming and inspirational story is about the incredible will of one young man, but also the extraordinary support his family provides during the toughest time of their lives.
The story of the Maguires, an ordinary Northern Irish family living in London during the 1970s, wrongly convicted and imprisoned for making the bombs used in the Guildford pub bombings. Together with the Guildford Four, this still stands as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
Valleys High follows a year of firsts at a school where an inspirational head teacher and her committed staff are fighting for a brighter future for their pupils against the odds. It's a rollercoaster as they undergo a technological revolution, get a new head, travel to Washington DC, stage their biggest production and take their mission beyond the school gates.
For centuries, people in the Scottish Borders have been celebrating their history on horseback. In early summer each year, Hawick's common riding sees townsfolk 'ride out' in a series of ritual events to commemorate those who lost their lives in the terrible defeat at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, and the local lads who captured an English flag to restore the town's honour the following year. This film paints a portrait of the common riding, and how it is evolving in the 21st century. The traditions are guarded zealously, but there are those who say that certain aspects are outdated. Some events remain men-only, but there are women who want to ride. This film follows riders on both sides of the debate, and asks whether change is necessary, or if traditions should be maintained at all costs.
Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas tells the story of a group of brilliant Jewish songwriters, including Irving Berlin, Mel Torme, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, Gloria Shayne Baker and Johnny Marks, who wrote the soundtrack to Christianity’s most musical holiday. It’s an amazing tale of immigrant outsiders who became irreplaceable players in pop culture’s mainstream – a generation of songwriters who found in Christmas the perfect holiday in which to imagine a better world, and for at least one day a year, make us believe in it.
Director Sean McAllister returns to his hometown, Hull, as curator of its UK City of Culture opening. Back living with his 90-year-old parents and reflecting on changes to a city hit by cuts in public spending and divided by Brexit, Sean is drawn to the fringes of town where he encounters Steve - a struggling warehouse worker with a dream to take hip-hop to disadvantaged kids through his Beats Bus.
This candid biography explores the life of David Cassidy, the 70s pop idol and TV star. The film includes never-before-heard audio interviews with David from 1976 and a raw and poignantly filmed final recording session shortly before his death.
Ashley Storrie hosts stand-up club comedy from the best, brightest and most exciting comedians in Scotland right now. Susan Riddell uncovers the perils of being single and the guilt of buying a meal for two, while Stuart McPherson is relishing being unemployed even though his parents see it differently. Scottish-Chinese comedian Christopher KC tells a fantastic story about gatecrashing a house party and somehow becoming the talk of the town. And Edinburgh's Donald Alexander and Glasgow's Ray Bradshaw have very different views of a difficult Parents' Night. Recorded at the Gilded Balloon Basement, in front of a live audience, Comedy Underground is the closest thing to a Scottish club comedy night on TV.
Suzy Klein travels deep into the world of musical theatre, and the colourful landscapes of Argentina, to discover the story of one of the West End's most celebrated characters. Intertwining the stories of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's creation with the true story of Eva Peron, she celebrates the extraordinary show in the 40th year after its creation. Meeting musical stars including Elaine Paige, Hal Prince and Tim Rice, she hears how the show came into being, all inspired by a face on a postage stamp. She then travels to Argentina, meeting politicians, performers and Eva fans to hear how this intensely divisive figure - loved by the poor, loathed by the rich - became one of the enduring icons of our time.
Is Britain being duped by “fake homeless”, chancers posing as destitute to boost takings? Or is this a scare story to demonise real homeless? Ellie Flynn investigates. The number of people sleeping rough in England is at a record-high – a 73% increase over the last three years. Government data shows that on any given night in autumn last year, nearly five thousand people were recorded sleeping on the streets, a figure that has more than doubled since 2010. But there are claims that the UK has a serious problem with “fake homeless” begging on the street. These are people who have homes, but still go out onto the streets to beg. They pose as if they are living on the streets so that they can collect money from strangers. News stories of scammers are frequent, and some police records show that 80% of people begging have “some kind of home” to go to. With beggars in our towns and cities sometimes behaving aggressively and anti-socially, the thought that people may be pretending to be homeless when they're not has enraged many communities. In Cambridgeshire, the police say there are towns where everyone begging is fake so they practice a “zero tolerance” attitude to encountering begging, sending them for sentencing at a magistrates. But it’s not just the police who are stamping out fake begging. In Devon, Ashley Sims is taking a stand by photographing, investigating and then shaming fake homeless beggars. He claims he has cut the number of homeless in Torbay from 23 to just 6 homeless people, as all the “fake homeless” have been driven out after being exposed. Ashley has been branded a “homeless vigilante” by the press. And in Liverpool one business owner claims every beggar outside his pubs and clubs is fake homeless. So are we in a country full of scammers? Homeless charities argue that the individuals people like Ashley is photographing and Cambridge police are taking action on may well have homes, but that they have complex and chaotic liv
Jazzology with Soweto Kinch follows Soweto on a personal journey into jazz. Travelling to New Orleans, New York and London, Soweto meets and plays with fellow musicians, and discovers the roots behind the music that is political, spiritual and rooted in African American history. With jazz currently undergoing a revival, Soweto shines a light on a 100-year-old art form that’s showing no sign of slowing down. On his travels, he meets many of today’s jazz greats, including singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding and saxophonist Donny McCaslin, who both featured on David Bowie’s album Blackstar. Soweto also speaks to the latest wave of young British jazz musicians, including saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and composer and arranger Cassie Kinoshi, who despite their roots in jazz traditions also look to the future of the art form, by drawing on contemporary influences found in grime and dubstep.
Two of Scotland's foremost performing groups, Scottish Ensemble and Vanishing Point, present a co-production that sets Arvo Pärt's spiritual and mesmeric Tabula Rasa (as well as Spiegel im Spiegel and Fratres) in a theatrical context, exploring the recognised role of the piece in the care of patients during their final days. With musicians forming an integral part of the drama, this visionary production explores the documented role of Pärt’s haunting piece, which has come to be known - and used - as a profound and transcendental piece of music. It is a life-affirming exploration of care, humanity, suffering - and the uplifting power, and endless importance, of art.
Sir George Benjamin conducts the world premiere of his darkly dramatic new opera based on the life of Edward II - a major event in contemporary music with an internationally renowned cast, Lessons in Love and Violence is the latest collaboration between composer George Benjamin and playwright Martin Crimp. Their previous work includes the large-scale opera Written on Skin - which has since become the most performed new opera of the 21st century. Director Katie Mitchell and designer Vicki Mortimer complete the creative team. King Edward II's relationship with Piers Gaveston upsets the personal life of court and the political wellbeing of the country. When the controlling military leader Mortimer joins forces with Queen Isabel, the results are deadly for Gaveston and Edward. The lessons learned by the characters of this new opera are harsh ones, following a gripping trajectory from warmth and indulgence towards calculating, cold severity.
On Sunday 25 June 2000, David Bowie closed Glastonbury with a two-hour performance. Only half an hour or so of that stunning set was broadcast on BBC television that night at Bowie's insistence. At the time, the BBC were heavily criticised for coming off Bowie after broadcasting the first five songs of the set live and only returning for a couple of encore songs at the end of the show. Fortunately the cameras kept rolling and captured the whole set. This programme features an hour of highlights from that performance, including such previously unbroadcast hits as Ashes to Ashes, Starman and Let's Dance. Bowie was returning to the festival for the first time since 1971. His star was not in the ascendant after the Tin Machine era and such 90s solo albums as Outside, Earthling and Hours. But from the moment he walked out on the Pyramid Stage, resplendent in an Alexander McQueen frock coat with his hair in Hunky Dory mode, and launched into Wild is the Wind, it was clear that he had decided to embrace and fully restate both his catalogue and his legend. Arguably it was Bowie's greatest live performance since the 70s. After a heart attack in June 2004 while at the end of the 110-plus dates of A Reality Tour, Bowie never played live with a band again. His final stage performance was at a private Aids benefit show with pianist Mike Garson in 2006
There are 12 million obese people in the UK. This observational documentary follows the exceptionally moving weight-loss journeys of four NHS patients being treated by one of the country's leading bariatric teams based at University Hospital Ayr. Alison weighs nearly 24 stone. She loves steak and salty microwave popcorn and is addicted to food. But while she doesn't like the way she looks, she doesn't see herself as fat. Her goal is to lose enough weight to gain the confidence to wear trousers for the first time since she was a child. Stephen weighs over 26 stone. Bariatric surgery will send his diabetes into remission, but he is struggling to give up all the sugary food and drink he enjoys. Stephanie weighs over 24 stone. She has been married to former soldier Stevie for almost 30 years. When he developed PTSD she became his carer. And when the pressure got too much, she sought comfort in food. Now Stevie is caring for her. But while she is determined to lose weight, she thinks Stevie isn't being fully supportive and wants to know why. Teresa weighs over 25 stone. Four pregnancies and the breakdown of a troubled relationship all caused her weight to soar. And despite help from the NHS, for the past ten years she has failed to overcome her fraught relationship with food. She is now virtually housebound and fears she will never succeed. But all this could be about to change when a gastric balloon is inserted into her stomach. As they prepare for operations that will not just improve but save their lives, these patients must first confront their problematic relationships with food and drink. Addiction, denial, obsession and even love must all be confronted if these obstacles to weight loss are to be overcome.
Tina Turner gives an exclusive, in-depth interview to BBC Arts editor Will Gompertz, discussing the highs and lows of her extraordinary career and bringing her well-documented life story up to date. In a wide-ranging conversation, Tina talks about the tragedy of her eldest son's recent suicide, how an unexpected stroke affected the early days of her second marriage, and how her life was saved when her husband became her kidney donor. She also discusses the musical collaborations that saw her become one of the icons of the 1980s, and the abusive relationship with former husband Ike Turner that first set her on the road to stardom but also nearly destroyed her.
Lee Johnson goes in search of Starlite, a material appearing to have incredible heat-resistant properties, and its mysterious inventor.
Well-known fans celebrate Stevie Wonder and his music by selecting some of his best-loved songs. Wonder is one of the dominant figures in American music, a multi-faceted genius whose music has permeated popular culture, and he is not short of celebrity fans. His musical achievements are lauded in this anthology of his greatest hits. Contributors include actor Martin Freeman, singers Alexander O'Neal, James Morrison, Beverley Knight and Corinne Bailey Rae, New Order's Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris, DJs Ana Matronic, Trevor Nelson and Norman Jay, Heaven's 17's Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware, journalist Sian Pattenden and presenter Emma Dabiri.
Dame Darcey Bussell explores the value of dancing in improving mental health and meets a range of people using dance as therapy.
This is the untold story of Britain’s deadliest illegal gun. This single handgun came to be used in 11 shootings in the space of six years. After shootings, guns in the UK are often passed on, traded, rented or hidden away. That is how this gun travelled across a major city without being seized, and was used in multiple, unrelated shootings. The only thing that connects all of these crimes is the firearm itself. The police give every gun they know about a different number, so that they can be tracked and monitored depending on their own unique characteristics. This particular gun is a black CZ 75 semi-automatic pistol made in the Czech Republic. Investigators have called it Gun No. 6. Now, almost a decade after the firearm was last used, an in-depth BBC Two documentary has tracked its journey.
Documentary exploring more than a century of animation in Britain, including the creative and technical inventiveness of the UK's greatest animation pioneers. The defining characteristic of British animation has always been ingenuity. Unable to compete with the big American studios, animators in Britain were forced to experiment, developing their own signature styles. The documentary uncovers the trade secrets of animation legends like Bob Godfrey, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Len Lye and Bristol's world-renowned Aardman Animations. Tracing the development of British animation from the end of the Victorian era to contemporary blockbusters, Secrets of British Animation shows the perseverance and determination that are part of the animator's mind-set. Focusing on the handmade tradition of animation in the UK, the programme includes newly-remastered early films from the archive of the British Film Institute.
A unique musical collaboration between Canada and Scotland. Two countries, 3,000 miles apart, and connected by a bridge - a musical bridge, a cultural bridge, a fiddle bridge. Cape Breton fiddle player Colin Grant's infectiously enthusiastic playing has made him a favourite on both sides of the Atlantic. Joining him is talented young Scottish fiddler Ewen Henderson, whose own musical roots are deeply embedded in the vibrant traditional music scene of Lochaber on the West Coast of Scotland. Together Colin and Ewen take a unique road trip, a personal journey for both, and a flight of musical inspiration and discovery. They seek out musical influences in landscape and people in both Canada and Scotland and connect with musicians, and people and place, and ultimately showcase their music and shared heritage at a unique concert as part of the international music festival Celtic Colours, in Canada.
Historian Dr Eleanor Barraclough travels through some of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes – Hadrian’s Wall, the Lake District and Offa’s Dyke – in search of new evidence to reveal the true story of the mysterious ancient British tribes often called the Celts. According to the official history books, the Celts were defeated and pushed to the edges of Britain by waves of Roman and Anglo Saxon invaders. However, a growing body of evidence suggests this is not the full story. To help give the Celts back their proper place in our history, Eleanor examines freshly discovered treasures, new archaeological evidence from real photographs and clues hidden in ancient poetry to reveal a fresh narrative - one that suggests the relationship between our ancient British ancestors and those who came to conquer them was much less repressive, and far more co-operative, than we have thought.
Thomas Kochs, formerly general manager of Claridge's and star of the award-winning documentary series Inside Claridge's, is at the helm of a new, modern five-star hotel in London. Only seven years old, Corinthia is situated just off London's Trafalgar Square. It faces competition from London's many other five-star hotels which also woo the superrich looking for the ultimate luxury stay in London. With guests paying up to tens of thousands of pounds a night, it is Thomas's job to try to make their stay perfect. How does the eagle-eyed German master hotelier make sure his hotel stays top of the game in such a fiercely competitive environment? Thomas's latest challenge is the painstaking curation of a new afternoon tea. Not every guest can afford the Royal Penthouse at an eye-watering £22,000 a night (although we get a private tour in the film), but many of us would like a cup of tea within touching distance of the hotel's magnificent Baccarat chandelier in the Crystal Moon lounge. Over 25 meetings of intense detail, Thomas dictates the precise texture and filling of sandwiches, trials the colour and taste of the exquisite cakes, and introduces new bespoke china and Baccarat glasses to bring the visual sense of the chandelier to the hands of those taking afternoon tea. Will he be able to double the number of teas served, and will his pursuit of perfection pay off? Guests, including Cuba Gooding Jr and will.i.am, are welcomed and looked after by staff comprising 54 different nationalities. There is Max, at 16 the youngest employee, who regularly collects thousand-pound suits from Harrods, and Elena, a room attendant who was once rich herself. Yvet, the first-floor supervisor, bursts with pride over her rooms, calling them 'my daughters'. Made by Jane Treays, the multi-award-winning director of Inside Claridge's, these films shot over the course of a year revisit the land of the rich who can ask for anything they want and are willing and able to pay for
Thomas Kochs, formerly general manager of Claridge's and star of the award-winning documentary series Inside Claridge's, is at the helm of a new, modern five-star hotel in London. The hotel restaurant isn't doing well and the five-star Corinthia needs a big-name chef to compete with its rivals. Tom Kerridge, the British chef most famous for his two Michelin-starred restaurants in Marlow, 28 miles outside of London, takes on the job. His acclaimed traditional British upmarket fish and chips aren't the usual fare for a five-star hotel, and it is his first restaurant in London. It is a family enterprise - his artist wife Beth is providing sculptures to enhance the space. It is not enough to wait and see if the clients come for the new food and art. Thomas makes an annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to a five-star trade convention with 6,000 delegates. He has to sell the hotel, competing with other London and global brands, to American luxury travel agents in hundreds of four-minute meetings. It is exhausting work in 110 degrees in crazy Vegas. One of the hotel's penthouses costs an eye watering £22k a night. Some guests choose to stay in the hotel for several months and clients' bills can reach £3 million. At those prices, in such a competitive market, Thomas can never stand still. There is always more to be done to cater for his super-rich clientele. Made by Jane Treays, the award-winning director of Inside Claridge's, these films, shot over the course of a year, revisit the land of the rich, who can ask for anything they want and are willing and able to pay for perfection.
In February 2018, the 32-year-old daughter of the ruler of Dubai boarded a boat and set sail for India with a plan to start a new life in America. But within days her boat was stormed by Indian commandos - she was captured and presumably returned to Dubai. No one has heard from her since. But Princess Latifa had made a video in case she was caught and entrusted it to a lawyer in America. Days later it was released on YouTube. This programme pieces together Princess Latifa's life and reveals how she had been planning the escape for more than seven years. Far from living the charmed life of a princess, she was watched and restricted by her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The princess claims she had been imprisoned and tortured for a previous attempt to leave. The programme investigates the mystery of her older sister Shamsa, who disappeared from the streets of Cambridge in 2000 after fleeing the family's British mansion in Surrey. And it asks if the image of Dubai we are sold - of winter sunshine and luxury hotels, is actually hiding a brutal dictatorship of human rights abuses - where surveillance, imprisonment and torture are systematic and where tourists can easily be imprisoned for the slightest infringements of their ultra conservative laws.
Barbra Streisand grew up in working class Brooklyn, dreaming of escape from her tough childhood. A stellar student, she resisted the pressure to go to college as her sights were firmly set on Broadway. She was determined to become an actress and landed her first role aged 16, but it was two years later, when she started to sing, that her career took off. Subverting stereotypes and breaking glass ceilings, this programme looks at her rise to stardom and the remarkable achievements of her early career.
Robert Florence hosts a comedy show taking a look at the state of Scotland and the world right now. Featuring explosive sketches, satirical animation and topical contributions from a range of new Scottish comic talent. This episode provides a snapshot of a society in which make-up has been banned and where taxi drivers have feedback buttons sewn onto their chests. There is also a hard-hitting look at Scotland's illicit underground party culture with the nation's vibiest new influencer - gh0stbøy.
Documentary exploring the music of rock band Roxy Music, who have a good claim to be one of the UK's most influential bands. Led by charismatic front man Bryan Ferry, their striking style and great songs won them an army of fans who would go on to make their own mark in the world of music. In this celebration of the music of both Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, insights and anecdotes are provided by household names from Sadie Frost to Glenn Gregory & Martyn Ware, Gaz Coombes, New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, Shaun Ryder and Alan McGee, Ana Matronic and more. Formed in 1971, Roxy Music was the brain child of art student Bryan Ferry. His advert in Melody Maker gathered the initial line-up which included guitarist Phil Manzanera, saxophonist Andy Mackay, keyboard player Brian Eno and drummer Paul Thompson. Pioneers of glam, their outlandish fashion sense, songwriting and pioneering use of electronics created a glorious package. Punk, New Wave and New Romantic music owe a huge debt to Bryan and Roxy Music. Style is one thing, but the substance was reflected in a catalogue of classic songs - combined they create an enduring legacy which is celebrated in a golden hour of their greatest hits.
DJ Trevor Nelson and singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae present their ultimate soundtrack in an hour of classic and contemporary soul and R&B gems. As they watch their selection, they reveal the reasons behind their choices. From childhood favourites such as The Jackson 5 and Gladys Knight to inspirational tracks from Prince, Mary J Blige, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, this is a playlist to satisfy any soul fan.
2018 marks the 250th anniversary of cavalryman Philip Astley’s very first circus, a spectacular horse show on the banks of the River Thames. Legendary showman Astley’s signature 42-foot circus ring was the perfect size to perform tricks on galloping horses - and it was this innovation that heralded the birth of the modern circus. The circus ring remains the same size to this day. To celebrate the 250th birthday of modern circus, this film showcases the very best of British circus through a series of lavishly filmed, spectacular live performances, presenting the art form on television as it’s seldom been seen before. The stunning cast of performers is drawn from circuses across the UK, ranging from the timeless world of traditional circus Zippos to the next generation of contemporary circus students, who are pushing the art form in new directions at the National Centre for Circus Arts. Other performers include Britain’s only fully inclusive circus, Extraordinary Bodies, the world-famous Gandini Jugglers, Tweedy the Clown of Giffords Circus, Britain’s biggest contemporary circus NoFit State, and two intrepid tightrope walkers from acclaimed circus company Cirque Bijou, attempting the first ever high-wire crossing of the River Wear in Sunderland to the delight of thousands of people lining the banks. The film also features interviews with the circus performers and intimate behind-the-scenes footage, taking viewers beyond the spectacle to bring this fascinating, almost mythical world to life. Daredevils and Divas: A Night at the Circus is hosted by the charismatic compere Doug Francisco of the cult circus troupe The Invisible Circus. Doug guides the viewer through the performances with a series of dynamic links, shot in the historic Hippodrome Circus ring in Great Yarmouth. Daredevils and Divas: A Night at the Circus is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Four. It is produced and directed by Matt David. The Executive Producer for BBC Studios is Phil D
Biohackers are people who want to make their bodies and brains function better - by 'hacking' their biology. That could be as simple as taking vitamin supplements but if you call yourself a biohacker you're likely to be doing far more than that. The Victoria Derbyshire programme's Catrin Nye meets some of the people who want to push the limits of what it means to be human.
Share the magic of the world's most famous choir through a special year of music, in the centenary year of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's. With exclusive access to King's musical performances throughout 2018 and to their preparations for Christmas, discover what makes this one of the best choirs in the world. A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols began 100 years ago at the end of WW1 and remains an unbroken tradition at King's. It was one of the earliest BBC radio outside broadcasts and has become central to Christmas celebrations. The programme discovers what draws people to this service, and travels across the world for a chance to join the choir in the beautiful King's Chapel. Taking us with them are boy choristers who attend King's College School, including Jack and Vladimir, and choral scholars Joe and James. Along the way, we talk to former members of the choir, like 101-year-old David Briggs who sang in the first radio broadcast. The programme is introduced to Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir, whose new piece, O Mercy Divine, will be premiered at this year's service, and the people behind the scenes who help make this choir outstanding. This year will be the final Christmas with the choir for Director of Music Stephen Cleobury, who is stepping down after 36 years.
A selection box of rare and unseen films offer an intimate view of Christmas in Wales over the last century. Families and friends share their festive movies and memories, from Christmas in a castle to elaborate entertainment at home. These films capture the many ways the festive season has been celebrated in Wales. A mechanic's daughter from Pontypridd shares her father's films of their annual family Christmas show. Old friends from the village of Llangynwyd enjoy footage of the fearsome folk tradition of the Mari Lwyd. And former Sunday school pupils come together to watch the arrival of Father Christmas in the Clydach valley.
John Cooper Clarke performs twelve comic limericks he's composed especially for the BBC this Christmas in the company of his long-suffering road manager, Johnny Green.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a vast, mineral rich country the size of Western Europe. For many, it's still tainted by Joseph Conrad's brutal portrayal of colonial imperialism immortalised in The Heart of Darkness, written over 100 years ago. That's not surprising when most news reports from the DRC tell of death, disease and suffering. As the country prepares to hold long-delayed elections, Alastair Leithead takes an epic journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the far reaches of the Congo river to explore how history has shaped the Congo of today and uncover the lesser told stories of this beautiful, if troubled country. In the largest rain forest outside of the Amazon he comes face to face with its gorillas and hunts with pygmies, he travels into the heart of the Ebola outbreak with United Nations peacekeepers, and explores the cobalt mines which will drive our electric cars of the future.
In the shadow of the steelworks lies Taibach Rugby Club. For more than 100 years it has been the foundation stone of the community. The club is a cross-section of the town. All Port Talbot life is here. It's a place where people come together for the important things in life - rugby, weddings, birthdays and funerals. The club hosts them all. But there is one event that is the highlight of the year - the annual Christmas pantomime, written and performed by the men of the club. This documentary follows a year in the life of the town as they face struggles with the steelworks and prepare for the 50th anniversary of their panto. The cast is made up of rugby players and coaches, past and present, current and retired steelworkers, and a host of others. Coincidentally, it's also 50 years since the formation of British Steel. In 1967, Port Talbot was a boomtown, with 18,000 people employed in the steelworks. Some of the original workers are still alive, and many of the old boys will return for the 50th panto. This film follows this unique community and some of its extraordinary characters as the world changes around them, and they prepare to take to the stage.
Nobody thought Mat Pritchard would survive into his 40s. Now, Wales's favourite party boy and daredevil star of TV's Dirty Sanchez has cleaned up his life and turned into an endurance athlete, and he is about to take on his biggest endurance challenge yet. He is turning the coastline and the border of Wales into one enormous triathlon route in celebration of five years since the day he turned his life around. His aim is to be the first person to swim, cycle and run around the country he calls home - and to do it in just 14 days. If he can stay on schedule, battling fatigue, the weather and illness, he aims to finish this epic journey by running the Cardiff Half Marathon. But for Mat, this is not just an endurance challenge, it is a journey of self-discovery. This is Mat's story, from rags, to riches, and ruin to redemption. From his humble beginnings in Cardiff, Matt found he had a unique talent for the 'outsider' sport of skateboarding. His perseverance saw him become a skateboarding legend, who along with his close friends developed a reputation for not just skating but playful antics and crazy daredevil stunts, which they filmed. They eventually found TV fame and fortune with Dirty Sanchez. Despite global celebrity, Mat was struggling with his mental health, and his hedonistic lifestyle found him trapped in a dangerous and destructive whirlwind of booze binges and drug addiction. Eventually, he embarked on a quest for self-redemption, which led him from being a wild man to an ultra-fit vegan ironman. Told by Mat, and through the first-hand accounts of family and friends, the film hears how he went from a nobody, to star, to trainwreck, to an inspirational record-breaking athlete.
Lucy Worsley restages the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Each detail is brought back to life in a spectacular ceremony as Lucy reveals how this event saved the monarchy and invented modern marriage. Aided by a team of experts, Lucy recreates the most important elements of the ceremony and the celebrations, scouring history books, archives, newspapers and Queen Victoria's diaries for the details. She reveals how every moment was brilliantly stage-managed for maximum effect. Like every good marriage celebration, the film is a heady mix of fine food, fabulous clothes, music, emotion, gossip and intrigue. From the white dress to the massive tiered white cake, from the music sung by the choir to the moment rings were exchanged, each element has been carefully researched and remade for a grand staging of the big day itself. The experts include food historian Annie Gray, clothing expert Harriet Waterhouse and military historian Jasdeep Singh. Woven into the recreation of the wedding day is the story of Victoria and Albert's courtship and engagement, and its political importance. Lucy unpacks and explores the hidden iconography and symbolism of this hugely significant wedding, and reveals new insights into Victoria and Albert's relationship; both public and private. The film sheds new light on the wider implications of the wedding and reveals how this one extraordinary event helped to invent modern marriage.
Share the magic of the world's most famous choir through a special year of music, in the centenary year of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's. With exclusive access to King's musical performances throughout 2018 and to their preparations for Christmas, discover what makes this one of the best choirs in the world. A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols began 100 years ago at the end of WW1 and remains an unbroken tradition at King's. It was one of the earliest BBC radio outside broadcasts and has become central to Christmas celebrations. The programme discovers what draws people to this service, and travels across the world for a chance to join the choir in the beautiful King's Chapel. Taking us with them are boy choristers who attend King's College School, including Jack and Vladimir, and choral scholars Joe and James. Along the way, we talk to former members of the choir, like 101-year-old David Briggs who sang in the first radio broadcast. The programme is introduced to Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir, whose new piece, O Mercy Divine, will be premiered at this year's service, and the people behind the scenes who help make this choir outstanding. This year will be the final Christmas with the choir for Director of Music Stephen Cleobury, who is stepping down after 36 years.
Fellow musicians, journalists and fans celebrate Fleetwood Mac with a selection of their best-loved songs. Fleetwood Mac is the great survivor of British and American rock music. For more than fifty years the band has overcome break-ups and breakdowns to become one of the most successful groups of all time. They have sold over 100 million records worldwide, with their 1977 smash Rumours accounting for nearly half of those sales. They have endured, like all great bands, because of the complementary talents of its members. From Peter Green to Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, it has contained some extraordinary songwriters. With brilliant musicians on all instruments, the band has been able to turn the songs into commercial gold. Above all the fierce determination of the two men who gave the group their name has seen Fleetwood Mac through thick and thin. Fleetwood fan Edith Bowman provides a narrative overview alongside other celebrity fans, who all pay tribute to the band in this hit-filled hour. Contributors include KT Tunstall, Travis’s frontman Fran Healy, Toyah Willcox, Sian Pattenden and Emma Dabiri.
Grace Dent looks at the television shows that Britain’s viewers were watching over the Christmas period of 1988, focusing on that week’s TV schedules to explore how TV offerings change over the festive season, and how the nation’s viewing expectations have changed over three decades. It’s an experience that sees Grace reviewing the all the top drama, comedy and music programmes that we slumped down to watch after the turkey and trimmings - whilst wondering why that year’s issue of Christmas Radio Times remains the UK’s biggest-selling magazine and marvelling at how many of the big names from 30 years ago remain familiar faces today. Amongst the shows and moments coming under scrutiny is the year’s biggest comedy, Bread, in which the Boswell family take a riotous trip to Rome; Dirty Den’s prison experiences in a typically cheery Christmas EastEnders, Noel Edmonds making TV history with a live link up in space, Philip Schofield amidst Christmas chaos on Going Live!, Bruce Forsyth and Ronnie Corbett teaming up for a dream double act, and that year’s other dream couple – Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, fresh from Neighbours and over here for a battle with Cliff Richard for that year’s Christmas number one spot. Other musical highlights include Bros’ take on Silent Night and Elaine Paige’s unmissable Christmassy version of Queen’s Radio Ga Ga.
December 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the BBC VT Christmas tapes, a series of risque and hilarious bloopers compiled by the BBC’s VT department. These festive mash-ups of outtakes, blunders and specially filmed comedy sketches were never meant for public viewing and were shown to staff at Christmas parties. Their story has not been told before - until now! This is the latest documentary from comedian Rhys Thomas, creator of Brian Pern and director of the Emmy Award-winning Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender. The Christmas Tapes featured some of the BBC’s biggest stars. In those days of formal presentation, viewers were used to watching polished television programmes featuring respected professional broadcasters. It would have been unthinkable in 1978 to transmit footage of these personalities turning the air blue in moments of tension. The Video Tape department was situated underneath the BBC’s famous doughnut courtyard. Editors would cut all the mistakes out of recordings to hone perfect programmes. In 1978 a young VT engineer called Grant Watkins had the idea of saving all the funniest outtakes and cutting them together to amuse fellow staff. The first Christmas tape is infamous for a saucily re-edited interview with Princess Anne, where she appears to confess to Grandstand host David Coleman that she has experienced sex several times! Editing her answers out of context led to gales of laughter at the Christmas party, but news was leaked to a journalist and the Princess Anne story made the front page of The Sunday People. BBC producer John Lloyd believes that the Princess Anne edit was inspirational on the kind of comic editing later seen in Not The Nine O’Clock News, which began in 1979 and featured footage of politicians and royalty intercut with comedians. Despite the tabloid headlines, the BBC VT team pushed on with a new tape the following Christmas. It is packed with bloopers from the BBC’s best-loved series, but it was clear to ev
Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan go on a Christmas adventure in search of some of nature's greatest celestial wonders and winter wildlife, unique to this time of year.
A celebration of the life and work of Sir Ken Dodd, as told in his own words and with testimony from friends and family. For over six decades Sir Ken Dodd was one of Britain's favourite entertainers - a comedian whose surreal world of tickling sticks, jam butty mines and Diddymen kept generations of audiences entertained, from his professional debut in 1954 to his final curtain call in December 2017. This revealing documentary film tells the story of his incredible life and long career, which included a record-breaking run at The London Palladium in the 1960s, numerous television series and specials, countless summer seasons and variety shows, a string of hit records and a touring one-man show that continued right into his ninetieth year. Sir Ken's wife Lady Anne talks about his love of being on stage and their life spent together in Knotty Ash, and his friends and peers discuss his unique and enduring relationship with the British public.
A BBC Four Slow Christmas treat follows Norway’s Sami reindeer herds as they migrate across the mountainous region of Finnmark, far north of the Arctic Circle. The journey, a little over 160 miles, takes the herd a week, travelling north from the inland winter feeding grounds to their coastal summer pastures. The film travels with the Sara family and their herd around the clock as they cross the Arctic wilderness to reach the coastal island of Kvaloya Fala in time for the calves to be born. It is a journey fraught with hazardous weather conditions.
This film goes behind the scenes at St Paul's Cathedral for their most magical time of year - Christmas. What is it like for the people who make the magic happen, and how do they cater for the 45,000 visitors that come through the cathedral's doors during the festive season? Rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London destroyed its predecessor, St Paul's Cathedral is known as the nation's church and has become an iconic symbol of London - home to the royal wedding of Charles and Diana, Winston Churchill's funeral and the Queen's 90th birthday service. Every Christmas, the cathedral puts on a magnificent array of 17 special services and concerts, from the Advent Procession to carol concerts, Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself. This programme watches as the spectacular events of the festive season unfold and goes behind the scenes as the Christmas trees are winched into place and the golden copes are repaired. From the clergy to the choirboys, the show discovers the gargantuan efforts that go into making Christmas happen at St Paul's and meet the dedicated people who turn these traditions into a reality. The film introduces Canon Michael Hampel, a member of Chapter (the cathedral's governing body) and the man tasked with running Christmas at St Paul's. From the Advent Procession to the big service on Christmas Day, it is Canon Michael's responsibility to make sure every event in the St Paul's festive calendar is the best it can be. With a background in amateur dramatics, stage management comes naturally to Canon Michael. Central to the festivities are director of music Andrew Carwood and the 30 choristers that make up the cathedral's world-famous choir. The choristers board at the cathedral school, starting at seven years old and finishing around 13 when their voices start to change. They include 12-year-old Benjamin, who will be spending his last Christmas at St Paul's and hopes to sing the big Christmas solo. Father J
An amateur historian discovers mysterious graffiti in a supposedly abandoned fort in Dover. This leads him to the story of a long-forgotten WWII commando mission which has seemingly been erased from history.
Ben Zand hears from the people Kanye West grew up with, the artists and campaigners who work with him and those who more recently have been insulted by him, as he explores some of the defining themes of Millennial America - race, politics and mental health.
An enchanting and action-packed dramatised Christmas treat, featuring one of the toughest creatures on Earth. A she-wolf must flee her pack and embark on a dramatised perilous journey through the Alps in search of a new territory and a new life.
As Take That, one of Britain's most successful and best-loved bands, mark their 30th anniversary, they are celebrated in this special one-off programme. It features fans from all over the country, and beyond, sharing their stories of how the band touched their lives - and in some cases, changed their world completely. This most successful boy band in UK chart history are reunited, with Robbie Williams joining them to share favourite memories as they reflect on three decades in the spotlight. It also offers up candid, previously unseen material that they shot over the years. There is also a reunion for the boys' biggest fans of all - the five, proud Take That mums. The band takes us on a guided tour of significant Take That locations, with some memorable fan surprises along the way. With a glimpse of their preparations for their anniversary album, we also see them in the studio with Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb.
Controversial, witty, irreverent – Britain’s best known screenwriter, Andrew Davies, has created some of the most iconic small-screen dramas of the past 50 years. At the age of 82 he is following his smash hit adaptation of War and Peace with another global epic, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. As he watches the production come to life during 2018, he looks back at the influence of his childhood in Cardiff. And he explores how he boils down and spices up his dramas – transforming our best-loved novels into prime-time television. Contributors include Sarah Waters, Helen Fielding and Dominic West.
Forty years ago, Raymond Briggs used a pot of coloured pencils to create The Snowman, a wordless book of illustrations which would inspire the film enjoyed by millions of British households every Christmas. His timeless story of the friendship between a young boy and a Snowman continues to delight generation after generation with its effortless blend of warmth, humour and sadness. After creating an instant classic with The Snowman, Briggs disturbed a generation with his anti-nuclear story When the Wind Blows, enthralled kids and adults alike with Fungus the Bogeyman and Father Christmas and, in recent years, moved readers to tears with Ethel & Ernest, a touching account of his parents' life story. Raymond Briggs has been celebrating the ordinary and making it extraordinary for five decades. And the characters he has created have been both popular and influential. As Nick Park says in the film, he couldn't imagine Wallace and Gromit without the experience of reading Briggs's books. This playful, moving and often emotional portrait is told through interviews with Raymond, specially commissioned animation illustrated by Chris Riddell, and contributions from friends, colleagues and admirers, including Andy Serkis, Nick Park, Steve Bell and Posy Simmonds.
In Gary Goes to Hollywood, Gary McLintoch, Tank Commander, proud Scot, showbiz personality and now documentary film-maker, is off to Hollywood to meet the Scots who have left Scotland behind for the bright lights of Los Angeles. He's determined to find out why they have moved away from home and what they feel about the country they left behind. Gary meets a host of fellow Scots who have relocated to seek fame and fortune in LA. He explores the ups and downs of life in Tinseltown, what these people love about their new home, what they miss about Scotland and what sacrifices they have made to create a life in America. Gary meets with Guardians of the Galaxy and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle's Karen Gillan and quizzes her about the movies, fame and leaving Scotland. He chats to Aberdonian magician Stuart MacLeod, one half of the successful magical duo Barry and Stuart, strikes poses with Invershnekie's yoga practitioner Mark Guibarelli, and hangs out at home with Ross King. Gary McLintoch is the alter ego of actor Greg McHugh. The eponymous hero of award-winning Scottish sitcom Gary: Tank Commander, he interviewed the Scottish political party leaders in 2016 for a BBC Scotland election special. In Gary Goes to Hollywood, Greg improvises with his Gary character, interacting with celebrities and members of the public to explore ideas of Scottishness, home and belonging as he seeks to understand what makes America so attractive, and what might make a proud and patriotic Scot leave Scotland behind.
If you think the Earth takes millions of years to change, it’s time to think again! Presented by Hannah Fry, this TV special reveals how much our planet can change in just 24 hours. A new era of science allows us to watch as the Earth moves, breathes, shrinks and grows right under our noses. The story is driven by scientists and explorers, and harnesses cutting-edge data, newly launched satellites and blue chip CGI to show us the true personality of the Earth… more dynamic than it’s ever been seen before. Every minute new land is born, every hour tonnes of rock arrive from space, before you go to sleep a cloud of dust from the Sahara will have fertilised the Amazon, and while all that was happening, the ground under your feet moved half a metre. As Hannah explains, Earth’s daily changes are all linked in surprising ways, and - more importantly – we would not be able to survive on the planet without them. We start with the inner earth – the invisible but hugely dynamic system beneath our feet which constantly rebuilds the planet’s surface. On the island of Stromboli, we climb a volcano with geologist Professor Chris Jackson to see how much lava a single volcano can produce on a daily basis and how that lava builds new land. Chris also reveals what powers the inner earth – radioactive decay beneath of our feet, where heavy elements are constantly decaying into lighter ones – a process that produces the equivalent energy of 27,000 Hiroshima bombs every day. This energy is a crucial driver to plate tectonics and therefore volcanic activity. And the speed with which volcanic activity makes land is crucial - if it didn’t create land faster than erosion destroys it, we would have no land to live on and the world would be one giant ocean. The story doesn’t stop with new land being made. It’s also constantly being moved. We reveal how the moon not only causes huge movements of water in the ocean – which we know as the tides - but also creates w
For the Khan family in Leicester, the solution to Britain's elderly care crisis is simple and bound tightly to their culture. With his father gravely ill and mother confined to her bed, eldest son Riaz explains why looking after mum and dad is a family duty that must remain under their roof and not a care home.
In the 1980s, Bros were one of the biggest bands in the world... for 15 minutes. Having sold out stadiums around the world, they were the youngest to this day to play Wembley, and their Push album went to number one in over 20 countries, selling 10 million copies worldwide. The rise and fall of Bros was meteoric. This film charts twins Matt and Luke Goss's reunion 28 years on, after they had hardly spoken and not played together since their split. With an incredibly fractured relationship and only three weeks to go until sell-out gigs at The O2 London, will they be able to put their history aside and come together as brothers to play the show of their lives? A raw and emotional look into the aftermath of fame and the reconnection between two twins torn apart by their past.
Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince host a TV special to celebrate the 100th episode of the witty and irreverent hit science/comedy panel show, looking at the big scientific discoveries of the past 10 years. Joining them are comedians Katy Brand, Brian Blessed, Eric Idle, Dave Gorman and Andy Hamilton (to name a few) to consider what has been learnt since the first episode back in November 2009. Science royalty Alice Roberts, Neil De Grasse Tyson, Sue Black, Fay Dowker, David Speigelhalter, Richard Wiseman, Tony Ryan and Andrea Sella name their own big scientific discoveries, from the Higgs Boson, to gravitational waves, to our understanding of how humans evolved. Plus the panel are joined by Reverend Richard Coles and the former Dean of Guildford The Very Reverend Victor Stock, to give their view from Clergy Corner. More tea and infinite particles vicar?!
Three years ago there was widespread unrest in the East African country of Burundi when the country's President ran for a third term. Protestors said he was violating the constitution that limits presidential terms to just two. Since then street protests have ended but a BBC investigation has now uncovered evidence of government-sponsored torture and killings designed to silence dissent.
Musician Charles Hazlewood explores the four great American minimalist composers who rebooted classical music in the 20th century.
A growing number of people are being hospitalised in the UK because of acid attacks, with the number of patients previously seen over five years now being seen in six months. Incidents in other parts of the world, including Columbia, India and Pakistan, are also increasing. It's a crime that can often go unreported and unpunished. Claire Jones gained exclusive access to one of the largest burns units in Europe and followed the journey of one woman to recovery.
A year in the life of an extraordinary village in Aberdeenshire. The residents of Newton Dee are a mixture of people with learning disabilities and the people who care for them. Everyone lives communally and works together in the farms, gardens, bakery and workshops here. A warm, funny, life affirming film featuring spring lambs, a rabbit called Steph, a talent show and killer seagulls.
Employing state-of-the-art technology to transform audio and moving image archive footage more than a century old, Peter Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell the story of World War I: the men who were there. Driven by a personal interest in the conflict, Jackson sets out to explore the day-to-day experience of its combatants. Immersed for months in the BBC and Imperial War Museum archives, Jackson created narratives and strategies regarding how this story should be told. Using only the voices of those involved, the film explores the reality of war on the front line: their attitudes to the conflict, how they ate, rested and formed friendships in those moments between battles, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future. Each frame of the film has been hand-colourised by Jackson's team, the footage 3D-digitised, transformed with modern post-production techniques, enabling these soldiers to walk and talk among us. Reaching into the mists of time, Jackson aims to give these men voices, investigate the hopes and fears of these veterans that survived and were able to tell their stories, and detail the humility and humanity of those who represented a generation forever changed by the destruction of a global war.
Undercover cameras reveal how living in the snow tests animals to their limit. In New Zealand, cameras follow a group of kea parrots, revealing how friendship is at the heart of the lives of these sociable and highly intelligent birds. Elsewhere, in the North Pole, cameras get up close to play-fighting polar bears, while on the other side of the planet at the South Pole, footage reveals the parental devotion that emperor penguins have as they try to secure the survival of their offspring and face some of the harshest conditions on Earth
David Hayman presents a personal view of the battle for access to Scotland's countryside, revealing how this conflict has shaped the physical and cultural landscape of the country.
Based on the autobiography of Cuban ballet superstar Carlos Acosta. Young Carlos is a happy-go-lucky street urchin until his truck-driving father determines that he is to audition for the Havana State Ballet school. In Spanish with English subtitles.
The story of the blooper-filled BBC Christmas tapes since their first appearance in 1978. Packed with outtakes, these tapes were made to be shown at Christmas parties.
To Catch a Serial Killer with Trevor McDonald (2018) Sir Trevor McDonald presents this documentary which explores the extraordinary pursuit of serial killer Christopher Halliwell.
Nadiya Hussain shares her favourite party dishes. She joins a group of children as they make cupcakes, lends a hand with a trifle and helps out with a surprise birthday cake.
Arguably the greatest tragedy to befall the west coast of Scotland remains, to this day, largely unknown. On the event of the 100th anniversary, the people of Lewis tell their story to the rest of the nation through the words and testimonies of the islanders. On 1 January 1919, having survived the First World War, in excess of 250 naval men were returning home to celebrate their first New Year of peace. But in the blackest of nights, in a rising gale, HMY Iolaire sank within yards of the Lewis coast. The Western Isles sent 6,000 men to serve in the First World War, and sustained the heaviest casualty rate of any area of British Empire, losing over 1,000 men by the end of the war. But no-one expected further losses after peace had been declared a few weeks earlier, and the seamen were sailing back in sight of home. Author and local historian Malcolm Macdonald, along with historian and broadcaster Joni Buchanan, explore the feelings of expectation as the Hebridean men returned from war and explain the aftermath and shock that spread throughout the island over the next few weeks and months, affecting generations to come. Featuring unique BBC archive footage with eyewitness testimonies of the night and its aftermath, including tales of extraordinary bravery and foresight. The story also examines how the disaster has shaped the identity of the islanders in the subsequent years, arguably contributing to the mass emigration of the 1920s and the population decrease that continued through much of the 20th century. Lewis musician Iain Morrison, who discovers that his own great-grandmother had to write to the authorities for financial assistance, details how his contemporary work of music called 'Sàl' - 'Salt Water' helped him find hope.
Dark Son: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is a documentary which follows an investigation to solve the 'Jack the Stripper' murders, the biggest unsolved serial murder case in British criminal history. It is the biggest unsolved serial murder case in British criminal history - the so-called 'Jack the Stripper' murders took place in Swinging Sixties London. Six women lost their lives to a killer who was never caught. Criminologist Professor David Wilson leads an investigation to unmask the killer, who claimed more victims than even his notorious Victorian namesake, Jack the Ripper. Professor Wilson and his investigative team - which includes former detective Jackie Malton and forensic psychologist Professor Mike Berry - begin their hunt for the killer not in London, but 150 miles away in Abertillery, South Wales. In 1921, the Welsh mining town was devastated by the double murder of two schoolgirls when eight-year-old Freda Brunell and 11-year-old Florence Little were killed just weeks apart by a local boy, 15-year-old Harold Jones, who the Abertillery residents still refer to as their 'Dark Son'. Those murders - especially the sadistic nature of their deaths and the treatment of the bodies afterwards - have eerie parallels with the 'Jack the Stripper' murders. Could Harold Jones the boy killer have matured in later life into a serial killer? To test this theory the team revisit the scenes of the killings in west London. They use contemporary policing techniques such as geographical and offender profiling to see if the crimes of Jones the boy can be measured against those of Jack the Stripper. And from the outset, it becomes apparent there are many chilling similarities.
Writer and environmentalist Peter Owen-Jones spends a year in the enchanting landscapes of the New Forest, exploring its wildlife, history and meeting the Commoners, the people whose ancient way of life has helped shaped the land since Neolithic times. ‘The New Forest is a timeless place - there are no fences and the animals roam free. I’ve always wondered how the forest and the commoning way of life have survived in the middle of southern England for so long. It’s been an incredible experience finding out.’ - Peter Owen-Jones. Over the year, with its dramatic seasonal changes, Owen-Jones ventures out into the forest and immerses himself in the lives of the Commoners, a group of around 700 people who have retained grazing rights for their animals, which date back to medieval times. From the first foals born in spring to the release of the stallions and the annual herding of the ponies, he discovers a hardy people who, despite the urban development around them, and the pressures on the landscape of 13 million visitors a year, retain a deep love of the land and a determination to see their way of life survive. The New Forest National Park covers an area of 566 square kilometres. It extends from the edge of Salisbury Plain through ancient forest, wild heathland and acid bog, down to the open sea. Here, Owen-Jones discovers hidden wildlife treasures. The rolling heathland is home to dazzling lizards, our largest dragonfly and carnivorous plants. And deep in the ancient woods, he finds goshawks that stalk their prey between the trees and an explosion of rare fungi. To his surprise, he discovers that many of the trees were planted by man to build battleships for the British Empire. Owen-Jones delves into the history of the Commoners. He discovers how their pastoral way of life evolved from the practices of Neolithic herders and he reveals how the brutal Forest Laws imposed by William the Conqueror were used to crush them in order to preserve the forest
2018 saw the downfall of a series of famous men in the face of allegations of sexual harassment. The issue has never received so much media attention, but the debate about what is and isn't appropriate in the workplace continues. A hand on someone's back, complimenting their fragrance - is this a colleague being friendly, or are they crossing a line? What constitutes sexual harassment? To find out, BBC Three conduct a social experiment, hosted by journalist and presenter Ben Zand. They bring together 20 people between the ages of 18-30 to see if they understand the rules of behaviour in the workplace. Over the course of two days, they watch a specially written drama in three parts telling the story of a professional relationship between a man and woman at work which ends with an accusation of sexual harassment. At each stage, the group are given the opportunity to vote on the behaviour displayed and if it is offensive or unwanted, before finally voting if they believe it constitutes sexual harassment. They also hear directly from people whose lives have been affected by sexual harassment, including a false accusation of harassment. The debate between the young people is wide ranging and impassioned. The programme reveals just how much confusion and disagreement there is when it comes to specifying exactly where a line should be drawn - a line which can become blurred. It shows the significant differences that exist between the genders when it comes to their perspective on what is acceptable. And finally, the group hears from a barrister who lays down the law and answers the question posed by the drama - is this sexual harassment?
Granted exclusive access to hundreds of drawings and paintings by Orson Welles, film-maker Mark Cousins dives deep into the visual world of this legendary director and actor, to reveal a portrait of the artist as he’s never been seen before – through his own eyes, sketched by his own hand, painted with his own brush. Executive produced by Michael Moore, The Eyes of Orson Welles brings vividly to life the passions, politics and power of this 20th-century showman and explores how the genius of Welles still resonates today, more than 30 years after his death. Welles was one of the great creative figures of the 20th century. But one aspect of his life and art has never been discussed. Like Akira Kurosawa and Sergei Eisenstein, Welles loved to draw and paint. As a child prodigy, he trained as an artist, before a drawing trip to Ireland in his teens led to his sensational stage debut at Dublin’s Gate Theatre. Welles continued to draw and paint throughout his life, and his groundbreaking film and theatre work was profoundly shaped by his graphic imagination. When he died over 30 years ago, he left behind hundreds of character sketches, set designs, visualisations of unmade projects, illustrations to entertain his children and friends, images in the margins of personal letters, and portraits of the people and places that inspired him. They are a window on to the world of Welles, and a vivid illustration of his creativity and visual thinking. Most of these have never been made public. Now, for the first time, Welles’s daughter Beatrice has granted Mark Cousins access to this treasure trove of imagery, to make a film about what he finds there. The Eyes of Orson Welles is a cinematic essay which avoids the techniques of conventional TV documentaries. It combines Cousins’s trademark commentary with new digital scans and specially made animations of the artworks, which bring vividly to life the magic of Welles’s graphic world. These are intercut with cli
A look at Hugo Chavez's 14-year presidency - a story of short-term achievements in health and education but also of a tragic legacy of his idealism, populism and pursuit of power.
This balanced mocku-documentary is Louis Theroux meets Alan Partridge. It is the US midterm elections, and spoof news reporter Jonathan Pie is sent across the pond on the campaign trail. Jonathan meets real people who don't normally have a voice as he sorts through the utter carnage of US politics and delivers an extremely entertaining, witty take on Trump's America. He talks to all sides: Republicans, Democrats and independents, while attempting to work out whether Trump is going to destroy the planet with his stance on climate change, his relationships with volatile countries or his twitter account. Pie comes away with a lot of his preconceptions blown out of the water but also with a few intact.
Sidney Nolan is unquestionably one of the best-known names in the history of Australian modern art. His images are iconic treasures of the Australian visual language – everyone feels they know Nolan, but that is far from the truth. He was a restless spirit, boundlessly curious, intellectual and mischievous, and his creativity was unrelenting; he was a genius. This film explores and celebrates the artist and the man, going well beyond his early years to his extraordinary international career and all the success and turmoil that came with it.
For many people, going to college or moving out of home offers a chance to look at their relationship with their parents from a fresh perspective. 23-year old Dammy confronts her mum about her longstanding issues by having the type of brutally honest discussions that many of us so often avoid. Dammy suffers from anxiety and hasn’t had a serious conversation with her mum about it. First off, it doesn’t help that mum still sees Dammy as her ‘baby’ and finds it hard to treat her like an adult – but it also seems that mum wants to gloss over any difficult issues. Keen not to upset her mum, Dammy has learnt to just stay silent. Through an emotional and frank therapy session, their relationship is put under the microscope. Over the course of a session with therapist Hannah Sherbersky, Dammy finally confronts mum about their lack of meaningful communication but perhaps she didn’t expect to learn so much about her mum’s upbringing in the process.
Last year 17 teenagers were stabbed to death in what was the deadliest year in a decade in London. Tina Daheley asks the police, politicians and an audience of Londoners why some young people are turning to knife crime and what can be done to stop the number of young lives lost on the capital's streets.
Saudi Arabia is ranked as one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a woman. Despite this scary fact, Saudi-born, British fashion stylist, Basma Khalifa, 29, has been persuaded to move back to Saudi Arabia – a country she hasn’t been to since her parents moved to Northern Ireland when she was three years old. Although she grew up Northern Ireland, she’s never felt totally at home in the UK. Maybe she can start a new chapter of her life in Saudi Arabia which has become more open under the new Crown Prince. But just a few days after arriving in the country, the news breaks of the murder of the Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi and her experiment takes on a darker turn. Basma travels to Jeddah – Saudi Arabia’s more ‘liberal’ city - and moves in with her three aunts. She immerses herself in Saudi Arabian life but the strict laws and social codes aren’t easy for her to stomach. Basma struggles with how to behave in public and what to wear and with every slip-up, she comes head to head with the Saudi Arabian government minder who has been assigned to monitor her movements. Just when she’s starting to think she can’t take it anymore, she discovers Jeddah’s underground party scene. Suddenly she feels more at ease as it’s not too different from her London life in which she has to hide her ‘western lifestyle’ from her family. A spiritual journey to Mecca seals her newfound faith in Saudi Arabia and she’s hungry to see what else it has to offer her. Since June 2018, women in Saudi Arabia have been allowed to drive and Basma wants to try it for herself - probably as one of the first British women ever to drive in Saudi Arabia. Despite her aunt’s warnings that it could jeopardise her whole visit, Basma decides to go ahead and rent a car. Everything looks good until Basma mentions the name of a female right-to-drive campaigner who the Saudi Arabian government has put in prison. What follows is a nail biting ordeal and in the
Why do humans make art? When did we begin to make our mark on the world? And where? In this film, Britain's most celebrated sculptor Antony Gormley is setting out on a journey to see for himself the very beginnings of art. Once we believed that art began with the cave paintings of Ice Age Europe, tens of thousands of years ago. But now, extraordinary new discoveries around the world are overturning that idea. Antony is going to travel across the globe, and thousands of years back in time, to piece together a new story of how art began. He discovers beautiful, haunting and surprising works of art, deep inside caves across France, Spain and Indonesia, and in Australian rock shelters. He finds images created by hunter-gatherers that surprise him with their tenderness, and affinity with the natural world. He discovers the secrets behind the techniques used by our ancestors to create these paintings. And he meets experts making discoveries that are turning the clock back on when art first began. Finally Antony asks what these images from millennia ago can tell us - about who we are. As he says, 'If we can look closely at the art of our ancestors, perhaps we will be able to reconnect with something vital that we have lost."'.
Journalist Livvy Haydock investigates the rise of vigilante groups who, without official endorsement from the police, target suspected paedophiles. With access to two UK-based paedophile hunting groups, Guardians Of The North from Sunderland and Predator Exposure in Leeds, Livvy observes their methods and stings first-hand to explore whether these groups are helping or hindering the police in their attempts to administer justice. The police have publically said that they are struggling to tackle the increase in online child sex predators. The hunters say they are trying to help tackle the threat. While some of the evidence the hunters gather is used in some cases to charge suspects, the police are concerned about people being wrongly targeted and hurt. As well as some groups naming and shaming people online before police can assess any evidence. Livvy speaks to founders and members of the hunter groups, their decoys used to catch suspected paedophiles online, the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service in the North West, and relatives of those wrongly accused. By taking the law into their own hands, are the hunters actually making potential convictions more difficult for the police? Or are the hunters helping to capture predators who could otherwise slip through the net.
This landmark documentary gathers together the compelling and, in some cases, never-before-heard testimony from the last Holocaust survivors living in Britain today. All of these extraordinary people were children during the Holocaust, but now in their later years, they reflect on their experiences with a different perspective and understanding of how this past trauma permeates through to their contemporary lives with increased significance. The film is based in the present tense, building a picture of a small number of survivors in their day to day lives, whilst also giving an insight into why they hold on to particular memories of the Holocaust, as well as what concerns them most as they contemplate reaching the end of their lives. Over the course of a year, director Arthur Cary also follows these individuals on personal and profound journeys - including the story of a man who returns to Auschwitz with his daughter, a German Jewish survivor addressing the Bundestag, and a man who returns to his German childhood hometown for the first time since 1946 to finally acknowledge the death of his little brother. These scenes are punctuated by compelling interviews with a wider group of survivors who reveal shared feelings as well as their own unique thoughts and experiences. Having lived through 'humanity's darkest hour', these are the last survivors.
All over the world, children with intersex traits are being operated on to be sex assigned at birth - sometimes with devastating consequences. The UN says as many as 1.7%% of the world have intersex traits - that's the same as the number of people with red hair. All over the world, children with intersex traits are being operated on to be sex assigned at birth - sometimes with devastating consequences. Megha Mohan explores the hidden world of intersex children.
A spectacular aerial journey following the world’s longest monument, the Great Wall. In slow-TV style, fly 2,500 kilometres along the wall, from the Yellow Sea to the Gobi Desert.
Travelogue that follows photographer Don McCullin, now 83, documenting his country from inner cities to seaside towns, on a journey in search of his own nation. Sixty years after starting out as a photographer, McCullin returns to his old haunts in the East End of London, Bradford, Consett, Eastbourne and Scarborough. Along the way he encounters an array of English characters at the Glyndebourne Festival and Goodwood Revival and photographs a hunt and a group of saboteurs aiming to disrupt them. McCullin’s journey is punctuated by scenes in his darkroom, a place he is allowing cameras into for the first time.
Following on from the Bafta-nominated Behind Closed Doors, documentary-maker Anna Hall's latest film goes into uncharted territory in which she finds children who have witnessed domestic abuse and then asks them what happened to them. In this film, four children go on camera to talk about what they witnessed and experienced, and the ongoing effect this has on them. Working with charities and Oxfordshire social services for over two years, this film has painstakingly worked with the children and their families to explore the importance of listening to the child and never ever thinking that just because a child's not in the room, that they don't hear or understand what's going on. Cat Lewis, social worker at Oxfordshire social services says: 'I think you need to realise that even if you're having an argument and there's no physical violence, your kids will know. And lots of parents say, 'Oh they weren't in the room, they were asleep, they didn't hear it, they didn't know'. They did. They know. Children are very very in tune to what is happening around them and we lose a lot of that intuition as we become adults and life gets in the way. If you are at that stage of your relationship where you cannot communicate properly, then seriously you need to think about not being in that relationship. Because your children's lives will be affected forever'. One in five children in the UK have lived with an adult who is, or has been, a domestic abuser. All the latest research shows that witnessing domestic abuse in childhood affects a child forever.
This is the David Bowie story you don’t know. The story of how David Robert Jones became David Bowie, how David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust and how Ziggy became immortal, changing the musical landscape as he did so. The story that finally makes sense of one of the greatest icons of the 20th and 21st centuries. Part three of Francis Whately’s Bowie trilogy.
War Requiem: Staging a Masterpiece was filmed over 12 months, with unprecedented access this landmark film follows the English National Opera as they pursue the challenge of staging Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. One of the greatest British choral works of the 20th Century, War Requiem is seen by many as a true masterpiece. The ENO is the first company to transform the work into a dramatised performance. Artistic Director Daniel Kramer engaged a team drawn from across the world including the Turner Prize-winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans: 'By keeping War Requiem alive and relevant today, we will be able to remember the sense of urgency that people in the post-war generation felt, a sense of never again.'
In-depth documentary showing an interesting insight into Sir Frank Williams, his career and family. From nothing other than an obsession with speed, Williams builds one of the world's most enduring Formula One racing teams, but a near fatal car accident in 1986 at the height of this success leaves Frank fighting for his life and the future of the team hanging in the balance.
Phoenix Dance Theatre performs Sharon Watson’s Windrush: Movement of the People, a contemporary dance work exploring the narrative of the arrival of SS Empire Windrush that brought the first Caribbean migrants to the UK. The work is a lively celebration of the rise of multicultural Britain and features an uplifting soundtrack of calypso, jazz, gospel and reggae, with original music created by Christella Litras, and set and costume design by Eleanor Bull. Commended by audiences and critics since its premiere at Leeds Playhouse in 2018, the production has toured UK venues to sold-out auditoriums and festivals. This production was supported by The Space and was filmed at Production Park in December 2018.
Charting Sweden’s remarkable rise as a music superpower. James Ballardie explores the unique Swedish song writing formula behind some of the biggest pop hits since the 1990s.
Abused By My Girlfriend tells the remarkable story of Alex Skeel, a 23-year-old man from Bedford who survived an abusive relationship with his girlfriend Jordan Worth. Combining observational filming with personal and police archive, this film provides a raw and uninhibited window into a teenage romance that descended into terrible violence. Alongside Alex's shocking and thought-provoking testimony, his family and friends also share their stories of seeing him slowly slip away, powerless to stop it, and unaware of how bad it would get. Bedfordshire Police described Alex's case as one of the most extreme cases of domestic violence they had ever dealt with. In hospital, doctors examined Alex's body and told him that he was just ten days away from death. In April 2018, Jordan was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. She became the first female in the UK to be convicted of coercive and controlling behaviour. By sharing his story, Alex hopes to challenge assumptions about violence and masculinity in relationships, and to empower victims of domestic violence to come forward.
The first all-Asian girls' cricket team train for their last tournament together. Now they have left school, will outside pressures of life get in the way?
The publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses in 1988 sparked a culture war in Britain between those in the Muslim community, who considered the book blasphemous and called for the book to be banned, and those defending it as an expression of freedom of speech. Protests, which began in the north of England, soon spread across the UK and to the rest of the Islamic world, culminating in February 1989 with Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issuing a fatwa - a death sentence on the writer. Now, 30 years on, broadcaster and journalist Mobeen Azhar embarks on a journey, starting in his native Yorkshire where the protest first began, to examine the lasting effect the book has had on the Muslim community and how the events of 1989 continue to have an impact today. Mobeen hears from a range of people who were affected by the so called 'Rushdie Affair' - from the men who took an early stand against the book and organised the original protests to the writer who wrestled at the time of the book's publication with the complex questions of free speech and her own religious beliefs, and a former member of the National Front who claims that the furore over the book became a recruiting tool for them.
We only see the world through our own eyes. We cannot know the experience of others, and we all have our own version of normal. But what if some children are seeing their world completely differently and no-one is aware how truly different that actually is? These children have a cerebral visual impairment, which means that part of their brain that deals with vision is not working properly. Ian Hamilton, himself completely blind, investigates this little-known sight problem. He asks if our lack of understanding about vision means that some children are being misdiagnosed with autism. And are there people out there having problems with their sight that not even they know about?
Young children used to say they want to be actors, footballers or pop stars, but today many of them say that they want to be YouTubers. Jamie Genevieve is a YouTuber at the very top of her game and says she was lucky to catch the vlogging wave early on, saying that nowadays it’s much harder to make it to the top. But this also reveals Jamie’s humility: a trait that makes her one of the most-followed social media influencers in Britain. She is the typical girl-next-door and will happily post online videos about herself “being goofy” at home in her slacks without any makeup on. Jamie explains the methods and processes that are essential for being a success online; such as the volume of photos needed to find the perfect one for Instagram, how to keep it real by keeping your views and comments honest and authentic at all times and how to take the perfect selfie. Jamie also has some advice for the keyboard warriors who like to send cruel comments to young girls. BBC cameras followed Jamie for six months to reveal what the life of a social media influencer is really like. At home and abroad this film reveals the magic ingredients required to cut it at the top of the online beauty trade.
The black market is where we go for our fake gear, but who is behind it all? Investigative reporter Livvy Haydock has spent the last six months investigating the people flooding the UK with fake clothes, bags and even pills. During the course of her investigation Livvy meets a young importer of fake goods ready to sell on to buyers and markets around the country. She also investigates the back alley sweatshop clothes factories making the fakes right here in the UK. Livvy also meets the people manufacturing and selling counterfeit Xanax pills, which hit the headlines recently with over 200 deaths in the UK since 2015 attributed to fake copies of the drug. It is legally available but only on private prescription, resulting in young customers turning to the black market for their fix. She meets dealers selling fake Xanax to 14-year-olds, as well as others who use customers as human guinea pigs to test whether their product is safe. With unique and unprecedented access to the people behind the black market, Livvy reveals who is behind our fakes.
Nothing pulls harder at the heartstrings than an opera aria – that key moment when the action stops and the character draws us right in to the heart of the drama, revealing his or her innermost feelings and thoughts. These are chances for the singers to really show off, to wow an audience with some of the most famous music in opera. In this film, charismatic conductor and music director of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano, shares his personal selection of some of opera’s greatest arias. Pappano’s choices stretch across the full 400-year operatic canvas and feature some of the most ravishing and famous arias in the repertoire - from show-stopping Baroque to heart-stopping Mozart, the full-blooded Romantics to blood-curdling Verismo via Bel Canto pyrotechnics and new 20th-century techniques. Along the way he identifies the various functions that arias perform in opera – from entrance arias, soliloquies and arias born of crisis to breathless declarations of undying love. Combining hands-on workshops featuring today’s international stars - such as Joyce DiDonato, Lucy Crowe, Bryan Hymel and Lawrence Brownlee - along with glorious archive of operatic legends including Placido Domingo, Gundula Janowitz and Piero Cappuccilli, Pappano shines a fresh new light on the precise characteristics – vocal, musical, psychological and dramatic – that transform these great theatrical moments into timeless masterpieces.
The World Stone Skimming Championships is held on the tiny west coast island of Easdale. An island blessed with millions of perfect skimming stones after its slate mining industrial past was brought to an abrupt end by a huge storm. Water filled the immense quarries and created the world’s first stone skimming arena. The competition has always been, and is to this day, a community fundraising event, but tensions are now mounting between the small island community and the skimmers whose abilities have far outgrown the limitations of the 63m quarry.
Former Aberdeen and Rangers star Davie Robertson has left everything behind and moved to India to manage Real Kashmir FC. It's football in the danger zone, can he make it work?
2018 marked the 40th anniversary of Soft Cell, one of the most charismatic bands in the history of popular music. To celebrate this landmark, Marc Almond and Dave Ball reunited for an emotional farewell concert at London’s O2 Arena that September. With unprecedented access, this film provides an intimate portrait of the band, following rehearsals as well as footage from the actual concert, woven in with archive and music videos.
Amar Latif was told, aged four, that he would be blind by the time he was 18. However, his lack of sight hasn’t prevented him from experiencing the world. He has travelled extensively, visiting over a hundred countries and taken up skydiving, bungee jumping and skiing. Whenever Amar travels he relies on someone sighted to guide him. In return he opens their eyes and all their senses to a completely different way of travelling. Amar is joined by comedian Sara Pascoe as he attempts to open her eyes to the potential of travelling blind and ‘seeing’ the world differently. The destination is Turkey and their journey takes them off the beaten track as they explore the country’s bustling cities, remote mountains and extra-ordinary landscapes. What becomes clear is that Sara and Amar travel in completely different ways. Sara prefers to stand back and observe while Amar needs to be in the thick of things. Their journey through Turkey becomes as much about their relationship with each other, as it is about the country. Amar and Sara start their travels in Istanbul and as they navigate the city’s vast Grand Bazaar to get to their hotel, Sara is keen to guide them straight there but Amar just wants to smell, listen and touch every item in the bazaar. It is Sara’s first lesson in guiding - if you are blind then things need to be experienced, or else they don’t really exist. After three days in Istanbul, Amar and Sara head east to the mountains along the Black Sea. Traditional communities still live here and have a long history of summer festivities. One of these is oil wrestling – a sport Amar has heard about but never witnessed. Sara must describe the complexities of large men in leather trousers covering themselves in olive oil and throwing each other onto the ground and she rises to the challenge. Their time in the mountains also gives Amar and Sara time to understand each other better. Amar opens up of how he went blind, and th
The shocking accounts of five men who were abused by Daryll Rowe - the first ever person in the UK to be convicted after deliberately infecting men with HIV.
This is the story of how one woman from America's most famous family changed with world through sport. Bill Clinton, Nicole Scherzinger and members of the Kennedy family reveal how JFK's sister Eunice, inspired by a tragedy in her own family, began Special Olympics more than 50 years ago. Clare Balding tells how Eunice defied her own father and overcame ignorance and prejudice to begin a movement which swept the world. Featuring stories of Special Olympians from across the globe over the last five decades this documentary shows the power of sport, the triumph of determination over discrimination and the persistence of one woman - in a man's world - to make a difference.
Allegations of a significant elephant-poaching problem in Botswana have sparked a political row between the president and his predecessor. As Alastair Leithead reports, the issue has ignited a national debate over whether there are too many elephants and whether hunting should be re-introduced.
The showband was a uniquely Irish phenomenon. It was a movement that saw thousands of young people travel up and down the country in the late '50s, '60s and early '70s to the `Dancehalls of Romance' to be entertained by the Royal Showband, the Miami Showband and Big Tom and the Mainliners, and individuals including Dickie Rock, Joe Dolan and Brendan Bowyer. Ardal O'Hanlon looks back at the phenomenon, examining what triggered the infamous era, the people involved, and its eventual end in the 1980s
When the #metoo movement spread around the world in 2016, thousands of women followed in France using the hashtag #balancetonporc (expose your pig). But soon using the hashtag became controversial for its vociferousness and created much debate. A tribune defending the right to flirt signed by 100 French women including Catherine Deneuve published in Le Monde newspaper shocked and fuelled the controversy. Men also got involved, complaining about the movement. Why was #metoo so controversial in France? BBC journalist Helene Daouphars takes us on a trip to her home country where she investigates the resistance French women face when they speak up about sexual harassment and why #metoo didn't take hold there. She meets with politician Segolene Royal, historian Michelle Perrot, Activists Marie Laguerre, Caroline De Haas and Sandra Muller, students and sociologist to find out.
Celebrated conceptual artist Ryan Gander investigates the selfie – the icon of a new kind of self-regard that hardly existed just ten years ago. He discovers the roots of the selfie go back hundreds of years before smartphones. In the age of social media, when we are told to be our best selves and live our best lives, he investigates what that really means and what technology is doing to our sense of self.
Twenty-five years after the murder of his friend Stephen Lawrence, Duwayne Brooks explores the current wave of knife crime and the impact it is having across the nation.
Art historian Professor Richard Clay immerses us in the febrile world of viral media, exploring the popularity and meaning of internet memes, from LOL cats to emoji, pratfall videos to ‘dank’ alt-right satire. Playfully fusing the conventions of a BBC Four authored documentary with a throwaway YouTube video style, the film examines the rise and rise of this new visual language and asks what makes a few memes cut through and spread so intensely, while the vast majority fall quietly by the wayside.
Featuring personal testimony by individuals whose lives have been destroyed by heroin, this film explores the impact of the drug across Northern Ireland and some of the efforts being made to get addicts help.
Ten years on from the Parliamentary expenses scandal which rocked Westminster to the core, Emily Maitlis explores the profound impact it had on public trust in the political class.
An investigation into the US laws letting older men marry girls under the age of 16. Ellie Flynn travels to the USA to visit states poised to reconsider their child marriage laws. South Carolina is considering closing its 'marry-your-rapist' loophole that allows girls under 16 to marry if they are pregnant and have a parent’s consent. Visiting the record office in Spartanburg County, Ellie finds 16 child marriages in the county in the last decade. In ten of those cases, the groom could have been prosecuted under statutory rape laws. One of these marriages was between teenager Keri, then 15, and Paul, then 24. When Keri became pregnant, Paul agreed to marry her and help look after the baby in order to avoid prison. This raises a central question for Ellie: whose rights are more important: the underage, pregnant girl or the unborn, potentially fatherless baby? Ellie also travels to Georgia to meet 17-year-old Zion. She married at 16, and her groom David was just two years older than her, so Zion didn’t need to use the marry-your-rapist loophole, and nor was her groom at risk of prosecution for statutory rape. Many campaigners want to change Georgia’s minimum marriage age to 18, but Zion is convinced that this would have meant the end of her and David’s family, as they would have been forced to live apart for two years. But not all child marriages end in family harmony. Often it breaks families apart, as Ellie finds out in Idaho. Here, a case involving conflicting laws, religious beliefs and ideas of parental responsibility left two men in prison and a family at war. In Idaho, child marriage laws require a court order from a judge, but in the state of Missouri only the consent of one parent is needed. So when Heather became pregnant at 14, and without consulting her mother, Heather's father drove her across the USA to marry her 24-year-old rapist.
The Believers Are But Brothers is an urgent political riff on young men and the internet adapted for television from an award-winning play. Artist, writer and activist Alipoor steps into the dark, blurry online world of fantasists and extremists to tell four fictional stories - of an ISIS recruiter, two British recruits and an alt-right ‘white boy’ from California. Extremists communicate openly on social media and young men find power in digital fantasy, unleashing their wrath on the world. Alipoor’s fictional play captivated audiences with its portrayal of a shifting world of truth, fantasy, violence and hyper-reality just one click away and his television adaptation promises to take BBC Four audiences deep into this digital realm. Through the screens on our phones and in our homes, and the apps we use every day, he explores this complex and controversial world via an electronic maze of meme culture, 4chan, the alt-right and ISIS. Along the way he uncovers a toxic mix of the harmlessly bizarre and the horrific, gaming and chatrooms, infamous ads and propaganda, brutal misogyny and weird fantasy, where, seemingly cut off from real world values and boosted by anonymity, anything can be said or done.
Bettany Hughes investigates the enduring relationship between warfare and worship, by following the trail of Mars, from Rome and Carthage to the present day.
Since the border between the UK and Ireland was created in 1922, film crews and journalists have descended there to try and make sense of its absurdities and contradictions – as well as the turmoil it can cause. Border Country: When Ireland was Divided, brings 100 years of archival footage together with the stories of people whose lives have been affected by this crucial dividing line.
The story of the meteoric rise of one of Scotland's best-loved comedy double acts. Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill have given birth to some of our best-loved characters and catchphrases and created a sitcom sensation that’s attracted TV and theatre audiences that others can only dream of. Featuring special interviews with Ford and Greg and other key people from their careers. Plus first-hand accounts of their first steps out into Glasgow's fledgling comedy scene, how they came to create memorable catchphrases in Chewin' the Fat to the moments that changed the face of comedy theatre with their record-breaking Still Game Hydro arena shows.
Maryam Mirzakhani was a maths genius. She was also Iranian. Born at a time when women's rights and freedoms were being curtailed in her country, Maryam defied the odds to excel in a field traditionally dominated by men, becoming the first woman ever to win the highest award in mathematics - the prestigious Fields Medal. Tragically her brilliant career was cut short when she died of cancer at just 40 years old. This film, pays tribute to her legacy and to the talent and ambition that helped Maryam succeed.
Twenty years on, this landmark BBC documentary reveals the full story of one of Britain’s most high-profile killings.
They defined music and popular culture like no other band ever will. But how did The Beatles make the journey from Merseyside teenagers to international pop stars in the 1960s? The Beatles: Made on Merseyside recounts how American rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues dragged post-war Liverpool into one of the most vibrant music cities ever with the Mersey Sound. Featuring unique archive and revealing interviews from those involved in the early years of The Beatles in Liverpool and Hamburg, we discover the story of The Beatles’ previous band formations and why it took so long for them to achieve success. From school bands to colleges, Hamburg to The Cavern Club, The Beatles moved from skiffle to rock ‘n’ roll before creating their unique sound.
Presented by Emilia Fox and Professor David Wilson, this documentary casts new light on the Jack the Ripper case, identifying another victim and naming the killer.
Over nine tumultuous months, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg takes us inside the most extraordinary political story of our time – Brexit.
What’s the best way to save the ageing breed of male Morris dancer from extinction? Richard Macer infiltrates the endangered world of bells, beer and beards to discover an unlikely saviour of this ancient masculine tradition in the form of women. The Morris Ring, the oldest Morris organisation in the country, has voted to admit women dancers for the first time with the hope that its member sides - as the teams are called - might stem the tide of declining numbers. But there are hardliners who believe females will dilute the very essence of what makes men’s Morris great. So, is Morris better when danced just by men or are women and mixed sides just as good? During this journey, Macer is invited to join his local side the Manchester Morris Men, where the average age is over 70. Macer might represent an injection of youth to this team but does he have the talent to perform at one of the biggest festivals in the Morris Ring calendar? What emerges during a long hot summer of folk dance is a bitter conflict as one of Britain’s most enduring traditions tries to reconcile itself to the modern world of gender equality. It also becomes a fascinating meditation on the nature of masculinity in a society in thrall to the idea of political correctness. And there is a personal development too for Macer, which sends his journey off in an unexpected direction.
A year in the life of abstract artist Sean Scully, one of the world’s richest painters. Little known at home but a superstar abroad, Sean flies around the world to open 15 major museum exhibitions - a journey that also reveals his extraordinary life story. Now, at the age of 73, Scully opens up about his unique experiences spanning 55 years in an often hostile art world - how he built a reputation from nothing, having grown up penniless on the streets of Dublin and London, often homeless as a child and running with street gangs as a teenager, to turn his striped paintings into the huge success they are today.
Karenina Velandia explores El Helicoide in Venezuela and looks at how it came to be one of the country's most notorious prisons. She talks to former prisoners and guards.
For two years BBC cameras have followed, Dr Sheperd Doeleman of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the work of the Event Horizon Telescope project team, a collective of the top scientific minds from around the world. The project combines radio observatories and telescope facilities from around the world to make up a virtual telescope with a diameter spanning the entire planet. This mega-telescope’s ultimate mission is to capture the first image ever of a black hole. Although the concept of black holes has been long assumed to be fact, the Event Horizon Telescope’s success would definitively prove the existence of this scientific phenomena for the first time – and provide clear visual evidence. The programme brings viewers into the laboratories, behind the computer screens and beside the telescopes of what may prove to be one of the great astrophysical achievements in human history.
After one of the hottest years on record, Sir David Attenborough looks at the science of climate change and potential solutions to this global threat.
As part of BBC News' "Europe's Identity Crisis" season, Mark Urban examines Macron's rise, troubles and future plans for France and the EU.
In her first documentary for more than 35 years, the great British classical singer Dame Janet Baker talks more openly and emotionally than ever before about her career and her life today. With excerpts of her greatest stage roles (as Dido, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar and Orpheus), as well as of her appearances in the concert hall and recording studio (works by Handel, Berlioz, Schubert, Elgar, Britten and Mahler), she looks back at the excitements and pitfalls of public performance. She tells the film-maker John Bridcut about the traumatic loss of her elder brother when she was only ten years old, and how that experience coloured her voice and her artistry. She explains why she felt the need to retire early some thirty years ago and discusses the challenges she and her husband have to face in old age. She also gives tantalizing clues to the question her many fans often ask: does she still sing today at the age of 85? Among the other contributors to the film are conductors Raymond Leppard, Jane Glover and André Previn (in one of his last interviews before his death in March), the singers Joyce DiDonato and Dame Felicity Lott, the opera producer John Copley, the pianist Imogen Cooper, and the actress Dame Patricia Routledge. This feature-length film is a Crux production for the BBC, following the award-winning ‘Colin Davis - in His Own Words’ in 2013. John Bridcut has also made film profiles of Herbert von Karajan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rudolf Nureyev and Jonas Kaufmann, as well as ‘Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70’ for BBC One in November 2018.
Billy Bragg on how one song - Rock Island Line - kickstarted the skiffle craze in 50s Britain and gave birth to the great British bands of the 60s.
Just 40 years ago it was illegal to be gay in Scotland, now the country is a leader in LGBTQ+ rights – and Glasgow is home to a thriving drag scene. This documentary takes a glimpse behind the make-up, wigs and corsets to find out what it takes to live a life in drag, why people do it and the daily battles drag queens still face, following three queens at different stages in their drag careers. Barbara La Bush, the self-proclaimed ‘oldest queen in Glasgow’, represents traditional end-of-the-pier drag. She must come to terms with ailing health and the insecurity of a working life spent on the clubs and pubs circuit. Lawrence Chaney, part of the Instagram generation of highly looks-focused performers, seeks approval from a mainstream culture that is out of her comfort zone. And new queen Voss must battle the prejudices of a job in the merchant navy as well as gain parental acceptance.
Jodie Chalk first rode a motorcycle at age five, a gift from her father, Garfield. At 25 she is one of the most competitive riders in the UK, setting track records all over Britain but her dream is to be the first woman to win a British CB500 championship. With Garfield behind her on every corner she’s in with a chance, but as a woman in a male-dominated sport she’s struggling to find a sponsor and the cost of riding at the highest level are high. For Jodie and Garfield, this season is make or break. They have both made huge sacrifices to get here and the championship title is within her grasp - will she make it? Will Jodie be Scotland’s first female champion?
Stereoscopy is a Victorian technique used to create a 3D effect. During the late 1800s, it was a worldwide phenomenon bringing virtual reality-like experiences of world-famous locations and people into millions of homes, but its popularity gradually waned as it was overtaken by new technology. Now Queen's Brian May wants to bring it back.
Woody Guthrie is one of America’s legendary songwriters. A voice of the people, he wrote hard-hitting lyrics for a hard-hit nation. His is a tale of survival, creativity and reinvention. He is proof that there is always potential for change and even in 2019, more than fifty years after his death, he is challenging Donald Trump from beyond the grave. With enormous influence on successive generations of musicians like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Billy Bragg, this film proves he has a true place in 21st-century culture.
A star-studded account of Oscar Wilde’s glittering and controversial career before his trial for homosexual crimes and tragic fall from grace. Highlights from Oscar’s brilliant comedies such as The Importance of Being Earnest and stories such as The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Canterville Ghost are adapted and performed by a cast including Freddie Fox, Claire Skinner, Anna Chancellor and James Fleet. Wilde enthusiasts and experts, including Stephen Fry, Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland and his latest biographers, provide revelatory accounts of how his own life informed his work. His Irish roots, his early career, his marriage and the importance of women as well as men in his life all combine in a complex and compelling characterisation and celebration that adds flesh to the bones of a man who is too often caricatured.
Paul Adams investigates illegal and unsustainable fishing off the west coast of Africa to find out how one of the most fertile ecosystems on earth has been pushed to the brink.
2019 marks the 50th birthday of the Open University. In its five decades, the OU has educated more than two million students. Sir Lenny Henry is one of them. Sir Lenny presents this documentary, which tells the story of the OU from 1969 to 2019, with archive and interviews with past graduates, observers and academics. It is nostalgic, affectionate, funny and a piece of cultural and social history. The story begins with Harold Wilson’s idea of a ‘University of the Air’ through the times of late-night black-and-white TV programmes to modern-day landmark series such as Blue Planet II. Today the OU works with space research and avatars and looks forward to the next 50 years.
John Lee Hooker was one of the greatest bluesmen of the 20th century. Born into poverty and racial segregation, he lived through a monumental time in American history. This is the story of a cultural icon, and his far-reaching impact on popular music, told in his own words and those of his family and closest collaborators. Interviews with Keith Richards, Van Morrison, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray tell how an illiterate man from the rural and impoverished backwaters of the Mississippi Delta influenced their own musical journey. We reveal his part in bringing the Blues to a new generation of young British musicians and how, in turn, those musicians introduced young, mainstream Americans to their own cultural heritage. His is an astonishing tale of survival and creativity, ingenuity and reinvention - of a man who became a superstar against extraordinary odds. It is also the story of modern America, portrayed through the incredible and touching journey of a singer-songwriter who has left an indelible mark on today’s music.
The fine line between dedication and obsession with Scotland's most successful bodybuilding couple as they push themselves to the limit for the world finals in Vegas.
A brutally honest film about grief and the ripple effects of knife crime. When Chanell Wallace was 11 years old, her brother Daniel, 20, was stabbed and killed on the streets of Nottingham. His murderer was given a life sentence, but 13 years on his parole process will soon begin. Daniel’s family have been invited to write a Victim Personal Statement that will be considered in the parole process, and Chanell, now 24, has volunteered to write it. A child when the murder took place, Chanell was shielded from much of the detail, so first she needs to find out what happened to her big brother, why he died so violently, and get to grips with how she feels about the man responsible. Looking into the broader context of knife crime both then and now, Life After My Brother’s Murder is a brutally honest film laying bare the grieving process of one family who lost a son and brother to violent crime.
Iolo Williams investigates the worrying decline of wildlife in Wales. Although there are still some good wild habitats which are full of fantastic species, they are becoming fewer and rarer. Iolo fears that the decline is escalating and unless we reverse it, we are in danger of losing much of the wildlife that makes Wales so outstanding as a land of the wild. In a passionate plea to save Wales's wildlife heritage, Iolo documents the unprecedented loss of wildlife that he has seen during the past 50 years. Many of the wild species that he grew up with in the countryside near Lake Vyrnwy in Powys have disappeared. Birds, including lapwing, curlew and yellowhammer have gone. Water voles are no longer found in the streams and rivers, and fish numbers have plummeted as well. The statistics are staggering. Many species have declined by over 60 per cent and some species, like the hare, as much as 98 per cent. Added to this is the serious decline in insects, particularly pollinators such as bees, which have declined by more than 50 per cent. Iolo uncovers a very disturbing trend. He shares his concerns with Claire Pilman, chief executive of Natural Resources Wales and Lesley Griffiths, minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs in the Welsh government. He talks to farmers and scientists to get an understanding of what has changed in the countryside during the past 50 years, and demands answers to some crucial questions.
After an accident leaves Stuart with a life changing brain injury, he and his film-maker friend Ciaran reflect on their shifting 20-year friendship in the face of memory loss and Stuart’s altered personality. Exploring how they have both coped with Stuart’s brain injury, the two friends try to understand what remains and what it is that endures when a friendship is fractured, leaving one with more memories than the other.
Teenage Kicks is an eye-opening exploration of the impact of technology on sex and relationships among young people today. Snapchat is changing the way teenagers form relationships. Instagram is changing the way teenagers see themselves and each other. And internet pornography is changing their sexual behaviour. This one-hour documentary delves into the lives of a diverse range of teenagers as they navigate our increasingly tech based world, share their vivid stories and give unguarded opinions on how they approach sex and relationships in the digital age. We live in a time of massive social change driven by technology. But rather than be fearful and judgemental, maybe it’s time to listen to our children and young people and learn as much as we can about the world they live in?
Trafficked into the sex industry after defecting from North Korea, two young women spent years in captivity in China before finally being helped to escape. BBC Korea Editor Su-Min Hwang reports on their extraordinary ordeal.
In the past 40 years Iraq has endured three major wars, a violent coup, two invasions, a decade of bombing, two insurgencies, attack by the so-called Islamic State group and a sectarian civil war. Living through such relentless bloodshed has taken a heavy toll on the nation's mental health. More than one third of Iraqi children are thought to have moderate to severe mental illness and all social indicators, from divorce to suicide, show significant increases.
Was Cleopatra a seductress or a great politician? Shakespeare scholar Dr Islam Issa's exploration of why history and literature have recorded two very different Cleopatras.
Two great rivers - the Tigris and the Euphrates - have been the lifeblood of Iraq for centuries. But last summer, toxic water in the southern Iraqi city of Basra sparked an explosion of anger and unrest as people across the city fell sick.
Fair competition is one of the underlying principles of sport. Although recently, issues surrounding gender within sports competitions, have raised questions about maintaining a level playing field. Are all athletes competing on an equal basis, does an unfair advantage exist? As Alex Capstick reports campaigners are divided and the sports authorities are struggling to find an answer.
In May 2014, fire tore through the west wing of the Glasgow School of Art, destroying its famous library. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the building was one of the finest examples of modern architecture in the world. What followed was the biggest conservation project in Europe: to restore the building to Mackintosh's original vision. It was on the verge of completion when a second, more devastating fire struck in June 2018. Featuring behind the scenes access following the restoration process, this documentary charts five extraordinary years which saw the Glasgow School of Art make headlines around the world. A tale of passion, dedication and emotion: as the building is brought back to life only to be destroyed once more, we hear from the highly skilled conservation workers, architects, former students, local residents and artists in a compelling portrait of the battle to save The Mack.
Follows the story of a diver trapped on the bottom of the North Sea. At the time of the accident, Chris Lemons was relatively new to saturation diving. It was an exciting time in his life: he was engaged to be married and building a dream house in the highlands with his fiancee. After a system failure on the dive support vessel, Chris becomes stranded on the seabed with five minutes of oxygen, but no chance of rescue for more than thirty minutes. What unfolds next is a frantic rush against the clock to regain control of the ship and find the lost diver. The original participants deliver emotional first-hand accounts of an incident which has reshaped their lives forever.
The Singer sewing machine, international icon and a symbol of the Industrial Revolution, helped put the town of Clydebank on the map. Over the course of a century, it employed tens of thousands of 'bankies' before its demise nearly 40 years ago. This documentary charts the story of those workers: how their lives were intertwined with the fortunes of Scotland’s first US multinational company. The programme pays homage to the Singer machine, and the huge impact it made on families and households all over the world.
The shocking story of Gemma, a young woman with a learning disability who was abandoned by the system and brutally murdered by people she thought of as friends.
What are the areas in which Britain’s coastal towns are thriving, or just surviving? BBC Look East’s Susie Fowler-Watt presents a series of special reports from Great Yarmouth.
To celebrate Queen Victoria’s 200th birthday, historian Dr Lucy Worsley explores the character and legacy of the famous monarch in a way that has never been attempted before – through music. Lucy reveals how Victoria used music to transform the monarchy from a political power into a benevolent cultural force that brought the country together during a time of great upheaval and change. Lucy also examines the central role music played in Victoria’s own life - as a queen, a private person and in her marriage to Prince Albert. Victoria and Albert also took an active role in reshaping the musical culture of Britain by establishing institutions like the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall. Together they laid the groundwork for a musical renaissance in Britain which saw a new generation of great British composers reshape the sound of Britain in the 20th century. To bring the story of Britain’s great musical revolution to life there are performances from Sir Willard White, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Black Dyke Brass Band and many more.
Twenty years ago, Peter Mullan’s film Orphans shocked and wowed audiences around the world. This funny and poignant documentary reunites the cast as they remember the film that changed their lives. Peter Mullan is famous for being an actor, director and writer. He has had roles in the iconic Scottish films of the 1990s and is now in much demand in America. Orphans was his first feature film, and he filmed it in the Southside of Glasgow, around the streets he grew up. Peter takes us on a tour of his Govanhill and Pollokshields, to show us the alleyways were he filmed his short films and the locations for Orphans. He tells us about the films that inspired him to ‘create his own world, based on the people I saw around me’. Bringing the orphans back together again, actors Douglas Henshall, Gary Lewis, Stephen McCole and Rosemarie Stevenson reminisce over an exciting time for their careers and the impact the film has had on their lives. The ambitious film is a time capsule of the Scottish filmmaking scene, and even the smaller roles are brimming with talent. Alex Norton is the angriest barman ever witnessed on screen, Frank Gallagher is a dodgy crook, in a role that paved the way for River City’s defining gangster, Lenny. Darkly comedic and painfully poignant, Orphans is now regarded as a cult classic of European cinema. It cemented Peter Mullan’s career as a writer-director and also helped its cast and crew on their roads to success. Twenty years on it’s time to revisit this audacious classic of Scottish and world cinema.
In one of his first and only interviews since he was imprisoned in April 2018, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks with journalist Kennedy Alencar about his imprisonment, the state of Brazil, his past, and his future.
Decision makers and witnesses describe the power struggles, miscalculations, and media censorship that led up to the 1979 revolution in Iran, which ended the rule of its last monarch and turned the nation into an Islamic republic.
When 21 year old Calum Barnes – better known as Glasgow rapper Lumo - takes his own life aged 21, it sends shockwaves through the Scottish hip hop community. As his family and friends try to make sense of his struggle, they uncover hidden clues in the lyrics and video diaries he left behind, which tell a complex story of identity crisis culminating in suicide. Suicide is the biggest killer of young men in the UK. Devastated by his passing, and determined to make a difference to this sobering statistic, Lumo’s close family and friends take action to raise awareness and become a force for change.
Film marking a year since one of the deadliest days of violence in the Gaza Strip for a generation. Made by award-winning documentary maker Olly Lambert, One Day in Gaza examines, moment by moment, what happened on that fateful day. 14 May 2018 started as a day of mass protest at Gaza’s border with Israel, and would end as one of the most deadly days in Gaza for a generation. For weeks, Palestinians had been protesting along the border fence, but tensions were running particularly high due to the opening of the new United States embassy to Israel in Jerusalem - the controversial step ordered by Donald Trump. As Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and other senior US officials gathered in Jerusalem to inaugurate the new embassy, tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered at sites along the Gaza border, barely 40 miles away. As the sun set that day, over 60 Palestinians were dead or dying, and over two thousand lay injured, many by live ammunition. Drawing on more than 120 hours of archive footage filmed on both sides of the border that day - including exclusive videos released by both Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that dominates Gaza, and the Israel Defense Forces, this film reveals the complex reality and human toll of the day, and asks who is to blame for the bloodshed. It also features exclusive interviews with senior commanders and intelligence officers from the Israel Defense Forces, as well as political leaders of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group, and civilians who were present on both sides of the border. What really happened that day? Israel said its troops only opened fire in self-defence or on people using the protests as cover for an armed infiltration, while Palestinians and human rights groups have accused Israeli troops of using excessive force against unarmed civilians who posed no threat. This 60-minute film reveals extraordinary new details of what happened.
This film tells the stories of three British soldiers who died in 2018 following lengthy battles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Family, friends and fellow riders reflect on the life of William Dunlop, one of Northern Ireland’s best ever motorcycle road racers. The programme also features many of his most famous race victories
Film-maker Martin Read has chronic insomnia and hasn't slept properly for more than 30 years. He's on a mission to find answers and hope from the UK's leading experts. Over four months, Martin and four fellow sufferers track their progress as they test different treatments, all in pursuit of the good night’s sleep they desperately crave.
Since Nadiya Hussain won Bake Off in 2015 she’s rarely been off our screens. But behind the scenes Nadiya suffers from extreme anxiety and debilitating panic attacks, which she’s had since childhood. For decades, she has kept her anxiety a secret, ashamed to speak out. She’s never had a proper diagnosis but thinks she has an anxiety disorder, and with around 5 million people suffering from the condition in the UK, Nadiya is not alone. In this one-off documentary for BBC One, Nadiya sets out to find the cause of her anxiety, exploring the most effective, available treatments, whilst having therapy herself, in the hope of managing her anxiety. She speaks bravely and honestly about what it’s like to live with anxiety and panic attacks; undergoing a course of cognitive behaviour therapy, each session is a step into the unknown. At times, it’s a difficult process, revealing buried memories and key moments from her past. These sessions are raw and honest, but Nadiya hopes her openness will inspire others to seek help rather than suffer in silence. She wants to understand how anxiety is affecting the nation’s health, meeting fellow sufferers in the hope of understanding her own issues. Nadiya talks to Laura Bartley about her experiences of treating her anxiety with medication, visits a school in Brighton to see how they are tackling anxiety in their students, and goes online to meet Barry McDonagh, who offers support and therapy to an online community of around 250,000. Nadiya wants to find out if her anxiety was something she was born with, fearing she might pass it onto her children. At Kings College London, Nadiya hopes groundbreaking research into the role of genetics and environment on anxiety disorders can give her the answers she needs. Raw, open and honest, this documentary will speak to the millions of people in the UK suffering with anxiety disorders, shining a light and starting a debate about on an increasingly pressing issue.
In 1989, Jocky Wilson was crowned world darts champion for the second time. Featuring rare archive footage and told in his own words, this is the story of the rise and fall of a cult Scottish sporting hero. Known for his heavy drinking and unorthodox throwing style, Jocky was propelled to fame through a sport that went from pub pastime to mass entertainment. Darts took him from the dole queue in Kirkcaldy and made him one of the most recognisable faces in the country. Everything was on offer for a skilled arrowsmith; fame, glory and a potential fortune. But for the cheeky lad from The Lang Toun with the enigmatic smile, lasting riches were somehow beyond his reach. Poor choices, a love of a drink and bad management meant Jocky left the sport penniless. In 1995, he abandoned the game and returned to the same council estate, in the same town, near the same pub where his incredible journey to stardom began. Following his humble upbringing, his onwards rise to national treasure and sad descent, ‘Jocky Wilson Said’ features exclusive interviews with his friends and darts contemporaries such as Bobby George, John Lowe and Phil Taylor - this is the complicated, bitter-sweet story of a Scottish folk hero, Jocky Wilson.
David Harewood had a breakdown at the age of 23. Here he opens up about his experience and meets young people living with mental health problems and the NHS staff treating them.
On the 25th anniversary of Mandela's election, BBC Correspondent Fergal Keane goes back to examine his reports, and considers why history did not turn out the way he expected. At the heart of the film is an interview in which Fergal explores his decades of reporting in South Africa, from the fear being caught up in violent protests to the joy of reporting for BBC Newsbeat as Mandela was sworn in. He also meets historians and other experts as he considers how Mandela’s legacy has played out.
With a week to go before the UK takes part in EU elections, and nearly three years after the UK voted to leave the EU, Andrew Marr and guests explore how we reached this point. What were the factors behind the leave vote? How do the EU elections work? And what could happen afterwards?
HRH the Duke of Cambridge, Gareth Southgate, Peter Crouch, Thierry Henry, Danny Rose and Jermaine Jenas gather together in the company of Dan Walker for an extraordinary and revealing conversation about men's mental health.
In a world of constant flux and chaos, it is almost a shock to discover some experiences remain unchanged, natural, primitive even. In the middle of London lies Hampstead Heath, 320 hectares of forest, parkland and wildlife, plus three swimming ponds. People take their waters all year round, just as they did in the time of Constable and Keats. Capturing all the beauty of the English seasons, the film follows the swimmers over 12 months as they shiver, laugh, complain, ruminate, philosophise or simply seek respite from all that life threw at them. Swimming Through the Seasons is a heartwarming celebration of eccentricity and sheer bloody-mindedness as these unusual people, united by a shared passion, meet to take on the weather, the water and life.
A heartwarming story of homelessness, belonging, adventure and hope, told over the course of a year in Oxford, as an unlikely group of homeless people throw loneliness aside and come together to create and perform an entirely new piece of theatre.
In an intensely personal and often surprising film for BBC Two, Alastair Campbell candidly talks about his experience living with depression and explores if radical new treatments can make a difference. Alastair is best known for his role as Tony Blair’s formidable and often contentious spin doctor, but, away from the public eye, he has been dogged by crippling bouts of depression for most of his life. Some days, just getting out of bed is too hard. Therapy and anti-depressant medication is helping him keep his head above water, but is that really the best he can hope for? Encouraged by his family, Alastair sets out on a journey to explore if cutting edge science can offer him - and the millions of people like him - the hope of one day living depression-free. As he tries to understand his depression better, he also reflects on key events in his life and asks if they could have had a negative effect on his mind.
Ewan McGregor narrates a captivating portrait of wild Shetland - the remote islands at the northerly limits of Britain - and traces the course of a breeding season from the depths of winter to high summer as the animals on the islands battle for survival. In never-before-seen footage, an orca pod hunts seals along the rocky coasts while a mother otter struggles to protect her twin cubs from marauding male otters and spring storms. We also meet some comical puffins, spectacular diving gannets and mysterious storm petrels nesting in an ancient Pictish tower. The programme also features stunning scenes of human life, from crofting and boat building to the jaw-dropping Up Helly Aa fire festival with its Viking hordes.
A year on, Warwick University is still reeling from the fall-out over a Facebook group chat where male students made rape threats against their female peers. After two of the men had 10-year campus bans reduced to 12 months, serious questions were raised about the university’s handling of its investigation into the messages. In this documentary, those at the centre of the Warwick University rape chat scandal reveal new details about what went on behind closed doors, in a story that is far from over.
One family’s fight for answers after their daughter took her own life. Natasha Abrahart was one of 11 students at the University of Bristol to kill themselves in 18 months.
Until recently, centre left social democrats held power in many countries across Europe. Since the financial crash of 2008 and high levels of immigration into Europe in recent years however, parties who once prospered from their "third way" centrist policies have suffered some major reverses. While the nationalist right and socialist left have found many new voters across the EU, the social democrats have struggled. Mark Urban reports from Germany and Italy on what the future now holds for this once all conquering political creed.
Exploring what happened to Father Francis Joseph, a Catholic priest who negotiated the surrender of some of the rebel commanders at the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka.
All over the world cities are grappling with apocalyptic air pollution but the capital of Mongolia is suffering from some of the worst in the world. And the problem is intrinsically linked to climate change. The country has already warmed by 2.2 degrees, forcing thousands of people to abandon the countryside and the traditional herding lifestyle every year for the smog-choked city where 90% of children are breathing toxic air every day.
In the last few decades hundreds of mansions have sprung up in villages throughout Pakistan's Punjab. Each mansion represents a successful migration to the West. This film tells the story of three local men who migrated to Oslo where they have worked, married, had children and lived their lives for decades. All three have realised their dream to have a mansion back home, all three experience the complications of return and the varying demands of family.
Victorian society is often viewed as buttoned up and prudish. Historian and author Dr Fern Riddell holds the opposite view and takes us on a journey deep into Victorian culture.
The story of Scotland's superstar DJ you’ve never heard of. A crowd-pulling DJ at 15, Stuart 'Scoobs' Cochrane performed from Bannockburn to Ibiza and all points in between. A pioneer of the rave scene in Scotland, Scoobs' entrepreneurial spirit and hedonistic attitude saw him host raves in the most unlikely of places including Blair Drummond Safari Park. But at 56, having struggled with his mental health, Scoobs had forgotten some of his younger adventures, so he bought a tape recorder and went to interview the people he'd partied with to see if they could fill in some of the gaps. Scoobs and the Rave Years is a whistle stop look at the birth of rave and electronic dance music in Scotland between 1987 and 1993 and some of the riotous moments that happened as Scoobs and other promoters built up a fan base for this new music. Scoobs talks to a variety of people from back in the day and they remind him of some of his more bizarre and funny exploits. This is the story of the rave generation told by the people who were there at its conception.
Documentary looking at the growing phenomenon of co-parenting – where women and men have a baby together without being in a romantic relationship. Many are friends, while others meet through co-parenting websites. They all have one thing in common – a very strong desire to have a child of their own. Friends Alex and Miriam are both in their 20s, both gay and both want to be parents – so why not have a child together? Their efforts are complicated by the fact that Alex lives in Birmingham and Miriam is in London. “Alex got me a turkey baster for Xmas as a joke present’, says Miriam. They synchronise diaries and fertility apps to ensure that they meet on peak fertility days. But it doesn’t always go to plan. Desirée, a postal worker from Liverpool, met Jamie through a co-parenting website and now they are thrilled to be expecting a baby. It is not all plain sailing though. Jamie’s mother has revealed that there is muscular dystrophy in the family and he needs to be tested – there is an agonizing eight week wait for the results. Now they must make essential arrangements on how they are going to share their baby. Can their trip to a mediator help them get their all-important co-parenting agreement in place? Richard is gay and knew when he turned 30 that he definitely wanted a child of his own. Now he is 35 and even more determined to find a co-parent. He visits a co-parenting meeting and is delighted to discover that he is not the only one that feels this way. Saschan has had serious fertility issues due to complications with her contraception. She was told that if she wants a baby of her own she should to get pregnant before she is 27 – and she is 26 now. At a co-parenting meeting she meets Joseph and they go on a ‘date’ to the zoo. They get on really well and share their fertility worries but the distance between their homes could prove to be a bigger stumbling block. Stephen and Ellen are co-parents to four-year-old twin girls Ch
Sugar dating websites aim to connect attractive, young women and men, known as ‘sugar babies’, with older, wealthy men known as ‘sugar daddies’. The websites claim sugar babies can receive thousands of pounds in cash each month, as well as luxury gifts, and the right sugar daddy can even introduce them to a world of business opportunities. In this programme, presenter Tiffany Sweeney meets 18-year-old Valentina, who has seven sugar daddies who each give her a monthly cash allowance, and goes undercover to find out for herself about the reality of sugar dating and the potential risks involved.
The Royal Academy summer exhibition is the world’s longest running and largest open-submission show. What does that mean? That any artist can enter and stand a chance of hanging alongside the great and the good within these hallowed halls. Kirsty Wark and Brenda Emmanus follow every step of the way with three hopeful amateur artists, and delve into the fascinating process of curating and hanging the most complicated exhibition in the British art calendar. They visit celebrity artists creating work for this year’s show, including Bob & Roberta Smith, Polly Morgan and Jeremy Deller, and get to know this year's co-ordinator Jock McFadyen. The programme finishes by taking viewers behind the scenes of the glamorous opening night party where some famous faces hope to snap up an art bargain and hear chart-topping singer-songwriter James Bay perform live.
Award-winning author Darren 'Loki' McGarvey reveals the history of Scottish hip-hop. Looking back at over 30 years of culture, he speaks to the pioneers in music, dance and art, telling a story of young men and women in Scotland overcoming adversity to express themselves in often-challenging circumstances. Exploring status in culture and language and how young people in the 80s caught on to a industry now worth ten billion dollars a year but are still relatively unknown.
Documentary telling the story of hip-hop's rise to become a highly lucrative global business with some of its stars making hundreds of millions of dollars. Famous artists including 50 Cent, Ice T, Chuck D, Young Thug, Grandmaster Caz, Melle Mel along with music industry moguls explain their recipe for success. The film tells the story of those names that have changed the rules of the game and have entered what has previously been a new frontier for black artists: Wall Street. Today's consumer culture has ensured that hip-hop stars are more than just artists - they are now brands.
Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl is an intimate portrait of British singer-songwriter Kate Nash and follows her journey over several years in her pursuit to remain a creatively and financially independent artist. After being dropped by a major label, Kate learns (the hard way) how to navigate the music industry as a self-sufficient businesswoman and creative. The film provides a unique insight into the challenges an independent artist goes through, and the resilience required to live and create art on their own terms.
A deeply personal film from the Academy Award-winning team behind Virunga (2014) and The White Helmets (2016). Fourteen years after the suicide of their son and brother Evelyn, director Orlando von Einsiedel and his family decide to walk the length of the UK and try to talk about him - something they had failed to do in over a decade. This poetic feature documentary explores the fabric of grief and the longevity of love. Part quest film, part road trip, part memoir, Evelyn is an exposition of the taboos of mental health and male emotion, and a tribute to our times.
Ewan McGregor narrates a unique nature special looking at the wildlife of the North Atlantic through the eyes of the Vikings. Combining historical re-enactment with jaw-dropping Natural History sequences, Wild Way of the Vikings features vast herds of reindeer, huge gannet colonies, cute Artic foxes, seal-hunting orca, mystical ravens and giant walruses.
David Olusoga opens secret government files to show how the Windrush scandal and the ‘hostile environment’ for black British immigrants has been 70 years in the making.
After being diagnosed with a rare, deadly form of malignant melanoma, George McGavin embarks on a unique, and deeply personal, journey as he learns about the science behind his treatment.
This film is a true-crime thriller that goes behind the headlines to uncover the deep-seated and social media-fueled “boys will be boys” culture at the root of high school sexual assault in America. Like many small towns across the country, Steubenville, nestled in a valley in eastern Ohio, lives and dies by its high school football team. So when a teenage girl was sexually assaulted at a pre-season football party in 2012, no one came forward with information. True-crime blogger Alex Goddard set out to uncover the truth, piecing together the details of the crime through cell phone footage and photos that made their way to YouTube, as well as a nearly minute-by-minute account of events on social media. In the process, she uncovered both the perpetrators and the entire culture of complicity that enabled them. The ensuing trial, which made national headlines, cut to the very heart of nationwide debates about rape culture.
Documentary film-maker Sophie Fiennes follows the star Grace Jones behind the scenes - in the recording studio, backstage and at home with her extended family in Jamaica - and intersperses this candid, revealing footage with live performances by Jones. Still an iconic, uncompromising performer, Jones uses all her legendary stagecraft to perform classic hits like Pull Up to the Bumper and Slave to the Rhythm, alongside newer material like Williams Blood. Alongside the intimate scenes of Jones backstage and discussing her past with her family, the film gives a real sense of what made her the artist and performer she is.
When Martina Navratilova called for an open debate about transgender women athletes competing in women’s sports earlier this year, it sparked a heated and passionate argument, creating global news headlines. In this one-off documentary special for BBC One, Martina sets out to open up the debate and answer some of her own questions by meeting a range of athletes, trans women and scientists. Martina meets Naomi, a trans woman who is at the beginning of her transition and wants to be able to continue to play football. She talks to Martina about the difficulties she has experienced and how important sport is to her. Martina is very supportive of the inclusion of trans women in amateur sports, but she is concerned about the possible physical advantages that trans women may have over female athletes in competitions. Graphic sequences with a male and female athlete explain the science behind the physical differences between them as well as the strength and speed advantages that male athletes have over females. Martina then goes to Loughborough University to talk to the sports scientists there who are about to embark on unprecedented research into the performance of trans women athletes before, during and after transition. She helps out with another piece of research which questions the role of testosterone in performance, even bench-pressing some weights, and she has her own testosterone level measured. Martina is also challenged on her views by sports inclusion legal expert Seema Patel, sociologist Ellis Cashmore and Trans Media Watch founder Helen Belcher.
Documentary telling the story of Mikey Kay’s autistic 47-year-old brother Spencer, who finds his peace in epic walks across the majestic, rugged Welsh terrain. For Spencer, everyday tasks can be a huge challenge, and he is unable to wash, dress or feed himself. But the moment he steps into the mountains, he becomes unstoppable. The family know the only medicine their brother actually needs is his freedom to walk in the epic landscapes of north Wales. The film, shot over three years at their childhood home on Anglesey and in the surrounding sweeping landscapes of wild beaches and dramatic mountains, follows the family's struggle to keep that fundamental freedom so crucial to his mental wellbeing, and provides a rare insight into life with a close relative with autism. The documentary also follows the Kays’ years of battling to ensure Spencer could live as independently as possible in the community he calls home.
With a week to go before Glastonbury 2019, Edith Bowman narrates this affectionate, witty A-Z of 25 years’ worth of Pyramid Stage headliner action since TV cameras first came to Pilton in 1994.
Sue Barker presents an intimate profile of one of sport’s most famous characters, John McEnroe, who is still controversial as he enters his 60th year. Sue travels to John’s New York home and meets his childhood friends, brothers Mark and Patrick, daughters Anna, Ava, Ruby and his wife Patty Smyth (the American singer and songwriter). Along with his greatest rival and close friend Bjorn Borg, they all help to unravel the contradictions of the man who could be number one in the world and at the same time public enemy number one. With unique personal access, Sue witnesses at first-hand the mystique of the dad, husband, coach, rock-star, art dealer and broadcaster. She visits John’s art gallery, attends one of his jam sessions and gets an insight from his rock-star buddy Chrissie Hynde into his passion for music. This is a man who has become far more than a tennis player, yet at 60 he is still competing, the oldest man on tour. A man at a crossroads in his life, he’s on the brink of retiring from tennis. Sue presents another side to the man who took Wimbledon by storm, shocking and delighting in equal measure, and is still as “seriously” unpredictable as ever… and a man who eventually won the hearts of Wimbledon.
Using dramatic reconstruction, declassified cockpit audio recorded by the astronauts themselves and film archive, this is the untold story of the first moon landing.
It's 50 years since Charles was crowned Prince of Wales in a lavish ceremony which divided opinion in our country. Sian Lloyd goes on a road trip across Wales, and back through time, to see what the heir to the throne has done for Wales, and asks whether we will ever see another investiture like it again.
For over fifty years, Dieter Rams has left an indelible mark on the field of product design with his iconic work at Braun and Vitsoe, and his influence on Apple. So, at 87 years old, why does he now regret being a designer? Rams is a design documentary, but it is also a rumination on consumerism, sustainability and the future of design. Dieter's philosophy is about more than just design. It is about a way to live. The film also features an original score by pioneering musician Brian Eno.
The majority of the 14,000 fans were young girls, there to enjoy a night of freedom. Twenty-two people were killed, more than 250 injured and countless lives were impacted. This observational documentary hears from nine young girls and women aged between 11 and 20 who were directly involved, many of whom are reflecting on their experiences for the first time. Following three of them in the months after the attack, this intimate film also explores the lasting psychological impact and how their lives have been changed forever. Erin, 11, walked through the site where the bomb exploded. She witnessed the aftermath and is unable to speak about what she saw; she battles with flashbacks and is scared to leave the house. Her mum and her 14-year-old sister Caitlin are trying to support her but feel helpless. For 18-year-old Amelia (pictured) it was the first concert she had been to without her mum. She was standing six feet away from the bomber and she was physically injured in the attack. Now her mum struggles to let her out of her sight, terrified of losing her. Twenty-year-old Louise’s whole life has been put on hold and plans to go to university frozen as she struggles to deal with the loss of her brother Martyn, who was killed in the attack. Told in their words with raw honesty, the film gives a unique insight into the worlds of the young people and families impacted by a tragedy of national significance.
In 2017, 25-year-old Anna Campbell from Lewes in East Sussex travelled in secret to northern Syria. She was heading for Rojava, the Kurdish territory in the north of the country. In the midst of the civil war in Syria, a fledgling feminist democracy had been established but almost immediately came under threat from the so-called Islamic State. Just eight months after arriving and with no military background, Anna went to the front line to fight with Kurdish YPJ. A month later she was killed by a Turkish air strike. With access to her diary and videos filmed while she was there, this film explores what motivated Anna to leave and how her family make sense of the tragic consequences.
Fifty years on from the investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales, this documentary explores the tumultuous period leading up to the investiture and the rise of Welsh nationalism. The investiture set two very different men on a collision course; a young prince making his debut on the global stage and a military man turned bomber, repelled by the investiture and all it represented, and determined to unleash chaos and fear. Through the intertwining stories of these two men and other key characters of the political arena and Welsh nationalist movements, this film captures a remarkable moment in British history. The events surrounding that day remain among the most divisive, intriguing, revealing and defining in the story of the relationship between Wales and England in the 20th Century. Set against a backdrop of global political turmoil, the documentary places the rise of Welsh nationalism within the revolutionary spirit of that decade. While civil protest rocked societies across the world, the British royal family set in motion the re-enactment of a mock ceremony that was intended to define and secure the future of the British monarchy. With new footage shot on 16mm film alongside a wealth of archive, the programme powerfully evokes this period of unrest. It draws on expert opinion from historians and commentators including Beatrix Campbell and Martin Johnes, as well as testimony from those who lived through it, including the former Labour MP Gwynoro Jones and key members of the Welsh nationalist movements from that time. Culminating in the investiture day itself, a colour television event on a scale never seen before and accessible to a global audience of 500 million, the film builds to an explosive climax as the fates of the prince and the bomber collide.
Writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald traces the dramatic journey of Britain’s greatest river, the Tay, over an entire year. Mixing natural history, cutting-edge science and historical biography with a spectacular travelogue, the film is a celebration of our largest river as it transforms from melting Highland snow to a vast torrent flowing into the cold North Sea. Following the river’s course from Ben Lui in the west to Dundee in the east, Helen explores the Tay’s magical landscapes, encounters its rare and beautiful wildlife and traces the epic lifecycle of its iconic Salmon population across four spectacular seasons. Spring’s mountain glens reveal hardy lifeforms, honed for life in rushing water, from the Dipper, the world’s only swimming songbird, to a mayfly nymph that mimics the shape of a racing car’s aerofoil to withstand fast-flowing streams. Helen continues her travels with a visit to the remote Tay tributary, whose riverbed rocks led to an 18th-century man of science, James Hutton, becoming the first person to fully grasp the Earth’s true age, sparking the ‘heretical’ concept of deep time. As spring moves into summer, Helen studies a newly introduced wild Beaver colony to see how this controversial returnee is transforming the Tay’s landscape. She also takes a fascinating look at the microscopic life that fills the sun-drenched waters in a lab where these tiny green algae are helping to answer one of life’s great questions: how multicellular bodies like ours first evolved. Autumn’s cooling air creates darker, richer waters as the Tay’s riverside trees shed millions of leaves. This huge influx of nutrients threatens to upset the delicate balance of the river’s ecosystem. But Helen meets an unlikely saviour: the unassuming freshwater pearl mussel. As winter starts to grip, Helen’s journey reaches Perth, the point where the river begins to mingle with the sea. In the brackish water downstream lies the UK’s largest r
In 2016 a trip to a summer camp in Russia's far north ended in tragedy, when 14 children died during a boating activity. It later emerged there had been complaints about the conditions at the camp, but nothing had been done. The deaths shocked Russia. Now three years on and following criminal proceedings where two people were prosecuted, Yulia James meets some of the families of the children who died and who are still looking for answers.
The story of Britain’s biggest ever food scandal. Mad cow disease has killed almost 200 people. It is an epidemic that was created through greed and political miscalculation.
An intimate, feature-length documentary following two patients through groundbreaking ‘first in-human’ trials for CAR T-cell therapy, a treatment described as the beginning of the end of cancer. Not allowed to meet and separated by two floors of a hospital, 53-year-old Graham and 18-year old-Mahmoud are nevertheless bound together by their commitment to the treatment and their faith in the science. Terminally ill, the trial represents their only option. How do their ages and life experiences affect their physical and emotional response? For Martin Pule, the scientist who has developed the treatment, the responsibility of curing patients is both exciting and daunting. He knows he stands on the cusp of a breakthrough that could radically change the way we treat cancer. At the heart of this film is the complex relationship between the patients and the clinical team. How much hope can the patients be given when they are effectively going into these trials as human guinea pigs? The patients and clinical team must weigh up hope with realism and their response is a profound and revealing reflection of the human condition.
Looking back with a mixture of pride, curiosity and occasional bewilderment, Noel Gallagher relives moments of his life on TV - handpicked by Dermot O’Leary. From Maine Road to Downing Street, The Word to Newsnight – Noel has been ever present on our screens for the past 25 years. Now is his chance to watch it back. In characteristically revealing form, Noel talks about the early days of Oasis, their first TV appearances, his love of Top of the Pops, his role in Cool Britannia, the breakup of one of the world’s most successful rock groups, his own solo career – and how Don’t Look Back In Anger came to define his home town’s response to the Manchester Arena bombing.
Music documentary that traces the improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi to his career as a black American League baseball player and his meteoric rise as a trailblazing country music superstar. Pride’s love for music led him from the Delta to a larger, grander world. In the 1940s, radio transcended racial barriers, making it possible for Pride to grow up listening to and imitating Grand Ole Opry stars like Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. Pride arrived in Nashville in 1963 with the city embroiled in sit-ins and racial violence. But with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with music industry insiders into a legacy of hit singles, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Narrated by Grammy-nominated country singer Tanya Tucker, the film features original interviews with country music royalty as well as on-camera conversations between Pride and the programme’s other guests.
A documentary exploring the place of the LGBTQ community within the Christian faith, and the Church of England in particular, through the perspective of the Rev Jide Macaulay, an openly gay member of the clergy. Jide is an ordained deacon and wants the Church of England to adopt a more inclusive position towards the LGBTQ community, with particular respect to same-sex marriages for members of the priesthood. He wants to know why he cannot marry his partner, so he sets out to meet people who have views on and experience of same-sex relationships within the Church of England, and seeks to understand the position of other Christian denominations.
How golfer Tommy Fleetwood went from sneaking on to golf courses as a youngster to the top of the sport. With contributions from Tommy, his wife, father, coach and caddie, as well as Colin Montgomerie, Robbie Fowler and his friend Francesco Molinari. The programme includes never-before-seen home video of Tommy’s childhood and follows him to golf tournaments in the UK and USA.
Revolutionary change is shaking up the TV industry in Hollywood. A wave of hit shows like Atlanta, Dear White People and Insecure, all with majority African-American casts, are pioneering a new frankness about race and identity. This film follows Reggie Yates to LA and into this ferociously creative and hugely aspirational new world as he meets leading African-American actors such as Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, True Detective) and Stranger Things star Caleb Mclaughlin, and writers and showrunners from Lena Waithe (Master of None and The Chi) to Justin Simien (Dear White People). Through entertaining encounters with some of the most exciting talent working in the entertainment industry, Reggie tackles the big questions in Trump’s America that the work coming out of this black renaissance addresses, and he explores his own experiences of working in front of, and behind, the camera.
A never-before-seen look at the incel community, an online subculture to which multiple mass murders and hate crimes against women have been attributed.
A group of Holocaust survivors and their families gather in Prague’s Old Town Square to recreate a photo that was taken in 1945, when the survivors had just been liberated from Nazi concentration camps. The survivors were part of a group of children flown to the UK to start new lives after World War Two. Unlike the Kindertransport - which rescued thousands of children in the early years of the war - this group had been through the concentration camps and survived against all odds. BBC reporter Hannah Gelbart, a granddaughter of one of the survivors, tells the story of the orphaned children who had everything taken from them, and re-built their lives together.
What do you do when you’re young, homeless and have a baby? As homelessness in the UK reaches the highest level in a generation, for many this is an all too real predicament. With 130,000 children now growing up with no fixed abode, the government have described the situation as a national crisis. This film follows the ups and downs of a group of young women who, with nowhere else to go, are temporarily living in a mother and baby hostel in Luton. With support from staff, they are able to forge friendships, come to terms with the past and begin to rebuild their lives, before eventually being placed in a permanent council home. Katie, 19, found herself homeless with twins after her relationship with mum and stepdad broke down and she split up with her boyfriend. Talamika, 22, has lived in the hostel for three years but can’t leave until she has cleared her £3000 debt.
With July 2019 marking the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, eyes across the world will be turned to the skies. To celebrate this seminal event, Wales's NASA-recognised astro-photographer Alyn Wallace sets out to capture his ultimate moon images, taken in iconic locations around Wales. Along the way, Alyn will celebrate Wales's internationally recognised and protected 'dark skies'. In a time when light-pollution blights so much of the country Wales is blessed with a network of Dark Skies Reserves that astronomers have singled out as world-beating places to look at the night sky. Alyn will also explore Wales's connections to the moon and will get close to a piece of actual moon rock from the Apollo 12 mission (which is one of the most valuable exhibits in Cardiff Museum). He also visits Wales's most significant observatory in the Brecon Beacons Dark Sky Reserve. and discover the story of John Dillwyn Llewelyn, a Victorian photographic pioneer, who, from his home near Swansea, took one of the first ever pictures taken in Wales - a photo of the moon. Finally, Alyn attempts an ambitious shot of the rising full moon over the Brecon Beacons: bringing the story of the moon landings to an iconic Welsh landscape.
2019 has marked a change in public attitudes to climate change driven in part by a huge new global protest movement. In this timely and powerful documentary, reporter Ben Zand gains access to the most important of the protest groups, Extinction Rebellion. He is with them for four months as they build towards “the rebellion” - 11 days of protest in April during which they take over and occupy four iconic locations in London. The film follows three young people who have been inspired to join and lead the protests. Many are not only protesting for the first time in their lives but are also putting their liberty on the line to demand radical action from the government. We are there as they organise street protests and direct actions - risking arrest for their commitment to the cause. 16-year-old Dani from south London has never been on a protest before - since joining Extinction Rebellion in 2018, she has co-organised nationwide school strikes. Sam is 22 and a recent graduate, but now works full-time for Extinction Rebellion and is willing to get arrested again and again until something changes. Jack joined the movement recently at age 18. He is inspired by the tactics and research laid out by Extinction Rebellion and has an eye on organising controversial splinter actions for the movement. Ben also spends time with the leader of the movement, Roger Hallam, who has spent years academically researching tactics for social change. He says you need 2000 people to get arrested and 400 people to go to prison if you want the government to meet your demands. Ben challenges him on his methods and asks whether it is justifiable to encourage young people to break the law. This film is the first to get inside the new climate movements. It reveals how they have mobilised a generation to take radical action to help save the planet from climate change.
In this special programme, marking 50 years since the first moon landing, comedian Tudur Owen tells the remarkable story of Tecwyn Roberts - a Welshman who was instrumental in the Apollo missions at NASA. From Anglesey to America, we hear just how important Tecwyn’s work was in getting man to the moon. Tudur visits the homes and gets exclusive interviews with three of NASA’s finest engineering legends that worked by Tecwyn’s side, who are as keen as Tudur in getting Tecwyn the recognition he deserves. We learn how the young Tecwyn left Anglesey for a life of adventure, crossing the Atlantic for a new life in North America where he worked as an aeronautical engineer. He went on to become the first Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO) at NASA, before designing the iconic Mission Control in Houston, and the Deep Space Communication Network that made the moon missions possibile. According to his contemporaries, NASA would not have succeeded if it wasn’t for Tecwyn Roberts. Despite his life in the States and dedication to the job, Roberts never forgot his roots and came back to visit Wales a few times before his death in 1988. On his gravestone a Welsh dragon and the words ‘Rhaid I mi Ddweud Ffarwel’ I must say Farewell’. This documentary features extraordinary, remastered NASA archive film from the 1950s and 1960s, showcasing one of mankind’s finest achievements.
Every year in the UK thousands of baby boys are circumcised for religious or cultural reasons. The practice, which involves removing a small part of their penis, is one of the most common surgical procedures in the world. But several European countries are considering a ban on circumcision, unless there are medical reasons for the operation to be carried out. Is it something we should consider banning here? Journalist Adnan Sarwar was circumcised by his Muslim parents as an infant, and now he has questions about the operation and its safety. He begins his journey at an Islamic circumcision clinic in the East London Mosque. Dr Mohammad Howlader tells Adnan that, with the procedure unregulated in the UK, he wants to provide a safe clinical environment for children to be circumcised in. Adnan is astonished to discover that circumcision is an unregulated procedure in the UK and meets barrister James Chegwidden to find out what the legal position is. According to James, the law says any interference on a person’s body without their consent is an assault and that parents can only consent to surgical operations that are in the best interests of the child. And yet in practice thousands and thousands of male infants are being circumcised. So where is the balance to be struck between the rights of a child and the parents’ right to express their beliefs? Adnan talks to his own mother and father about his own circumcision as a baby. They tell him they did it because Muslims believe it’s a commandment from God. This leads Adnan to Saleem Sidat, an Islamic scholar, to find out why it’s so important in the faith. Saleem tells him the circumcision of boys is a religious symbol encouraged by the prophet Mohammad out of respect for Abraham - a prophet revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But Saleem says there is nothing in the Qur’an requiring the circumcision of boys. The other faith that routinely practices circumcision is Judaism. Dr Jonathan Romain MBE,
Komodo dragons, Earth's largest lizards, can only be found in a tiny corner of Indonesia. Tourists from around the globe flock here to see them and locals believe they are physically and spiritually related to them. But as Rebecca Henschke reports, Indonesian regional authorities want to return Komodo Island to the dragons.
Witness History has five stories from the history of space exploration, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing in 1969.
Bestselling author Jessie Burton and award-winning author and playwright Alex Wheatle join School of Life bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud to discuss the role of reading and writing within mental health. Hosted by BBC Culture's literature columnist Hephzibah Anderson.
In a Sussex village, a community has turned its back on the modern world to live a life free of money, crime and homelessness. But one young resident is questioning her future.
The tragic death of Emiliano Sala in a plane crash touched thousands of people across the world. BBC Wales Investigates examines the circumstances of the crash and travels to Argentina to speak exclusively with his family and friends to find out more about the footballer and their hopes for justice.
Working-class Tory and Leave-voting comedian Geoff Norcott sets out on a mission to expose the middle-class hypocrisy that he believes is ruining Britain, looking at education, the gentrification of parts of big cities, and the worlds of dating and politics.
In this revelatory documentary, hip hop legend and art lover Fab 5 Freddy (aka Fred Brathwaite) saddles up to explore 15th-century Italian renaissance art in 15th-century style – on horseback. Amidst superstar artists such as Michelangelo, Giotto, Ghiberti and Carpaccio, Fab discovers groundbreaking images of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society that have slipped through the cracks of art history.
Amol Rajan investigates how much class still matters in Britain’s elite professions. What does it take for bright working class youngsters to break into the elite?
Documentary following Markus Meechan as he explores London’s comedy scene to see what stand-ups can get away with and why there’s a backlash against ‘edgy’ humour.
Merely Marvelous is a celebration of the life and artistry of Broadway's greatest dancing star, Gwen Verdon. She overcame many obstacles, including rickets, the Hollywood system, a loveless first marriage and a difficult second marriage to choreographer/director Bob Fosse, to become a multi-Tony Award-winning performer. Gwen's life is told through interviews with family members and theatre associates as well as a mine of rare footage from her Broadway and Hollywood careers. Merely Marvelous is the story of a brave woman who rose to the very top of her profession.
Dubbed Britain’s worst football team, Fort William FC sits at the foot of Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands. Filmed during the new management’s first season in charge of the club, the documentary follows the struggles of the Highland League side on and off the pitch and the lives of the locals for whom the club means so much.
Acid house is often portrayed as a movement that came out of the blue, inspired by little more than a handful of London-based DJs discovering ecstasy on a 1987 holiday to Ibiza. In truth, the explosion of acid house and rave in the UK was a reaction to a much wider and deeper set of fault lines in British culture, stretching from the heart of the city to the furthest reaches of the countryside, cutting across previously impregnable boundaries of class, identity and geography. With Everybody in the Place, the Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller upturns popular notions of rave and acid house, situating them at the very centre of the seismic social changes that reshaped 1980s Britain. Rare and unseen archive materials map the journey from protest movements to abandoned warehouse raves, the white heat of industry bleeding into the chaotic release of the dancefloor. We join an A-level politics class as they discover these stories for the first time, viewing the story of acid house from the perspective of a generation for whom it is already ancient history. We see how rave culture owes as much to the Battle of Orgreave and the underground gay clubs of Chicago as it does to shifts in musical style: not merely a cultural gesture, but the fulcrum for a generational shift in British identity, linking industrial histories and radical action to the wider expanses of a post-industrial future.
Conjoined twins Marieme and Ndeye from Senegal have defied all expectations by living to two and a half years old. But their future is uncertain and their father Ibrahima now faces an unimaginable decision. When the sisters were seven months old, Ibrahima brought them to the UK to seek the specialist care of Great Ormond Street Hospital. The hospital is one of the world’s leading centres for this incredibly rare condition. Marieme and Ndeye have separate hearts and lungs, but Marieme’s heart is very weak and her life expectancy is poor. If she dies her stronger sister Ndeye will die with her. As their health deteriorates, the hospital and Ibrahima are forced to decide whether a separation should be considered. Not only is it a technically challenging procedure, but in Marieme and Ndeye’s case it brings to the fore some very difficult ethical questions. An operation to separate Marieme and Ndeye risks both girls’ lives, but particularly Marieme’s. The medical team feel she is not strong enough to survive surgery. So, would it be ethical for the team to perform the separation knowing that Marieme wouldn’t survive, even if it meant giving her sister a chance of a longer life? And if it would be, but the father disagreed, should the hospital override his wishes? To help navigate these pressing ethical questions the twins’ medical team request the guidance of the Great Ormond Street Clinical Ethics Committee. One of the first to be set up in the UK, and a world leader, the hospital’s Ethics Committee helps teams and families through some of the increasingly complex decisions faced in paediatric medicine. Decisions too difficult for one doctor, one team, or one family to make on their own. The programme tracks the journey of Ibrahima and the hospital’s medical team as they wrestle with what everyone agrees is a seemingly impossible decision.
Comedian and football presenter Lloyd Griffith embarks on an experiment to find out if he can uncover the secrets of gambling success and the truth about the industry.
During the 1970s, Ibiza became the dance destination of Europe and heralded the birth of superclubs such as Pacha, Ku and Amnesia.
In a series of documentaries, the BBC explores how best we can protect our precious planet. Climate change and pollution are taking their toll - that much is now scientifically evident. But for all the uncomfortable truth; individuals, scientists and politicians realise we have the power to do something; that we hold the future in our hands. We'll be exploring sustainable solutions around the globe, and the people at the forefront of driving change.
As Iraq picks up the pieces after the defeat of the so-called Islamic State group, this film follows the relentless efforts of the women who are helping their country overcome the trauma of war.
Sharanjit Leyl explores Singapore's early beginnings through the stories of some of the first settlers, examining compelling and remarkable characters who helped to forge a modern nation. She uncovers the secrets and little-known history of this fascinating city.
This film gives the term ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ a whole new meaning as it charts the lives and loves of Wales’ first and best roller derby team, the Tiger Bay Brawlers. This observational documentary follows them through the biggest moment of their sporting lives: the European Continental Championships. Roller derby is one of the fastest growing sports in Europe. To the uninitiated, it looks like hell on wheels - a violent spinning vortex of tattooed women on roller skates, crashing into each other at high speed. But, to its devotees, roller derby is not just a sport. It quickly becomes life. For some, it’s also a brutal escape from everyday struggles, for others it’s been a salvation. Along the way, the film explores what has made roller derby a cultural phenomenon and a safe place for women of all shapes, sizes and gender orientations to express themselves physically – and sometimes violently – while creating a strong community spirit like they’ve never encountered elsewhere in their lives.
On 14 August 2018, the Polcevera Bridge in Genoa collapsed, sending 27 vehicles plummeting to the valley below. 43 people lost their lives. It was Italy’s worst ever road-bridge disaster. This film tells the story of some of the people on the bridge that day and investigates what caused the bridge to fail so catastrophically. The Polcevera Bridge was an icon of 1960s engineering, built by one of Italy’s most celebrated engineers, and hailed by some as a masterpiece. It formed a vital link in the main motorway between the south of France and Rome. Its failure had a huge impact on the local economy. The debris blocked railway lines for weeks, 600 people who lived under the bridge were forced to flee their homes, and lorry drivers had to make a 115km detour. Ex-professional footballer Davide Capello, who was driving over the bridge when it collapsed, recalls his miraculous escape. "I found myself tumbling into the void. At that moment I let go of the wheel, I placed my hands behind my head, and I thought I was already dead." With many of Europe’s highways built in the same era as the Genoa bridge, this tragedy has raised questions about the maintenance of Europe’s ageing infrastructure. Are our bridges safe?
Presenter Josie d’Arby can’t wait to return to Wales’ largest international festival - the Llangollen Eisteddfod. This summer event showcases competitors and performers from all over the world and Josie will be there to meet the groups and experience the behind-the-scenes preparations and to congratulate the winners. BBC News presenter and passionate clog dancer Iwan Griffiths travels to Ireland to meet a group of Irish dancers and musicians from Castleblayney in County Monaghan, Northern Ireland, as they prepare to compete at the event this year. We also meet a group of Indian bhangra dancers from the West Midlands - whose members include a dentist and a fish and chip shop owner - as they rehearse their routines. How will these groups fare in the competitions this year? As well as meeting the groups and competing individuals, Josie is there to catch this year’s star performers backstage, including singer and BBC Radio Cymru presenter Shân Cothi and the world renowned operatic tenor Rolando Villazon. Legendary musician Jools Holland also performs at this year’s opening concert. All of the top notes and all of the highlights from the 2019 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.
In a uniquely personal journey on the 50th anniversary of the deployment of British troops in August 1969, reporter Peter Taylor reflects on almost a half century of covering the Northern Ireland conflict. The programme is a highly personal account of the Troubles events and legacies, drawing on Peter's experiences in reporting from Northern Ireland.
The captivating story of Jim Haynes, an extraordinary 83-year-old man who grabbed with heart and soul the spirit of the 60s and continued to carry it throughout his life. He dined with The Beatles and shacked up with the Rolling Stones. He rubbed shoulders with soul diva Mama Cass, folk troubadour Leonard Cohen and a fledgling Pink Floyd. He was a figurehead for a new generation of playwrights. After he was stopped at Munich airport with a bag full of blank ‘world passports’, he lectured bewildered German border police about the virtues of 'world government'. Today, at 83, Jim Haynes just won’t slow down. This ‘godfather of social networking’ organises open dinners every Sunday night in the Parisian artist studio that has been his home for the past 50 years. Total strangers, unknown both to him and to each other, meet in his living room and Jim’s friends show up to cook cheerfully for crowds of 60 or more. It’s simple: you sign up, you come over, you meet Jim. As he once said: 'My home is a world government embassy that never closes'. Meeting Jim composes an impressionistic portrait of Jim Haynes the man and the cultural phenomenon, as seen by the many and diverse people whose lives have been touched by his. The film is a hymn to the lasting spirit of the 60s, an inspirational living proof of how we can all choose to live on the bright side. To Jim, the choice is ready-made: 'Life is short. We have a duty to enjoy ourselves'
Eric Jones is a legendary adventurer. A climber, parachutist, base jumper, balloonist and motor biker whose love for speed and his need for pulse-racing adventure has seen him live an incredible and inspirational life. Eric is widely recognised as Britain's most successful solo climber. It's the purest and most dangerous form of climbing - solo and with no safety rope. Now, this 82-year-old grandfather has one last epic climb - back to where it all began over 50 years ago on the dramatic south west ridge of the Torre Delago in the Italian Dolomites. Eric reflects on his own life, not just his climbing achievements, and how he fell in love with a young Australian teacher who abandoned her homeland for a new life in Snowdonia. A beautiful, poignant and inspirational film about a great man growing old - but never too old.
For three days in August 1969, half a million people from all walks of life converged on a small dairy farm in upstate New York. They came to hear the concert of their lives, but most experienced something far more profound: a moment that came to define a cultural revolution. This documentary tells the story of the lead-up to those three historic days, through the voices of those who were there and the music of the time. It includes extraordinary moments from the concert itself, iconic images of both performers and festival goers, and tells how this groundbreaking event, pulled off right at the last minute, nearly ended in disaster and put the ideals of the counterculture to the test.
On 27 August 1979, Lord Mountbatten, great uncle to Prince Charles, was blown up at sea by the IRA off the west coast of the Republic of Ireland. Three others were killed on the boat that day, including two teenage boys. Later that afternoon, in a second strike, the IRA killed 18 British soldiers, across the border in Northern Ireland. Forty years on, this is the story of that remarkable Bank Holiday Monday - movingly told by those directly affected by it.
Jonathan Meades completes his quartet on the architecture of the great European dictators of the 20th century. Franco's architectural legacy was more enduring and surprising than any of the others.
Rugby legend Gareth Thomas continues his campaign to wipe out homophobia in professional football. With reported incidents of homophobic abuse at football matches at a record high, Gareth enlists the help of parliament as he attempts to outlaw abuse in football stadiums. He also recruits Cardiff City, Leeds United and Norwich City in his campaign to tackle homophobia in the boardroom, the dressing room and on the terraces. All of this while coping with being the victim of a violent homophobic attack himself.
Anni Albers enrolled in 1922 at the legendary Bauhaus school with hopes of becoming a painter. However, its founder feared that too many women might damage his new school’s reputation so Anni and the majority of female applicants were swiftly funnelled into the weaving class and workshop. This film documents Anni’s rise and the turbulent final years of the Bauhaus when Anni was forced to flee Germany due to her Jewish heritage and start a new life in America. She went on to become the undisputed leader in her field, but while her husband Josef Albers’ paintings saw him become one of the world’s most famous living artists, Anni’s textiles were always side-lined as a feminine craft. She has since been recognised as a great artist.
Presented by Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, Bauhaus Rules brings the radical principles of the Bauhaus to a new generation, to discover if the school's groundbreaking approach to training artists still holds its power 100 years on. Over a week, six Central St Martins graduates - across fine art, fashion, graphic design and architecture - are challenged each day to create a new work of art, design or performance, sticking strictly to rules inspired by the artists who taught at the Bauhaus.
In 1919 an art school opened in Germany that would change the world forever. It was called the Bauhaus. A century later, its radical thinking still shapes our lives today. Bauhaus 100 is the story of Walter Gropius, architect and founder of the Bauhaus, and the teachers and students he gathered to form this influential school. Traumatised by his experiences during the Great War, and determined that technology should never again be used for destruction, Gropius decided to reinvent the way art and design were taught. At the Bauhaus, all the disciplines would come together to create the buildings of the future, and define a new way of living in the modern world.
An Engineer Imagines tells the story of Peter Rice, widely regarded as the most distinguished structural engineer of the late 20th century, and his massive impact on modern architecture. Without his innovations in material and design, and his collaboration with the leading architects of his time, some of the most recognisable architectural buildings in the world would not have been possible. These buildings include the Sydney Opera House, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Lloyds of London building. The documentary traces Rice's extraordinary work and short life, from his native Dundalk through Belfast, London, Sydney and Paris, to his untimely death in 1992, and explores his lasting legacy, which can be seen today, not only in Europe and beyond, but also in his native Ireland.
For Nadiya, summertime is party time, and is the perfect excuse to put her busy life on hold and pull out all the stops. In this glorious hour-long special, Nadiya cooks up an array of mouth-watering dishes that she serves up to her loved ones at her own summer party feast. Nadiya fires up the BBQ and cooks a delicious butterflied leg of lamb with sticky rhubarb glaze, perfect for feeding a crowd without all the fuss. Colourful sides include zingy kiwi and feta salad, fresh and fragrant edamame wild rice, and a spectacular glazed bread, stuffed with black olive and blue cheese and shaped like a crown. For dessert, Nadiya goes all out with a magical princess torte cake, and her ingenious raspberry ripple eclair pops provide a spectacular centrepiece to ensure her summer party goes off with a bang. Every summer feast needs a thirst-quenching drink and when the sun is shining Nadiya’s tipple of choice is an elderflower cooler. To find out how elderflowers are produced she heads to the UK's largest plantation in the Vale of Belvoir, where she joins an army of local pickers as they help to bring the harvest home. In search of inspiration for a refreshing dessert, Nadiya meets legendary cookery writer Claudia Roden and her family, who are putting a fresh spin on the classic ice-lolly. And at Nancarrow farm in Cornwall, Nadiya rolls up her sleeves and helps cook up an epic feast for over 100 people where everything is cooked on fire.
Stevie Richardson always wanted to be in the army. In 2010, at age 22, Stevie lost his legs stepping on an Improvised Explosive Device in Afghanistan, losing his career as a soldier and his sense of purpose. Several years of arduous recovery later, and after learning how to walk on prosthetics, Stevie is still in combat in civilian life, struggling with his new identity as a 'disabled' man. Kenny Simm (34), a former Royal Marines commando and competitive strongman, safely returned from Afghanistan to his family in Scotland but feels unable to fully adjust to life outside the military without the camaraderie of his fellow soldiers. When the two veterans meet, Kenny inducts Stevie into the sport of 'strongman', leading them on a bizarre and emotionally challenging journey to a competition run by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Columbus, Ohio. However, the road to Stevie's fulfilment is just beginning, testing his friendship with Kenny to its limit.
It's long been known that German soldiers used a methamphetamine, called Pervitin, during WWII. But have tales of Nazis on speed obscured the massive use of stimulants by British and American troops? Did total war unleash the world's first pharmacological arms race? And in the face of industrial slaughter, what role did drugs play in combat? Historian James Holland is on a quest to dig deeper and unearth the truth behind World War Speed.
Richard Mylan and his autistic son Jaco are going on a journey of discovery. Travelling from Wales to America and back again, they’re visiting the most autism-friendly places around the world, to find out how we can make everywhere from a local barber shop to a national stadium more inclusive for autistic people. Richard and Jaco want to understand why so many autistic people feel like they have to change themselves to fit into the world around them. Along the way, they meet some amazing people who believe it’s the world that should be changing instead. In America they visit a South Carolina holiday resort which markets itself as autism friendly and has found the changes they have made have become a real tourist attraction which is generating additional business. They visit Sesame Place theme park where Jaco has a chance to come face to face with Julia, Sesame Street’s first character with autism. And are there lessons to be learnt in Wales by looking at how Madison Square Garden stadium deals with people who are 'wired differently'? Finally Richard and Jaco lead a stimming flash mob in central Cardiff. They want to challenge everyone to be more accommodating of people who may not behave exactly the same way as others.
The story of how the film producer acquired and deployed his power, charting how he allegedly abused women with seeming impunity throughout his career - from his early days as a music promoter to running movie company Miramax with his brother Bob. Women who came forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault tell their stories in detail, including Rosanna Arquette, Erika Rosenbaum and Paz De La Huerta, while the reporters who broke the story detail his ruthless attempts to preserve power, even as scandal threatened to engulf him.
Charlotte Callen investigates an innovative scheme developed by Avon and Somerset Police that uses mentoring and education to help young drug dealers break out of a life of crime. The project, called "The Call In" offers young drug dealers an opportunity to go on a six month intervention course rather than face prosecution, with the aim of preparing them for a crime-free life as productive members of society. Using the experiences of reformed criminals like Clinton Wilson, who was the head of one of Britain's most renowned gangs of drug dealers, The Aggi Crew, The Call In is designed to stop the "revolving door" cycle of crime, where young criminals are released from prison only to commit further offences because they are unprepared for life in the outside world. Clinton lost 12 years of his life to jail, and his message is clear - "it's not worth it." We hear the story of The Aggi Crew, who progressed from violent street robbery to multi-million pound drug deals, resulting in guns being carried on the streets of Bristol - by the gang and the police. Avon and Somerset Police recognise that this scheme is risky, but believe that young people who may have made one bad decision shouldn't be punished for the rest of their lives.
What makes our lipstick glossy and our foundation smooth? A lot of the time it’s palm oil. It’s in 70% of beauty products - and some people say it should be banned. 28-year-old make-up artist Emmy Burbidge goes to Papua New Guinea to see where palm oil comes from, and to find out what our beauty products are doing to the planet. She discovers there is much more to the palm oil industry than meets the eye.
Ellie Flynn investigates the increasing number of claims that some American law enforcement officers have used their position of power to assault women in their custody. It's claimed a serving police officer in the USA is arrested for a sex crime every 35 hours. Following the ongoing high-profile case of teenager Anna Chambers, who alleges she was raped by two NYPD cops while under arrest in 2017, Ellie explores the true scale of sexual misconduct cases against police officers across the US, and discovers the legal loophole in some state laws that may allow officers to escape sexual assault charges, claiming that sex acts were consensual.
From ‘something completely different’ to icons of comedy and national treasures, this is a collection of rarely-seen Monty Python moments from the BBC archives, following the group’s encounters with ‘Auntie’ over the past 50 years. Highlights include Terry Gilliam showing how he created his unique Python animations, Graham Chapman discussing the pressures of life as a homosexual, alcoholic comic, John Cleese explaining why he had to quit the final TV series, and Michael Palin promoting The Life of Brian on a children’s programme. Capturing them at the height of their powers, it is a smorgasbord of insightful interviews, on-location encounters, chat-show conversations and behind-the-scenes silliness from the 70s, 80s and beyond, some of which has been buried in the vaults for decades.
Freddy is 30 and yearns to start a family but for him this ordinary desire comes with unique challenges - he is a gay transgender man. Deciding to carry his own baby took years of soul searching, but nothing could prepare him for the reality of pregnancy, as both a physical experience and one that challenges society's fundamental understanding of gender, parenthood and family. He quickly realises that what to him feels pragmatic, to others feels deeply confusing and confronting - this was not part of his plan. Against a backdrop of increasing hostility towards trans people the world over, Freddy is forced to confront his own naivety, mine unknown depths of courage and lean on every friend and family member who will stand by him. Made with unprecedented access and collaboration over three years, the film follows Freddy from preparing to conceive right through to birth. It is an intimate, audacious and lyrical story for the cinema about conception, pregnancy, birth and what makes us who we are.
Film-maker Conor Reilly is given rare access to the Scottish flat earth community, setting into motion a chain of events that will introduce him to people that are making it their mission to spread the word of flat earth and why they believe in this so passionately. His journey takes him across Scotland, where he meets believers using social media to spread the message of 'waking up to the lies' and those who are taking to the streets with banners and flyers speaking to the public face to face. Finding a small but growing community of Scots leads him to Colorado, USA, and to the second International Flat Earth Conference, where he gets an insight into the movement on an entirely new level. Is this where Scotland is heading?
When Jesy Nelson rose to fame with pop band Little Mix, she was abused online for being 'the fat one". In this personal documentary, the singer opens up about the impact cyberbullies had on her life and the effect on her mental health. Her fellow Little Mix members Perrie, Leigh-Anne and Jade discuss how Jesy's torment affected the ban, while her boyfriend, Love Island star Chris Hughes, recalls falling in love with someone who was clearly damaged by the barrage of negativity she experienced from social media trolls.
The story of the fighter aircraft that became an international icon, told in the words of the last-surviving World War II veterans combined with stunning contemporary and historical aerial footage.
In 1944, two prisoners miraculously escaped from Auschwitz. They told the world of the horror of the Holocaust and raised one of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century.
When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog made a final visit to say farewell. As a parting gift, Chatwin gave Herzog the rucksack that had accompanied him around the world. Thirty years later, carrying the rucksack, Herzog sets out on his own journey, inspired by Chatwin’s passion for the nomadic life. Along the way, Herzog uncovers stories of lost tribes, wanderers and dreamers. He travels to South America, where Chatwin wrote In Patagonia, the book that turned him into a literary sensation, with its enigmatic tales of dinosaurs, myths and journeys to the ends of the world. In Australia, where he and Chatwin first met, Herzog explores the sacred power of the Aboriginal traditions that inspired Chatwin’s most famous book, The Songlines. And in the UK, in the beautiful landscape of the Welsh borders, he discovers the one place Chatwin called home. Told in Herzog’s inimitable style - full of memorable characters and encounters - this is a portrait of one of the 20th century’s most charismatic writers, which also offers a revealing insight into the imagination and obsessions of one of the 20th century’s most visionary directors.
Rugby legend Gareth Thomas lifts the lid on living with HIV. In an emotional and hard-hitting documentary he finally goes public about his condition and reveals how hiding the truth about his health left him feeling depressed and contemplating taking his own life. Now he is on a journey to change perceptions about HIV by raising awareness, fighting prejudice and taking on the biggest physical challenge of his career - running the world’s toughest Iron Man. With the help of family, friends, medical experts and others with HIV, he sets about tackling the stigmas, myths and misunderstandings surrounding the condition. Modern medicine may have made the virus treatable and non-transmittable, but old ideas about HIV still persist and Gareth is on a mission to smash the stereotypes and show that 'he has HIV and it’s OK'.
Documentary about the extraordinary friendship and collaboration between Winston Churchill and film producer Alexander Korda that helped to bring America into the Second World War.
Christine McVie is undoubtedly the longest-serving female band member of any of the enduring rock ‘n’ roll acts that emerged from the 1960s. While she has never fronted Fleetwood Mac, preferring to align herself with ‘the boys’ in the rhythm section whom she first joined 50 years ago, Christine is their most successful singer-songwriter. Her hits include ‘Over My Head’, ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Everywhere’. After massive global success in both the late 1970s and mid-1980s, Christine left the band in the late 1990s, quitting California and living in semi-retirement in Kent, only to rejoin the band in 2013. In this 90-minute film, this most English of singers finally gets to take centre-stage and tell both her story and the saga of Fleetwood Mac from her point of view.
A compelling insight into the growth of America's devastating relationship with opioids that has destroyed millions of lives.
Granting unprecedented access, Joan Armatrading tells her life story, both as a songwriter and as a performer. Features key performances from Joan and many of the musicians she has influenced.
Meet Tony Flatman and Julian Meek, Wales's two most unlikely press barons. Four years ago they launched the Abertillery Dynamic, a free local newspaper, with the aim of holding power to account. Combining opinion pieces with regular features such as 'Sheep of the Week’ and 'The Pub Review’, this is no ordinary paper. After 36 editions, worn out and broke, they were forced to close down. But now they are back and ready to relaunch. This wry, warm-hearted documentary celebrates these two lovable characters, as their old-fashioned approach to local journalism collides with the modern world.
In this undercover investigation, Nawal Al Maghafi exposes a secret world of sexual exploitation in Iraq. Some Shia clerics are using a controversial practice called 'pleasure marriage' to groom vulnerable girls and young women and pimp them out.
Funk Queen Betty Davis changed the landscape for female artists in America. She 'was the first', as former husband Miles Davis said. 'Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince'. An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty arrived on the 70s scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles – startlingly turning him from jazz to funk on the album she named 'Bitches Brew'. She then, despite being banned and boycotted, went on to become the first black woman to perform, write and manage herself. Betty was a feminist pioneer, inspiring and intimidating in a manner like no woman before. Then suddenly - she just vanished. Betty Mabry Davis is a global icon whose mysterious life story has until now, never been told. Creatively blending documentary and animation, this movie traces the path of Betty’s life, how she grew from humble upbringings to become a fully self-realized black female pioneer the world failed to understand or appreciate, revealing the mystery of her 35-year disappearance and her battle with mental illness and poverty. After years of trying, the elusive Betty finally allowed the film-makers to creatively tell her story based on their conversations.
Upstream is a new film by the writer Robert Macfarlane and the director Rob Petit. The film, which is shot entirely from the air, follows the course of the River Dee in Scotland all the way to its source in the Cairngorm mountains, the highest of any river in Britain. With a prose poem written especially for the film by Macfarlane (voiced by Julie Fowlis) and an original score by the Oscar-nominated composer Hauschka, the film takes as it epigraph the words of the Scottish writer Nan Shepherd (1893-1981): "One cannot know the rivers till one has seen them at their sources", wrote Shepherd, "but this journey to sources is not to be undertaken lightly." (The Living Mountain, 1977). Eerie, hypnotic and experimental, this groundbreaking polyphonic film weaves together field-recordings of the river, and the birds and creatures which live along it, the place-names and stories - dark and light - of the Cairngorms, creating a 'songline' that draws the viewer up, against the flow, into wildness, winter and strangeness.
21-year-old Roma woman Rahela and 35-year-old Scottish man Neil are both residents of Govanhill, Glasgow. But even though they live in the same neighbourhood, their lives could not be more different. Rahela takes this opportunity to introduce Neil to her culture and people, and Neil confronts her about issues in their community that the majority of residents are not happy about.
Ian Hislop's sharp, provocative take on 200 years of fake news and its consequences - from Victorians on the moon to 21st-century deepfake, and Hislop as never seen before.
Andrew Graham-Dixon investigates the story of the 20th century's greatest art forger, Han van Meegeren, who made millions during World War II selling fake Vermeers in Nazi-occupied Holland. Following a trail of evidence across Europe, Graham-Dixon pieces together how van Meegeren fooled the art establishment - and even swindled Hermann Göring, selling him what was then one of the most expensive paintings in the world. Looking at this tale of intrigue and double-dealing against the backdrop of Europe’s darkest hour, Graham-Dixon tries to uncover the motives of the master forger. Was he a Dutch folk hero, outwitting the Nazi occupiers? A cynical opportunist? Or even ruthless collaborator? As Andrew Graham-Dixon discovers, this is a tale about much more than simply art forgery: a twisted, timely morality tale about the blurred lines between truth and fiction that poses uncomfortable questions about deception - and collusion. About what happens when we want to believe something a little too much, even when the evidence of fakery is before our eyes.
With Asia now home to more billionaires than the USA or Europe, this film follows Lelian Chew, who organises nuptials for the super-rich in the Far East, taking on ten just ceremonies a year at an average cost of $1million each. Bespoke Cartier jewellery, hundreds of thousands of dollars of flowers and multiple designer wedding dresses are nothing out of the ordinary. But Lelian's job also involves navigating the clash between age-old Chinese marriage customs and the desires of the young, often with outlandish solutions - multiple weddings are becoming the norm for the Chinese super-rich.
A treasure trove of tapes from the golden age of reggae has been salvaged and provides the soundtrack to the compelling story of the family behind the legendary Randy's Studio 17.
Mark Ronson, hit songwriter and producer openly discusses his life and musical influences. With interviews from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Broadcast on National Album Day.
Annie Price meets the women fighting to the top in Mixed Martial Arts or MMA - one of the fastest growing sports in Britain. Molly McCann is the first English woman to win in the top league, the UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship, and invites Price to train and hang out with her as she prepares for her biggest fight yet, in the USA. 18 year old Shanelle Dyer fights at amateur level and sees MMA as the ticket to big earnings and a way to escape the street violence around her west London family home. Cory McKenna is 19, a straight A student turned full time fighter, now hotly tipped for the top. Training and traveling with Britain’s brightest MMA stars, Price finds out what drives them and whether the risks are really worth the rewards.
A collection of home movies, diaries and letters from the last summer before the start of the Second World War reveals how far the impending conflict was away from the minds of ordinary French people.
An exciting and ambitious company of near space explorers who have turned their hand to providing a special and out of this world way to say goodbye to a loved one.
1993 - Scotland’s last full-blooded strike. Thousands of protestors, police and press outside the Timex Camperdown Factory. The furious death throes of an industry that had employed generations of Dundonians - the vast majority women. For most, working for Timex had been a source of pride, good pay and conditions. It would all end in betrayal and bitter disappointment.
Documentary that chronicles Australian David Mayman's seemingly impossible quest to fulfil his childhood dream to build and fly the world's first jetpack.
In 1991, as the town of Motherwell faced the crippling social, economic and cultural impact of the closure of the Ravenscraig steelworks, its football club, locally known as the Steelmen, lifted the prestigious Scottish Cup for the first time in 39 years. The victory was a glimmer of light in the ensuing darkness.
Parle Patel investigates the hereditary class system of Hindu society, asking what kind of impact does it have on other Hindus living in Britain. He meets a young woman who is so proud of her caste she is still working in the same occupation as her ancestors did thousands of years ago, and also speaks to a man who has rejected his religion because he believes it's the only way to escape his caste.
The chilling account of the 2018 megafire that swept through northern California, containing moving interviews with the firemen, police and survivors who came face to face with the disaster.
The secrets of a lost archive of portrait photos showing the changing face of Bradford in the 20th century. Presenter Shanaz Gulzar tracks down people in the portraits.
After centuries of Bonnie Boats speeding Over the Sea to Skye, in 1995 a new bridge was built between the island and the mainland. Privately funded, this was to be a toll bridge. Not only that, it turned out to be the most expensive toll bridge in Europe.The locals, however, were having none of it. The Battle of Skye Bridge tells the story of the islanders' protests against the hated tolls, their struggles with the law, and after nearly a decade of dissent, their final, euphoric victory. This is a part of Scotland historically synonymous with rebellion, and the protests against the bridge tolls are a modern chapter in that proud history.Featuring never-before-seen footage from the period, contributions from protesters and authorities alike and explosive courtroom revelations about the legal process that are still being contested to this day.It is the ultimate David and Goliath story, told by those who were there, set against the stunning backdrop of Skye and the Highlands.
Using first-hand testimony and extensive archive, this documentary reveals what it was like to be an RUC officer during the Troubles. In the 1980s, Northern Ireland was described as the most dangerous place in the world to be a cop. At its peak, the RUC employed 8,500 full-time officers with 4,500 reservists. A total of 319 officers were killed, with 9,000 injured during the conflict – some died at work while others were killed while off duty. As well as dealing with everyday crime the RUC was at the forefront of State’s efforts to tackle terrorism. While investigating burglaries and sex crimes, they dealt with the aftermath of bombings and paramilitary shootings. Officers were predominantly Protestant but some came from Catholic backgrounds – many rose to senior level. Despite witnessing some horrific scenes, at the end of each shift they returned to their homes and tried to live normally. Cops on the Frontline tells their memories and stories. It reveals the day to day realities of what it was like to hold the rule of law in one of the most vicious conflicts of the 20th Century. This documentary is a candid and no-holds-barred chronicle of what it was like to be an RUC Officer dealing with ordinary crime and terrorist incidents. This documentary is unashamedly from the police perspective – it is their uncensored testimonies. It’s an invaluable addition to the Troubles at 50 Archive and to BBC NI’s “….on the Frontline” strand.
During the Troubles nowhere was immune from the violence and fear inflicted on our society. Not the streets, not the factories, not the hospitals. Not even our schools. Through powerful and revealing interviews with teachers and former pupils, this documentary tells the story of how our schools dealt with the traumatic experience of the Troubles as they impacted on the lives of those that lived through it. The programme features tragic and poignant stories from across the many years of the Troubles. At the same time, however, Schools on the Frontline conveys the determination and resilience of teachers – men and women dedicated to improving the lives of their pupils despite the challenging and unique circumstances that lay before them.
Until Northern Ireland spiralled into mayhem after the explosive summer of 1969, Northern Ireland’s firefighters did the same job as any other fire service - days of relative inactivity interspersed with house fires, road crashes and the occasional factory fire. In the space of a few months the service went from this typical fire-fighting life to the most extreme experience in Western Europe since World War Two. During the subsequent conflict they responded to many thousands of incidents. Fires caused by incendiaries gutted shops and factories, while bomb attacks on pubs, hotels and police stations brought death and misery on a horrendous scale. It was an intensity of experience rarely encountered outside of a full-scale war zone.
2019 marks the 30th year since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Rich Hall examines the relationship between the West and the USSR in his inimitable fashion.
For all our advances in medical science, the number of people suffering from fertility issues remains stubbornly high. Across the UK, one in seven couples - around three and a half million people - will experience difficulty starting a family. Of those, a third have what is known as unexplained infertility - both partners are apparently fertile, and yet together cannot conceive a child. In this powerful documentary, we follow three couples as they each undergo a round of IVF treatment, in the hope of beating this maddening diagnosis. With frank testimony, we see what it’s really like to put your hopes of starting a family in the hands of the medical profession.
Dame Vivienne Westwood is punk rock’s grande dame. This one-time agent provocateur became the doyenne of British fashion, an eco-conscious Boudicca and one of the most influential originators in recent history. This film reflects on her extraordinary career from her early uphill struggle to success, and looks closely at her artistry, her activism and her cultural significance. Blending iconic archive and newly shot observational footage, this era-defining yet intimate origins story is told in Vivienne’s own words, and through touching interviews with her inner circle of family, friends and collaborators. This is the first film to encompass the remarkable story of one of the icons of our time, as she fights to maintain her brand’s integrity, her principles - and her legacy.
How the BBC radio programme Letters without Signature, which ran from the 1950s to the 1970s, provided a voice for the citizens of the former communist state of East Germany.
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the BBC's John Simpson goes back to examine his reports and consider why history did not turn out quite the way he expected.
Both Bob Dylan and Nick Cave have testified in song that death is not the end. But, not all stories from the musical afterlife are created equal. Death may have its obvious downside. However, in the world of pop, shuffling off your mortal coil could be a unique business opportunity. In this documentary, Scissor Sisters star Ana Matronic goes on a journey into the afterlife of pop. Think of her as music’s pearly gatekeeper of making it big in the ever after. But here’s the rub: this isn’t about the music; no, this is about the many other ways dead pop stars earn a living when they’re gone. So join her as she books in with the agents, publicists, producers and families to discover the dos and don’ts of keeping the dream alive. Using a combination of interview, archive and investigation, Get Rich or Try Dying peels back the complicated mechanics of the pop music industry, showing how it really works and who ultimately profits from it. Once the mansions, yachts, luxury cars, private jets and entourages are dispensed with, death ushers in a new cast of characters, not all of whom were party to creating the wealth in the first place, but all of them are interested in profiting from it. The documentary reveals how Elvis was the architect of the entire legacy industry and how his lawyers, working on behalf of his family, changed American law to permit the surviving family members to benefit from his rights of publicity. It shows Prince’s story to be a cautionary tale for those without a will, and ponders how Bob Marley has retained his dignity despite attaching his name to everything from bath salts to electric goods and Californian marijuana. Linda Ramone professes her love of ‘merch’ and explains how her dead husband’s influential but niche NY punk act, The Ramones, continues to stand for something way beyond their music. Finally, Frank Zappa’s son delves into the morality of hologram tours, as illustrated by his father’s, before the immacul
Mark Kermode revisits his 1998 cult documentary on The Exorcist. In this exclusive extended version never seen before on TV, Kermode traces the extraordinary history of The Exorcist, the novel by William Peter Blatty that William Friedkin turned into a popular and controversial film. He examines the aura of mystery that still surrounds the film, the making of which claimed several lives. Alongside extracts and outtakes from the movie, there are interviews with Blatty, Friedkin, and actors Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair and James Ferman, director of the British Board of Film Classification in 1998.
40 years ago, the Iranian hostage crisis gripped the world, with details unfolding nightly on television. But one story remains untold. Desperate to get their message out, the hostage takers invited 50 ordinary Americans to visit Iran. For the Americans, this high-risk trip held the tantalising possibility of securing the release of hostages. What transpired was a journey quite unlike any of them had planned. Using archive of the visit and fresh interviews with former Iranian hostage takers in Iran and their American visitors, we hear about their hopes and misgivings at the time and their reflections 40 years on. Part of the BBC's Crossing Divides season.
For 45 years after World War II, the Soviet Union and the west were deadly enemies. So what did Scotland do? Presenter Jenna Watt’s own family worked at the Faslane nuclear submarine base, and she wrote and performed an award-winning play about the Scottish-based nuclear deterrent. In this documentary she travels the length of the country unearthing our amazing Cold War stories. From the school boy who blagged his way into a missile launch, to the priest in South Uist who encouraged his parishoners to build roadside shrines to keep the weapons out, the mother who raised her kids in a peace camp, to the young woman from Dunoon who found love with an American sailor during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and from the scientists who tested biological weapons on monkeys, to the soldiers who parked their nuclear load in a layby so they could stop for a cup of tea. These are our war stories, our Cold War stories - dark, sometimes funny and always surprising. Find out about a past you never knew you had.
Documentary that reveals the truth behind a data breach at the University of East Anglia in 2009 that suggested that scientists had manipulated data to exaggerate evidence of climate change.
Gary Lineker follows in the footsteps of his late grandad, Stanley Abbs, to explore a brutal but often overlooked chapter of the Second World War.
A documentary that showcases five of Soviet Europe's most grandiose architectural enterprises. Created to embody the 'collective good', the buildings, made with courage and a bit of lunacy, were used to remind the people of the power and brighter future that awaited them. Each building was designed to be either the tallest or the largest, or to have the biggest clock on earth or the most advanced technology of its time. Now that socialism is over, film-makers Missirkov and Bogdanov revisit five of communism's most splendid palaces to reveal their hidden secrets through the eyes of the people who designed, built and worked in them. Featuring the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Moscow State University, the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade and the Palace of the Republic in Berlin.
The K-Pop phenomenon is shaking up the pop world and for the first time ever, there is now a serious challenge to the West's domination of the global music industry. James Ballardie travels to South Korea to uncover the secrets behind this worldwide success story, finding out how, in just 20 years, the music industry in the country has come from obscurity to become a major player on the world stage.
The man often given credit for the global triumph of English, and the invention of many of our modern words, is William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's plays first hit the stage four centuries ago, as the explorers of Elizabethan England were laying the foundations for the British empire. It was this empire that would carry English around the world. Language historian Dr John Gallagher asks whether the real story of how English became a global linguistic superpower is more complex. If you had stopped an Elizabethan on the streets and told them their language was going to become the most powerful one in the world, they would have laughed in your face. At the time the English language was obscure and England an isolated country. John's quest to find out how English became a global language sees him investigate everything from what it was like to be an immigrant in Elizabethan Britain to how new technology is transforming our understanding of Shakespeare.
In this undercover body transformation programme, lifestyle and fitness experts Rab and Stephen team up with Ashley, a 30-year-old make-up artist from Aberdeen and Wayne, a 52-year-old singing cabbie from Dundee, to help them shape up and achieve their personal goals. Rab and Stephen have helped thousands of people transform their bodies in the past fifteen years. But they’ve never asked their clients to keep their efforts secret from friends and family – until now. In addition to providing Ashley and Wayne with a 12-week nutrition and fitness plan, they’ve also lined up two of the UK’s finest costume fabricators to create made-to-measure body suits that will help them to keep their secret. Based on exact measurements taken at the start of Ashley and Wayne’s journey, the suits will be worn every single day, to ensure they both look the same the entire way through the process. At the end of the 12 weeks, Ashley’s target is to be fit enough to join her dad on a mountain climb – something she’s never been able to do before because of her weight. And after forgoing his love of singing due to the impact of weight on his lung capacity, Wayne wants to be fit enough to be back on stage performing. But is it really possible to go about your normal life, interacting with the people who love and know you best, while keeping an ever-changing body under wraps? And is 12 weeks really long enough to take two people who’ve spent years shunning exercise in favour of eating and drinking what they want and make them mountain and stage ready? Find out when, after their stint with Rab and Stephen, Ashley and Wayne stand before their friends and family, shed their body suit like a second skin and step out to reveal their secret bodies. Will they have dropped weight and toned up and more importantly, will Wayne be fit enough to belt out a tune and can Ashley really make it to the top of a mountain?
One of the most important yet untold science stories of our time, a tale with profound implications for the fate of life on our planet. Beginning in the 1960s, a small band of young scientists headed out into the wilderness, driven by an insatiable curiosity about how nature works. Immersed in some of the most remote and spectacular places on earth - from the majestic Serengeti to the Amazon jungle, from the Arctic Ocean to Pacific tide pools – they discovered a single set of rules that govern all life. Now in the twilight of their eminent careers, these five unsung heroes of modern ecology share the stories of their adventures, reveal how their pioneering work flipped our view of nature of its head, and give us a chance to reimagine the world as it could and should be.
We go behind the camera and speak to the freelance journalists who capture and bring us some of the most important news stories of our times.
Documentary that explores the remarkable life and legacy of the late feminist author Ursula K Le Guin. Best known for groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy works such as A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, Le Guin defiantly held her ground on the margin of so-called respectable literature until the sheer excellence of her work forced the mainstream to embrace fantastic literature. Her fascinating story has never before been captured before on film. Produced with Le Guin’s participation over the course of a decade, and featuring stunning animation and reflections by other literary luminaries, the documentary is a journey through the writer’s career and her worlds, both real and fantastic. Ursula goes on an intimate journey of self-discovery as she comes into her own as a major feminist author, opening new doors for the imagination and inspiring generations of women and other marginalised writers along the way.
Documentary that surveys a remarkable period in the Metropolitan Opera's rich history and a time of great change for New York. Featuring rarely seen archival footage, stills, recent interviews and a soundtrack of extraordinary Met performances, the documentary chronicles the creation of the Met's storeyed home in 1966, which replaced the original 1883 house on Broadway, against a backdrop of the artists, architects and politicians who shaped the cultural life of New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Among the notable figures in the documentary are famed soprano Leontyne Price, who opened the new Met in 1966 with Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, Rudolf Bing, the Met's imperious general manager who engineered the move from the old house to the new one, Robert Moses, the unstoppable city planner who bulldozed an entire neighbourhood to make room for the Lincoln Center, and Wallace Harrison, whose quest for architectural glory was never fully realised.
Greg Davies travels to Barnsley to meet those intimately tied to Barry Hines's classic novel A Kestrel for a Knave, including Hines's brother Richard, actor Dai Bradley and film director Ken Loach.
From colossal farms in America to the destruction of the Amazon, Liz Bonnin investigates how our hunger for meat is killing our planet.
This summer, Moscow was swept by a wave of street protests after opposition politicians were barred from running in local elections. The protests have subsided, but for dozens of Russians the events have been life-changing with many convicted and others facing criminal charges for their role in the rallies. Their supporters call them political prisoners, arrested to scare others off the streets. It's a claim the Kremlin rejects. But the Moscow Case, as it's known, goes on.
The Man Who Saw Too Much tells the story of 106-year-old Boris Pahor, believed to be the oldest known survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. He was sent to Dachau, Dora, Harzungen, Bergen-Belsen and Natzweiler – one of the Nazis' least known but most deadly camps. Twenty years after the war, Pahor wrote an extraordinary book about his experiences called Necropolis - City of the Dead.
Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, explores video art, revealing how different generations hacked the tools of TV to pioneer new ways of creating work that could be beautiful, bewildering and experimental. He examines how this outsider art form became part of the creative establishment, as well as a purpose-built platform for a screen-obsessed world.
Elton John opens up about his childhood, stardom and battles with addiction in an exclusive interview with Graham Norton.
What does it mean to be black and Scottish? Director Stewart Kyasimire seeks out a range of black Scots of different ages and from diverse backgrounds to hear some compelling answers.
Documentary that sets Paul Gauguin's artistic achievement against his sexual relationships with young girls in the Pacific and his role in 19th-century French colonialism.
Born into a farming family in rural Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney became the finest poet of his generation and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, but his career coincided with one of the bloodiest political upheavals of the 20th century, the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Six years after Heaney’s death in 2013, his wife Marie and his children talk about their family life and read some of the poems he wrote for them, and for the first time his four brothers remember their childhood and the shared experiences that inspired many of his finest poems.
What makes the ideal Scotsman these days? Writer and cook Rachel McCormack explores the changing face of Scottish masculinity, as the male image changes from that of legendary 'hard man' to a softer, gentler 21st-century Scotsman.
A chance sighting in British Columbia of a lone wolf gives wildlife photographer Cheryl Alexander the opportunity to re-evaluate our understanding of these remarkable animals' behaviour.
Two couples with out-of-control spending reveal all their financial dirty laundry. Secrets are exposed as couples David and Jules and Nicole and Ewain reveal their spending habits to their other halves. With the help of a financial intervention, the couples try and get their spending back under control with a series of challenges, including giving each other complete control over their finances. David and Jules are desperate to pay off their debts, but can they curb their serious supermarket addiction? And can Nicole and Ewain cut their massive takeaway bills to save the cash they need to start their business? Money is tight for many couples across Scotland, and rows about what your other half spends are on the up. So is full financial disclosure the key to sorting these couples finances?
In a quiet corner of Cardiff is a unique driving centre where lives are transformed every day. Here, higher risk drivers, who through illness or accident have been stopped from driving, have the chance to prove they’re safe to be on the road. To lose the ability to drive is to lose independence, identity and sometimes livelihoods. Many drivers go to the centre with great hope of getting back behind the wheel. Others are reluctant, fearing they may be taken off the road forever. The driving assessors face huge dilemmas – they decide if people can have the freedom they desperately want but if they make the wrong decision, they could put the public at risk. We follow the fortunes of four drivers: mum-of-four Fand who had to surrender her licence after a debilitating stroke at 38, former lorry driver Glyn who has been diagnosed with dementia, Huw who lost a leg following a life threatening infection and 17-year-old Emily who lives with cerebral palsy and would love to be the first of her friends to get her licence. All will undertake the ultimate driving test. Everything is at stake and each one is desperate to prove they are fit to drive.
Nearly 50 years ago, in the unlikely setting of the British Aluminium plant in Falkirk, a group of around 20 workers put aside15p a week from their wages to fund their other lives as film-makers. The Falkirk Cowboys tells the story of those men, their town and the impact of the films they made.This posse of factory-working movie-makers called themselves the BA Cowboys. They were led by a fork lift driver-turned amateur film director called Rab Harvey, whose love of Westerns proved so infectiousthat he corralled enough co-workers together to make a series of increasingly ambitious amateur films.The 60s and 70s saw a rising trend in amateur film-making. Super 8 cameras became increasingly affordable, creating home enthusiasts. One such enthusiast was British Aluminium worker Jock Aitken.Rab, Jock and a few others shot a homemade Western called The Lawless Breed. The initial reaction of the workers at the plant was one of amusement. But on seeing the film, opinions changed. Rab Harvey askedhis co-worker Denis McCourtney to lasso in a few extra people and the BA Cowboys were born. Their films had all the trademarks of the classic Western, though with a definite Falkirk slant.The Cowboys’ series of increasingly ambitious films not only capture something of their time, but also communicate the creativity, fun and camaraderie within the group. The men worked long shifts inmonotonous jobs and the films provided them with an arena where they could let their imaginations run free. Inspired by Westerns they had seen in the cinema and on TV during their childhoods their film titles included Border Badmen, Apache Ambush and Showdown.Shot on a shoestring budget and often filmed in a day, they turned Falkirk’s Callander Park into a Western backdrop, learned to ride the horses they hired for the shoots from a local stable, and witha bit of help from fellow factory workers and family members, made their own props and costumes - the gun holsters were made from ladies handbags picked
"It was just normal to be using dirty needles. It was normal to sharpen them on a matchbox" - Fiona, survivor.This landmark documentary examines the ten-year period between 1979 and 1989 when Edinburgh faced a frightening new epidemic and was dubbed the ‘Aids capital of Europe’.Meeting the doctors, heroin addicts, police and locals caught up in events they could barely understand, this documentary reveals how events thousands of miles away had a massive impact on Scotland’s capital.The film captures the sense of panic as the mysterious new disease terrified the general public and hears from medical professionals, such as Muirhouse GP Dr Roy Robertson, and specialistin infectious diseases Dr Ray Brettle, who raced against time to attempt to discover how the disease was being spread. Hearing from the police officers who seized needles from addicts as evidence, believing it a necessary tactic in the 'war on drugs', to those in the community who desperately pleaded for needle exchanges in order to thwart the spread of infectious diseases, this documentary reveals the battles that were raging in the streets of Edinburgh and the corridors of power.Derek Ogg, co-founder of Scottish Aids Monitor, also explains his fight to bring attention to the spread of the disease amongst the gay community in the city and we hear from the survivorswho lost loved ones and saw families die during the capital’s darkest decade.As the HIV epidemic makes a return in 2019, this time in Glasgow, ‘Choose Life: Edinburgh’s Battle Against Aids’ is a powerful and often painful film of record.
A rare, intimate exploration of a single oil painting and the first major film to reveal the motive and techniques behind each stroke of paint as the artist creates. The audience is plunged into the artist's darkly comic obsessive mind, as from what starts as a blank canvas emerges Peter Howson’s monumental oil painting Prophecy. Howson is a former official British war artist who works from his imagination. He draws inspiration from world unrest, religious beliefs and mythology, utilizing classical technical skills from his heroes, Goya, Da Vinci, Bruegel and El Greco. The film sticks deliberately and rigorously to the framework of the painting itself. We observe the canvas as it is made and mounted onto a wooden stretcher and the struggle and turbulence of its creation in Howson's Glasgow studio. We follow its journey through the commercial art world, across the Atlantic to New York for its first public exhibition, the sale and its final destination on the wall of a private art collector in London's Canary Wharf.
Lucy Worsley reveals the surprising stories behind our favourite Christmas carols. From pagan rituals to religious conflicts, French dances and the First World War, carols reflect our history.
In 2010 in Surrey, mother-of–two Sally Challen bludgeoned her husband Richard to death as he sat eating lunch at the kitchen table. She covered his body in a pair of old curtains, a note that said 'I love you', and was later arrested at the notorious suicide spot of Beachy Head. No-one at her trial, including her close family and friends, were surprised when the jury found her unanimously guilty of murder.
Screen Grab is a show that confronts the problem of excessive screen time with a radical solution. Parents agonise over how to tear their kids away from social media and gaming, all the while checking their own emails and social media or playing a sneaky game online. The home of the Mitchell family in Ayrshire is typical of many families across the country. It has become awash with multiple screens being used simultaneously and basic eye-to-eye communication is all but lost. Presenter Claire Lim and her team of experts - family councillor Kirsty Giles and tech expert Scott McGready - introduce the family to their Screen Grab kit: sophisticated technology to show them how they have become so badly disconnected. With a dramatic intervention using the Screen Grab box, the family change their habits.
In 2016, Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). Doctors said he would be in a wheelchair within a year. He wasn't. Instead, Doddie is battling the disease and on a mission to find a cure. Fellow Scottish rugby legend John Beattie has followed Doddie and his family over the past two years, gaining a unique insight into the life and mission of the man behind the famous tartan suit.
Shahidha Bari examines the life and work of controversial Booker Prize winner Sir VS Naipaul. Is his legacy compromised by his self-confessed violence towards women and views on race?
Bloodhound and its driver Andy Green are hoping to smash the current land speed record. Andrew Harding has been given exclusive access as the car is put through its paces.
Superfan David Whiteley celebrates how an unassuming band of designers and factory workers in Leicestershire created the toys which were to define a generation.
Superfan David Whiteley celebrates the unsung British heroes behind the first film in the Star Wars' franchise, 1977’s Star Wars.
For almost three decades, one word has stood between two nations: Macedonia. A subject of a bitter dispute between Greece and the now renamed Republic of North Macedonia.
Documentary exploring the tumultuous events of Boris Johnson's Conservative government. The programme follows his appointment as leader of the Conservative party, attempts to secure a Brexit deal with the European Union, the attempted proroguing of parliament, an act subsequently declared unlawful, and the eventual calling of a general election. Featuring contributions from MPs on all sides, who reveal the pressure they have come under from an increasingly divided and frustrated electorate.
Liz Bonnin introduces a cast of charismatic animals to reveal the remarkable strategies they use to survive, and even thrive, through the winter.
With readings by Hugh Bonneville, animation and contributions from celebrity fans, this film celebrates the beloved character of Paddington and tells the story of his unassuming creator Michael Bond.
This one-off treat offers a unique look into charities that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge support. Mary Berry accompanies them on four special visits. Throughout the programme Mary also cooks some of her favourite Christmas recipes for viewers to try out at home, as she helps prepare the festive food for a very royal event to thank all those working and volunteering over the Christmas period. The Duchess of Cambridge and Mary travel to Liverpool to visit The Brink, the UK’s first dry bar set up by Action on Addiction to provide a safe space for people who are suffering from addiction. The Duke of Cambridge and Mary visit The Passage, which is London’s largest resource centre for homeless and insecurely housed people. Along the way they meet the inspiring people whose lives have been changed by the help and support these charities provide, especially at Christmas time. Mary also joins the Duchess of Cambridge behind the scenes at RHS Wisley to learn more about the importance of the early years in raising the next generation of happy, healthy children. This special programme culminates in a Christmas party, hosted by the duke and duchess and features some surprise guests, including Nadiya Hussain who helps Mary Berry with the festive food. The party is to thank and acknowledge staff and volunteers from charities and organisations who will be working tirelessly over the Christmas period. Mary has designed the Christmas menu, and the duke and duchess even get involved with some of the party prep
In this entertaining and emotionally powerful documentary, celebrated chef Heston Blumenthal takes his world-famous restaurant back to 2001 as restaurant critic Giles Coren challenges him - and staff past and present - to recreate an extraordinary tasting menu from a significant year for him and The Fat Duck. As he looks back to the past to prepare for the celebration, Heston unearths revealing truths about his life and career.
Stop and search has increased by 32% in the last year with police forces across England and Wales able to carry out searches in designated areas without authorisation from a senior officer. What are the rights of people who are being stopped and searched?
Lucy Worsley recreates how Christmas was celebrated during the age of Henry VIII – eating, drinking, singing, dancing and partying like people did 500 years ago. She is getting into Tudor clothes and inside Tudor minds - discovering the forerunners of some of the Christmas customs we still enjoy today and exploring why other festive traditions fell out of favour. With the help of food historian Annie Gray, she prepares two royal feasts in the kitchens of Hampton Court Palace. For the king's Christmas dinner, Lucy - in full royal costume as Henry - tucks into stuffed boar's head, served to her by a choir singing its praises. She also tastes Tudor versions of the mince pies and Christmas cakes we still enjoy today - and munches on a marzipan chess set and some 16th-century sweets. Lucy joins Tudor carol-singers to perform a festive hit penned by Henry VIII himself, and watches a forerunner of the Royal Variety Show, complete with dancing stags and swordplay. She immerses herself in the rabble-rousing fun created by the Lord of Misrule, an anarchic ancestor of our Father Christmas. Lucy also explores how ordinary Tudors liked to enjoy themselves - and why the holidays were such a welcome break. She discovers how many people relied on charity to see them through the winter - and why Christmas was the only time it was legal to play most games and sports! Lucy decks her Tudor hall with traditional decorations, tastes the ale and mead which were popular Christmas drinks for humble folk, and brings back to life a strange and spooky Christmas custom which is a prototype of Halloween trick or treating. Lucy is also thrilled to encounter priceless records in the National Archives, which show exactly how much Henry VIII's lavish Christmas celebrations cost. She discovers that the Tudor version of Christmas gift-giving was an occasion for very big spending. She even receives some of the presents that were offered to Henry VIII in 1532 - which ranged from money and bling
In Gaelic games the Ulster Club Championship brings passion and pride of place to the fore. Playing for the Parish looks at two clubs, and the communities they represent, as they take part in the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship final.
Private Eye's editor Ian Hislop talks to the BBC's Media Editor Amol Rajan about front covers, cartoons and satire: making sense of the world in 2019.
From its football fanzine comedy roots, to a cornerstone of Scottish cultural life, this is the hilarious inside story of Radio Scotland's Off the Ball.
We delve into the world of luxury with art historian Alastair Sooke, and ask what it is about luxury that inspires both desire and derision. Our journey starts with the oldest pearl in known existence at the Louvre Abu Dhabi's 10,000 Years of Luxury exhibition. We explore how taste, place and power combined, to create surprising cultural trends throughout our history. We meet with curators, cultural ambassadors and lifestyle critics to ask them whether luxury is really a personal indulgence or conspicuous consumption.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the leading liberal Judge on the US Supreme Court. At 86 she has spent many decades fighting for women's rights, including equal pay and access to abortion. A true pioneer, this is a rare interview with a living legend. Razia Iqbal presents this special programme from New York.
Massimo Bottura's three-starred Michelin restaurant, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, has twice been named the world's best restaurant and routinely attracts pilgrims from across the globe who book one of its 11 tables months in advance.
Zeinab Badawi meets her favourite opera singer: the legendary Italian baritone Leo Nucci - described as one of the best baritones of the last 100 years. A profile of a man who rose from humble beginnings to perform in all the world's leading opera houses. We see how he still packs in the audiences at the age of 77. What is the secret behind his 50-year long career? How does he maintain his voice and what are the lessons for us all in achieving success in our chosen field?
Samuel Beckett has fascinated Adrian Dunbar since he was a young student. Now, 30 years after Beckett's death in Paris, Dunbar explores what made the man who made Waiting for Godot.
Roy Walker, one of Northern Ireland's most popular comedians, reflects on the extraordinary highs and lows of his remarkable life as he approaches his 80th birthday.
Welcome to Sunseeker, Britain's biggest superyacht builder, who has been hand-building customised boats for the world's super-rich for the past 50 years. For the first time ever, they have allowed the BBC behind the scenes of their extraordinary production line in Poole and into the rarefied world of the multimillionaire's favourite plaything. The company built their reputation on making small to mid-size yachts, but the recession saw this market flounder as even the super-rich tightened their belts, seeing Sunseeker sink into the red. So in a high-stakes move, they're sinking millions into building a larger, opulent superyacht to reel in the uber-rich who still have cash to splash on life's ultimate luxuries, to help sail them back into profit. The film follows the build of a new £20m, 40-metre superyacht and their most challenging specification to date when a customer takes full advantage of their made to measure service and asks for more extras than any other yacht in the history of the company. When it falls behind schedule, we discover it's not all plain sailing when you're in the business of engineering luxury for the super-rich. Whilst the Poole shipyard works hard to meet the customer's exacting standards, the London sales team are working just as hard to fill the order book during the all-important boat show season, where they hope to sell over £40m worth of boats in just 30 days. Every boat is built in Poole but is found basking in the international playgrounds of the rich and famous and, filming across the summer season, we also hop on board the charter side of the business to meet the people paying £60,000 for just a week's holiday.
Documentary that follows a lone Inuit as he hunts, fishes and constructs an igloo. It tells the story of skills that are disappearing and of how climate change is affecting the lives of Greenland's indigenous people. With its focus on the ingenious craft of igloo building before it becomes too late to record it, this is a meditative and poetic sensory immersion in a landscape of ice and snow, an elegy to a world that is melting away.
A world first documentary film boasting unparalleled access to defending champion Welshman Geraint Thomas as he competes at the planet's toughest endurance race, the Tour de France.
The Black Sea is Europe's most polluted body of water. In the early 1990s parts of it were declared almost entirely devoid of marine life. But as our reporter Jonah Fisher found out, thanks to a major international clean-up effort there are now signs that the sea is starting to recover.
The inspirational story of the Scotland Women’s national team who competed at the World Cup in France for the very first time. The cameras follow their journey from qualification right through to them taking part in the biggest football tournament on the planet.
Judith Moritz looks back at the history of the Hillsborough disaster after the match commander was acquitted of the manslaughter of 95 football fans.
The women's football star Megan Rapinoe is an outspoken voice on equal pay, LGBT rights and politics. In this special BBC interview Rapinoe gives an open and honest view on the issues that matter most to her.
It was an epic night as the whole world celebrated the start of a new millennium. Twenty years on, how people across Wales marked this momentous day.
Former England international Jermaine Jenas investigates the rise of veganism in football.
This year battling Newport County became the darlings of the football world by dumping former Premiership Champions Leicester out of the FA Cup and then going toe to toe with the world's richest club - Manchester City. The fact that Newport even has a football side however is a minor miracle. Thirty years ago the club was wound up after relegation and bankruptcy had seen them drop out of the league and out of existence and if not for a group of die-hard supporters it would have vanished completely. Instead they spent the next three decades making sure their city had a football team again. This documentary follows the 'Amber Army' over the course of their epic giant killing FA Cup run, while at the same time looking back to the time when the fans had to take on what was left of the club and bring it back from the dead.
As the war in Afghanistan enters its 18th year, Afghan civilian and security personnel fatality rates are at an all-time high - 45,000 Afghan soldiers and police have been killed in the last 4 years. With the Taliban cancelling talks with the US and worries about a US withdrawal, what does the future look like for the Afghan people? Can the country survive on its own? Jonathan Beale reports.
Katie Derham introduces highlights from the past ten years at the Royal Ballet. Presented on location in Covent Garden at the iconic Royal Opera House, Katie weaves the history of ballet through carefully curated excerpts from the past decade of performances and goes behind the scenes to see what it takes to be a dancer in the company of the Royal Ballet as they prepare to take to the stage. From the great classics of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker to the exciting frontiers of contemporary dance, Katie takes us on a romp through the repertory, showcasing the diversity of the UK’s biggest ballet company. With stunning solos, passionate pas de deux and jaw-dropping numbers for the corps de ballet, it is a chance to see your favourite dancers up close, including Carlos Acosta, Marianela Nuñez, Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae, alongside rising stars like Francesca Hayward and Matthew Ball, who will introduce their favourite ballets and share stories of their life on the stage. The ballets featured include the classics Giselle, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker while the 20th-century heritage of the Royal Ballet is explored in works by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. The contemporary life of the company is showcased in works by Liam Scarlett, Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor.
Julia's father was a sperm donor. This documentary follows Julia as she meets her fellow 'diblings' (donor fathered brothers and sisters) and looks into how both sides feel about meeting ... See full summary »
Gregory Porter hosts a seasonal cocktail of music with a festive flavour. He’s joined by special guests: singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae; 24-year-old musical phenomenon Jacob Collier; legendary British saxophonist Courtney Pine; and one of the UK’s best loved jazz singers Clare Teal. Featuring standards from the Great American Songbook, together with a carol or two, and some of Gregory’s personal favourites, performances include ‘Merry Christmas Baby’, ‘Silent Night’, ‘Take me to the Alley’ and ‘The Christmas Song’. Filmed in an intimate ‘jazz club’ setting in Cardiff Bay, Merry Christmas Baby has all the ingredients of a joyful winter warmer - the perfect offering for a mellow Christmas night.
Three strangers immersed in the world of camming come together to discuss its impact on young people. But their views are radically different. While one sees it as a respectable trade full of dedicated and liberated women, another sees it as a direct exploitation of the male libido. The third sees it as a haven for lonely people like himself to reconnect with the intimacy that’s missing from their lives. What they don’t know is that they all have one person in common – and she’s watching the conversation from the next room. Bex is a curvy cam model, and she’s witnessing their unfiltered feelings about her and the industry unfold. Filled with passionate debates, disagreements, humour and revelation, will our common people unite? Or will their revelations polarise them further?
From 9- to 90-year-olds, the people of a County Antrim village help Bafta award-winning director Alison Millar explore the real meaning of creativity and culture. Returning to the landscape of her childhood, she uncovers the story of a visionary teacher, and celebrates the extraordinary artwork and writing created by poor country children almost a century ago. Against the backdrop of her home village of Cullybackey and the surrounding countryside, the story unfolds across the seasons as Alison follows the 'Carryin' Stream' of memory from the small country school that her father attended in the 1940s to the children of the present day. Along the way, she connects with a cultural legacy that she has never really known about and learns about her own Ulster-Scots heritage.
A hard-hitting expose of the extreme right in American politics, investigating and interrogating major players as tensions escalate during President Trump’s first year. Amongst others, it follows Daryle Lamont Jenkins, an Anti-Fascist activist and member of the Antifa movement, in his mission to combat the rise of the Alt-Right, while Richard Spencer, an Alt-Right leader, fights to gain political ground. The film culminates in Charlottesville, where opposing sides clash with tragic consequences. Directed by Adam Bhala Lough.
In a frank interview with Sue Barker, Billie Jean King talks about her sexuality and her life as an activist and advocate for gender equality, LGBT rights and social justice.
Filmed over five years, this film provides an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring golf's oldest and most prestigious international tournament to Northern Ireland.
Silicon Valley is enabling an illegal online slave market by hosting apps used for the buying and selling of domestic workers in the Gulf. BBC News Arabic's undercover investigation exposes app users in Kuwait breaking local and international laws on modern slavery, including a woman offering a child for sale. The story of this child’s journey to Kuwait and return to her home in Guinea in West Africa, is at the heart of this powerful and shocking investigation into Silicon Valley's Online Slave Market.
A heartfelt and uplifting portrayal about one young remarkable drag queen from Leith who, despite suffering from cystic fibrosis, lives life to the max. At 24 years of age, Jordan McKinley knows he is on borrowed time. This Leith-born-and-bred drama teacher, DJ and top Edinburgh drag artist faces his medical condition head-on and lives his life at 100 miles an hour.
In a series of remarkably frank and entertaining conversations, rail passengers travelling the length and breadth of the country share their experiences of life and their own particular view of the world they see from the window of their train. Brief Encounters is a moving confessional in which a diverse selection of people open up about their many experiences, their hopes and fears, their loves and their losses on their physical journey through Scotland and their emotional journeys through life.
A landmark documentary that explores the extraordinary life and music of Dolly Parton. Featuring incredible archive footage and exclusive interviews with Dolly and stars like Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, this film lifts the lid on the songwriting genius behind I Will Always Love You, Jolene, 9 to 5 and a host of other chart-topping hits. From her humble beginnings to her global success, the film discovers how a young girl from the Smoky Mountains conquered Nashville to become the queen of country music.
From Orava Castle in Slovakia, the location used in the classic vampire film Nosferatu, Mark Gatiss journeys to the London Library on the trail of Bram Stoker's newly discovered research literature. From the UK, Mark flies to Philadelphia in the United States, where he studies Stoker's hand-written notes and examines the abandoned ideas, story lines and characters which went on to become his world-famous story. Mark meets with actors, including reuniting seven Hammer brides, film experts and historians as he explores the count's transition from page to screen, from Bela Lugosi's Hollywood to Christopher Lee's terrifying incarnation, then finally coming face to face with the new Dracula himself - Danish actor Claes Bang. This documentary explores and celebrates the icon of popular culture, asking just why we keep coming back to the count
Tracy Jenkins's three-year-old son Hartley has cerebral palsy. Now she is on a year-long mission to find treatments to enable his brain to gain better control of his legs, arm and hand.
Billy Connolly returns to Glasgow’s famous Kings Theatre, where his journey into comedy first began, to talk life, death and laughter, in a no holds barred encounter with BBC Arts editor Will Gompertz. It is a conversation that looks back on the Big Yin’s past and ahead to the future, covering all elements of his unusually packed existence - how he got started, his approach to comedy, his Scottish roots, and how Parkinson's disease is the latest thing he is having to laugh at.
Chris Packham, environmentalist and life-long punk, reveals how, as a teenager with undiagnosed Asperger's, punk rock may have saved his life. By giving him a purpose, he was able to harness his creativity, which led to him becoming a TV presenter with a determination to champion wildlife. Now more than 40 years on, as Chris goes to Buckingham Palace to receive a CBE for services to the environment, he asks himself if he has, over the years, turned into the type of 'establishment figure' that his 17-year-old self would have hated? In a highly personal and revelatory film, Chris sets out to question both himself and other former punks who, like him, rocked against racism, fought for gay rights and caused their parents untold grief, to discover if the values they all believed in still hold true today. Chris meets some of the legends at the heart of the movement, including punk icon Jordan Mooney who was known as punk's first muse, artist Jamie Reid who designed the Sex Pistols' record covers, The Clash's first drummer and now chiropractor Terry Chimes, chart-topping vicar Rev Richard Coles and gay rights campaigner and Radio 6 DJ Tom Robinson. He also meets Joe Talbot, lead singer of indie band Idles at the famous punk venue the 100 Club and even hooks up with his own punk band, The Titanic Survivors, who he left in 1978. They have since reformed and are still playing some of the songs that Chris wrote. Chris concludes that the spirit of punk perhaps lives on not just in the music but in the rebellious spirit of the young and is still at the heart of many modern-day protests. Less
In 1999, Gail Porter was one of the UK’s most sought-after female TV presenters. Most famously, she helped sell over a million copies of FHM magazine after her naked image was projected onto the Houses of Parliament. Then over the next 20 years, things took a turn for the worse: she suffered post-natal depression, alopecia and was sectioned under the mental health act. In 2014 she even ended up sleeping rough on a park bench. How did this happen? In this documentary, Gail takes a tell-all journey into her past. Travelling to her hometown of Edinburgh, she meets friends, relatives and medical professionals and asks why she has such extremes of emotion? And how can that explain her story? The result is an honest and deeply personal exploration of mental health, self-harm, anorexia and depression, as well as a stark reminder of how the world has changed since her 1990s heyday.
The story of quantum entanglement, perhaps the strangest concept in science. Mind-bending concepts and brilliant experiments lead us to a profound new understanding of reality.
All Aboard! New Zealand by Rail, Sea and Land takes an epic overland train, boat and car journey through New Zealand’s breathtaking landscapes. The voyage beings in Auckland, but the city soon gives way to rolling pastures, volcanic extremes, tranquil waterways, the snowcapped grandeur of the Southern Alps and the beauty of Fiordland.
Writer Alan Bissett explores the complex brain of Robert Burns in a quest to discover the real man behind the myths and reveal the conflicts in his life and work.Burns was a poetic genius, but full of contradictions. He was a lover of women, and an exploiter of them; a Republican firebrand, and a social-climbing government excise man; an advocate of freedom who almost became a Caribbean slave master. Alan examines the groundbreaking research that suggests that the poet suffered from bi-polar disorder, a condition that led him to have severe mood swings.One of Burns’ most famous poems, Tam O’Shanter, is now being interpreted as a journey through his abnormally high and low moods – literally facing his demons. And Cutty Sark was inspired by his sexual relationship with a Dumfries barmaid, not his long-suffering wife Jean Armour.Alan’s expert contributors are Scotland’s current Makar (national poet) Jackie Kay, poet and Burns biographer Robert Crawford, literary scholars Gerard Carruthers, Moira Hansen and Pauline MacKay, social historian Katie Barclay and science historian Elaine Thomson. They tackle the conundrums of Burns’ life and personality - his rocky relationships with women, his strange attitude to slavery and how he hid his radical leanings in dangerous times.The documentary is interwoven with performances from The Burns Cabaret, in which Alan, singer Robyn Stapleton and actor Andrew Rothney highlight some of Burns’ most revealing work in front of a live audience. Classics such as Ae Fond Kiss and A Man’s A Man for A’ That share the stage with a less well-known version of Green Grow the Rashes and the political satire When Princes and Prelates- racy and obscene songs contained in The Merry Muses of Caledonia - Burns’s gift to a rakish gentlemen’s club.
Bill McCue was a TV star in the 70s and 80s and one of the founding singers with Scottish Opera. With his powerful bass voice and endless enthusiasm for all things Scottish, Bill introduced many a Scot to the songs of Robert Burns. As a teenager, his daughter Kirsteen felt that Robert Burns was an unwanted intrusion into her life: 'Burns was on such a pedestal in our house, it almost put me off'. Now a professor at Glasgow University and a leading expert on Burns, Kirsteen has changed her tune. With Karine Polwart, Jamie MacDougall and rare archive footage.
Robert Burns was well aware of the revolution taking place across the Atlantic as he grew up. The poet was inspired. And America was to be inspired by him. From Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan, some of the most significant figures in American politics and culture have cited Burns as an influence. During key moments in the nation's history these figures brought Burns's words to the fore. The Bard hit home too with America's public, beginning with the ex-pats he reminded of home. Those ex-pats were followed to America by two other Scots who also spread the word of Burns. The industrialist Andrew Carnegie keenly spread the word of Burns across the country. Singer Jean Redpath spread Burns's music within the folk revival in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Burns became a '19th-century Elvis' in the States, and his image was used to sell everything from cigars and tobacco to beer and fizzy pop. Today his impact upon America is further illustrated by memorials, not least in Atlanta, where a replica of Burns Cottage sits as home to the local Burns Club. Members of the club sing Burns's most famous song, Auld Lang Syne, a bona fide piece of American culture, which Americans have identified with New Year's Eve since Guy Lombardo began singing it on radio in the first part of the 20th century. It has become even more iconic since Hollywood adopted it in films such as It's a Wonderful Life. Robert Burns never visited the United States, but whether in the north or south, east or west, its people have identified with the Bard and his works.
Tom Mangold's inside story of the scandal that rocked Britain, showing what it was really like to live with Stephen Ward as he became the scapegoat for the Profumo affair.
As members of the feuding Capulet and Montague families, Romeo and Juliet should be sworn enemies, but they fall deeply in love and marry in secret. That very day, disastrous circumstances lead Romeo to fight and kill Juliet's cousin Tybalt, setting off a chain of events that culminate in tragedy. Juliet takes a potion to avoid the love match her parents have set up for her, and Romeo, believing she is dead, poisons himself. When she wakes from her deep sleep, Juliet finds the body of her love and is so distraught that she stabs herself, joining him in death. Romeo and Juliet is a drama feature film shot on location in Hungary, starring the dancers of the Royal Ballet in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s classic ballet. The film is set to Sergei Prokofiev’s original score for Romeo and Juliet, and is unique in telling this classic story through dance. The score was adapted especially for the film. It was recorded at AIR Studios in Hampstead, London, with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, in early 2019. The 85 players were conducted by the renowned Royal Opera House music director Koen Kessels, and the leader was Vasko Vassilev. Highlighting the essence of MacMillan’s original choreography, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt’s Romeo and Juliet takes viewers into the action with a striking intimacy. Through detailed portrayals by the Royal Ballet dancers, the film is a gripping story about real characters through an audacious experience that is by turn epic and intimate. With the story presented in a groundbreaking new light, the film captures the extraordinary performances that have earned the Royal Ballet the reputation of producing the greatest actor-dancers in the world. Seizing the opportunity to perform scenes with unparalleled subtlety, the dancers’ artistry pays tribute to what is internationally recognised as the zenith of the dance storytelling. Reimagined for the camera by the International Emmy Award winners Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, the film deliv
Bill Drummond ceased activities as part of the enormously successful pop group The KLF in 1997. Since 2014 he has been on a world tour, travelling around the world with his show The 25 Paintings, visiting a different city each year. In December 2016 he based himself in Kolkata, while in the spring of 2018 he was in Lexington, North Carolina. In each place he carries out his regular work, setting up a shoeshine stand in the street and building a bed in order to give it away, walks across the longest bridge he can find at dawn banging his parade drum, starts knitting circles with whoever wants to join him, and bakes cakes, offering them to people whose houses sit on a circle he has drawn on a map of the city. He is not rich and has deliberately designed his actions so that they can't be monetised. He has mostly been ignored by the art world. So what is he doing it all for? Director Paul Duane shadowed Bill Drummond for three years before starting this film in order to achieve some level of understanding about what he's at. Best Before Death is named after Drummond's belief that the world tour, scheduled to end when he is 72, is a race against his own mortality. It's a film about life, death, art, money, music and cake. And some knitting.
Through candid interviews and classic archive performances, Tom Alexander tells the incredible story of one of Scotland's most successful variety entertainment acts - the Alexander Brothers. Tom and Jack, the Alexander Brothers, have enthralled audiences all over the world with their unique brand of Scottish musical variety entertainment. They were originally painters and decorators, but from these humble beginnings they went onto become
The story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere. In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary, which accompanies the BBC Two drama, The Windermere Children, reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees, who began new lives in England’s Lake District in the summer of 1945. With compelling testimony from some of the last living Holocaust survivors, the film explores an extraordinary success story that emerged from the darkest of times, all beginning with the arrival of ten Stirling bombers carrying the 300 children from Prague to Carlisle on 14 August 1945. The survivor interviews include extraordinary first-hand accounts of both their wartime experiences, separation from their families and the horrors they experienced, but also their wonder at arriving in Britain and their lives thereafter. The children hailed from very different backgrounds, including rural Poland, metropolitan Warsaw Czechoslovakia and Berlin. Some had grown up in poverty, others in middle-class comfort. Their rehabilitation in England was organised by one charity, the Central British Fund (CBF). Leonard Montefiore, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, used his pre-war experience of the Kindertransport and successfully lobbied the British government to agree to allow up to 1,000 young Jewish concentration camp survivors into Britain. It was decided that the first 300 children would be brought from the liberated camp of Theresienstadt to Britain. And serendipitously, empty accommodation was found on the shores of Lake Windermere in a defunct factory. During the war, it had built seaplanes, but after D-Day the factory was closed, and the workers’ accommodation stood empty. With space to house them and in a truly beautiful setting, it was to prove the perfect location for these traumatised children. The CBF, however, was in uncharted
Using unique interviews with those who were there, this moving film reveals the true experience of life inside the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Sunny Hundal explores the legacy of his late brother Jagraj Singh, a prominent Sikh leader, and asks if a rise in religious activism points towards a bigger story of Sikh identity.
Johnny Vegas takes a trip through the BBC archives to mark the 80th birthday of actor David Jason, one of Britain's biggest and best-loved stars of the small screen. With interviews, insights and Only Fools and Horses rarities, Johnny looks at the man behind Granville and Del Boy and pieces together the story of David's rise to the top of the comedy tree.
Five young Scots meet five Scottish grans for a frank and honest discussion about sex and relationships. From innocent discussions about the true meaning of the peach emoji to the intimate details of the weirdest place they have had sex. This is a whole new kind of sex education – for both generations.With memories of what it was like to be young in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, the grans will offer insight and wisdom. With the world laid out in front of them, our grandchildren offer their own take on what sex and relationships are like today.Grandmother to seven, 89-year-old Priscilla makes a friend for life in 20-year-old Chloe, who came out as gay two years ago. Whether the pair’s well-intentioned efforts to raise money to buy sex toys for the population of Shetland are successful remains to be seen. But at least they are now in agreement about what an aubergine emoji means.24-year-old Nicholai, who has come from Trinidad to study in Scotland, is already an open-minded man of the world. But even he will admit to being caught by surprise by 81-year-old Irene’s admission of the wildest place she has ever had sex.81-year-old Margaret meets 19-year-old Jada, who came out last year as bisexual. While Margaret has only ever been with one man, Jada remains to be convinced that marriage is an important part of her own future.Sheilagh, 69, has known 23-year-old Seamus for several years, as he is a close friend of her granddaughter. But that doesn’t stop her being amazed at the discovery of the sex toy he has been saving up for. And the cost!And 76-year-old Pauline and 19-year-old Chloe are bona fide grandmother and granddaughter. But how will they react upon discovering how many sexual partners each has had?
Fulham FC and Norwich FC teammates ditch their £200k super cars for a £2k image-wrecking hatchback for the day and play some shocking games set by Chris Stark on the car's radio.
Documentary following former England captain Rio Ferdinand and his fiancee Kate Wright in the months leading up to their wedding as she integrates into the family and becomes a stepmother to his three children Lorenz, Tate and Tia. Kate takes on not only the role as Rio's new partner, but also of parent to three children still grieving over the death of their mother Rebecca in 2015 and grandmother Janet two years later
What's it like to be a referee at the very top level of Scottish football? Leanne Crichton and Steven Thompson find out as they get a rare insight into the life of a Scottish Premiership referee.
In a timely and important film, David Baddiel explores the multi-faceted nature of Holocaust denial in an attempt to understand what motivates this dangerous phenomenon and why it is on the rise.
Born in 1941, Eric Burdon was – along with his band The Animals – one of the most important standard bearers of the British Invasion of America, right after The Beatles and ahead of The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks. Their 1964 interpretation of House of the Rising Sun was a global hit and inspired Bob Dylan (who recorded an acoustic version on his first album) to go electric and hit the stage from then on backed by a rock band.
Shane Williams is on a journey to understand how the world of rugby, from grassroots to the highest levels, is working to reduce concussions in the modern-day game.
Indonesia has announced plans to move its capital from the climate-threatened megalopolis of Jakarta to the once jungle-covered island of Borneo, 800 miles away.
The recent upsurge in violence against foreigners, mostly from elsewhere in Africa, is raising fears that xenophobic attacks in South Africa are on the rise. With its highly developed economy South Africa remains the continent’s biggest magnet for migrants. The South African Government has acknowledged that prejudice is partly to blame for the latest eruption of violence directed against African migrants and targeting foreign businesses. Political leaders from across party divides have been accused of tapping into existing anti-African sentiment, helping to create a hostile environment and stoke anti-immigrant sentiment for political gain rather than addressing the issues of poverty and job creation. But where does this Afrophobic violence have its roots and what does it mean for its relationships with neighbouring countries across the continent? As President Ramaphosa tries to protect its foreign investments and deal with the political and economic fallout, Global Questions travels to Johannesburg to discuss, Is South Africa Afrophobic?
Ever feel your GP doesn’t get you? Put off by long waiting times? Dr Ronx has a solution. In this show, this A&E medic is swapping her scrubs for the streets. She’s tackling one town at a time, putting the call out for people who are reluctant to go to the doctor – and taking the doctor to them instead. Ronx is in Croydon, seeing patients in boxing gyms, nail salons and cafes, and even heading home with some of them in her search for solutions. And as she hears from people who say they leave the GP frustrated or think the doctor won’t be able to help them, she spreads her message: that it doesn’t have to be that way. In Ronx’s consultations, nothing is off limits: she diagnoses and treats everything from smelly discharge to mental health, excess sweating to spotty crotches and fungal nails to gender identity concerns. She meets a young trans man who’s suffering excruciating pain from the binder that flattens his chest, a woman whose hair-style is making her go bald, a student whose depression is leading to some seriously risky behavior, and – in the gym – a man who spends hundreds of pounds on his trainers, but needs to pay a bit more attention to his feet. He’s grateful to discover that his verucca can be fixed with a dab of superglue. Ronx isn’t afraid to get up close and personal in a way Dr Google never could. And she draws on her own experience of mental health and identity issues to offer advice on a level and without judgment. Whether it’s tips on how to shave pubic hair safely, or straight talking about a drink problem, Ronx’s prescriptions are dispensed with heart and care, in her signature unflappable – and unshockable - style.
Next time you’re falling down a YouTube rabbit hole, think about this: all the watching, gaming and gramming we do is as polluting as flying. The internet is using a larger proportion of the world’s energy than ever before and, with the rollout of 5G, it’s set to keep on growing. Film and TV writer Beth Webb goes in search of the internet and discovers that ‘the cloud’ is actually a vast network of energy-guzzling data centres and undersea cables. Most of it is in Virginia, its biggest day-to-day threat is fishing boats, and those five billion streams of Despacito? They used the same amount of energy as five African countries put together over an entire year.
What does the future hold for the medium that was once called 'The Village Loudspeaker'? With rare archive andwell-known voices from the airwaves, this special programme traces the evolution of local radio.
Made across six months in the run-up to publication of The Mirror and the Light, the final book in Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning Tudor trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell, this film enjoys exclusiveand extensive access to one of the world’s greatest living writers, delving into Mantel's past and present as she describes a vivid imagination active from an early age and recounts with candour a tale of growing up with a dark family secret.Who could have imagined that Mantel’s working-class anti-hero Thomas Cromwell would come to be so loved across the globe? Five hundred years after his death, the story of Cromwell’sextraordinary rise and sudden fall has been brought back into the light, drawing a vast readership, two Booker wins, a Bafta-winning television adaptation, a West End show and the interpretative gifts of some of the greatest actors.Intertwining the themes of the Wolf Hall trilogy - power, faith, kingship and Englishness - with stories from her own life, the film also explores how the world of Thomas Cromwell reverberatesin our world today. The film follows Mantel as she talks about how and why she embarked on the trilogy and how the writing of it has changed her life. This is an artist’s biography in the characteristic style and voice of one of the most singular and brilliant minds of our age. Showing Hilary Mantel in her own world, both real and imaginative, led by the curiosity that has driven her from the beginning, this film shows a writer at the peak of her powers.
Greg and Marie had lived on the streets in Oakland, California, for more than a decade. Then a wealthy businessman read about their plight and invited the couple to move in and share his $4m home. A year later, it's not been easy for any of them. Putting a human face on America's homelessness crisis, this powerful film makes clear that providing shelter is only the first step.
Lost Lives is a cinematic, feature-length film inspired by the book of the same name. Written over seven years by five journalists, it is the only book to record the circumstances of every death in the Northern Irish Troubles. It is focused on the human and emotional cost of conflict. On the price that is paid when we try to settle difference through violence. There are over 3,700 entries. Over 3,700 lost lives. In the words of the journalists - David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea - it: "should serve as a lasting reminder of why Northern Ireland should never again return to full-scale conflict, a lasting reminder of the sadness and the pity of it all, a lasting reminder that war is hell.” Lost Lives is not a documentary but a landmark film delivering a creative, visual response to the book and what it represents. The film features an extraordinary cast list of leading Irish actors, reading extracts. Featured in the film are Kenneth Branagh, Bríd Brennan, Roma Downey, Adrian Dunbar, Michelle Fairley, Bronagh Gallagher, Brendan Gleeson, Dan Gordon, Ciarán Hinds, Conleth Hill, Susan Lynch, Des McAleer, Martin McCann, Ian McElhinney, Sean McGinley, James Nesbitt, Liam Neeson, Emer O’Connor, Stephen Rea, Judith Roddy, Michael Smiley and Bronagh Waugh. The film also weaves high-end cinematography, archive film and a score written by composers Neil Martin, Mark Gordon, Richard Hill and Charlie Graham. It was recorded by the Ulster Orchestra and the Codetta Choir. Lost Lives is a major cinematic event that addresses the past, but looks to the future. A DoubleBand Films production for BBC Northern Ireland in association with Northern Ireland Screen.
Alasdair Gray is a giant of Scottish arts. He's a great writer, artist, irascible interviewee and controversial essayist. In this intimate portrait, filmed over 15 years, we see him creating work that has become part of the living heritage of Scotland. His novel Lanark is the finest work of Scottish 20th-century literature, and his painting of the Oran Mor Arts Centre is Scotland's 21st-century Sistine Chapel. This documentary reveals a character who is by turns incisive, chaotic and laugh-out-loud funny.
International fashion photographer Rankin and artist Alison Lapper explore how the explosion of digital photography, social media and selfie culture has affected people's sense of identity. Rankin and Alison challenge four individuals who all hate the camera for a variety of reasons to be photographed up-close to investigate different perceptions of self-worth, image and beauty.
Fertility tourism is on the rise, in part because in countries like Turkey and many part of the Middle East, third-party reproductive assistance is illegal. And Cyprus has become a popular destination. Shorter waiting lists and cheaper costs are attracting many couples from all around the world. Young women are lured into donating their eggs, mainly via social media ads, agents and clinics with promises of hefty sums of money offered as compensation. Cagil Kasapoglu travels to Cyprus to find out more and to meet the women donating their eggs to help others to conceive.
Miles Davis - horn player, bandleader, innovator. Elegant, intellectual, vain. Callous, conflicted, controversial. Magnificent, mercurial. Genius. The very embodiment of cool. The man with a sound so beautiful it could break your heart. The central theme of Miles Davis's life was his restless determination to break boundaries and live life on his own terms. It made him a star. It also made him incredibly difficult to live with for the people who loved him most. Again and again, in music and in life, Miles broke with convention - and when he thought his work came to represent a new convention, he changed it again. Miles's bold disregard for tradition, his clarity of vision, his relentless drive and constant thirst for new experiences made him an inspiring collaborator to fellow musicians and a cultural icon to generations of listeners. It made him an innovator in music - from bebop to cool jazz, modern quintets, orchestral music, jazz fusion, rock ‘n’ roll and even hip-hop. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, studio outtakes and rare photos, this film tells the story of a truly singular talent and unpacks the music and the myth of the man behind the horn.
In the heart of Hitler's Nazi Germany, ordinary people worked tirelessly and at great danger to themselves, to help those whose lives were threatened. Fergal Keane tells the remarkable stories of three very different women who risked everything to challenge the cruelty of the Nazis.
For years victims of child sex abuse in Afghanistan have suffered in secret. Talking about it is taboo and those who have tried to speak out have been silenced.
The story of the 1970 Miss World contest, when protesters dramatically disrupted the event, kickstarting a feminist revolution in front of an audience of millions.
For critics and supporters alike, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser - the man who is said to have masterminded Brexit - is an enigma. Dominic Cummings is perhaps the most powerful unelected political figure in Britain today, but what does he actually believe? What has shaped his approach to politics and the media?And what can his rise to power tell us about how politics has changed? In this programme, Emily Maitlis examines Dominic Cummings’s place in our changing political landscape, stretching back over two decades. With testimonies from some of his fiercest critics and closest political friends, Emily Maitlis sheds light on a man whose ambitions may now direct Britain’s journey for yearsto come. The film charts his arrival in Downing Street as a senior adviser with significant and perhaps unprecedented power. Now, at the apex of the largest Conservative majority since 1987,Cummings aims to play a key role in reshaping the nation, our economy and government.
Gripping documentary that follows Steve McQueen in his quest to make 'the ultimate racing movie', 1971's Le Mans.
Documentary recalling Britain's early 1960s music show Ready Steady Go!, which revolutionised television `for the kids' and introduced emerging talent from the era. The ITV programme, synonymous with its hosts Keith Fordyce and Cathy McGowan, showcased top acts of the day including the Beatles, the Who, Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black, Otis Redding and the Rolling Stones. Contributors include original producer Vicki Wickham and pioneering director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, plus Annie Nightingale, Eric Burdon, Chris Farlowe, Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves, Paul Jones, Gerry Marsden and Jools Holland.
Wartime memories and experiences as seen through the cinematic eye of Harry Birrell. Narrated by Richard Madden.
Comedian Jake O’Kane takes us on a nostalgic trip back through the archives as he tells the story of Belfast’s King’s Hall. From the annual agricultural show, pop concerts and Ideal Home exhibitions to protest marches, election counts and boxing, the King’s Hall has been at the heart of life here since 1934. Developers have moved onto the site with plans for a brand new £100 million project. Everything will change, but the memories of public figures from MP Ian Paisley to former world champion boxer Barry McGuigan, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and journalist Ivan Little come alive in this hour-long documentary.
Hundreds of thousands of South Korean soldiers fought alongside the Americans in Vietnam, but the story of South Korea's involvement in the conflict is largely untold. More than fifty years later, a victim of Korean atrocities travels to the capital Seoul in search of justice. As part of the BBC's Crossing Divides season, Ly Truong reports.
Ben Zand sets out to unravel the mystery of Nipsey Hussle’s murder. On the 31st of March 2019, the rapper and entrepreneur was shot dead. Loved by his community, Nipsey was more than a rapper – he was an icon. But that’s what made his death so confusing, the man everyone loved and looked up to was shot at least 10 times on the very property he owned. Immediately, rumours started flowing. Who killed Nipsey Hussle? Who wanted him dead? Was it the police because of the message he was spreading? The government? Or an old gang dispute that had caught up with him? In Los Angeles, Ben Zand meets those closest to Nipsey Hussle, and those who knew the alleged killer Eric Holder. He talks to childhood friends, new-age Black Panthers and a former police officer. They don’t all agree on the motive, but they do agree there is much more to the murder of Nipsey Hussle than the anyone is letting on.
Award-winning documentary that celebrates the incredible musical history of Eel Pie Island, a small island in the Thames in south west London which became the epicentre of rhythm and blues in the 1960s. In its heyday, the likes of The Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who, David Bowie, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, Long John Baldry and many others cut their teeth at the venue before becoming legends of the music industry. Interviewed guests include Rod Stewart from The Faces, Top Topham from The Yardbirds, Mick Avory from The Kinks, Steve Hackett from Genesis, Dave Brock from Hawkwind, Andy Bown from Status Quo, Martin Turner from Wishbone Ash, Phil May from The Pretty Things, Don Craine and Keith Grant from The Downliners Sect, Geoff Cole from the Ken Colyer Band, Bob Dwyer from The Southern Stompers, Cleo Sylvestre from Honey B Mama, Blaine Harrison from The Mystery Jets, Paul Stewart from The Others, Sam Cutler, former tour manager with The Stones, as well as numerous fans known as Eelpilanders and island resident and inventor Trevor Baylis. Combining these interviews with original black-and-white images and archive footage from the era, the documentary explores the unique experiences of the people who either played at the Eel Pie Island Hotel or went there to listen to music and dance on the famous bouncing dance floor. Cheryl Robson, who created the project, says, ‘You can feel the incredible fondness for the Eel Pie experience when talking to those who actually went there. There was definitely something in the water in south west London, which affected all those who went, played, sang or danced. The energy was infectious.’ Narrated by actor Nigel Planer, who was once a resident of Eel Pie Island.
A family of salmon net fishermen battle with activists. However, a greater enemy intent on destroying their traditional way of life emerges from the shadows. Drama unfolds when activists descend on a sleepy fishing village on the Scottish coast. However, it is not just fishermen and activists at war, it is a collision of two worlds, the traditional and the modern, the rural and the urban and the carnivore and the vegan. The fishermen are the Pullar family. They fish for the salmon returning from their feeding grounds, just as their forefathers have for hundreds of years. Salmon were once essential to Scotland, with hundreds of skilfully erected bag nets dotted all along the coast to trap them as they swim home to their river of birth. The fishermen harvested the fish in small open boats on every tide. Today, only two families still use this unique Scottish fishing technique and their wild Scottish salmon is now regarded as a speciality in demand across Europe. However, this ancient technique comes with a cost. Rogue seals are attracted by the trapped salmon and chew through the nets to get to the easy prey. The seal population has always competed for the same food as the fishermen and so was traditionally kept low and was nearly culled to extinction early on in the last century. These days, the grey seal population has fully recovered and is posing a huge problem to today's fishermen, who have a license to shoot grey seals as a last resort when they attack the salmon in their nets. 'Every animal has the right to a full and happy life', claims Sea Shepherd volunteer Spud. Sea Shepherd activists, nearly all vegan, have moved in to stop the killing of seals. These activists jump in front of the guns and use social media and video cameras to stop the Pullars by any means possible. The Pullar clan fight back until a surprising enemy emerges to help the activists. River owners claim the salmon in their rivers are in decline and that the fight to stop the
Indonesia has announced plans to move its capital from the climate-threatened megalopolis of Jakarta to the once jungle covered island of Borneo, 800 miles away. Jakarta has become crowded and polluted and is sinking at an alarming rate. The move will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects the government has ever undertaken. But what will it take to uproot a capital - and at what cost? Rebecca Henschke reports from Indonesia.
Just before the violent protests of late 2019, a team from BBC News Arabic is allowed to film alongside police in Baghdad for the first time.
Mark Gatiss explores the life and career of Aubrey Beardsley, an artist who wielded outrage as adroitly as his pen. A lifelong fan, Mark shows how Beardsley was more than just a genius of self-promotion who scandalised the art world of the 1890s. He was also a technological innovator, whose uncompromising attitude still feels remarkably modern. The programme follows Beardsley’s fevered footsteps from his childhood in Brighton, via notoriety among the decadents of London’s fin de siècle, to his early death in France in 1898 at the age of just 25. Mark argues that the key to understanding this elusive artist is his childhood diagnosis of tuberculosis. The knowledge that he was likely to die young created a prodigious work ethic. Throughout his astonishing but brief artistic career, Beardsley constantly adopted new styles - sometimes reinventing himself every few months. Contributors to the programme include Stephen Fry, who discusses Beardsley’s illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s banned play Salome, and the illustrator Chris Riddell, who explains the influence of Japanese woodblock prints on Beardsley’s work. Leading scholar and programme consultant Stephen Calloway explains how the new technology of zinc line blocks allowed the artist to use mass reproduction as a tool for publicising his own – increasingly infamous - brand. Caught up in the fallout of the Wilde scandal, and in failing health, Beardsley’s career took a downturn. But adversity only made him more uncompromising. This was when he created his most unforgettable - and sexually charged – images for a privately published edition of Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, as well as a remarkable depiction of himself as an androgynous dandy. Is it possible that his limited life expectancy freed Beardsley from the conventional late Victorian expectations of masculinity?
Documentary following a group of autistic children and their families spending a week in an intensive therapy camp, which their parents hope will help them to transform some of their challenging behaviour. Eight-year-old Abel puts everything into his mouth and his parents are terrified that one day he is going to either choke or poison himself. Four-year-old Jack runs away from his parents as fast as he can, meaning they have to double-lock doors and are unable take him out without holding him tightly. Seven-year-old Leo won't shower or brush his teeth and fights off any attempt to cut his hair. Can the specialist therapists at the camp transform such negative behaviour in just seven days?
Documentary offering a glimpse into the cloak-and-dagger world of pigeon-flying across central Scotland.
In the winter of 1550, the most famous painter in Europe came face to face with a prince who was soon to become the most powerful man on earth. What emerged from this encounter between Prince Philip of Spain and the Renaissance master Titian is seen as one of the most extraordinary commissions in all of art history. Given almost total creative freedom and limitless time, Titian returned a series of six extraordinary masterpieces and reinvented painting in the process. Taken from scenes in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, each painting is more daring than the last, revelling in all facets of human desire, sex and the consequences of love. Dispersed over the centuries, these six paintings have not been seen together for over 450 years, and it has long been a dream of art lovers to re-unite them just as Titian had intended. But no sooner has the National Gallery, London pulled off this seemingly impossible exhibition than Titian’s master works are once again denied the public gaze. Amid the pandemic that is sweeping the globe, gallery director Gabriele Finaldi has taken the unprecedented step of closing gallery doors, uncertain as to when or if the pictures can ever be seen together again. BBC cameras access the exhibition for one time only in order bring this groundbreaking exhibition to screens across Britain and beyond. Not only are these paintings lovingly filmed and presented, but they are brought to life with expert testimony unravelling how these masterpieces came into being, what they meant in their own time and how we can still take meaning from them today. Gabriele Finaldi has also granted his first broadcast interview, in which he describes the enormity of bringing these paintings together and the agonising decision he had to make in locking them up behind closed doors.
Documentary providing an intimate glimpse into an exclusive world of luxury and immense wealth, where global power dynamics, art and commerce meet - a modern-day Cinderella story.The diminutive and daring Guo Pei dresses China’s new elite but dreams of conquering Paris, the exclusive yet savage capital of haute couture.
Michael Wood travels in the footsteps of the eighth-century poet, from the Yellow River to the Yangtze Gorges and down to the forested hills of Hunan. Born in 712, the age of Beowulf in Britain, Du Fu lived through the violent fall of China's Tang dynasty, and as rebel armies sacked the capital and floods and famine wrecked the country, he was forced to flee, taking his family on the roads as refugees. With readings by Sir Ian McKellen.
Reporter Ellie Flynn investigates how thousands of ordinary people and teenagers all across the world are making money from selling their own nude photos and videos.
Schooled in Fife, coming of age in a rock ’n’ roll band, then finding her forte was directing temperamental actors, Cora Bissett is no stranger to theatrical Scottish swearing. So who better to present a celebration of Caledonian cursing? This documentary sees Cora sing, swear and scrutinise why Scotland swears so well. Cora begins with the first hurdle – how does one discuss swear words on the BBC? Aunty Beeb is the institution that has been historically priggish about language - always bleeping words and apologising for those that slipped through. So Cora runs a list past BBC Scotland’s head of editorial standards to see what she can get away with.
Inside the secret world of Sergei Pugachev, a Russian oligarch, and his British partner Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, mother to their three children.
A special broadcast by Her Majesty the Queen to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in relation to the coronavirus outbreak
On Easter Sunday 2019, eight men inspired by the Islamic State Group triggered huge suicide bombs in churches and tourist hotels across Sri Lanka, killing more than 270 people. It was one of the worst Islamist terror attacks since 9/11. Jane Corbin talks to survivors and those who came face to face with the killers. Drawing on hours of CCTV footage that track the bombers' every move, the film pieces together how the attacks were carried out and discovers how some of the bombers came from wealthy and respected families
Olympic icon Sir Chris Hoy heads to Japan, host of next year's Tokyo Games, to explore the Japanese phenomenon of the keirin, the most extreme and exciting event in track cycling. A test of controlled pacing then a tactical fight to the line, keirin is a sport in its own right in its country of origin, and is steeped in the history and rituals that make Japanese culture so unique. Attending keirin school is a once in a lifetime opportunity for international riders, and back in 2005, multiple Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris was one of the first Britons to be invited to savour the ultimate experience in the career of any track cyclist. He now makes a nostalgic return.
In this fascinating journey, Melissa Hogenboom considers whether or not we are in charge of our own decisions; from neuroscience to physics to how our understanding of free will impacts on our morality and the choices we make.
Documentary following a shepherd's journey from the summit to the valley as he leads his sheep off Scafell Pike, reflecting on life caring for his flock in this rugged landscape. Maxine Peake reads specially commissioned poetry written by Mark Pajak to provide a counterpoint to the shepherd's insights throughout the film.
People may sometimes recognise the faces on our Scottish banknotes for the very reason that they feature on the money that we spend. However, apart from the usual suspects - such as Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert the Bruce - many of us have no idea who many of them are, or of their extraordinary impact on the world.
One year after an inferno devastated the vast timber and lead roof of the world-famous Notre-Dame Cathedral, the 850-year-old gothic masterpiece is still perilously close to collapse. Now, we follow the men and women fighting to secure the fire-ravaged structure. Lead dust from the vaporised roof contaminates the site, the stone ceiling is crumbling, and a 500-tonne melted mass of scaffolding still hangs precariously over the cathedral, triggering alarms and evacuations. Now that the cathedral walls are supported by giant timber frames, chief architect Philippe Villeneuve urgently needs a complete picture of the damage sustained during the fire. He initiates an unprecedented collaboration between architects and scientists. Their mission is to meticulously analyse the fallen timber, stone, and fractured glass to develop a decontamination and restoration plan. This unique opportunity will give a new insight into the medieval materials, techniques, and people who built Notre-Dame.
Athletics legend Eliud Kipchoge talks exclusively to BBC Sport about how he became the first athlete to run a marathon in less than two hours.
Matisse's great-granddaughter Sophie Matisse tell the tumultuous story of his early life, exploring his journey to becoming the first avant-garde artist of the 20th century.
A phenomenon known as ‘Peatlemania’ has recently taken hold of the nation. Fisherman Calum ‘Boydie’ Macleod, electrician Innes Scott, and delivery driver Uilleam ‘Uilly’ Macleod together as Peat & Diesel have taken the Highland music scene by storm capturing the country’s imagination through their infectious music and unique tales of island life. With exclusive behind-the-scenes access, we follow the band on their journey to stardom, performing at various venues and festivals throughout the country, learning about what inspires their music and about how they are coping with the bright lights of fame and the demands of a rock and roll lifestyle. Away from their fairytale adventure we also spend time with the boys at home to find out where their story originally began. A fascinating and lively portrayal of how three Stornoway Coves have rocketed to fame through playing the music which they love and have been immersed in growing up on the Isle of Lewis. In Gaelic with English subtitles
The life of legendary Scottish mountaineer and rescuer Hamish MacInnes, inventor of the all-metal ice axe and author of the International Mountain Rescue Handbook.
Documentary providing rare access to the inner workings, personnel, seminarians and history of the oldest Scottish institution abroad - Il Pontificio College Scozzese (The Scots College in Rome.)
A look back at the very first London Marathon, staged in 1981.
Documentary that explores the labyrinthine art world of the 21st century and examines both the place of art and artistic passion in our money-driven, consumer-based society.
Easter Mass recorded at Augustine’s Church, Coatbridge.
Writer Alistair Heather sets out on a mission to reclaim the Scots language. For decades, his fellow-Scots speakers have been mocked, their language oppressed by educators, politicians and broadcasters. One famous report claimed that 'Scots is not the language of educated people anywhere'. Alistair visits the Scottish Parliament to discover Scots prose and poetry hewn into the exterior decoration of the building, but scarcely a word on the interior. Yet Scots was once the tongue of most lowland Scots, of the Royal Court and great poetry. Alistair claims that the demise of the language is due to the departure to London of Scotland’s King James VI, to the received pronunciation of the BBC, and to generations of teachers insisting their pupils speak 'proper English'. Somehow, the Scots language survived all that. It is now one of Scotland’s three official languages, with English and Gaelic. The 2011 census indicated that one and a half million people claimed to speak Scots, making it the largest minority language in Britain. But still it is ignored. Scots receives only a fraction of the government money spent on Gaelic. Alistair travels across Scotland, meeting activists determined to breathe new life into this ancient tongue. He sees Scots taught to enthusiastic pupils in Borders schools and hears the poetry of North East Doric recited by the local MSP. In Glasgow, writer Chris McQueer and comedian Janey Godley take pleasure in reclaiming the Scots dialect of our largest city. In Rebel Tongue, Alistair tells the history of the language and argues that Scots is fighting back after decades of ignorance and oppression.
A look back at the incredible success of The Shadows as they celebrate their 60th anniversary. Starting from where they began as The Drifters to then becoming the backing band for Cliff Richard and enjoying huge success in their own right, the programme celebrates The Shadows’ achievements across a time of constant change within the social, cultural and musical landscape. The Shadows were at the forefront of the UK beat boom generation and the first backing group to emerge as big stars in their own right. Using unseen archive, personal testimony and interviews with the band, along with those they influenced, including Brian May, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, The Shadows at Sixty is not just a trip down memory lane, but an in-depth, often emotional story of a group’s journey through six decades.
Lucia Blasco investigates two very different ways of dealing with the growing problem of household waste. In Paraguay, the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura is making music by salvaging material from the country's largest landfill, while the city of Linkoping in Sweden is burning its rubbish to produce electricity and heating for its inhabitants.
Celebrating Lee Miller, a model turned photographer turned war reporter who defied anyone who tried to pin her down, put her on a pedestal or pigeonhole her in any way.
In 2007, two men and a dog set out to beat the behemoths of brewing. James Watt and Martin Dickie first met at Peterhead Academy in the northeast of Scotland and within 10 years the close friends turned their craft beer cottage industry into a global phenomenon. Today they employ over 2,000 people, and have opened over 100 bars globally from Japan to Australia and America, all from their base in Aberdeenshire. But their journey wasn’t smooth, and the business nearly went under until a supermarket competition changed their fortune. They faced negative press and grew through unconventional means. In 2018, they sold a 22% share to a private equity company, earning £50m each in the process. They are adamant they won’t sell out, but have the punks grown up to be just like the corporate giants they fought so hard against? With exclusive access – they tell us their own story from the beginning.
National treasure Dame Vera Lynn is known to millions as the wartime heroine who performed for our troops during the Second World War. This film was made as a tribute to celebrate her 100th birthday and features testimony from the veterans whose lives she touched. Even now, Dame Vera still brings smiles to many and knows music can help bring us joy while we're apart from our loved ones, just waiting for the time when we'll meet again.
Documentary tracing the shocking truth of our governments' love affair with torture. In 1950s Montreal, Scottish-born psychiatrist Dr Ewen Cameron experimented on his unwitting patients. His techniques included sensory deprivation, forced comas and LSD injections. His work was covertly funded by the Canadian government and the CIA and since then, his techniques have been used in Northern Ireland, Guantanamo and 27 countries around the world. Featuring extraordinary first-hand testimony from Guantanamo Bay survivors, the Hooded Men from Northern Ireland and senior American psychologists and military personnel.
Scotland remembers the men and women who battled to bring Hitler's forces to their knees. Behind the flags and bunting of popular memory, the last week of the European war witnessed incredible tales of endurance, compassion and cruelty. Bombers that had rained destruction on German cities dropped food to the starving Dutch. Scottish POWs were held hostage by their Russian 'allies'. At home an exhausted nation awaited the final German surrender. Across Europe, on land, sea and air, Scotland's heroes remember the last week of their war.
The comedy pioneer behind the Goon Show, Dr Strangelove and the Pink Panther series is explored in depth in this film, surveying his meteoric rise to fame and troubled personal life.
The fascinating story of how film director Virginia Heath and composer and musician King Creosote (Kenny Anderson) collaborated to create the much-loved and critically acclaimed archive and music film From Scotland with Love.
Lucy Worsley tells the story of the royal photograph, showing how the royal family worked with generations of photographers to create images that reinvented the British monarchy.
In 1970, an 18-year-old schoolgirl left the Bogside in Derry to represent Ireland in the 15th Eurovision Song Contest. What happened that night was to change her life forever. Dana - The Original Derry Girl is an emotional and honest look back at a girl’s incredible life story, retracing her steps to Amsterdam’s RAI theatre, where, against the odds, she became Ireland’s first Eurovision winner. At a time when the violent conflict of the Troubles was dominating the news, Rosemary Scallon, better known as Dana, became a national hero overnight. Studying for her A levels when she won, Dana was totally unprepared for the instant celebrity that followed and she recalls how the whirlwind of sudden success left her feeling lonely and isolated. The programme looks at the fascinating story of what happened she won the competition, including her successful pop and TV career in the 70s, her marriage to Newry hotelier Damien Scallon, her move to Alabama, her switch to religious music, including performances for the pope, before entering the spotlight of Irish politics. The highs and lows of her career are laid bare in a revealing, emotional interview. ‘Like in everybody’s life, there are the really hard things that happen. They either crush you completely or they make you stronger and I’m working on that.’ After some difficult years, Dana returned to music, recording a new album in Rome in 2018. This retrospective is an archive-rich trip down memory lane, with incredible access and an honest, and sometimes raw, look at her incredible career. With contributions from Derry Lindsay, Senator David Norris, Dave Fanning and many others, the programme ends with Dana joining local choirs on stage in the Guildhall Derry, where she performed as a young girl, to take part in a moving version of Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith’s All Kinds of Everything, the song that won Eurovision. Asked what advice she would give to her 18-year-old self if she could travel back in tim
Documentary in which former Aberdeen and Rangers star Davie Robertson returns to India to manage Real Kashmir FC. It's football in the danger zone - can he make it work?
David Hayman narrates a revealing insider look into Scotland's criminal justice system in Edinburgh's Appeal Court. With unique access, the programme features a murder in Peebles, a hitmen killing in Glasgow and a 'Breaking Bad' style drug-dealing operation in Paisley.
The incredible story of Jesse Dufton as he attempts to be the first blind person to lead a climb of the Old Man of Hoy, a sea stack with sheer cliff faces rising out of the sea, in Orkney, Scotland Jesse was born with 20% central vision. At four years of age, Jesse was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease that breaks down the retina’s cells. When he was 20, Jesse could no longer read. By the time he was 30, he could only detect light, with around a one to two per cent field of view. As a lifelong climber, what Jesse has achieved flies in the face of adversity, training for world cup events and leading traditional rock climbs with his sight guide and fiancée Molly. As his sight degenerates, his climbing continues to make remarkable progress. His attempt on the Old Man of Hoy is testimony to his ambition to take on new and greater challenges, despite his devastating condition. This engrossing documentary will make you laugh and cry as it delivers not just a truly gripping climbing story but an inspiring tale of human endeavour and attitude.
Chef Danny McLarenhits the road in his Scran Van and throws himself into the local nightlife around Scotland. His aim is to show how quick it can be to make your own food instead of grabbing a takeaway. His passion is cooking up food that’s cheap and absolutely rammed with flavour, dishes so easy you can throw them together at the end of a night out. However, as two revellers get the low-down from Danny on cooking up a storm, the big question is can Danny tempt them away from their favourite takeaway at the end of the night?
Rapper Krept and vlogger Rumena are fasting for Ramadan and challenge their non-Muslim friends to join in. Can their mates make it through the day without food or water?
The sneaker industry has tripled in the last ten years, accounting for almost half of global footwear sales, and every pair produced emits the same amount of C02 as a ten-mile drive.
With guests including Bono, Sinead O’Connor, Dave Stewart, Jools Holland, David Mallet and Sting, as well as music writers, photographers and historians, this film explores the musical and social legacy of Ireland’s first rock superstars The Boomtown Rats, who changed their own lives, helped to change Ireland and, with Bob Geldof’s Live Aid, changed the world. In this entertaining, dramatic and absorbing film, director Billy McGrath digs deep into the band’s history and remarkable songbook and highlights the key moments of its huge success and subsequent fall in 1985. And after over 30 years, why did the band regroup in 2013?
This film marks 50 years since the fire that ravaged the Britannia railway bridge over the treacherous Menai Straits to Anglesey. It includes remarkable archive and moving eyewitness accounts of the destruction and rebirth of a British engineering masterpiece. Using a wealth of footage from the time, stunning photography and first-hand testimonies from the men who risked their lives fighting the flames, this is the vivid story of the Britannia Bridge from its building in the Victorian Age to its resurrection in the 1970s. The bridge was the work of engineering genius Robert Stephenson - son of railway pioneer George Stephenson and a contemporary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This film shows how a child naively lit a piece of paper, leading to a raging inferno that caused multi-million pound damage to the rail crossing that connected London and Dublin for 120 years. It charts the building of the original bridge, through the disastrous fire and the tragic deaths involved in its rebuilding as a modern road bridge. A fitting tribute to both the original engineers and the fire fighters who put everything on the line to save an iconic piece of British history. This is the story of the night people exclaimed in horror that “Britannia’s Burning.”
Whatever happened to Scotland's Silicon Glen? US giant IBM arrived at Spango Valley in post-war Greenock, attracted as part of a government effort to replace industrial jobs. For decades the company provided thousands of jobs, often at the leading edge of technology, helping to attract dozens of high-tech investments to Scotland from all over the world. What was it like to work for the company known as Big Blue? The film uncovers the stories of the shop-floor at IBM. And it tells of IBM's supporting role in major events including the Moon landings and the creation of an iconic movie - Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
What is it like to be a male ballet dancer in the modern world? Is there still a stigma for boys who enter what is commonly seen as a female domain? Award-winning film-maker Richard Macer hopes to find out as he gets invited to film with a golden generation of talented young male dancers at the Royal Ballet.
Why do British men struggle to talk about their emotions? The Duke of Cambridge has spent the past year campaigning to change attitudes to mental health in Britain. Spurred on by the fact that suicide is the biggest killer of young men in this country, he wants to use football as a way to get men talking and to break the taboo that surrounds mental health. As a real fan of the sport, William has seen the way men express their feelings at football games. Now he wants to help men show the same passion and openness away from the game. The film follows William as he meets players and fans from grassroots to the elite of the game and openly discusses their mental health challenges. Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart explains how he has learnt to cope with difficulties at the very top of the game, and a group of bereaved fathers reveal how they use their local football team as a support network and safe space to talk. Former Premier League footballer Marvin Sordell opens up about his struggles with depression, while Chelsea manager Frank Lampard compares life now with his early experiences of professional football. As well as campaigning to change attitudes today, William explores aspects of British history that have helped create the culture of silence around this issue. Honest and touching, the film powerfully conveys his passion to change the conversation around mental health in Britain.
The doctors and nurses at Lodi hospital in Lombardy were on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy. After discovering the first confirmed Covid-19 patient in Europe, they became the continent's first line of defence against the virus. Film-makers Alberto Gottardo and Francesca Sironi worked with the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse to make this exclusive film from inside the hospital at the heart of Italy's pandemic.
Within weeks, sport went from postponing some events to full-scale cancellations and then a complete shutdown. As countries around the globe consider how sport should best come out of lockdown, BBC Sport examines how sport will emerge from the pandemic and what lessons have been learned.
Tracing the story of Ella Fitzgerald’s life, this documentary film explores how her music became a soundtrack for a tumultuous century. From a 1934 talent contest at the Apollo theatre in Harlem, the film follows Ella’s extraordinary journey across five decades as she reflects the passions and troubles of the times in her music and her life. Moving beyond conventional biopic, the film uses images and music to evoke the feel of those times, bringing to life the context of Ella’s unique career, featuring interviews from Smokey Robinson, Jamie Cullum, Tony Bennett, Norma Miller and Laura Mvula.
How Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dina Asher-Smith won gold medals in the heptathlon and the 200m at the 2019 world championships in Doha.
In this revelatory BBC Four documentary special, oceanographer Dr Helen Czerski and zoologist Dr George McGavin carry out an ‘autopsy’ on the ocean itself and reveal the startling changes it’s undergoing. Moving the story beyond the well-known impact of discarded plastic on our seas, the autopsy will investigate the effects of high levels of life-threatening toxins on marine ecosystems and the invisible plague of micro- and nano-plastics saturating the water. The destiny of our oceans is on a knife edge and the window of opportunity to save them is rapidly closing.
Documentary about the first scientific research undertaken in a submersible in the Antarctic that reveals the extraordinary forms of life that thrive in the Southern Ocean.
Sara Cox and Ade Adepitan have access to some of Britain's biggest supermarkets and their suppliers to see how their systems have stood up to the most testing time in their history.
Following the shutdown of professional sport in North America in mid-March, BBC Sport looks at how the four major leagues intend to resume playing during the coronavirus pandemic.
Gary Lineker, Terry Butcher and Paul Parker revisit the scene of the 1990 World Cup semi-final between England and West Germany.
Reporter Callum Tulley investigates complaints of bullying, harassment and discrimination in the British Army that come disproportionately from ethnic minority soldiers
A tribute celebrating the life and work of Dame Vera Lynn. With footage first recorded to celebrate her 100th birthday and a new introduction by her daughter Virginia, it includes exclusive access to Dame Vera as she watches home movies and videos from the past with her daughter.
Oxford University Egyptologist Elizabeth Frood is our guide to the discovery of the tomb on 4 November 1922 by British Egyptologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. It provided much-needed good news, following the Great War and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919 and we’ve been transfixed ever since. Uncovering detail not seen for a century, colourisation provides a fantastic insight into the artefacts themselves and the context that they were found in. From bringing to life the young Carter from an old family photo, documenting Egypt’s transformation during the Great War, to the great operation excavating the tomb and the grand revealing of Tutankhamun itself - colourisation will bring a new element of realism and incredible detail to this great moment in history, as if it were in front of us.
The northern Italian region of Lombardy saw the first Coronavirus outbreak in Europe. Mark Lowen, who has reported on the story from the start, returns to ask what went wrong.
As the world reacts and deals with the fallout from the death of George Floyd in the United States, sporting stars around the world have been making their own contribution to the debate.
Documentary tracing the contrasting fortunes of David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo at the 1998 World Cup.
An intimate and profound portrait of one doctor's struggle as she fights to save lives at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in one of Italy's worst-hit cities.
Is there a wild side to Britain’s busiest road? Author and naturalist Helen Macdonald embarks on a clockwise loop around London’s orbital motorway - searching for hidden wildness and natural beauty within the sight and sound of the M25. Along her journey, Helen encounters the remarkable people, plants and animals living above, beside and beneath the motorway, and delves into the controversial history of the UK’s longest and least-loved bypass. The M25 has been part of Britain’s landscape for nearly 35 years, so how has the natural world adapted to the motorway carving a path through its environment? Starting just south of the Thames at Kent’s Junction 1, Helen explores the woodland that lines the first 40 miles of the M25. In a first sign of how animals’ lives are shaped by the man-made world, great tits are changing the pitch of their calls in order to be heard above the roar of the road. But humans have often been less willing to adapt to the M25’s noisy presence. The village of Shoreham won a battle to divert the motorway, thanks to the landscape paintings of 19th-century artist Samuel Palmer. Palmer’s paintings are highly prized today for their pre-impressionistic style and their idyllic visions of a benign countryside. Although Palmer’s vision was at odds with the harsher reality for farmworkers of the time, 20th-century locals leveraged their emotive value to save Shoreham’s valley and re-route the motorway through nearby woods. Autumn rains trigger fungi to emerge into the roadside woodland. One species, Neurospora, offers a potential solution to our congested highways. Neurospora’s mobile DNA flows smoothly around an incredibly complex network of fungal freeways. Scientists are trying to figure out the fungi’s secret, in the hope of one day inspiring more robust transport networks. The western arc of the motorway crosses a watery world of rivers and canals. Helen dives into the serene spaces created in gaps between the motorway and the waterways. Loc
To most fans around the world Brazil and Argentina’s World Cup wins in 1970 and 1978 were wonderful football stories. But to the people of these two nations there was a hugely significant political context to these tournaments. Both nations won the World Cup while suffering under repressive military dictatorships. And in both cases these violent military juntas used their successful football teams to help improve their image around the world. For many football fans, Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning team remains the greatest ever, while the scenes from the River Plate stadium of ticker tape cascading down onto the joyous Argentinian team remains one of the most evocative in footballing history. In this revealing documentary, filmed in Brazil and Argentina and featuring the players and people directly effected by the tournaments, a darker story emerges. Interviewees include Pele, Gary Lineker, Osvaldo Ardiles, Mario Kempes, Jairzinho, Rivellino, Gerson and Tostao.
How Covid-19 triggered the spread of a 5G conspiracy theory, firing it into mainstream British life and inspiring a new generation of believers.The idea that 5G could have health implications isn’t new. But, thanks to celebrities like Amir Khan and Eamonn Holmes, it spread further than ever before during lockdown.We speak to new converts to the anti-5G cause, as well as telecoms engineers who have been abused in the streets, police dealing with arson attacks, and activists on both sides. Where did this theory come from? How did it spread? And where will it end? The pandemic has converted many anti-5G activists to the anti-vaccination movement too.This is a story about how easy it is for disinformation to infect us all and how it has become particularly contagious in the coronavirus era
International art sensation Keith Haring blazed a trail through the art scene of 1980s New York and revolutionised the worlds of pop culture and fine art. When he was diagnosed with Aids in 1989, he asked writer John Gruen to write his biography, and the subsequent audio interviews form the basis of this profile. They are combined with archive footage and contributions from friends, critics and contemporaries, telling the artist's story from the sleepy Pennsylvania of his youth to the clubbing scene of New York and to the streets, where he made his instantly recognisable graffiti-like art.
In this intimate and extremely personal documentary, comedian and TV presenter Alex Brooker examines his disability to acknowledge for the first time how much it impacts on who he is. Alex revisits key moments from his past, uncovering both joyful and difficult memories. Having conversations with family and friends that he has never had before, Alex engages with elements of his disability he has avoided until now. Turning to the present, Alex explores what it really means to be disabled in the UK today. Admitting that he knows he is out of touch with many people’s disability experiences, Alex comes face to face with the lives of disabled Brits around the country to see the reality of day-to-day life - from prejudice and lack of support to resilience, camaraderie and just 'being me'. Alex looks to the future, finally able to address his concerns around his own health and mobility and ready to explore what medical options might be available to him. By the end of the documentary, Alex has a new perspective on being a disabled person and the role it will play for his sense of self over the rest of his life.
Trump in Tweets examines how Trump used Twitter to change US politics. We learn why this technophobe became a serial tweeter and witness the impact his tweets have on the world.
Documentary following Kristen Fraser, Scotland's first professional female boxer. Her dream is to become world champion - but will the birth of her first child change that?
The untold story of 13-year-old Hazel Hill - and her crucial role in the design of the famous Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes - in the run-up to the Battle of Britain.
A long-awaited review into three medical treatments has found women weren't warned about risks and when things went wrong, doctors didn't believe them.
The Duchess of Cambridge speaks to Louise Minchin about early years development.
Gareth Wyn Jones presents the fascinating story of the Royal Welsh Show, from its establishment in 1904 through to its status today as the pinnacle of the Welsh rural calendar.
Revisit an extraordinary sporting day in 2019 on which a historic men's final at Wimbledon and an incredible cricket World Cup final at Lord's grip the nation.
Journalist Layla Wright finds out why Sean Walsh turned down conventional cancer treatment and investigates the alternative therapies he turned to.
Black Sabbath, Queen, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Coldplay, Simple Minds, Robert Plant and Manic Street Preachers are some of the greatest bands and musicians of our time, but what is the one thing these titans of music have in common? This film tells the unlikely tale of how two Welsh farming brothers turned their dairy farm into one of the most successful recording studios of all time, producing four decades of legendary rock music. It’s where Queen recorded their seminal Bohemian Rhapsody, featured in the Hollywood blockbuster of the same name. But Rockfield’s own story has never been told until now. Fifty years ago, deep in the Welsh countryside, brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward were starting out in the family dairy farming business. But they yearned to do something different – they wanted to make music. So they built a studio in the attic of their farmhouse and started recording with their friends. Kingsley’s new wife Ann left her job in the local bank to do the books, and they continued farming all the while. Animals were kicked out of barns to make way for recording equipment, and musicians were moved into Nan’s spare bedroom. Inadvertently, they’d launched the world’s first independent residential recording studio. Rockfield’s reputation spread like wildfire, quickly garnering international acclaim. From Black Sabbath, Hawkwind and Queen, to Simple Minds, Iggy Pop and Robert Plant, and later Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers and Coldplay - an unbelievable roll call of artists have made music and mayhem at Rockfield. Legendary musicians give us their awe-inspiring Rockfield stories - sharing with us the highs, lows and magical moments that created some the world’s best-known and loved songs of our times - from Wonderwall to Yellow. Innovatively told through archive, animation and personal interviews, Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm is an extraordinary story of rock and roll dreams intertwined with a family
Documentary that takes a behind-the-scenes look at American painter Bob Ross's journey from humble beginnings to pop culture icon.
Some of Britain’s best-loved stars celebrate the incredible people who work for the NHS, telling personal stories of their own encounters with the service.
Reporter Daniel Henry follows the UK's response to the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
BBC Parliament's Faye Kidd presents a brief history of the Northern Ireland legislature from parliament to power-sharing.
Kevin Magee investigates the true story behind rumours of a Nazi spy in Donegal in 1937. Investigative journalist Kevin Magee uncovers the work of Nazi party member and Irish scholar Dr Ludwig Mühlhausen. Mühlhausen spent six weeks in the Gaeltacht hamlet of Teileann in South Donegal in 1937, collecting folklore and improving his Ulster Irish, but that was not the only work he carried out while he was there. As Kevin reveals, in reality he was working as a Nazi spy, gathering information and passing it on to the Third Reich.
Twin brothers Chris and Xand van Tulleken, both doctors, share their personal and professional experiences of Covid-19
Documentary about British triple jumper Jonathan Edwards.
Before Covid-19 restrictions, a hit exhibition, Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, was attracting record crowds in Los Angeles, Paris and London. But a BBC Arabic investigation finds it may have broken Egyptian law designed to protect the country's priceless artefacts.
The Australian Dream is a theatrical feature documentary that uses the remarkable and inspirational story of AFL legend Adam Goodes as the prism through which to tell a deeper and more powerful story about race, identity and belonging.
Jackie Saleh has lived through every mother's worst nightmare. Back in 1986, her world was shattered when her husband abducted her three young daughters from their Cardiff home and took them to Yemen. Her youngest daughter Safia was just a toddler. Now over three decades on, Safia is finally coming home. Jackie travels to Heathrow to meet the daughter she doesn't really know.
Kirsty Wark follows the trial of former first minister Alex Salmond from day one until his acquittal in March, when he emerges from Edinburgh's High Court cleared of 14 charges of sexual misconduct.
Step inside Judges Bingo hall in Tonypandy - a place where the community comes to take a break, share their stories and try and win some money. Today there is a top prize of £5,000 up for grabs, and seven sets of hopeful players are poised with their dabbers ready in the hope of landing themselves the jackpot. But for club regulars - families, couples and groups of friends - today is not all about the winning. It is also a chance to get together and sort their lives out.
Ex-footballer Garry O'Connor speaks openly about what it was like becoming one of the most successful Scottish players of a generation and then losing everything. Garry describes breaking into the Hibs' first team at 16, before going on to sign for Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow and Premiership team Birmingham City. He talks about becoming an object of tabloid fodder after a failed drugs test and the loss of his fortune, both related to his secret and lonely battle with mental health. As Garry candidly details his struggle with drugs, injuries and money, he provides a unique insight into the glitz, glamour and depression that has plagued his career, as well as the crazy world of high-level football. Throughout, a host of Scottish footballing heroes including John 'Yogi' Hughes, Donald Park and Ian Murray, discuss Garry’s meteoritic rise and his dramatic fall. Former team-mates Ian Murray and Yogi describe the difficulties that all footballers face when confronted with isolation and injury. Mental health expert Libby Emerson reveals hidden depression is just part of the game for many players. Journalist Richard Winton explains that to the tabloids, Garry was and still is a dream come true. Forced to move out of his luxury mansion into a council house not far from where he grew up, he is the epitome of a guy who had it all but blew it. Finally, Garry acknowledges that he must ignore his critics and focus on his future, not just for himself, but for his family - including his talented son Josh, who has started his career by following in his father’s footsteps at Hibs. Garry is determined to steer Josh on the right path and ensure Josh does not make the same mistakes he did.
Becky Southworth, the daughter of a convicted sex offender, steps into the unsettling world of sex offender rehabilitation to see what can be done to stop them reoffending.
Southern Spain, famous for its beaches and sunshine, has become the main gateway for drugs into Europe. Violent turf wars between drug cartels have caused the government to issue a crackdown. For the last two years, the police have been fighting to take back control. In this compelling film, Stacey gains unique access to the police, the dealers and the smugglers. She goes out on patrol with the air force team of the Guardia Civil and is invited along to witness a night-time raid in an attempt to arrest a cartel suspect they have been watching for two years. To understand why this part of Spain sees so much cocaine, Stacey travels to the source – Apartado, Colombia. There she meets one of the biggest smugglers in the region. Faced with highly organised criminal gangs and the insatiable demand for drugs in Europe, Stacey debates whether this a war the police can ever win. Part of the award-winning This World strand.
Continuing controversy over the future of some public statues and protests by the Black Lives Matter movement have shone a light on aspects of Britain's imperial past. In this programme the BBC's correspondents around the world, consider the legacy of imperialism.
Directed by critically acclaimed film-maker Vanessa Engle, this documentary tells the jaw-dropping story of Carl Beech, a former nurse from Gloucester who claimed he had been sexually abused by a group of prominent men in the 1970s and 80s. The scandal becomes front-page news in 2014 when Beech, better known by his pseudonym Nick, goes public with his incredible allegations, triggering a £2 million police investigation. The film features exclusive interviews with many of the people most closely involved.
BBC Sport's Nick Hope visits Pita Taufatofua, the taekwondo fighter turned cross-country skier, in his homeland to learn about the Tongan's humble beginnings.
DJ and broadcaster Jamz Supernova looks at what Covid 19 has done to clubs, their owners and the DJs who played. Will the industry ever be the same again?
Featuring rarely seen archive and interviews, this documentary examines Bob Marley's special relationship with Britain and reveals how he inspired a generation of black British youth.
Jason Isaacs narrates the story of Liverpool's quest to return to the top of English football by winning the Premier League, with contributions from Jurgen Klopp, Michael Owen, John Henry and more.
It's been 12 years since Beatrice Jones' beloved daughter, Moira, was abducted, raped and murdered in Glasgow. To her it seems only a few weeks ago, such was her trauma, devastation and despair. To try to cope better, she started to write about her inner turmoil and now believes that her journals could also help other people deal with the loss of a loved one. Her intimate writings have never been shared with anyone - until now.
Performance artist Bryony Kimmings loves to make work about her own life. After award-winning work on men and mental health (Fake it 'til you Make it), sexually transmitted diseases (Sex Idiot) and her recent show on the breakup of her relationship and accompanying nervous breakdown (I’m a Phoenix, Bitch), she now turns her unflinching and hilarious gaze onto single motherhood. In collaboration with documentary film-maker Daisy Asquith, she creates a girl gang of brilliantly lovable single mums and takes inspiration from their emotional and hilarious stories to create an opera! A tour of English National Opera’s backstage workings gives Kimmings a crash course in all things operatic, and confirms it is the perfect medium to represent the drama and high-octane intensity of single motherhood.
Mehreen Baig investigates the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, an area that boasts the UK's most expensive houses and where annual salaries are three times the national average. Her guide is a true Chelsea insider - Amanda Eliasch, who made much of her fortune in a divorce from her billionaire husband 14 years ago. She's also a successful photographer, and achieved notoriety in 2019 when she hired an auction house to dispose of the items in her wardrobe - including 250 pairs of designer shoes.
Africa has become a superpower in the world of the novel. Shortlists for the world's major literary prizes are packed with African authors, while novelists like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have become international celebrities. But how did Africa become such a hotbed of literary talent? In this fascinating and insightful film, Nigerian-born presenter and historian, David Olusoga explores the incredible story of the African novel. From the 1950s, as African nations fought for independence, writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong' o and Wole Soyinka became the conscience of a continent – often paying a personal price for speaking out against both colonialism and corruption. In their wake, the African novel was to spread around the world - writers of the African diaspora such as Buchi Emecheta and Ben Okri created masterpieces from their adopted home of the United Kingdom. These novelists wrote books that are funny, witty and often tragic. They achieved something that stretched beyond the world of literature – transforming the image of Africa itself. The programme features interviews with some of the most pre-eminent novelists working today. We hear from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Aminatta Forna and 2019 Booker winner Bernardine Evaristo. The documentary features an extraordinary archive of the key novelists and insightful contributions from leading figures whose lives were touched by their writing, including dramatist Kwame Kwei-Armah and MPs Diane Abbott and Kwasi Kwarteng.
While the pandemic restricts our movements, wildlife remains free. In this time of crisis, the natural world can be a source of solace and escape. In the most extreme of environments, from the hottest deserts to the freezing poles, from the highest mountains to underwater kingdoms, animals overcome adversity to survive and thrive, offering a message of hope to humanity. / / To raise our spirits, join Sir David Attenborough on a round-the-world trip to the wildest places on earth to see some of the most spectacular wildlife. The BBC Natural History Unit has brought together the most astounding stories from the Bafta-winning Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II to create the ultimate escape. The journey is accompanied by a thrilling new musical score, created by renowned composers Hans Zimmer and Jacob Shea, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and featuring Mercury Prize winner Dave on the piano.
This gripping film tells the dramatic story of three young men falsely accused of rape, and the devastating consequences the allegations had on their lives.
With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, threatening food and water security, undermining our ability to control our climate and even putting us at greater risk of pandemic diseases. Extinction is now happening up to 100 times faster than the natural evolutionary rate, but the issue is about more than the loss of individual species. Everything in the natural world is connected in networks that support the whole of life on earth, including us, and we are losing many of the benefits that nature provides to us. The loss of insects is threatening the pollination of crops, while the loss of biodiversity in the soil also threatens plants growth. Plants underpin many of the things that we need, and yet one in four is now threatened with extinction. Last year, a UN report identified the key drivers of biodiversity loss, including overfishing, climate change and pollution. But the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss is the destruction of natural habitats. Seventy-five per cent of Earth's land surface (where not covered by ice) has been changed by humans, much of it for agriculture, and as consumers we may unwittingly be contributing towards the loss of species through what we buy in the supermarket. Our destructive relationship with the natural world isn’t just putting the ecosystems that we rely on at risk. Human activities like the trade in animals and the destruction of habitats drive the emergence of diseases. Disease ecologists believe that if we continue on this pathway, this year’s pandemic will not be a one-off event.
In light of the COVID-19 global outbreak, Professor Laura Ashe takes a look back at the Black Plague of the 14th century, the deadliest pandemic in human history. Going from one of the earliest accounts of plague in 1347 through to Samuel Pepys's record of the Great Plague of London in the 1660s, Professor Ashe explores how literature helped us cope with fear and tragedy, the importance of bravery and personal sacrifice, and whether the words of the past can offer us the comfort and healing that we need now.
While much has changed since the 60s, one thing has remained the same in Northern Ireland - we still love a good wedding. We take a look back at six decades of getting hitched, in an effort to raise the spirits of a nation that has been deprived of its favourite part of the year, the wedding season! Couples from Northern Ireland reminisce about their special day as they look back at their most cherished memories from years gone by. Our couples celebrate unforgettable moments caught on camera and relive the pop-culture inspirations that shaped their own wedding days. Whether it’s remembering Lady Diana’s record-breaking train or seeing the groom with a Beatles-inspired hairdo, this documentary will have you laughing, cringing and crying as we uncover the very best wedding footage the country has to offer.
September marks the 75th anniversary of the official end to the Second World War, which drew in millions of men and women from across the world. After six long years, the fighting had finally stopped. Almost everyone has a connection to those who served. In this special programme, some of the BBC’s news presenters have been looking at the roles their families played – in ‘The People’s War’.
When professional mountain biker Paul Basagoitia experiences a devastating spinal cord injury (SCI), his life is changed in an instant. Discovering that he's become paralysed, Paul begins an intense physical and emotional journey to recover and adapt, initially living in the hope of one day being able to walk again as he once did. His excruciating recovery unfolds in real time through raw, intimate footage- much of which was filmed by Paul himself- as we see him wrestle with the agonies of an unpredictable journey and uncertain future. A chorus of other diverse SCI survivors weaves through the film, shining light on the challenges that Paul now faces. Through years of relentless hard work, intense physical therapy, and even controversial stem cell treatments, as well as the unwavering support of friends and family, Paul slowly beings to build a new, meaningful life for himself.
The end of an athlete’s career is a race against time and a fight against an inevitable demise. The addictive need to participate defies logic and creates a mesmerising and painful spectacle. Time Trial takes us into the final races of cyclist David Millar’s career, leading up to his last encounter with the Tour de France. A sensory ride through the thrill and hardship of professional cycling, the euphoria and the fatigue, the highs and the lows. David bluntly and fearlessly narrates his last season in the saddle, intimate and immediate, along with the intricate relationships of cyclist, road crew, fellow competitors, manic fans, and the media circus surrounding it all. Filmed using pioneering techniques, bespoke vehicles and on-bike cameras, and with a new score by US composer Dan Deacon.
‘Lee’ Alexander McQueen’s rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale laced with the gothic. An unremarkable working-class boy from east London, McQueen harnessed his demons and went on to become a global one-man fashion brand and one of the most iconic artists of the century. How did this punk rebel overturn the silver spoon world of Paris haute couture, ushering in a heady, revolutionary era of Cool Britannia? And why, at the height of acclaim and power, did he shockingly put an end to it all? Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, the film is an intimate revelation of McQueen’s own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerising genius of profound influence and is a thought-provoking fable about the price of global celebrity.
Broadcasters Lenny Henry and Suzy Klein celebrate black classical composers and musicians across the centuries whose stories and music have been forgotten in a 90-minute special.
In this powerful and unflinching documentary, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff goes on an acutely personal journey into the eating disorder he has kept secret for over 20 years – bulimia. Freddie reveals how bulimia has played a part in the course of his life. He discusses his experience in visceral detail and meets specialists and young men with eating disorders across the UK. Together they challenge, with incredible honesty and humility, some of the stereotypes that men and boys in their position face – that is, suffering with a serious mental health condition that is perceived to be something ‘only girls get’ – and finally give a public voice to a much-misunderstood illness. Experts estimate that over 1.5 million people in the UK have an eating disorder like bulimia, of which 25 per cent are male. And yet eating disorders are still considered to be illnesses that only teenage girls suffer with. As a result, boys and men with eating disorders most often live in silence with the double stigma of having a mental health condition that is not recognised in their gender. Ultimately, Freddie must ask himself whether he needs professional treatment to tackle his eating disorder once and for all.
2020 was supposed to celebrate 50 years of the iconic 747 jumbo jet and mass air travel. Instead, Covid 19 brought catastrophe to the aviation industry. With fleets grounded and passenger numbers in free-fall, the jumbo jet is now too big and costly to fly. From flagship to scrap - Mark Jordan joins airlines and crew now forced to fly their iconic 747s, on a final journey to the desert breakers yard.
The incredible story of Oli, a young British man with Asperger’s syndrome, who overnight discovers he has 25 brothers and sisters from the same American sperm donor. Keen to be part of this new family, Oli travels to the USA, meeting his donor and joining a mass sibling reunion. Full of humour, heart and hard truths, the film follows Oli as he navigates the fragile dynamics in this new family formation. Oli, 21, lives in London and has two mums, who conceived him using an anonymous sperm donor in California. Oli always knew he was donor conceived but is curious about his biology. Signing up to a website that helps children of sperm donors find each other, Oli receives an email from someone called Jordan, who reveals she is Oli’s half-sister and breaks the news that their donor, Daley, has revoked his anonymity. Then she drops the real bombshell: Oli has 25 American half brothers and sisters. Oli virtually meets his new extended family, who are excited about the latest addition to their network. Within days, their online relationship becomes strained, as Oli’s strong opinions clash with those of his siblings. Oli was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome aged 12. He grew up an only child and sometimes found it hard to fit in and make friends. Oli decides to travel to America, hoping that building relationships will be easier in person. He visits some siblings at home before meeting up with his donor dad and then joining the biggest family reunion to date. Each of the siblings he visits has their own extraordinary story, which is revealed along the way. Will Oli return to London with some lasting sibling relationships? And does he have a future in this extraordinary new family?
After conducting for 65 years, Bernard Haitink has retired at the age of 90. The musicians he has worked with are puzzled by the secrets of his technique. He himself says his job is to embrace the orchestra without suffocating them.
Me, My Brother and Our Balls is an intimate and personal documentary exploring male fertility with Love Island star Chris Hughes and his brother Ben. When Chris, who had suffered from testicular health scares in the past, appeared on live television to have a testicular examination, it made a huge impact. Chris’s aim was to raise awareness of testicular cancer and encourage men to check themselves. What he didn’t expect was the effect it would have closer to home. As a consequence of that appearance, and inspired by his brother for having 'had the balls' to do it, Chris’s older brother Ben checked himself for the first time, found a lump and was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Prior to an operation to have his testicle removed, Ben went to freeze his sperm for potential use after the operation. It was during this process that he discovered his sample didn’t contain any sperm at all. With both boys now concerned about their fertility, they embark on a journey to find out where they stand and what the future holds for them. Aside from their own medical stories, where Chris discovers how his fertility has changed since he was last tested six years earlier and Ben learns about his fertility prospects, the brothers meet a variety of people to explore the wider issues. Chris and Ben chat with their mates down the pub about how little men know about the causes of male infertility. They meet with one of the UK’s leading experts for a step-by-step guide to sperm, learn how infertility affects masculinity from a GB Olympic rower, and consider how their fertility struggles could impact on their family, and their girlfriends, in the long term.
This is the extraordinary story of Wales’ black miners, the unsung heroes of the coal industry who have been left out of the history books. In this film, former footballer Nathan Blake is on a mission to unearth the truth about these brave men of colour, who toiled shoulder-to-shoulder with white miners. Nathan wants to know who they were, and what kind of lives they led above and below ground. Travelling across South Wales, Nathan discovers that the history of Wales’ black miners stretches back further than he could ever imagine. Taking on the role of detective, Nathan meets surviving black miners and their families. What he uncovers is a world of difficult working conditions, unsettling incidents of racism, forbidden romances, unexpected camaraderie, and triumphs against all odds. For Nathan, this journey is personal. He wants his son to grow up in a country that knows about its black heroes, and celebrates them. Having experienced racism - both overtly and masked as ‘banter’ - his whole life, his encounters force him to reflect on what it means to be black and Welsh, both in the past and in the present, and what still needs to change.
Play for Today was a series of single dramas broadcast by the BBC between 1970 and 1984. These were years of crisis, a time when the consensus politics of Britain’s postwar world had begun to unravel. Industrial relations, education and the health service faced fundamental challenges, the country was struggling with the end of empire, and the personal had become increasingly political. Marking the 50th anniversary of the first Play for Today in October 1970, this film is a celebration of the series, told by a number of its producers, directors and writers. It explores the origins of the series, its achievements and its controversies. Presenting a rich range of often surprising extracts from the archive, the film features interviews with, among others, producers Kenith Trodd, Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, film-makers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and writer and director David Hare.
This moving documentary follows Rob Burrow as he shows the same spirit in his fight against motor neurone disease as made him a hugely admired rugby league star. His family and friends – including former teammates Kevin Sinfield and Barrie McDermott – also give their insight into this remarkable man. Burrow was prompted to raise awareness for research into the condition, including regular appearances on BBC Breakfast, after meeting former Scotland rugby union legend and fellow motor neurone disease sufferer Doddie Weir. Burrow was diagnosed with the degenerative disease, for which there is no cure, barely two years after ending his stellar playing career by helping Leeds Rhinos to a record-extending eighth Super League grand final in autumn 2017. As the disease takes its toll physically, Burrow speaks of his determination to live as normal a life as possible and explains how his rugby career has prepared him for the challenge.
Director Stewart Kyasimire gets rare behind-the-scenes access to Scottish social media sensation Bachala Mbunzama - aka Bash the Entertainer. He is loved by his three million followers and has a staggering tally of over three billion combined video views. This film takes you into his world and shows his fans what life is like behind the smile. When Bash isn’t making the world laugh with videos like his famous Rhianna reaction video, or TikTok hit CEO of Copying Sounds, Bash gives us an exclusive insight into how he uses comedy to fight racism and his battles with mental health. The film also explores the story of how Bash came to Glasgow from the Democratic Republic of Congo, seeking asylum as a refugee with his mother and siblings. He talks about experiencing his first racist encounter in a Glasgow primary school and fitting in to life in Scotland. Bash would like to share his story to inspire anyone who has faced adversity in their lives, and let them know that you don’t have to let negativity get in the way of your dreams.
Strictly professional dancer, Amy Dowden opens up about her battle with Crohn’s disease. Amy’s chronic bowel condition was a secret she’d keep out of the professional spotlight for fear of it overshadowing her success. But now, for the first time, the Welsh dancing star shows us the brutal reality of living with this disease. As she embarks on the busiest professional and personal few months of her life - from the UK Strictly Tour to her debut solo dance show and summer wedding - Amy is hospitalised by her illness at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. In this authored documentary, Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden reveals what life is like living with a chronic condition, the effect it has on her career as a dancer, and hears about the severe impact this incurable disease has had on others.
In June 2019, arts journalist John Wilson received an extraordinary tip-off – one billion dollars’ worth of stolen art may be about to be recovered. Included are a unique Rembrandt - his only seascape - and a Vermeer considered the most valuable stolen painting in the world. The art was taken from the walls of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in the early hours of 18 March 1990. It remains the world’s biggest unsolved art heist. For John, to follow the recovery of the paintings, as it happens, would be the biggest art story of the century. What makes the tip-off more surprising is where it is believed the art might be found - behind a wall in a house in west Dublin. That’s 3,000 miles from where the FBI has always believed they would find it. For the last 30 years, their investigations have focused on Boston on the premise that the thieves were Italian-American and that the art has never left America. John’s source is Charley Hill, a former detective in the Metropolitan Police Art Squad with a record of recovering famous paintings estimated at $100 million, including Munch’s The Scream and a Vermeer stolen from an Irish stately home. He works privately now but is convinced that his intelligence about the Boston art theft is solid. A notorious Dublin gangster cultivated by Charley for years says he knows where the art can be found and wants to claim the $10 million reward. Documenting the journey promises to be a fast-moving, high profile story. But Charley has a warning for John too: ‘The problem is, and it’s a serious problem, is no-one gets maimed or murdered.’ That worry is never far away as John goes into a very different art world, one where good art is in the hands of bad men.
Documentary following the four-year debate over how Henry Dundas should be remembered on the inscription of the Melville Monument in Edinburgh. Sir Geoff Palmer and his supporters have argued for years that Henry Dundas deliberately delayed the abolition of the slave trade when he won support for abolition to be ‘gradual', whereas Henry Dundas’s ancestor Bobby Melville and others argue that Dundas was an abolitionist who was being pragmatic. The programme follows every twist and turn of the story, including how Scotland’s debate triggered a similar discussion in Canada on whether to rename Dundas Street in Toronto, and looks at how events in Bristol impacted on decisions made in Scotland. With historians also debating the actions of Henry Dundas, the programme asks how Scotland as a country can come to an agreement on this and its long connections with slavery.
Documentary charting the life, music and towering achievements of soul singer Teddy Pendergrass, from his origins and early life in Philadelphia, through his early successes with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and his solo superstardom and sex symbol status to his later life and continued success after overcoming the car crash that rendered him quadriplegic.
Painter and sculptor Maggi Hambling allows cameras into her rural Suffolk studio for the first time, talking to film-maker Randall Wright about her life and career in a film to mark her 75th birthday. Formidable and funny, Maggi recalls her artistic liberation during her student days, a memorable meeting with Francis Bacon in Soho, and falling in love with his muse Henrietta Moraes, a woman Maggi continues to draw from memory following her death. With insights from Maggi's partner and fellow artist Tory Lawrence, colleague Sarah Lucas and art writer James Cahill.
Documentary, told in Count Basie's own words, which reveals for the first time the private passions and ambitions that inspired the world-famous bandleader and pianist.
A remarkable journey into the secret world of one of the most endangered and least understood animals on earth – bats. With cutting-edge night-vision cameras and ultrasonic detectors, this programme follows a greater horseshoe bat roost for four months during the summer of 2019, capturing the hidden life of the colony as never before. Witness the birth of a new generation of pups and follow their progress towards their perilous maiden flight outside the roost.
When film-maker Liana Stewart was growing up in Butetown, Cardiff, there were very few black and Welsh role models on TV. She has long wanted to make a film that brings together people from across Wales to share their experiences of what it means to be black and Welsh. Now she has done just that. Weaving together a collection of engaging stories, she meets people from Newport in the south to Snowdonia in the north, and from a 19-year-old model storming to international runway success to a 92-year-old whose arrival in Wales predates the Empire Windrush.
In October 1995, 25-year-old Scottish boxer Jim Murray was fighting to become British bantamweight champion when he went down in the final round. What happened next was to change his life, the lives of those he loved and boxing, forever. This documentary shows how boxing was Jim’s escape from the tough life of Newmains, Lanarkshire, in the 80s, tracking his early years in the ring and his decision to go professional at the age of 23. Jim’s determination and talent saw him win round after round and fight after fight until he reached what would be the pinnacle of his career: a British bantamweight title fight against fellow Scot Drew Docherty on Friday October 13, 1995. It also explores the dramatic events of that night and its aftermath, examining how they ignited a national conversation and serious debate about the future of boxing, and went on to inspire change at the highest levels of the sport. Twenty-five years on, the film also shows the lasting impact that tragic night had on the Murray family and their hometown. Jim's story is told through those closest to him – his family, his friends and his trainer, as well as notable figures in Scottish and British boxing such as Frank Warren, Tommy Gilmour and Gary Jacobs.
When Aung San Suu Kyi was released after 15 years of house arrest in Myanmar, she was celebrated as an icon of democracy. She had stood up to the country’s military dictatorship and been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Ten years on, she is now seen by many as an international pariah, condemned for complicity in brutal atrocities. In this film, those who know Aung reveal how key events have shaped her reputation in the last ten years, from her decision to become a politician in the military-created parliament to her struggle to bring democratic reform and her recent appearance at the International Court of Justice to face allegations of genocides against the Rohingya Muslims. Was Aung San Suu Kyi misunderstood? Did she lack the skills necessary to succeed as a politician? Or has she been the victim of fiendishly complicated circumstances?
Mariam Mola is addicted to Louis Vuitton, Fendi and flexing on social media. Her Instagram feed is a love letter to luxury London, from the velvet booths of Soho restaurants to the bling outfitters of Hatton Garden jewellery boutiques. She seems to have it all. But this self-made girl boss from London’s docklands is actually a career con artist who has served time all over Europe. Mariam’s scams haven’t just targeted credit card companies and luxury boutiques. Over the years, she’s also finessed close friends, colleagues and impressionable teenagers who took her at her word. And then she encountered Tamara. When Tamara found a suspicious invoice addressed to her husband, she knew something was up. She discovered that her husband had transferred large sums of money to Mariam from their joint account. And she soon realised Mariam had myriad other money-making schemes, too. So began a dogged pursuit of Mariam. Using a fake alias to gather information, Tamara assembled a group of Mariam’s victims. Together, they exposed Mariam, who went to prison on fraud charges. But it wasn’t over. Every time they thought they’d got her, Mariam came back and pulled off an ever bigger scam than before. In 2019, Tamara discovered that Mariam was now a senior pastor with a notorious church: SPAC Nation. SPAC Nation is under investigation by police and the charity commission. It claims it is helping disadvantaged kids – but former members say that its leaders, including Mariam, encourage young congregants to take out loans and give huge sums to the church. In this film, Tamara joins forces with Mariam’s other victims to expose her as the ruthless fraudster she really is.
Documentary in which nine young Scots living and working in rural areas across the country tell their story and share their hopes and fears for the future of their land amidst a potential climate crisis. They represent the future of Scotland's countryside – but just how optimistic are they about what lies ahead? In Galloway, small-scale cattle farmer Patrick explains why he has reverted to the farming methods of the 1960s and 70s, growing his turnips to organically feed his herd of Galloway cattle and boost wildlife in the area. He believes that one-day wildlife-friendly farmers like him will receive the support they need. Just over 40 miles away in Langholm, Kevin is at the forefront of one of the first attempts at a major community buyout of estate-owned land in the South of Scotland. Langholm Moor was once famed for its grouse shooting, but Kevin hopes the area will become known for a very different kind of bird preservation if the buyout bid is successful.
Disabled artist, film-maker Richard Butchins challenges the importance of good vision in making great art. He suggests that visual impairments have contributed positively to its creation. We take the things we see for granted and assume that what we look at is what it is. What is it that we see if vision is all just electrical impulses sent to our brains and then turned into images of reality by our minds? Richard questions whether we need good eyesight to make great art at all. Examining Monet and Degas's work, Richard discovers surprising revelations about the effect of impaired vision on many painters of the last 150 years and beyond. Michael Marmor, emeritus professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, explains how Degas and Monet used their disabilities positively and creatively. Georgina Kleege, professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, shares her thoughts on blindness and art as someone who lost sight as a child. And Anil Seth, professor of neuroscience at the University of Sussex, explains how we see with our brains and not our eyes. Richard also meets contemporary artists Keith Salmon, Sally Booth and the family of the late Sargy Mann, along with sculptor Aaron McPeake and cyborg artist Neil Harbisson. All of them use their disabilities positively and innovatively. Richard looks at art and visual impairment but argues that any disability changes our perception of the world, whether we want it to or not, and that a disability can both alter and add a fresh dimension to an artist's work. Perhaps it is about time we reassessed our perspective on vision loss and disability in general.
The BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner explores what it is like to suddenly become disabled, something he experienced himself 16 years ago after being shot by Al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia. The bullets damaged his spinal nerves, leaving him partly paralysed and using a wheelchair ever since. In this deeply personal film, he talks candidly about the effects his injuries have had on his life, work, relationships and the way he views himself. And he speaks to others, to explore how they have responded to sudden life-changing injuries.
Annie Nightingale led the way as Radio 1's first female DJ and introduced a generation to exciting new sounds as the face of the Old Grey Whistle Test from 1978. Back then, punk was hard to find on mainstream television and Annie sought to build a platform for young people to have their say. In this programme, Annie opens up the archive to select some of the finest and most intriguing moments from this era. Covering punk, post-punk and new wave, Annie has chosen to explore a movement in music that became the soundtrack to a generation. The programme includes The Damned’s set-smashing performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test and the Sex Pistols' anarchic trip on the Thames. It also features powerful live performances from Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Gang of Four, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Tubeway Army, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soft Cell, The Selecter, Joy Division and the Au Pairs. In addition, there are gems from The New York Dolls, The Fall, Blondie, Pete Shelley, The Police, Devo, X-Ray Spex, Klaus Nomi, Laurie Anderson and many more. Annie is full of great anecdotes and her wealth of knowledge drives a compelling narrative in a programme that features rare footage and many stellar acts who graced the Old Grey Whistle Test studio during Annie’s reign
In 2020, we said a sad farewell to Dame Vera Lynn. In a special programme, the BBC celebrates the ‘Forces Sweetheart’ with a look back through the archives at some of her favourite performances and biggest hits. As well as the many classic songs that helped unify the nation throughout World War II, this retrospective captures a side of Dame Vera that many have forgotten about, with upbeat song-and-dance performances from her 1970s series The Vera Lynn Show, which saw her covering many popular tunes of the 60s and 70s. We see her joining forces with a selection of fellow stars like Harry Secombe and Des O’Connor, there’s a special duet with the legendary Bing Crosby, and an unforgettable guest appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Show. And of course, there are performances of the wartime favourites she made her own: The White Cliffs of Dover and We’ll Meet Again.
Art historian Professor Richard Clay explores how Mythologies, written in 1957 by French philosopher Roland Barthes, laid bare the myth-making at the heart of popular culture. Now, following in Barthes's footsteps, Richard Clay dissects some of the everyday myths we still take for granted in the 21st century, revealing the hidden meanings in everything from money, Wi-Fi and race to the Madonna. It's a journey that takes us from Paris to Margate, from the streets of Manhattan to the Accademia Gallery in Florence. Along the way, Richard meets avant-garde artists including Clet Abraham, Ingrid Burrington, Molly Soda and Rene Matic, whose works subvert the assumptions underpinning the way we see our world. We are introduced to semiotics, the study of signs and symbols, which provides an analytical toolkit that helps us navigate advertising and its demands on our attention. In today's world of relentless digital information, Richard argues, myths can hoodwink us more than ever. What might Roland Barthes have made of the 21st century?
Walter Tull was a pioneering black British footballer and the first black officer in the British army, who died heroically fighting in the First World War and yet is virtually unheard of today. Former Eastenders star Nick Bailey relates the story of this forgotten hero, investigating war records to establish whether there was a colour bar in the British Army and asking how Tull managed to become an officer despite army regulations requiring only men of 'pure European descent'. Bailey also tries to discover why Lieutenant Tull was denied a Military Cross for heroism even though his commanding officer recommended him for one. Tull's parents died before he was seven years old and he was sent to an orphanage in London's East End, but despite that he won a place in the first team of one of Britain's most famous clubs, Tottenham Hotspur. However, after just seven games and great match reports, he received such racial abuse he never played for the first team again. Far from giving up, Tull rebuilt his football career and then signed up for military service at the first opportunity.
As the world went into an unprecedented global lockdown, many of those worst affected were informal workers who rely on a daily wage just to eat. Over the last six months, the BBC's Stephanie Hegarty has been following the lives of four workers in different parts of the world who have been struggling to survive.
Ronnie's is a love letter to saxophonist Ronnie Scott and the indispensable night club he and partner Peter King established in 1959. For more than 60 years music giants have walked through the door of a small basement club in London's Soho. From the beginning of the burgeoning British modern jazz movement, he and King had dreamt of opening a club modelled after the swinging jazz scene of New York's 52nd Street. From its humble beginnings sixty years ago, Ronnie Scott's would become the cornerstone of the UK jazz scene and one of the most famous jazz clubs in the world. Ronnie Scott was beloved by many, from the great and famous who frequented his club, to the many hard-up musicians who were often helped by his warmth and generous spirit. However, Ronnie was as complex and colourful as the music played on his stage. In private he battled with depression, and when his untimely death occurred in 1996, it left the jazz community bereft of a respected and favourite leader. Funny and moving, Ronnie's features performances by some of the most outstanding musicians of the 20th Century including Oscar Peterson, Dizzie Gillespie, Roland Kirk, Cleo Lane and John Danforth, Buddy Rich, Sarah Vaughn, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Ella Fitzgerald, Mary Lou Williams, Van Morrison and Chet Baker, Nina Simone and Ben Webster.
With the US election just around the corner, this investigative documentary from award-winning film-maker Alex Gibney scrutinises the US response to the pandemic compared with South Korea.
Michael Portillo examines the Crown and Ireland's War of Independence, going on a journey from the peace conference in Versailles to the historic ceasefire in Dublin, July 1921.
In a UK exclusive, former American president Barack Obama encounters historian David Olusoga to discuss his long-awaited memoir A Promised Land, his reflections on the volatile racial divide in the US, his steadfast refusal to abandon American ideals, and how the sight of a black president and black first family in the White House may have cast a spotlight on the depth of racial fault lines in America.
The scientists behind the scenes tell the extraordinary story of what really happened in the run up to the first lockdown, when ministers claimed to be 'following the science'. n investigation into just how closely Boris Johnson and the Government followed the scientific evidence throughout the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. Scientists at the heart of Britain's response to the virus reveal what happened behind the scenes, and how problems accessing key data caused flaws in the modelling process that meant fighting the virus was an uphill battle from the very beginning
When Bury FC collapsed last August, a group of fans made it their mission to bring football back to their town - against massive odds.
Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of palm oil, and in the last two decades vast areas of forest have been cleared to make way for plantations. The remote province of Papua, home to Asia's most extensive remaining rainforests has escaped fairly untouched, that is until now. This film investigates how Papua has become the new frontier for aggressive palm oil expansion.
Flint is the birthplace of General Motors and was once one of the most prosperous cities in the world. However, in the 1980s, the automobile industry in Flint collapsed, costing thousands of jobs and beginning a grim economic decline. Against this backdrop, Rick Snyder rose to power on a promise to run government like a business. As Michigan’s governor, he stripped Flint’s city council of its power, and his administrators raised water prices to balance the books. They then forced the city to use water from the Flint River in order to save more money. Almost immediately, it became clear something was wrong. In many homes the water turned brown, with residents reporting an increase in illness and rashes. At the last remaining General Motors assembly plant in Flint, car parts began to rust. Despite growing protests, the government insisted the water was perfectly safe. When Scotland-based film-maker Anthony Baxter arrived on the scene, he found Flint residents taking matters into their own hands, pulling together in a remarkable community effort to get at the truth. Hundreds of volunteers took part in a city-wide testing of Flint’s water. Rock band promoter and mother of three Melissa Mays helped lead the effort in partnership with decorated scientist Marc Edwards. Professor Edwards concluded that Flint was the site of a man-made health disaster. Because state officials didn’t treat the river water properly to prevent corrosion, it had eaten away at Flint’s old lead pipes, unleashing lead particles through the drinking water supply. For more than a year, lead had been finding its way into the bloodstreams of more than 10,000 of the city's children. Narrated by Alec Baldwin, this documentary explores the untold story of the man-made disaster that continues to haunt America to this day.
Veteran explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison, who spent weeks in a coma battling Covid-19, says the healing power of nature helped to save his life. This film follows the extraordinary 84-year-old as he climbs the highest hill in Cornwall in a quest to raise £100,000 for Royal Cornwall Hospital's healing garden.
Tom Brook marks the fortieth anniversary of former Beatle John Lennon's murder in New York on 8 December 1980. His untimely death was a slaying that shocked millions of fans around the world. In Lennon Remembered: A Reporter's Journal, the BBC's Tom Brook, the first British journalist to report live from the site of the New York shooting, takes stock of Lennon's life and the legacy of his music. Brook recounts what happened on the night Lennon died when he returned to his home, the Dakota apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side, with his wife, Yoko Ono. He hears from some of Lennon's closest confidantes as well as younger Lennon fans in America today. Drawing on a wealth of archive material, the programme includes Tom Brook's interview with the former Beatle's widow Yoko Ono, one of the first she gave, in which she discussed Lennon's life and death. The programme assesses John Lennon's powerful legacy 40 years on and asks whether his messages of love and peace are still relevant now.
Eighty-something bachelor farmer Bobby Coote left school at 13 and says his reading and writing isn't great. Bobby fixes clocks and spends a lot of time in his back shed making violins from old furniture. But he’s never lost sight of a lifelong dream to fly. His neighbour Sean has also caught the bug. Setting aside their own field of dreams, they have cut out a runway and even built a hangar in a small rural border community. And now Bobby has used all his savings to buy a plane! Bobby says he’ll make this happen even if it’s the last thing he does. He’ll get no encouragement from his brother Ernie, another octogenarian in the Coote family home. Ernie thinks the whole thing is mad, but Bobby is determined to be airborne. Winner of Best Documentary at the Celtic Media Festival and the Audience Award at the IFI Documentary Film Festival.
Intimate documentary delving into the fascinating real lives of Scottish influencer couple Charlie Allan and Lauren Faulkner. Since meeting online in 2019, the loved-up 22-year-olds have amassed over 300,000 followers across their digital platforms, making social media their full-time job. However, their unconventional way of life generates strong emotions from their followers, and they have been targeted by trolls in a relentless campaign of online bullying, while offline, they are grappling with life struggles and decisions that many of us will never have to face. Charlie is transitioning from female to male, and has taken matters into his own hands after being unable to deal with the psychological torture of long NHS waiting lists and delayed treatment. Meanwhile, Lauren is dealing with deeply debilitating OCD and emetophobia, a fear of vomiting, which has caused a dangerous addiction to anti-sickness pills. Unable to work a normal nine-to-five job, Lauren has entered the risqué world of online sex work. However, but as the money flows in, so does the online abuse, and there is an ever-growing fear that there is no way out of life online. The couple desperately want a family of their own – but will their quest for normality ever be achieved, or have they sealed their own fate in the limelight?
Filmed over five years, this is the story of Lily Jones and her transition from male to female – a journey which began when she was 15 and living with her farming family in mid Wales. Her life has been captured throughout, including this new chapter in which Lily is preparing for her next step, gender reassignment surgery, as well as making the big move of leaving behind her rural family home in Aberystwyth for a new life in Birmingham. City life is just one change for Lily who is also loving her first job, and the start of a brand new relationship when everything is thrown into chaos by the unexpected and sudden complications of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Documentary following ice swimmer Cath Pendleton and her dream to swim a mile in the coldest continent on the planet - Antarctica.
After over a decade in the wilderness, Rugby League's Great Britain Lions are back and on the road again. This documentary follows their tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea as they fight for their sporting future. From Rugby League's northern England heartlands to the exotic surroundings of Papua New Guinea, the tour provides a lens to examine the soul of a game with a proud past but uncertain fate, as well as issues such as masculinity in 21st Century Britain, class, friendship, ambition, loyalty and sacrifice. Through unseen archive, interviews and privileged actuality, the film highlights the most compelling aspects of Rugby League's rise, and explores how and why it has come to be synonymous with a way of life, all within the band-of-brothers framework of the reformed GB RL Lions' exploits down under.
The ancient city of Baiae was the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire. Over the centuries, it slowly sunk beneath the sea. Filmed before the coronavirus pandemic, Amanda Ruggeri meets the archaeologists and engineers developing some surprising new technologies to protect the underwater site for future generations.
The Maya Biosphere Reserve is the largest rainforest north of the Amazon and was once the heart of the Maya civilisation. Amanda Ruggeri explores the new technology that is allowing archaeologists to explore the hundreds of structures still hidden beneath the jungle.
Documentary examining how John Hume cultivated the support of a succession of US presidents to harness international support to forge peace. Featuring compelling archive footage from the conflict in Northern Ireland and interviews with a number of former American presidents, including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, with President Clinton referring to Nobel Peace Prize winner Hume as ‘the Irish conflict’s Martin Luther King’. Also featured are interviews with British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major, and Taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny, who all discuss John Hume’s vital role as one of the key agents of transformation and peace building in Northern Ireland.
British film icon Michael Caine narrates and stars in My Generation, the vivid and inspiring story of his personal journey through 1960s London, based on personal accounts and archival material.
Marking 25 years since the creation of the Bridget Jones character for a column in The Independent newspaper, author Helen Fielding opens up her personal archive for the very first time to tell the story of how Bridget Jones’s Diary came to be. We meet Helen’s friends and family who inspired many of the characters and interview the stars of the hugely successful film adaptations, Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Other contributors include Andrew Marr, Candice Carty-Williams, Jess Phillips, Richard Curtis, Cherie Blair and Germaine Greer.
A celebration of the life and work of one of Britain's best-selling children's authors, with unique access to Julia Donaldson, her family, her rich archives and home movies, and the remarkable cast of characters that have sprung from her imagination. Specially commissioned animated illustrations from her long-term illustrator Axel Scheffler bring Julia's biography to life, and well-known admirers and collaborators pay tribute to the woman who has created characters and stories that have become fixtures of children’s bedtime routines all around the world, as well as spawning award-winning adaptations for stage and screen. Looking at The Gruffalo, Zog and the Flying Doctors, Princess Mirror-Belle, The Scarecrow's Wedding, Stick Man and The Paper Dolls, the programme uncovers the surprising stories behind the creation of Julia's iconic characters and what they mean to a generation of readers. It also explores why Donaldson’s books appeal to both children and adults alike – tackling serious themes of love, loss, fear and bullying in a poignant but subtle way. Passages from Julia's much-loved books are read by Helena Bonham Carter, Imelda Staunton and James McAvoy, and contributors including David Walliams, Nadiya Hussain, Claudia Winkleman, Sophie Dahl, Victoria Coren Mitchell and Michael Rosen pay tribute to her talent.
Join us in a trip down memory lane as we celebrate Christmas through the decades in Northern Ireland and share some of the nation’s favourite festive memories, both old and new.
Documentary film that for the first time tells the life story of legendary Greek/American opera singer Maria Callas, completely in her own words. Tom Volf’s account, which took four years of painstaking research to assemble, includes performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoires – nearly all of which have never been seen before. Maria by Callas reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time.
Documentary following penguins living in unexpected environments, including satellite imagery of previously undiscovered colonies of flightless birds. Among their habitats are dense forests, desert burrows and city streets. The programme reveals the challenges they face in making their homes in these challenging environments, from evading predators to scaling rocks, and captures the lifelong bonds formed between family groups.
The Clydesdale horse, famed for its white-feathered feet, is in danger of dying out. These giant, iconic horses are on the verge of extinction in the very place where they were first bred – Scotland. However, one woman is on a quest to save the Scottish Clydesdale. Janice Kirkpatrick is an award-winning Glaswegian designer with a simple plan to find the lost blacks and bring them home. In an extraordinary journey from the Clyde Valley to the heart of the Canadian Prairies, Janice uncovers the true story of the Clydesdale and traces a Canadian family who have its bloodlines for five generations.
For more than five decades, Ozzy Osbourne has personified rock 'n' roll rebellion. Like a cat, he has had many lives, always landing on his feet and propelling himself towards greater success - and almost dying several times along the way. The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne follows Ozzy’s journey from his poor childhood and time spent in prison, to fronting metal band Black Sabbath and a successful solo career, to becoming rock’s elder statesman and a lovable 21st-century TV dad. As Ozzy turns 70, he reflects on his extraordinary life, revealing intimate details of his successes, failures and unique ability for survival and reinvention.
Reporter Hannah Price explores the cases of suspected student suicide since the pandemic, and finds out what’s being done to support student mental health at university.
In 1994, Sarajevo was a city under siege. Mortars and rocket-propelled grenades rained onto the city, killing indiscriminately every day. Amongst the madness, two United Nations personnel, a British military officer and another Brit working for the UN fire department, decided it would be fun to persuade a global rock star, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, to come and play a gig to the population. Scream for Me, Sarajevo brings that story, in all its madness, to the big screen. A story of musicians who risked their lives to play a gig to people who risked their lives to see them.
Professional dancer Joel Kioko, who was discovered in the slums of Nairobi, is about to graduate from the English National Ballet School. Before the coronavirus lockdown, he returned to his home city to play Romeo at the Kenyan National Theatre and met many of the young dance students also emerging from a thriving classical ballet scene in Kenya.
Shooting the Darkness is a film about the men who unwittingly became photojournalists on the streets of their own towns. They did not leave home in search of war and adventure; the violence erupted around them. They expected a career of wedding photography and celebrity photocalls, and instead the images they produced during the worst years of the Troubles would come to define that conflict. The press photographer deals in single images that must distil story, character and context into a single frame. In the days before digital, a single click of the shutter at the right moment was all that mattered. What did it cost them to take those pictures? What was the value of those images as the conflict raged on for 25 years? Did they help Northern Ireland move beyond the cycle of violence, or did they just sell more newspapers? / / Shooting the Darkness features men who did not choose to go to war; the war happened around them in the streets of their home towns. The stories they were covering did not feature the unknown natives of a foreign land but their own neighbours, colleagues and countrymen. The victims and the perpetrators were often one and the same and, as the chaos deepened, it was impossible to say who were the good guys and who were the bad. / / The film focuses on a small number of photographers who witnessed the Troubles from their inception in 1968 until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998
Journalist and presenter Ellie Flynn brings together a group of 20 young people aged 18-25 for a social experiment, to see if they understand what constitutes coercive control.
In a world exclusive, two of the biggest names in entertainment come together for a very special one-off show: music legend Paul McCartney is interviewed by Golden Globe-winning actor Idris Elba. Recorded in London in December 2020, Idris talks to Paul about his peerless career as the most successful musician and composer in pop music history. Paul talks about his writing process, which has produced some of the best-loved and most performed songs ever. As a producer and musician himself, Idris is fascinated by the craft and joy that drives Paul’s remarkable and prolific output and wants to find out what inspires Paul to continue to innovate creatively, as he releases his 26th post-Beatles album, McCartney III, which features Paul playing every instrument and writing and recording every song.
The dramatic, terrifying story of the battle against the bush-fires down under, with first-hand accounts from firefighters and residents. Reporter Kylie Morris examines the long-term impact of the fires on the diverse animal population and ecology.
Manhunt: The Raoul Moat Story (2020) Nicky Campbell presents this true crime documentary focusing on the impact of Raoul Moat's murderous rampage across the North East of England in July 2010
The famous interview that brought the famous martiage down
The influenceof Agatha and her career
Comedian Sophie Duker, science nerd Rick Edwards and quantum physicist Dr Michael Brooks dissect the science behind Netflix’s multi award-winning series Stranger Things. The Science(ish) gang take an entertaining deep dive into the science behind the sci-fi horror hit, picking apart the nanoscience from the nonsense. Secret government experiments, psychic powers and interdimensional monsters are all brought under the microscope for a reality check. Using a combination of expert witnesses, guest contributors and archive clips, Rick is determined to prove to a sceptical Sophie and Dr Michael that the work of science fiction is actually based on plausible science fact. From seeing the person who believes they are the real-life Stranger Things character Eleven to uncovering a monster dog that paved the way for human organ transplants, the three will have to decide if the science of Stranger Things is legit or just science-ish.
Historian Lucy Worsley goes behind closed doors at three treasure-filled royal palaces to discover how each building has shaped a monarchy and a nation. With exclusive access to the palaces' most secret places, she uncovers the dramatic events that changed the course of British history, from might and intimidation at the Tower of London and the rise and fall of the absolute monarchy at Hampton Court to the modern face of royalty at Kensington Palace.
For five months, young protesters in Thailand have been challenging a government backed by the formidable power of the armed forces and the monarchy. For the first time, a mass movement is openly calling for reform of the monarchy, shattering a taboo surrounding the royal institution's near-sacred status. Influenced by last year's protests in Hong Kong, young Thais have used social media and drawn on popular culture to outwit the efforts of the Thai police to shut their movement down. An unpopular government has so far been reluctant to use harsh measures against them. The monarchy has lost much of the reverence it enjoyed under the long reign of King Bhumibol, who died four years ago. His less-popular son, King Vajiralongkorn, has alarmed many Thais by accumulating even more power and living overseas. But he is now back in Thailand, meeting Thai royalists and encouraging them to challenge the student-led protests with demonstrations of loyalty. The stage is set for a dangerous confrontation between these two sides.
BBC Arabic’s Nawal al Maghafi investigates how both sides of the divided nation of Yemen have failed to protect their citizens from the pandemic.
Millions of American evangelicals are praying for the state of Israel. Among them are the Binghams, a dynasty of Kentucky pastors, and their evangelical congregants in an impoverished coal mining town. They donate sacrificially to Israel’s foremost philanthropic organisation, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, because they fervently believe the Jews are crucial to Jesus’s return. This film traces this unusual relationship, from rural Kentucky to the halls of government in Washington, through the moving of the American Embassy in Jerusalem to the annexation plan for the West Bank. With unparalleled access, the film exposes a stunning backstory of the Trump and Netanyahu administrations, where financial, political and messianic motivations intersect with the apocalyptic world-view that is insistently reshaping American foreign policy toward Israel and the Middle East.
Britain today is a tough place to be disabled. This film reveals the abuse and aggression faced by disabled people in everyday life, from verbal name-calling to violent physical attacks. Made by disabled filmmaker Richard Butchins and featuring a wide range of testimony from survivors themselves, it asks why this happens.
For more than a century, one group of people in Britain has been shut out of society, denied basic human rights and treated with fear and prejudice. Now, in this shocking, moving film, writer, actor and presenter Cerrie Burnell is going to uncover the hidden story of how disabled people fought back – and won their freedom. Cerrie was born without the lower part of her right arm. As a presenter on CBeebies, Cerrie was astonished to learn that some viewers thought her appearance would scare watching children. Now, she wants to find out where these attitudes to disabled people come from and why they persist today. She discovers how our modern attitudes to disabled people were first formed in the workhouses of Victorian Britain, uncovers the original records of an institution created to segregate disabled people and stop them having children, and traces the hidden lives of those confined to institutions for their whole lives. Cerrie hears astonishing stories of heartbreak and cruelty. But she also meets some pioneers who changed the lives of disabled people forever. John Evans was one of the very first to move from a residential home into a one of his own, and Alia Hassan brought the streets of London to a standstill as part of a campaign fighting for disabled people to be allowed to get on a bus. Ultimately Cerrie discovers that although much has changed for disabled people in Britain today, the battle is not yet won. Silenced is a story of huge social change that many of us still don’t know about, told through the hidden lives of disabled people.
Merlin Holland tells the story of the epic court clash at the Old Bailey in 1895 between his grandfather, Oscar Wilde, and Edward Carson. Does Carson deserve his reputation as the man who destroyed Oscar Wilde? Also featuring Gyles Brandreth and actors Simon Callow and Rupert Everett.
It was once the richest democracy in Latin America, but under President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has been in an economic tailspin. Even so, amidst an opposition boycott and claims of vote-rigging, recent elections have consolidated his grip on power. And as Katy Watson reports, the coronavirus pandemic has been another nail in the coffin for an economy already on its knees.
While undergoing treatment himself, comedian Rhod Gilbert goes on a frank, revealing, and frequently funny journey into the world of male infertility.
A deeply personal film following Katie Price and her disabled son Harvey in a crucial year of his life, as he turns 18 and becomes an adult.
Neil Hannon looks back on his career with The Divine Comedy in this eccentric documentary, scripted by Hannon himself. He invites us into his ‘mind palace’, the place inside his head where his career lives, populated with props and costumes, inspirations and muses, to remind both himself and us how it all began.
John Z DeLorean’s extraordinary and doomed attempt to build the sports car of the future in 1980s Northern Ireland is the stuff of legend. A buccaneering American entrepreneur, DeLorean had film star looks, a famous fashion model as a wife and an enormous ego that drove him to rival the giants of the US car industry. Millions of pounds of British tax-payers money later, an unprecedented social experiment where Catholics and Protestants worked side by side in relative harmony in West Belfast ends in a trail of corporate waste, greed, fraud and, incredibly, an FBI cocaine-trafficking sting. Using rare and unseen footage filmed by Oscar winning directors DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, and through colourful news archive documenting his life and career, this is the first in-depth psychological profile of DeLorean, a man who rose from the ghettos of Detroit to build his American dream in war-torn Belfast. A dream that quickly went up in smoke.
Rita Duffy is one of Northern Ireland’s best known visual artists with an instantly recognisable style which can be seen in her many paintings. Over four decades, her work has explored the world around her and has dealt with difficult subject matter such as the Troubles, the political situation in Northern Ireland and the role of women in our society. Now, her new work, Anatomy of Hope, looks at the current Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout, Rita has avoided some of the self-regarding tendencies of the art world and tried to engage with her audience in as direct a way as possible, often by going out into communities and involving ordinary people in her projects. This documentary tells the story of her life and work through an interview with the artist herself, as well as archive of her at work dating back to the mid-1980s. It traces a timeline from Rita’s childhood in Belfast to the present day by reviewing key pieces of her output, which include early works such as her Siege paintings, which depict a divided society, to her Drawing the Blinds portraits at the Divis Flats in Belfast, and her proposal to tow an iceberg to Belfast to explore the legacy of the Troubles.
Can you use craft to help make the world a better place, one stitch at a time? Writer, comedian and art lover Jenny Eclair meets people doing extraordinary things with knitting, cross-stitch, banners and felt to change hearts and minds. Hearing stories from craftivists around the UK and beyond, Jenny visits Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire to see how miniature knickers are discreetly placed around the town to encourage screening for cervical cancer, and learns how felt 'graffiti' has a wellbeing message for visitors to a London park. From banners at Liverpool Football Club's Anfield Stadium to a huge memorial quilt remembering those who lost their lives to Aids, the initiatives all have one thing in common: a painstaking, thoughtful and beautiful way to get heard.
An exploration of the life and poetry of Medbh McGuckian, brought to life through recitals and performances as she remembers the poems that defined her life and career. When Medbh McGuckian won the National Poetry Prize in 1979 with her poem The Flitting, she was thrust onto the world stage as a woman who could do battle in a predominantly male poetry scene. More importantly, it gave her the confidence to emerge from the shadow of her mentor, Seamus Heaney, and take her place beside a host of highly decorated contemporaries like Ciaran Carson, Paul Muldoon and Frank Ormsby. Medbh’s poetry is different. It is highly personal. The scars of her life seep through her pages. While others buried their noses in books looking for inspiration, Medbh wrote of her struggles with childbirth and the darkness of a life marked by mental illness. That darkness was mirrored by the backdrop of the Northern Irish troubles, and while not always evident in her poetry, it is omnipresent.
Circling a Fox takes Matthew Zajac’s multi-award-winning play about his father’s life and turns it into a genre-bending documentary film that challenges received notions of personal and national identity. It is a deeply personal story, taking us on a journey from war-torn Poland and Ukraine to the Highlands of Scotland and then back again. Blending documentary, theatre and poetic drama-reconstruction, Circling a Fox tells the story of Matthew's quest to seek the truth about his father’s past and his efforts to use theatre to reach out to a family he never knew he had.
Professor Alice Roberts follows a decade-long historical quest to reveal a hidden secret of the famous bluestones of Stonehenge. Using cutting-edge research, a dedicated team of archaeologists led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson have painstakingly compiled evidence to fill in a 400-year gap in our knowledge of the bluestones, and to show that the original stones of Britain’s most iconic monument had a previous life. Alice joins Mike as they put together the final pieces of the puzzle, not just revealing where the stones came from, how they were moved from Wales to England or even who dragged them all the way, but also solving one of the toughest challenges that archaeologists face.
For many women, working in the music industry is a dream come true - but behind the glamour there lies a dark secret. From inappropriate messages and unwanted sexual advances to violence and rape, reporter Tamanna Rahman explores why women in music have remained silent for so long. In an exclusive interview, Hana, former girlfriend of hotly tipped rapper Octavian, reveals why she decided to go public on social media with claims of physical abuse at his hands. Her Instagram post led, in November last year, to the artist and his long-awaited debut album being cancelled by his record label, Black Butter, part of Sony Music. Tamanna explores why Hana felt she had to go public with her allegations. Questions are also asked about the relationship between Island Records, a subsidiary of Universal, and one of music’s most dangerous men, Solo 45. Today the grime star is in jail for 30 years for raping and torturing women. But before Island handed him a deal, he served six months in prison in Cyprus for domestic violence. Was this taken into consideration before the label invested in his music?
Lucy Worsley explores the lives of six real people who lived, worked and volunteered during the Blitz, highlighting the government’s reliance on ordinary people.
When Zara McDermott left Love Island in 2018, she was told that naked photos of her were circulating worldwide. Now she’s looking for answers.
At the age of 23, actor David Harewood had a psychotic breakdown, a condition he later discovered was far more likely to affect black men. After the shocking news broke that black, Asian and minority ethnic patients were dying in disproportionate numbers from Covid-19, David felt compelled to discover the reasons why. David starts his journey in Brent, north west London. During the first wave of the pandemic, the borough had the highest Covid-19 mortality rate in the country. It is also one of the UK's most diverse areas, where nearly 65 per cent of the local population are black, Asian or from other minority ethnic groups. He visits Dr Tariq Husain, head of the Intensive Care Unit at the nearby Northwick Park Hospital, who describes the tidal wave of cases that overwhelmed their capacity, five times more than the usual rates of admissions, and the fact that people from minority communities seemed to be the hardest hit. Was this just an isolated incident? To find out, David visits Dr Guddi Singh, a paediatric doctor and health expert, who reveals that what happened in Brent is mirrored across the country. Staggeringly, as a black man, David is nearly three times more likely to die from Covid-19. What is it about being black that puts David at such an increased risk? Dr Singh explains that a big risk factor is the job that you do. Key workers risk their lives, exposing themselves to the virus as they keep the country running. Yet people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to do these jobs. David visits Tamira, whose father was one of the first members of NHS staff to die from Covid-19. She believes not enough was done to protect him at work. A heart-wrenching but all too common story. But why do so many people from minority communities do these frontline jobs? David visits his sister Sandra in Birmingham, where they both grew up. They discuss their parents’ experiences as new migrants to the UK in the 50s, and how your skin
To mark 100 years since the birth of comedy legend Tommy Cooper, Sir Lenny Henry - one of Tommy’s biggest fans - takes a look back through the BBC’s archives and shares some of the great man’s finest and funniest moments. This collection features some of Cooper’s most famous routines, and shows that his reputation for terrible tricks that inevitably went wrong was all based on an act.He was actually a master magician, perfectly suited to television’s golden age.
Actor and comedian John Thomson looks back at the life and work of his friend and comedy colleague, the late and greatly missed Caroline Aherne. From rarely seen early routines from Caroline’s days on the Manchester stand-up circuit, through to some favourite moments from The Fast Show, Mrs Merton and The Royle Family, John is our guide as we wallow in a special selection of clips, characters and magic moments. To misquote Mrs Merton’s famous line to Debbie McGee – this is a collection that reveals exactly what it was that first attracted us to one of British television’s best-loved writers and performers.
BBC producer Felicity Baker has a stammer that she has spent her whole life trying to hide. She struggles to say her own name. Now she is stepping out in front of the camera for the first time to talk about what it is like to live with the condition - and she soon finds she is not alone. She meets a rugby player who blames his stammer for his aggressive behaviour on the pitch, a rapper who found music stopped him stammering and the comedy star Michael Palin, whose father stammered but never ever spoke about it.
At the start of 2020, BBC radio 1 gave Arlo Parks a camera, to capture an exciting new artist making their debut album. No one could have predicted how the story would unfold.
Billie Holiday, known one of the greatest voices of all time as well as a woman of breathtaking talent and global popularity, was a figure of controversy throughout her short life - a black woman in a white man’s world, a victim and a rebel. Her infamous Strange Fruit, the first protest song of the civil rights movement, earned her powerful enemies. She was also an enigma, her telling of her own life story a mix of half truths and free-form improvisations. Then, in the late 1960s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer’s short, tumultuous life. Raw, emotional and brutally honest, these incredible testimonies ranged from musical greats like Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie to her cousin, schoolfriends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her. But Linda’s book was never finished, and the tapes remained unplayed – until now. With unprecedented and exclusive access to Linda's astonishing 200 hours of never-before-heard interviews, this documentary showcases an American legend, capturing her depths and complexity through the voices of those who knew her best. Painstakingly restored with footage and stills colourised by one of the world's leading colour artists, it is an arresting and powerful tale of one of the greatest singers who ever lived, and of Linda Lipnack Kuehl, the woman who would sacrifice her life in trying to tell it.
Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency is a deeply personal and candid film following Roman as he explores the mental health and suicide crisis affecting young men in the UK. In August 2020, Roman’s life changed dramatically with the sudden and unexpected death of his best friend, radio producer Joe Lyons. This timely documentary sees Roman taking a closer look at the urgent issue of young men’s mental health, exploring why increasing numbers are taking their own lives and the reasons why so many of them never ask for help. Wanting to find some answers in a difficult time, Roman explores what can be done to encourage people to seek help, what preventative action we need to be taking, and the lasting impact mental health and suicide can have on friends and families. This is a film about Roman’s generation, young men and boys as they become adults, and how he himself could help add to a dialogue that might help those who are struggling in silence.
George McGavin and Zoe Laughlin investigate the revolutionary science finding vital renewable resources and undiscovered life in sewage.
Marking 50 years since the seminal series Dave Allen at Large, a selection of favourite monologues from across the much-loved comedian's career. Armed with his trademark props, he sits on a stool, sips his whisky and reflects on the idiocies of life, meditating on everything from the process of ageing through to the invasive tendencies of the modern telephone
An examination of the Black Power movement in the late 1960s in the UK, surveying both the individuals and the cultural forces that defined the era. At the heart of the documentary is a series of astonishing interviews with past activists, many of whom are speaking for the first time about what it was really like to be involved in the British Black Power movement, bringing to life one of the key cultural revolutions in the history of the nation.
The monks of Mount St Bernard Abbey, a community of 25 men, more than half of whom are over 80 years old, are opening the first Trappist brewery in the UK. For their historic, countercultural lifestyle to survive, the venture must succeed. In the meantime, as the monks reflect on spirituality, ageing and the end of life, the number of burials in the abbey graveyard continues to grow.
Exclusive access to the pop star as she balances the competing pressures of a world tour, writing a new album, launching an acting career and being a first-time mum.
Gabriel Clarke presents a profile of the World Cup-winning footballer, looking at his special relationship with Ireland after becoming the national team's manager, his complicated relationship with brother Bobby, and his final battle with dementia. Including contributions from his wife Pat and son John, alongside celebrated Irish players, musicians, writers and politicians, including Larry Mullen, Roddy Doyle, Brendan O'Carroll, Paul McGrath, Niall Quinn, Mick McCarthy, David O'Leary and Andy Townsend.
Male pattern baldness affects around half of all men by the age of 50, typically starting in their late twenties to early thirties. It can be a hugely traumatic life event because most men refuse to talk about it. The urge to ‘man up’ and the fear of being seen as vain or vulnerable means a lot of guys simply suffer in silence. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Now help is at hand in the Barbershop for Bald Men. We meet Bryan, Matty and Jason. Bryan started losing his hair in his late twenties and believes it has robbed him of the confidence to start dating. Matty started losing his when he was just 18 and went on to have a failed hair transplant a few years later. Jason, who also happens to a barber, despairs at spending his days surrounded by mirrors, working on the very thing he wants most. They share their stories about their hair loss before undergoing an astonishing transformation. Keris Weir, hair stylist to the stars, fits each of them with cutting-edge hair replacement systems – and the haircut they’ve been longing for. Will they love their brand new hair or decide to finally accept that bald is beautiful?
Struggling with the loss of his sight, renowned landscape painter James Morrison attempts one last painting. This documentary follows him as he picks up the brushes again at the age of 85, after being sidelined by a series of operations, and explores what it means to be a landscape painter. It is also the poignant and universal story of a creative mind dealing with his own mortality, and the physical frailties that catch up with all of us. Eye of the Storm intertwines Morrison’s struggle with old age, with his lively views as a much younger painter, captured in remarkable archive filmed more than 50 years ago. Pivotal moments in Morrison’s career are also brought vividly to life by Scottish animator Catriona Black. As Morrison begins painting again, he is particularly troubled by the fact that, on doctor’s orders, he can’t paint outside. His lifelong compulsion to paint what he sees has taken him around the world, from Africa to Paris to Greenland. The son of a shipyard pipefitter, Morrison entered the famous Glasgow School of Art in 1950. While other students embraced the overtly political and abstract art fashionable at the time, he was attracted to the landscape painters of a different era, such as Claude Lorrain, Jean-François Millet and Scotland’s own Horatio McCulloch. Morrison’s first major subjects were the crumbling Glasgow tenements, home to thousands of working-class families soon to be relocated to the outskirts of the city. Though painted without people, Morrison’s haunting paintings are memorials to a lost way of life, and would find their place in major museums. His concern with documenting fleeting, disappearing worlds, would become a recurring feature of his work. His work then underwent a dramatic shift when he moved to the tiny fishing village of Catterline in north east Scotland in 1959. Here, Morrison effectively established what would become a famed artists’ colony, along with painter Joan Eardley. As he views archive from the ti
Documentary observing an extraordinary family at home in Northern Ireland. The programme goes inside the world of Keith and Kristyn Getty, a modern hymn-writing duo with global success.
For decades, Iraq has been caught between the competing regional interests of the US and Iran. In the ultimate settling of scores, in 2020, the US assassinated Iran's senior commander, Qassem Soleimani, in Iran, leading to rising military tensions. But perhaps the biggest impact of Soleimani's death was on Iraqi Shias, traditionally supportive of Iran. With the heroic figurehead gone, even those with close religious and cultural ties to Iran began to question the extent of Iran's influence in their country, particularly through powerful Iran-backed Shia militia groups. BBC Persian's Nafiseh Kohnavard has been reporting on Iraq for nearly 20 years. At a time of rising tensions between Iran and the US in Iraq, she travels through Iraq's Shia heartland to see what's changed since the death of Soleimani and finds out how some of Iran's traditional supporters in Iraq are beginning to resent Iran as much as America.
Former glamour model Jess Davies uncovers the hidden trade in photographs.
Following the announcement earlier today that His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh has died, Sophie Raworth is joined by special guests in the studio to pay tribute to The Duke’s remarkable life and legacy.
The remarkable life story of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, the man who stood beside the Queen for over 70 years. A man who conducted hundreds of royal engagements in his own right, often championing the development of young people and environmental change. Featuring interviews with those who knew him best.
As the world reflects on the remarkable life of the Duke of Edinburgh, this one hour programme remembers him in the place that mattered to him most - Windsor . Over the course of filming for a year at the castle, we had the perfect guide - Prince Philip himself. And what started as a personal tour turned into something much more revealing and unexpected – a journey through the life of a very modern man, a pioneer and innovator who was at the heart of the British Monarchy, and the Queen's side, for over seventy years. In his role of Ranger he shows us around the Windsor estate, and describes what it was like when he first arrived in 1952: how he transformed the castle inside and out; how he handled the old guard; his biggest bug-bear, the tree-huggers; his successes and (very messy) failures as an ecopioneer; how he turned Windsor into a home fit for a young and growing family; what is was like following in the footsteps of his predecessor and ancestor Prince Albert; he tells us about his love of polo and the real reason he built a polo club on the grounds, and how he wrote the rules for carriage-driving- the sport he never gave up. And he even touches on his own place in history, and his firm belief that it is for others to decide his legacy… There is relaxed banter with the film crew, funny off-camera exchanges (which we include), but there are also serious and at times some very poignant and reflective moments. And all this at the place he calls home-which of course will be his final resting place too. This is the real Duke, in his own words, a unique and enduring portrait which reveals the side of a man rarely seen.
BBC One Scotland pays tribute to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.
The Duke of Edinburgh may have been the longest living Royal Consort in British history, carrying out thousands of official duties and supporting The Queen while walking two steps behind her - but he was also so much more. Dan Snow follows in The Duke of Edinburgh’s footsteps uncovering the myriad ways in which he turned his personal experiences and passions into causes which benefited not just this country but the wider world. From the awards scheme which bears his name, to his ground breaking work in conservation and his championing of British design, Dan finds out more about Philip the man, the contribution he made and the substantial legacy he has left behind. The facts of Philip’s own life unlock the key to why he was so passionate about certain causes. Dan discovers how his time at Gordonstoun, then a tiny experimental school, was pivotal for the young prince after a childhood marked by chaos and instability. Here Dan uncovers the roots of his hugely successful and ubiquitous Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme award - and finds out how his passion for sailing on the Moray Firth led him down the path of a career at sea. Dan charts the Prince’s short but stellar naval career, meeting along the way, the man whose life he helped save during World War 11. Though a rising star his career was cut short when The Queen acceded to the throne. Now the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip used his position and influence to work for the greater good. His fascination with gadgetry and appreciation of good design led him to encourage innovation in post war Britain by establishing his own Design Awards. Dan meets a notable recipient and finds just how significant the Duke’s initiative was. This genuine enthusiasm for how things were made was complimented by a real talent for painting and photography and we learn how the Prince’s concern for the survival of species was prompted by his photographic trips to the far reaches of the globe. It was in the field of conservation that the D
Professor Margaret MacMillan delivers a Gresham College lecture looking back at the Treaty of Versailles a hundred years later. From 4 June 2019.
Nick Broomfield takes a distinctly personal look at his relationships with his humanist-pacifist father, Maurice Broomfield, a factory worker turned photographer of vivid images of postwar England.
After the sudden and unexplained death of his 19-year-old sister Lauren, Patrick is left grieving, struggling to understand how a young person could go to sleep and never wake up. Every year over 600 young and seemingly healthy people die suddenly and unexpectedly from sudden cardiac death. Lauren's death was registered as SADS, or sudden adult death syndrome, a cause of cardiac death even the experts don't completely understand.
Is ultra-processed food causing obesity in children, and could it even be addictive? Dr Chris van Tulleken investigates as he undergoes a gruelling self-experiment that even shocks the scientists.
The Psychedelic Drug Trial has exclusive access to a ground-breaking new trial at Imperial College London. The trial sees, for the first time ever under controlled conditions, a psychedelic drug tested head-to-head against a standard antidepressant as a treatment for depression. The film follows a pioneering team of scientists and psychotherapists, led by Professor David Nutt, Dr Robin Carhart-Harris and Dr Rosalind Watts, as they compare the effects of psilocybin (the active ingredient of magic mushrooms) with an antidepressant (an SSRI called escitalopram) on a small group of participants with clinical depression. This is scientific research at its most cutting edge. With over seven million people being prescribed antidepressants each year in England alone, this drug trial is an important milestone in understanding a completely different treatment for depression. Filmed over 16 months, this film explores both the immediate and long-term impacts of the trial on the lives of participants. It investigates whether psychedelic drugs combined with psychological support could help tackle one of the biggest medical challenges faced today and what it takes to conduct research in uncharted scientific territory. How do psychedelic drugs measure up against the industry-standard antidepressants that have been popular since the 1990s? The empirical results of the trial are explored alongside the participants’ powerful lived experience.
The birdsong of sunrise in all its uninterrupted glory, free from the voiceover and music of traditional television. With the first glimmers of sunlight, the birds of Britain's woodland, heathland and parkland burst into song. This is an opportunity to sit back and enjoy a portrait of three very different habitats and the natural splendour of their distinctive chorus.
To celebrate the award of UK City of Culture 2021 to Coventry, local boy Mark Evans tells the full history of the classic cars made in Coventry. This passionate retrospective runs from the industry's beginnings in 1897 through to the present day and includes interviews and archive footage detailing the stories behind the creation of classic marques such as the Daimler, the Triumph, the Riley and the Jaguar and the companies and people behind them.
More goals, more trophies, more followers; for Cristiano Ronaldo life is about being number one, about standing alone. BBC Sport's new documentary explores how Ronaldo has overcome adversity to reach unparalleled heights and examines his journey to become the most followed person on the planet. Has he redefined what it means to be an icon in the 21st Century? And at 36, will he rest on this legacy?
The Brandywell was one of the poorest areas in Europe and home to Derry City Football Club. In the shadow of the civil rights movement and the Troubles, the club managed to keep playing - until the team bus of Ballymena United was caught up in the violence, taken away and burned. Derry City FC was banned from playing at home and eventually went out of business. In 1984, the city needed a saviour. Tony O’Doherty was a Northern Ireland international who had played against England at Wembley. He teamed up with another international, Terry Harkin, and two other professionals Eddie Mahon and Eamonn McLaughlin, to become the Gang of Four who challenged the status quo. They made it their goal to get senior football back in their hometown. With repeated rebuffs from the Irish League in Belfast to their requests to gain re-entry, the four lads decided to take their footballing revolution south to the League of Ireland in Dublin. This film charts the emotional journey of how in 1985, after 13 years in the wilderness, football returned to the Brandywell. The club would go on to lift both silverware and the spirits of the city, unleashing a carnival of hope, pride and optimism. Featuring interviews with the Gang of Four, rare archive footage and memories of the faithful supporters, the film portrays an inspirational group of people who made their dreams come true. The rollercoaster took the club and community from the depths of despair to footballing nirvana, landing a historic domestic treble in the League of Ireland. It would culminate with the arrival of football royalty with Sven-Goran Eriksson bringing his Benfica team of superstars into the heart of the Bogside for a European Cup tie.
Two of Northern Ireland’s leading journalists, Darragh MacIntyre and Sam McBride, shed new light on one of the most notorious crimes in UK-Irish history – the Northern Bank robbery. Two families held hostage for 24 hours, two bank employees forced to rob £26.5 million. Sixteen years on, despite an international police investigation and heavily-rumoured IRA involvement, it remains unsolved. With access to internal bank CCTV, police 999 calls, archive footage and court transcripts, Darragh and Sam piece together how the heist was carried out and explore various theories that surround it. Through interviews with key players – in politics, policing and financial crime – they uncover what happened to main suspects in the cross-border police investigation and ask whether the robbery, inadvertently, helped the peace process.
In the 1960s, while young black adults were getting to grips with the struggle for black power and a long fightback against police abuse was starting, the majority of West Indian migrants were keeping their heads down. They were working hard and counting on providing better opportunities and education for their children. However, in a white-dominated country, where the politics were becoming increasingly racialised, there was a question of how society, and its teachers, saw these young black children. Before having a chance to develop intellectually, they were labelled as stupid, difficult and disruptive. The paradox is that many of the new migrants to Britain were in fact highly educated. One of them was Gus John, who arrived from Trinidad as a Dominican novitiate to become a priest. Almost immediately he was contacted by some black parents worried about the schooling of their children. Together with several other educators, John quickly realised that the system was not just inept, but actually rigged against black children. At the same time, celebrity psychologists Hans Eysenck and Arthur Jensen were propounding theories that black people were genetically less intelligent than white people. These theories infiltrated teacher training and found their way into schools. IQ tests were then based on these theories with the odds horrendously stacked against children from the West Indies.
In America, if you're black, you're five times more likely to go to prison than if you’re white. And the typical white family has eight times the wealth of the typical black family. Fifty years on from the promise of equality and the Civil Rights Act, this documentary reveals the moments where America had the chance to become more equal and why that didn’t happen. Through compelling interviews with those who were at the forefront of the struggle for a fair system in education, housing and criminal justice, the film reveals the key court cases, Supreme Court rulings and laws that failed to bridge the gap. It gives us the shocking context to the anger felt by the millions of people who took to the streets during the Black Lives Matter protests. The movement was not just calling for an end to police brutality but also asking for something that had been pledged 50 years ago: racial equality.
A look back at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, to mark their 10th anniversary.
The arc of black history shares an uncanny resemblance to the plot points of classic sci-fi including ‘alien’ abduction, enslavement and rebellion. It’s this unlikely relationship that provides the inspiration for Afrofuturism, the broad cultural trend that encompasses works by Jean-Michel Basquiat to Grace Jones, Solange Knowles and Sun Ra. In this film, we meet, see and hear from artists across three continents who each, in their own way, explore the Afrofuture to look at the horrors of the black past and imagine alternative futures.
A look behind the scenes of a chaotic three days in European football, as a proposed Super League was announced and then collapsed when faced with a wall of opposition.
The story of Coventry’s new cathedral and of the times in which it was built. Designed by Basil Spence and consecrated in 1962, the original was destroyed by German bombers during World War II.
On Sunday 7th June 2020, sparked by the horrific murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protestors marching to support the Black Lives Matter movement tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in the city’s harbour. This dramatic action in Bristol thrust the city onto the global stage and put it at the forefront of last summer's bitter culture wars. Caught in the eye of this storm was Bristol’s mayor Marvin Rees, the first directly elected mayor of Black African heritage of a major European city. Born and bred in Bristol and himself a descendant of enslaved people, how would he hold the city together in the face of rising tensions that threaten to explode into violent confrontation?
As we emerge into the sunlight from the long shadow of lockdown, the UEFA Euros Tournament in June is one of the world’s most highly anticipated sporting events. And, with the final on 11 July taking place on the hallowed turf of Wembley, football really is coming home this summer. In We Are England, Krept and Konan, two of the UK’s most talented and successful rap artists, are setting out to mark what is sure to be a huge shared cultural moment by making a track to celebrate the England football team. But first they need to investigate what Englishness actually means in 2021. It’s never been a simple question for those of non-white British heritage, but it’s a question they’ll need to tackle if they are going to create an authentic track to celebrate the national squad. Because instead of the traditional cheesy sing-along, featuring a former soap actor or long-retired left-back, Krept and Konan are going to create an anthem for our times: representing the modern diversity and forward-looking culture in which our chart-topping rap stars and the young stars of the England team are cut from the same cloth. Rap culture is the culture of young Britain, and today’s top-tier teams now move to a whole different beat than they did when the Three Lions anthem of Euros 96 had them tapping their toes in the changing rooms and their fans chanting on the terraces. The lifestyle, attitude, slang and swagger of rap culture is replicated in the national football team – itself now one of the youngest and most diverse it has ever been – and many of the country’s biggest rappers came up honing their football skills and their rap lyrics on our city streets and in the ‘cages’ of the UK’s estates, just as top footballers grew up surrounded by hip hop culture, looking up to rap stars. So if they’re going to create a track to celebrate the pride of a new nation, it’s these stories that Krept and Konan want to tell, and this bold, aspirational culture they want to reflect. On th
In a uniquely personal journey, award-winning reporter Peter Taylor revisits the films he has made over the past 50 years to reflect on the controversial issue of a united Ireland.
The shocking story of the rise and fall of one of Instagram’s first super-influencers. By 23, Australian wellness guru Belle Gibson had cultivated an adoring global following online with the story that she had successfully treated her own terminal cancer by eating a plant-based diet and using alternative natural therapies. But there was one problem with Belle’s story: she had never had cancer. Seen through the eyes of those who adored her and those who exposed her, this film lifts the lid on one of social media’s great mysteries: who was the real Belle Gibson – an ingenious con artist or damaged young woman trapped in a lie?
Nada Tawfik reports on the outcome of the trail of Derek Chauvin.
Judith Moritz reports on the security failings that enabled the Manchester Arena bombing.
As we emerge from a global pandemic that has turned our world upside down, David Olusoga explores the hidden history of the nurses, doctors and health workers who, for more than 70 years, have been coming to Britain from overseas to serve in the NHS.
Documentary telling the incredible true story of Scottish mercenary Peter McAleese, who was hired to kill Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in 1989. With unprecedented access to Peter and other members of his team, this is the first full account of that fateful mission and the dark consequences for those involved. With full access to McAleese’s personal archive, as well as never-before-seen amateur footage of the operation, Killing Escobar weaves this material alongside dramatic reconstruction and interviews from McAleese and his fellow mercenaries. We also hear from one of Pablo Escobar’s bodyguards, members of America’s DEA and the security chief of the Colombian drug cartel that wanted Escobar eliminated. The film also provides a deeply personal character study of Peter McAleese, a man trained to fight and kill, and the cost this has had on himself and his family. McAleese actively sought out war and conflict but admits that he, and those close to him, paid a costly price for his desire to seek adventure. McAleese’s youth in postwar working class Glasgow was marked by poverty and violence and he quickly learned how to fight. Leaving Glasgow for the Parachute Regiment in 1960, Peter learned to channel his aggression into soldiering, seeing action in the SAS before fighting as a mercenary in Africa throughout the 10s and 80s. In 1989, McAleese and his friend Dave Tomkins were hired by a Colombian drug cartel to undertake a mission to kill the world’s biggest cocaine dealer, Pablo Escobar. In Colombia, he gathered a select team of ex-Special Forces operatives and began training for a lightning raid on Escobar’s Hacienda. After 11 weeks of intense preparation, the men launched the operation which ultimately led to disaster and would have a devastating effect on McAleese and others.
Marking the ten year anniversary of the death of Amy Winehouse, her closest family and friends, including mum Janis and dad Mitch, reveal the truth about the British music icon.
Our smartphones hold our secrets - the version of ourselves we may not want to show the world. With extraordinary access to the contents of a smartphone used by three British men who left their homes to go to Syria and fight with ISIS, journalist Mobeen Azhar uncovers what happened to the three men. Mobeen tries to understand their motivations, how they became radicalised and who is ultimately responsible for their one-way journey to certain death. Using previously unseen videos, photos and screenshots from the smartphone, Mobeen explores what made these three men join an estimated 900 Britons who went out to Syria and Iraq to fight with the world’s most feared terrorist group. While much of the media’s focus has been on the schoolgirls who went to join ISIS, a much larger number of the Britons who made this journey were young men. The three men who feature on the smartphone came from very different backgrounds, and one was a private school boy. Reaching out to the people who really knew them, Mobeen pieces together their stories of hope and delusion - a case study in how extremist ideology takes hold of a life.
Luciano Pavarotti‘s 1991 anniversary concert in Hyde Park, celebrating 30 years of his operatic career.
In November 1981, Queen arrived in Montreal following dates in Japan and their record-breaking tour of Latin America. It was to be the only concert by Queen that was ever shot on film.
Chris Packham explores his past as he walks a familiar path in the Hampshire countryside. Chris cut his teeth as a naturalist in this beautiful corner of England.
After winning gold in Rio 2016, double Olympic champion Helen Glover decided to hang up the oars and step away from rowing to start a family. Helen had three children together with husband Steve Backshall, but the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown brought on a change in perspective. Despite not having stepped foot in a boat since Rio, Helen decided to take a shot at a third Olympic gold. This documentary follows Helen’s journey back into racing every step of the way, from regaining her fitness during the first lockdown in early 2020 to her selection for Team GB. It provides a powerful insight into what it takes to balance new motherhood with elite sporting performance, exploring the highs and lows of the road to Tokyo through the lens of those closest to her.
Clara Amfo meets the global music phenomenon Billie Eilish to discuss her meteoric rise to superfame in just three years, and the pressure of being a role model for millions.
Jamie O’Leary has terrible sight, and is now facing eye surgery that could potentially lead to sight loss. A television director for almost 20 years, Jamie has produced groundbreaking programmes that take a fresh look at disability, as well as making popular travelogue shows with some of the UK’s funniest talent, including Karl Pilkington, Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan.
The word 'diva' is used to describe otherworldly talent, but somewhere along the line, the meaning got polluted. Ana Matronic reclaims the word by presenting five legendary artists.
This revelatory film hears from the people who experienced the riots up close and personal, reliving events ten years on.
Daisy Maskell, the UK’s youngest ever breakfast radio host, has suffered from insomnia since childhood. For as long as she can remember, she has survived on as little as a couple of hours of sleep each night and is wide awake until the early hours of the morning. With an ever-increasing workload, running on empty is starting to take its toll, so Daisy wants to uncover the roots of her insomnia and take the first steps towards treatment. She is not alone. According to research by the NHS, hospital admissions due to sleep disorders among young people have almost doubled over the past eight years, and the recent Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated the issue further still. In research conducted by Kings College London on a cross-section of 2,500 people across the UK, almost half of 16- to 24-year-olds stated that they were sleeping significantly fewer hours than they had been prior to lockdown, in comparison to just a third of those aged 35 and over. Daisy meets experts and fellow sufferers to investigate why thousands of young people in the UK are struggling with sleep disorders and insomnia. Gaining tips along the way, she tries a multitude of remedies and treatments in a bid to get a better night’s sleep. We see her explore the roots of her insomnia, with revealing emotional insights into her struggles with her own mental health.
Rigs of Nigg is the story of how over 5,000 men, sought locally and from across the globe, came together to create structures previously thought to be unbuildable and to withstand elements considered unsurvivable. But the biggest impact was on Nigg and the surrounding villages. Farm work was no longer the mainstay, jobs in the Nigg yard paid four times as much and nothing would be the same again. Heady days of tough work and hard living set some up for life but also took their toll on many.
Livvy Haydock investigates UK kidnapping, discovering that one in five are now not gang on gang. Livvy tracks down some of the kidnappers and meets survivors.
Governments around the world are uncovering secret operations to expand China's influence.
Best-selling author Graeme Armstrong reveals his passion for rave, meeting some of the superstar DJs and hardcore party people who created the vibrant and little-explored world of the Scottish rave scene.
It’s 1981. Diana and Charles wed, Raiders of the Lost Ark storms the box office, and the threat of nuclear war feels increasingly real. Living in the Rhondda Valley are well-known family the Brinkworths: seven sisters and one brother raised by their mum and bus driver dad. Eldest sisters Susan, a young mum, and Christine, are busy housewives. Fearful over news Britain is to house American cruise missiles, they join a local CND group. When a 120-mile protest march from Cardiff to Greenham Common, where weapons are to be based, attracts little press attention, the pair, little sister Lesley and friends chain themselves to the railings in their town square and camp out for a week to raise awareness of the permanent women’s peace camp now at Greenham. Things escalate as the Rhondda women live at the Greenham camp for weeks at a time. They face ridicule, the threat of violence and even prison, eventually taking on President Ronald Reagan himself to stop the arrival of the missiles. This is the story of the housewives who risked it all to change the world.
The stories of 13 people caught up in the events of September 11, 2001, moving between accounts of the two-hour period when terrorists attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and hijacked Flight 93 and what has happened in the 20 years since.
Almost 20 years since September 11, this feature-length documentary follows President George W Bush and his staff as they dealt with the large-scale terrorist attack, in which four commercial aircraft were used as missiles on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Slick Instagram accounts and YouTube channels point to foreign exchange (Forex) trading as a route to extra cash. BBC reporter Dion Hesson dives into this world, meeting a host of passionate and charismatic young educators, some of whom say the Forex training they sell will put him on a path to financial independence. But what is the reality?
This film follows Charlie Craggs, trans activist and author, as she meets teenagers across the country who have been waiting years for a first appointment at an NHS gender identity clinic. Charlie explores what some feel they have to do to start their own transitions and meets young trans people who are choosing to take matters into their own hands and going down the dangerous route of using unregulated medications and starting their transitions themselves.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, author Damian Barr goes in search of the legacy and lasting influence of one of Scotland’s great historical figures, novelists and poets. From the huge Scott monument on Princes Street Edinburgh, to Smailholm Tower in the Borders, from Loch Katrine - the setting for his most famous poem - The Lady of the Lake - to Doune Castle, a setting which continues to inspire historical novelists to this day - Damian takes us on a personal journey to discover the truth about the man, his world and his work. In Search of Sir Walter Scott reveals the long lasting influence of Scott and his writing, his political campaigning and his role in creating a version of Scotland we are still living with today.
Vet Fabian Rivers reveals how the pandemic has triggered a boom in demand for puppies, particularly three breeds - bullies, frenchies and dachshunds. He investigates the complex worlds of these three dog breeds, explores why there is a boom in people buying and breeding ‘popular’ dogs, questions whether it is causing an animal welfare crisis and asks what can be done to help alleviate the problems? Fabian has witnessed the puppy boom first-hand through his work at a small animal's veterinary practice in Birmingham. The huge increase in the numbers of people wanting to buy a puppy has resulted in prices going up, which in turn has led to more people breeding dogs and has boosted the relatively new canine fertility industry, with a proliferation of canine fertility clinics offering artificial insemination services for dogs and new training courses that teach people how to do artificial insemination themselves. Fabian explores the huge price tags for some puppies and what draws people to these popular breeds, unpacks some of the hereditary health and welfare issues the breeds face, and he hears from the Dogs Trust that many puppies bought online are being illegally imported to the UK, requiring tighter regulations needed to improve the situation. Fabian also meets some prospective owners, introducing them to the RSPCA so they can find out the best practice when it comes to buying a new puppy. He also speaks to the RSPCA about the growing problem of dogs having their ears cropped, which has become popular with bully breeds, and highlights how barbaric and damaging this practice is. To explore the rise in new breeders, Fabian hears from owners about their experiences of breeding their own dogs and the challenges and costs they have faced. He also meets people who have recently opened their own canine fertility clinics and hears concerns about what is being taught on one training course. He also uncovers evidence of worrying, illegal techniques being taught to am
Using first-hand testimony, this documentary pieces together those seismic consequences of 9/11 that have been keenly felt in Scotland over the last 20 years.
In the Russian Arctic, there is a phenomenon beyond ice fishing, matryoshkas and vodka. It's the garage. Rows of tin sheds, inhospitable from the outside, where everything can be found except cars. They are the refuge of the Russian man. A few square metres to dream and escape the pressures of life. This is where illegal fish shops operate, where saints are carved, where booze is distilled and where quails are bred. In this film, the 'Garage People' speak for themselves, and with each other, sharing their concerns, fears and joys, and giving an insight into a secret world of everyday Russians.
Just outside Paris, inside a hi-tech vault, and encased in three vacuum-sealed bell jars, rests a small metallic cylinder about the diameter of a golf ball. It may not look like much, but it is one of the most important objects on the planet. It affects nearly every aspect of our lives including the food we eat, the cars we drive, even the medicines we take. It is the kilogramme, the base unit of mass in the International System of Units. This small hunk of metal is the object against which all others are measured. Yet over time, its mass has mysteriously eroded by the weight of an eyelash. A change that, unbeknownst to most, unleashed a crisis with potentially dire consequences. Measuring Mass: The Last Artefact follows the ensuing high-stakes, two-year race to redefine the weight of the world, and tells the story of one of the most important objects on the planet.
Between 1989 and 1994, Nirvana introduced a new and exciting brand of rock music to the UK – one that changed the musical landscape and influenced a generation of British youth. Thirty years on since the release of their seminal album Nevermind, this documentary examines the special relationship between Nirvana and the UK – including the role Britain played in paving the way for their global success.
This is an astonishing tale of perseverance and ingenuity that reveals how scientists have battled against the odds for almost a century to detect and decode the neutrino, the smallest and strangest particle of matter in the universe. Inside the world-renowned physics laboratory Fermilab, a team of scientists are constructing an audacious experiment to hunt for a mysterious new ‘ghost’ neutrino. If they find it, this could transform our understanding of the nature and fabric of our universe. The problem is, these tiny particles are almost impossible to detect. Elsewhere, physicists conduct experiments in some of the most extreme environments on the planet: from deep mine shafts in South Dakota to vast ice fields at the South Pole. In these unlikely places supersized neutrino detectors hope to unlock the universe’s deepest secrets. Could neutrinos overturn the most precise theory of particle physics that humans have ever written down? Could they even be a link to a hidden realm of new particles that permeate the cosmos – so called dark matter? Scientists at Fermilab are edging towards the truth.
For the first time on television, more than a dozen members of the royal family offer their personal thoughts and reflections as they pay an historic tribute to the extraordinary life of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. All the children of the Queen and Prince Philip, along with their adult grandchildren and other members of the royal family, have contributed to this unique portrait of the longest-serving consort in royal history. Originally conceived to mark Prince Philip’s one hundredth birthday, this landmark documentary features interviews filmed both before and after the duke’s death in April. The documentary makers have been inside Buckingham Palace to meet the duke’s staff and to capture his study, private office and library, exactly as they were during his seven decades at the heart of royal life. There are poignant recollections, plenty of humour and numerous fresh insights into the character and legacy of this royal pioneer. With special access to the Queen’s private cine film collection, this documentary is an unrivalled portrait of a man with a unique place in royal history - by those who knew him best.
After Charlie Webster was abused by her coach she never spoke to her friends in her running club again. Then years on an email sets her on a journey back to her past to find them.
The compelling story of 30-year-old climber Tom Ballard, who disappeared on one of the Himalaya's most deadly mountains in February 2019. Tom was the son of mountaineer Alison Hargreaves, who perished on K2 in 1995. Mother and son, two of the greatest climbers of all time, died at almost the same age in the same mountain range, both doing what they loved best. They now lie forever encased in the ice of the high Himalayas. Left behind to cope with the enduring tragedy are Tom's sister, Kate, and their father, Jim. In 1995, Jim Ballard took his children, six-year-old Tom and four-year-old Kate, on an expedition to K2's basecamp to say farewell to their mother. The result was a BBC film, Alison's Last Mountain. Now, The Last Mountain follows Kate Ballard on a parallel trip to say goodbye to her brother on Nanga Parbat. Using archive from 1995 and Tom's own extraordinary footage taken up until the days before his death, the film explores what made Tom continue his ascent with Italian climber Daniele Nardi after the other two members of the expedition turned back. The film features revealing interviews with those left behind. Combining 25 years of intimate, unseen family archive with footage of the family that director Chris Terrill has shot in the years since, the documentary tells the unforgettable story of a family who lived - and were prepared to die for - the love of scaling the icy heights of the world's highest peaks. It explores what it is that drives people to pit themselves against nature at its most ferocious and unforgiving.
Not an animal, nor a plant, nor fungi, the blob is one giant single cell whose amazing capacities are leading pioneer scientists to a very new world – that of brainless intelligence.More commonly known as slime mould, this extraordinary one-billion-year-old organism challenges our understanding of what constitutes intelligent life.Blending science fiction, the beauty of nature and cutting-edge science, this fascinating documentary follows top experts from Europe, Japan and the US on a scientific investigationinto this most surprising organism to explore the very roots of cognition.
A look at the hidden world of girls in gangs and the extent to which teenage girls are being criminally and sexually exploited.
A film that pays tribute to Christopher Nupen, who became Britain's first independent television producer in the 1960s at the dawn of the documentary era. It is also the story of how the talents of a golden generation of artists were forever preserved on film. Nupen came from an unlikely background in South Africa and "ticked none of the boxes." Still, seizing upon the emerging camera technology and his unique access, he filmed classical music in a wholly new and intimate way that broke down the barriers between artists and their public. As a result, this documentary is also an important story about the history of music on television and the great artists who collaborated on the films. Now 86, Nupen reflects on 75 productions about artists and composers spanning more than 50 years. His body of work convincingly enforces his conviction that television is capable of remembering artists in a way that no other medium can equal. Oxford philosopher and historian Sir Isaiah Berlin described Nupen's films as being 'at just about the highest level that television can reach'. The programme cherry-picks examples of Christopher Nupen's best work between 1966 and 2017. When he started, he instinctively blended documentary and musical performance to create a new genre of film. He filmed musicians at close quarters in their natural environment, where they have most to offer. Television picked up the exuberant spirit of the new generation and carried it far and wide. The effects were dramatic and brought countless numbers of people to music for the first time. A musician himself, Nupen's musical friends were among the most renowned artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Capturing their unique talents on film, we relive sublime historical moments with Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Andrès Segovia, John Williams, Nathan Milstein, Placido Domingo, Itzhak Perlman, Jacqueline du Pré, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Kissin and Daniil Trifonov. As Nupen's experience grew, he
The inside story of the investigation into serial male rapist Reynhard Sinaga, the biggest rape case in British legal history. With exclusive access to Greater Manchester Police's investigation from 2017 to 2019, this film tells the story of Sinaga's horrific crimes and his eventual conviction, when he was prosecuted in 2020 for 159 counts of rape and other sexual offences, against 48 men. In 2020, it was made public that Reynhard Sinaga had been prosecuted for 159 counts of rape and other sexual offences, against 48 men. But police found evidence relating to more than 200 victims, many of whom remain unidentified. With exclusive access to Greater Manchester Police's 2017-19 investigation, this film tells the story of serial male rapist Sinaga’s conviction - the biggest rape case in British legal history. From his flat on Princess Street, Manchester, mature student Reynhard Sinaga would target lone men who’d been on a night out and invite them into his home, with the offer of somewhere to have a drink or to call a taxi. But instead, once they were inside, he would drug, assault and rape them, recording the attacks and collecting personal belongings as ‘trophies’ from his victims. Investigators found evidence of more than 200 victims, and many had no recollection of being abused until a police officer knocked on their door to tell them they’d been attacked and filmed. Some of these men still have not been identified. He had been offending for a decade. As evidence of the horrific scale of Sinaga's offending was uncovered, this film tells the detailed inside story of how detectives pieced together an unprecedented prosecution. And one of Sinaga’s victims, speaking in the film for the very first time, waves his right to anonymity to break the silence that surrounds male rape. His powerful testimony contributes to an important national conversation in the UK, where sexual violence against men remains one of the most underreported crimes.
Documentary charting singer-songwriter Ryan McMullan's journey to music stardom. The film is centred around a four-day recording and listening session in Cruit Island, County Donegal, at the end of 2019. The session is an opportunity for Ryan and his team to assess all the songs competing for a place on his album, a potential breakthrough moment in his career. Against this majestic landscape, we get to know Ryan and his artist and mentor Foy Vance, along with manager/drummer Paul ‘Hammy’ Hamilton. They are also joined by producer Eoin O’Callaghan, who has been drafted in to lend a fresh pair of ears to the album. There is also a look at some of the key moments of Ryan’s career to date, including his first meeting with Foy Vance in Washington and how he connected with long-term collaborators Hammy and Foy as his management team, his support tour with Ed Sheeran and his growing links to leading Northern Irish band Snow Patrol.
On 19 September 1981, Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a free public concert on the Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park, drawing one of the largest ever audiences for a single concert.
Docudrama charting the life of the 18th-century poet, Alexander Pope (1688-1744), a forgotten genius, whose work dealt with issues that still concern modern society, including women's rights, friendship, freedom of speech, the environment, corruption in government, and what it means to be a moral citizen. Starring Simon Callow, Harriet Walter. Narrated by Emilia Fox and featuring contributions from John Cleese.
Over the past 35 years, former Arsenal and England footballer Paul Merson has gambled away a fortune. In this programme, he sets out to understand why his life has been so badly blighted by gambling and explores the relationship between football and gambling at a time when it has never been more urgent to question the industry’s place in the world of sport. Now on the path to recovery, he wants to understand what caused his addiction. Could it be the way his brain is wired, his environment or both? Paul sets out to meet old teammates, scientists and psychologists to see if he can get close to finding the answer. He starts by meeting former Arsenal teammate Wes Reid. When they received their first pay cheques as Arsenal trainees, Paul and Wes went to the bookies, and Paul lost his entire week’s wages in 15 minutes, kicking off a 35-year struggle with gambling..
It started with a 999 call from a lorry driver in Essex and ended in one of the UK’s biggest ever police investigations, a hunt for those responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants.
Exactly 20 years ago Wales was emerging from an epidemic that lasted six months and saw over six million animals killed across the UK. The impact of foot and mouth disease was felt in every corner of Wales. Major events like rugby internationals were cancelled, access to the countryside banned and schools closed in rural areas. Farmers were forced to isolate at home and tourism was struggling. It was one of the first major challenges for the newly devolved Welsh administration, with a young Carwyn Jones finding himself at the eye of the storm as the minister responsible for agriculture. Many people most closely involved - the farmers, the vets, the people who slaughtered the animals - have never spoken before about the lasting effect that the epidemic had on them. It is clear that the emotion and trauma they experienced is still raw 20 years on. This film looks back at what happened. There were desperate attempts to contain the epidemic and controversy over how to deal with a rapidly spreading disease. Hard decisions were made to cull hundreds of thousands of healthy animals in a bid to stop the infection. Events reached a climax with the controversial decision to bury carcasses at the Epynt, an upland area near Sennybridge used as a military range. Locals blocked roads and Carwyn Jones faced his biggest challenge yet.
An immersive journey through the trailblazing life of Jackie Collins. Spinning together fact and fiction, this documentary tells the untold story of a groundbreaking author and her mission to build a one-woman literary empire. Narrated by a cast of Jackie’s closest friends and family, the film reveals the private struggles of a woman who became an icon of 1980s feminism whilst hiding her personal vulnerability behind a carefully crafted public persona.
At the end of a decade when the world was in crisis and inspiration needed resurrecting, an influential duo released a masterpiece of popular music, Bridge over Troubled Water. Through darkness and light, the album takes its listeners on an emotional ride that echoes its era, and has proved to be a work that continues to inspire an audience the world over. Its symphonic hymn of a title track became an anthem for a generation. This film tells the story behind what is widely considered Simon and Garfunkel's greatest work. The influential duo's last studio album has its legacy shrouded in rock'n'roll mythology, complete with legendary tales of inspiration, innovation and separation. Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and their collaborators share the journey in their own words and reflect back on its impact 40 years later, using never-before-seen film, photos and memorabilia.
Nick Beake travels to Norway to meet the young people taking on their government in an attempt to prevent further drilling for oil and gas. They believe their country's export of fossil fuels is putting the planet in peril, and it's one of many similar fights emerging across Europe.
A journey into January's storming of the US Capitol, featuring exclusive footage and interviews with the people at the heart of the action, many of whom are speaking publicly for the first time.
A collection of classic hits from the stable of one of Britain’s greatest and most successful music producers, the legendary Trevor Horn.
On the 100th anniversary of its creation, Patrick Kielty explores what the future holds for Northern Ireland. He investigates why a new trade border in the Irish Sea has led to violent protests, sparking fear among some of a return to conflict, nearly 25 years after the end of the Troubles; a conflict which claimed thousands of lives, including that of his father Jack Kielty. In this very personal film, Patrick’s focus is on a new generation born long after the ceasefire, as he tries to understand what is driving this new wave of unrest, particularly in Loyalist communities. He also explores why some feel that a united Ireland could now be on the horizon and how the trauma of Northern Ireland’s past is shaping its future.
Scotland has always been intensely proud of its landscape. But at the same time, Scotland has always done its natural world grave harm. As the COP26 conference on climate change approaches in Glasgow, BBC Scotland’s Changing Landscapes meditates upon the care and carelessness we’ve brought to bear on the environment. In this 60 minute film, Scotland’s film and video archives from the last hundred years illustrate the story of this contradiction. The words of poets, ecologists, journalists and travellers - read for us by some of Scotland’s most famous voices - are combined with the voices of ordinary folk from our archival store; people whose relationship with land and nature is as varied as folk always are. It will be their workplace, the place where they take their leisure, the place where they go to shoot the carefully curated stocks of deer and grouse. We see how very deep we’ve mined and drilled in search of coal and oil – and how far we’ve hiked and biked in search of solitude and beauty. We learn that the damage done has always been at the back of our minds, at the very least since the 1930s. Driving the film is BBC Scotland’s Scottish Symphony Orchestra performing a carefully-selected soundtrack of work by Scottish composers old and new, featuring pieces by one of Scotland’s oldest living composers, Thea Musgrave, and one of its youngest, Jay Capperauld. We hear from some of the finest of Scotland’s folk musicians, Julie Fowlis and Kris Drever, who remind us that Scotland’s relationship with nature has been in many ways like a bad romance. Our narrators will read passages from a wide range of sources. We hear words from Scotland’s newly-appointed makar, Kathleen Jamie, and passages from poets such as Edwin Muir, Liz Lochhead, Edwin Morgan, Magi Gibson, Don Paterson and Robert Burns – evocations of Scotland’s landscapes, both rural and urban. We also hear from travel writers and journalists, old biographies of Osgood Mackenzie and excerpts of the e
North Sea oil has been an invisible machine at the core of the UK. It now faces an uncertain future as activists and investors demand change. Is the era of North Sea oil over? This documentary draws on the voices of young activists, oil company executives, economists and pension fund managers to explore the vital questions that affect all our lives. We have 5-10 years to control our oil addiction, and yet the licensing of new oil fields such as the Cambo oil field off Shetland is seen to be in direct contradiction to the government’s alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement and hosting of COP. There is also a look at how the drama of global climate action is playing out in the fight over North Sea oil. Oil companies are convinced that they can continue to keep drilling while keeping to net zero ambitions through adopting new technologies, such as carbon capture. But climate scientists are deeply sceptical of the net zero concept and the time it would take for these technologies to be effective.
For decades, the world’s most famous male porn star, Ron Jeremy, allegedly groped, assaulted and raped women. One of the most unlikely success stories of the adult industry, Jeremy, 68, became an ‘icon’ of porn who appeared in over 2000 adult movies and successfully crossed over into mainstream media. Yet it wasn’t until June 2020 that he was arrested and charged with 34 sex crimes against 21 women. He is currently in prison awaiting trial. This explosive documentary hears for the first time from some of his alleged victims as well as those who helped raise the alarm about him. Ginger Banks, one of the first adult performers to shine a spotlight on Ron Jeremy’s behaviour, speaks about her struggle to get the industry to take action. She says she fought to get Jeremy banned from adult expos and events where he was allegedly assaulting many of his victims. Was the industry turning a blind eye to what Ron was apparently doing? Jeremy - who has consistently denied all the allegations against him and has pleaded not guilty to all the charges - faces up to 330 years in prison if convicted. Despite the allegations, he still has many supporters. Some friends and former colleagues believe Jeremy has become the #MeToo fall-guy for the adult industry. Conversations about consent have become more sophisticated in recent years and in the world of porn, setting boundaries on set is more important than ever before. This documentary gains unfettered access behind the scenes of the often-secretive adult world and questions what Ron Jeremy’s arrest says about the changing industry. Has the power really started to shift away from male-dominated studios in favour of the female performers for the first time?
With exclusive behind-the-scenes access, seldom-seen footage from the archives and a rare interview with Kirsty Wark, this is the story of a true visionary of British art.
After 40 years of solitude, a spirited elderly hermit tackles ill health, a declining memory, and questions whether he can live out his last years in the wilderness he calls home.
The football world held its breath when Wolves and Mexico striker Raul Jiménez suffered a life-threatening injury on the pitch in November 2020. Code Red documents the race to save his life and one man’s battle to return to the top of his game.
Beginning with her own sexual assault, Zara investigates sexism and ‘rape culture’ in Britain. The assault left her with many unanswered questions. Why did it happen? Why did he think he could do it? And where did he learn that? Speaking to her friends, it quickly became clear that they all had their own stories - and many believe the problem starts at school. In spring 2021, the website Everyone’s Invited was flooded with thousands of anonymous testimonies from schoolgirls sharing stories of sexual assault and harassment. An emergency Ofsted report confirmed that rape culture has been raging unchecked in our schools, and that urgent action is needed to tackle it. In this timely documentary, Zara speaks to young women and girls about their experience of rape culture. Exploring both state and private schools, Zara speaks to pupils to understand first-hand how these toxic behaviours happen. Zara also meets young women who have been assaulted or raped by pupils at their school, finding out what action was taken by their schools while their cases were underway. One ex-pupil (Mary)’s perpetrator was allowed to remain in school alongside Mary during the trial and after his sentence was served. Another pupil tells Zara that she is too ashamed to tell her school and parents about her assault, fearing that no-one will believe her. And finally, Zara meets the friends and family of 12-year-old Semina Halliwell, who alleged she was raped by a boy from her school. She took her own life in June 2021. Her mum, Rachel, speaks about the devastation at the loss of her daughter and the rape culture on social media that she blames for Semina's tragic death.
Brit Award winner Sam Fender goes in search of a musical hero from another era - the late, great, Alan Hull of Lindisfarne. Sam is amazed how few people, outside of his native north east, know much about his hero’s work. He’s now on a mission to win back Hull’s place in music history. In this film, he traces the career of the man whose words and music put Newcastle and supergroup Lindisfarne on the musical map in the 1970s. Alan continued to write classic songs until his early death in 1995. He spoke of love and life, championed the underdog and the misunderstood, and celebrated working-class people and his hometown - both of which he loved with a passion. Alan lived and wrote through turbulent times - writing eloquently about the troubles in Northern Ireland, the Falklands War and the miners’ strike. Sam digs out great archive interviews, performances and unseen footage, and meets friends, family and bandmates who knew Alan Hull best. Sam also hears from top stars like Sting, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, Dave Stewart and Peter Gabriel. All were huge fans of songs such as Lady Eleanor, Fog on the Tyne, Winter Song, Clear White Light and Run For Home. But he also finds that Alan inspired an entire new generation of musicians like Kay Greyson: a young rapper from Tyneside. To his surprise, Sam discovers ‘Hully’ also took the lead role in an acclaimed BBC TV primetime drama. He reveals a complex man - a political animal, a drinker and an agitator, beset by his own insecurities but someone who could break hearts and inspire minds with his lyrics and melodies.
The extraordinary story of Freddie Mercury’s battle with Aids and the groundbreaking tribute concert Queen staged in his memory after he died.
Paddy McGuinness and his wife Christine have three children - eight-year-old twins Leo and Penelope and five-year-old Felicity. All three have been diagnosed with autism. This film follows the couple over many months as they try to gain a greater understanding of the condition, meeting other parents, experts and people on the autism spectrum
Documentary about 1970s performance art collective COUM Transmissions and its music off-shoot Throbbing Gristle, which draws on the group's rich archive of photographs and video.
This documentary tells the full story for the first time with never-before-seen archive, revealing how on a small Scottish farm, a handful of the world’s best genetic scientists worked in secret to crack the holy grail of life: cloning. The story, when it broke, caused a moral panic to sweep the world. But how did it happen? Who was behind it? What was the science? And, ultimately, what is Dolly’s legacy today?
A huge nationwide propaganda effort has been underway in China as the ruling Communist Party marks its centenary on 1 July. In this special programme, John Sudworth and BBC correspondents across the region explore the changes seen in China over the past 100 years.
For over 12 months, the BBC joined a vicar and a pastor on the frontline in Burnley, struggling in a pandemic-fuelled crisis as lockdowns were imposed and Covid rates soared.
David Baddiel explores the impact social media is having on our behaviour, both online and off. A self-confessed Twitter addict, David is in no doubt that there are positive sides to these platforms – revolutionising communication, highlighting important issues and propelling social change. But he also believes there’s a darker side to the way we interact online – one where outrage and angry exchanges frequently dominate, with a negativity developing that spills offline and into real life. Ultimately, David asks whether something originally designed to help us talk to each other is just leading to everyone shouting at each other.
Mary Berry teaches three novice cooks delicious festive recipes. With a helping hand from Patrick Grant and Alex Jones, she heads to Leeds Castle for a magical surprise feast.
A feature-length documentary in which legendary conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim speaks more candidly than he has ever done before about his life and music. Told entirely through interviews with the maestro, the film starts with his earliest musical experiences as a child piano prodigy in Buenos Aires, before following his meteoric rise to fame, including his encounters with other musical giants such as Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Rubinstein, who gave the 14-year-old Daniel his first vodka and cigar! We also learn of Barenboim’s move to Israel when he was a teenager, where he lived a double life as a musical genius and an ordinary schoolboy. He then talks with unusual intimacy about his relationship with cellist Jacqueline du Pré and her long battle with multiple sclerosis. The film also charts Barenboim’s stellar career as an orchestral conductor, his move into opera and the founding of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Edward Said.
Andi Oliver joins three Glaswegian families to share the food and the fun of their three very different festive feasts. Rolling up her sleeves to help with their planning and prep, she also hopes to learn what the dishes at the heart of these joyous meals mean to the people who love them and what they say about the city these families all call home. Andi’s three feasts of Christmas begin when she meets Sara Capaldi and her husband Antonio De Carla, a couple who are part of a big clan of Italian Glaswegians whose Christmas celebrations are built round the classic Italian recipes the family has always known and loved. The centrepiece of the meal is porchetta, traditionally prepared days ahead by curing it with salt, garlic, sage and rosemary. The second family to invite Andi to share their seasonal celebratory meal are the Chaudhrys. Hashim and his wife Atika live with his mum Farkhanda and his dad Masud. They’re Muslims of Pakistani heritage but true Glaswegians, or in Hash’s words 'G
Scotland is home to 400,000 English people - but how do Scots get on with them? What do we share in our everyday lives, and what is at the root of modern-day enmity? Young Scottish writer and performer Chris McQueer examines the relationship between the two nations, talking to Scots in England and English people living in Scotland. Contributors include social historian Billy Kay, ex-Conservative MP Rory Stewart, crime writer Val McDermid and Leonie Bell, the woman who has taken over the V&A design museum in Dundee.
The illustrator and author paints scenes from a 70-year-long career, including his work with Roald Dahl. With David Walliams, Joanna Lumley, Peter Capaldi, Ore Oduba and Michael Rosen.
The never-before-seen movie featuring Aretha Franklin recording the most successful gospel album of all time, Amazing Grace. Crafted from footage originally captured in 1972.
Sir David Attenborough joins an archaeological dig uncovering Britain’s biggest mammoth discovery in almost 20 years. In 2017, in a gravel quarry near Swindon, two amateur fossil hunters found an extraordinary cache of Ice Age mammoth remains and a stone hand-axe made by a Neanderthal. Professor Ben Garrod joins the team at DigVentures during the excavation as they try to discover why the mammoths were here and how they died. Could the Neanderthals have killed these Ice Age giants?
Presented by marine biologist Christina Sinclair, this documentary celebrates the hard work, dedication and commitment of conservationists across Europe who are striving to understand and save European species from extinction.
The story of how 2 Tone, a record label from Coventry went on to have a global impact. The brainchild of Jerry Dammers saw dance music with a message dominate the charts from 1979.
Adventurer and travel writer Leon McCarron retraces part of the 1856 voyage to the Arctic made by one of his heroes, Lord Dufferin. In June 1856, the 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, left his home in Bangor to travel across Scotland and on to the Arctic in a small sailing schooner. After travelling 6,000 miles in four months, Lord Dufferin published a best-selling account of his journey and in the process set the course for the rest of his life. He became the most outstanding diplomat of the Victorian era, a charming fixer solving international and domestic disputes everywhere from Canada to Burma. Leon McCarron recreates this seminal voyage by following the accounts written in Lord Dufferin's book, introducing us to some of the stories of this extraordinary man. Leon considers Dufferin's family background, his Ulster-Scots heritage, his drive for adventure and achievement, and explores the parallels with his own background and adventurous life a
Haftar's Russian Mercenaries. Contains disturbing scenes. BBC News Arabic and BBC News Russian uncover evidence of war crimes carried out in Libya by mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian private military contractor
Ron Howard directs this definitive documentary about arguably the greatest tenor star who ever lived, Luciano Pavarotti. It looks at his humble upbringing, his will to succeed, his extraordinary voice and charisma, the tours and the impresarios who made him famous and his great love of the pleasures of life. With extraordinary archive footage and contributions from family, lovers, collaborators and dear friends.
A look back at Scotland’s national football team last major finals appearance – World Cup 98 - and the career of the man who led them there. In the company of Craig Brown and featuring a candid SFA video diary shot behind the scenes with the team throughout that tournament, we’re joined by Scotland squad members including Colin Hendry, John Collins, Jim Leighton and Craig Burley to be transported back into the midst of Scotland’s French adventure and that famous opening match with Ronaldo’s Brazil. Pundits, Tartan Army foot soldiers and Del Amitri’s Justin Currie relive the highs, lows and blows of that memorable summer too, but - 23 years on – how does Craig Brown reflect on the biggest moment of his career?
An inspiring documentary on the war in Afghanistan is told through the emotional testimonies of three Welsh soldiers and a bereaved mother.
The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Gameshow Killer (2021) The real-life story behind the ITV drama The Pembrokeshire Murders. For the first time, all the key people who brought serial killer John Cooper to justice reveal their role.
Sir Michael Parkinson looks back over his 50 years as a broadcaster, revealing some tricks of the interview trade and remembering some of his favourite encounters.
Diana and Prince Charles get married.
Clare Balding and Gabby Logan dive into the BBC Sport archive, looking back at some of the most memorable Olympic moments from Team GB's sports stars. First broadcast in 2020. Spanning many decades, this bumper show counts down the top 25 moments from Britain’s Summer Olympics history and in doing so reminds us of the many glorious gold medals Britain has won over the years. The show is full of inspiration and emotion, with highlights including legendary moments from London 2012, Tokyo 1964, Los Angeles 1984, Barcelona 1992, Sydney 2000 and Rio 2016.
A feature-length documentary on the life of one of the last surviving actresses from the golden age of Hollywood – Joan Collins. This epic film is told from the ringside as Joan narrates her rollercoaster life story with her inimitable wit and verve. A worldwide television phenomenon with her decade-defining role in Dynasty, Collins shares her extraordinary archive and never before seen home movie footage, giving an intimate glimpse into one of the world’s most iconic figures.
Sir David Attenborough chooses his favourite recordings from the natural world that have revolutionised our understanding of song. Each one - from the song of the largest lemur to the song of the humpback whale to the song of the lyrebird - was recorded in his lifetime. When Sir David was born, the science of song had already been transformed by Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection: singing is dangerous as it reveals the singer’s location to predators, but it also offers the male a huge reward, the chance to attract a female and pass on genes to the next generation. Hence males sing and females don't. Today, new science in the field of birdsong is transforming those long-held ideas. Scientists are discovering that, in fact, in the majority of all songbird species, females sing - and it is only now they are being properly heard. Through this revelation and others, we can understand that animal songs are marvelous examples of the spectacular survival strategies that species ha
Heartfelt memories are shared of former Rangers and Scotland manager Walter Smith, both on and off the pitch. Featuring rare archive and contributions from the people who knew him best and who worked with him throughout his long and varied career, this documentary the numerous successes at Rangers, his experiences as a manager in the English Premiership with Everton, his leadership of the Scotland national men's team - and his sensational return to Rangers in 2007
On 23 March 2021, the Ever Given – one of the largest container ships ever built – ploughed into the sandy bank of the Suez Canal, blocking the entire waterway. It stopped all traffic in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world for almost a week, causing a ‘ship jam’ of over 300 vessels and delaying deliveries of billions of pounds of vital food, fuel and medical supplies. The disruption to the global supply chain lasted for months. How did such an advanced ship crash in one of the most closely monitored shipping lanes in the world? How did a team of engineers free the ship in just six days? And who or what is to blame? Using never-before seen footage, testimony from witnesses speaking for the very first time, and expert analysis, this documentary aims to uncover the inside story of the Ever Given accident. And with over 2,500 shipping incidents a year, the film also asks if this was just a freak accident or whether it reveals a serious weakness in the world’s critical s
Peter Moore, the murderer known as the 'man in black', has now served 25 years in prison. Back in 1995, he terrorised communities along the north Wales coastline, killing four men and allegedly attacking many more. By day he was a well-respected shopkeeper and cinema owner in Kinmel Bay, and by night he was a sadistic killer who seemed to target gay men. In this special edition of Dark Land, former chief constable Jackie Roberts returns to re-examine the hunt for the man who would go down in history as Wales’s worst serial killer. Moore is revealed as a man with a violent secret life, hiding in plain sight. Beneath the façade of a respectable businessman was a mind warped by a dysfunctional upbringing; a man who seized upon a climate of gay prejudice to embark upon a 20-year spree of savage attacks, confident his victims wouldn’t feel able to come forward to complain. The ultimate question is, could Moore have been stopped before he went on to kill and kill again?
In every corner of the UK, women are being kept as Slaves and sold for sex. Jean MacKenzie heads on a journey into Romania's underworld to uncover the shocking secrets of this ruthless trade.
The government and the Bank of England took drastic action to save the UK economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Insiders from the world of finance tell us how decisions made to solve the crisis allowed them to ‘make out like bandits.’ From bailing out the banks to pursuing a faster, deeper austerity than any other country, Britain’s policymakers shatter the status quo in a desperate bid to save the economy. With first-hand accounts from key players, this two-part series takes us inside the room when the big decisions were made.
Insiders from Theresa May's government reveal how attempts at economic reform were stymied by Brexit struggles. Covid-19 threatens the promise of levelling up made by the new PM.
New film Belfast is Sir Kenneth Branagh’s account of his childhood in the early years of the Troubles. Tipped for Oscar glory and now released here, we speak to the man behind it.
At 18, George Ward left the Gypsy community. He had felt rejected having come out as gay. Leaving his Gypsy identity behind, he invented Cherry Valentine, a drag alter-ego. Now he wants to find out if he can be accepted as a queer Gypsy and feel proud.
Jay Blades, presenter of The Repair Shop, struggles to read. Now he has decided it is finally time to learn.
Fifty years ago this month, Paratroopers shot dead 13 innocent civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland. It was the British Army's darkest day - forever known as Bloody Sunday. No soldier has been prosecuted. The tragedy helped fuel the IRA's bloody campaign over the violent decades ahead and set back the chances of peace for more than 20 years. Peter Taylor analyses what happened and why - and assesses Bloody Sunday's legacy today.
Film following a project spearheaded by the Prince of Wales, who has commissioned seven leading artists to paint seven survivors of the Holocaust. Throughout the programme, we hear the testimonies of the remarkable men and women who were children when they witnessed one of the greatest atrocities in human history, as well as meeting the artists as they grapple with their paintings. We see some of the sittings and witness the touching friendships that have emerged between artist and sitter over the course of nearly two years. The finished portraits, destined for the Royal Collection, will be unveiled at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. They represent pain and loss as well as dignity and hope, and serve as a lasting reminder of horrors which will one day be lost to living memory.
To mark HM the Queen’s platinum jubilee, 70 years since she ascended the throne, some of our best-loved stars look back through the decades of her reign, reflecting on the changes the UK has undergone since she became monarch. Recalling this extraordinary period in British history, this is a snapshot of how the UK has changed over the decades – from those who were there. From the transformation of Empire to Commonwealth, the rise in our standard of living, the digital revolution, sporting achievements and living through the pandemic, Queen Elizabeth has been the one constant in all our lives. Narrated by Julie Walters, this warm and evocative programme is a reminder of how much the UK has evolved and developed during the Queen’s reign, and how we have all helped shape Britain. Featuring contributions from David Attenborough, Paul McCartney, Lulu, Trevor McDonald, Joan Bakewell, Brian Blessed, Cameron Mackintosh, Alan Bennett, Len Goodman, Floella Benjamin, Twiggy, Cliff Richard, Boy
BBC medical editor Fergus Walsh examines the extraordinary ambition behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid jab. Intended as a vaccine for the world, did politics get in its way?
The story of how Instagram became the dominant force it is today, told by former staff and insiders and through powerful testimony from users who have been negatively impacted.
Catrin Nye investigates the glamorous design company that tricked its own staff into believing it was real through an online universe of fake profiles, stolen work and lies.
Deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Mission: Joy gives unprecedented access to the friendship between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the late Archbishop Tutu. The self-described ‘mischievous brothers’ were filmed over five days by an award-winning team who captured a relationship built on truth, honesty and, most importantly, joy. The film goes behind the scenes at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, where Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama recount stories from their lives, both having lived through periods of incredible difficulty. With genuine affection, mutual respect and a healthy dose of teasing, the two friends impart lessons gleaned from experience, ancient traditions and cutting-edge science to show that it is possible to live with joy in the face of all of life’s challenges, from the extraordinary to the mundane. Mission: Joy is an antidote for our times.
Stephen Fry embarks on a fascinating journey to discover the stories behind some of the world’s most fantastic beasts. Mythical creatures have fascinated us for thousands of years, but why are we still captivated by these mythological beasts, even in this modern age of science and technology? With the help of scientists, historians, writers and film-makers, Stephen finds out why the world of magical animals is more popular today than ever before. By digging for dragons, meeting distant relatives of the unicorn or swimming with an unlikely inspiration for mermaids, Stephen uncovers the secrets behind some of our best-loved mythical creatures, and reveals the real-life beasts that have inspired some of the greatest legends in history, from rhinos to narwhals, vervet monkeys to manatees. These are the stories of the world’s most fantastic beasts.
An intimate portrait of snooker legend Ray Reardon as he reflects on the highs and lows of a remarkable career, and relives some of his biggest sporting moments.
In June 2020, when sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman did not return from Bibaa’s birthday celebrations in a north London Park, family and friends knew something was wrong and reported them missing to police. Bibaa, 46, a passionate social worker, and Nicole, 26, a talented freelance photographer, were murdered as they danced to music, enjoying each other’s company. Bibaa had chosen to celebrate her birthday in the park because of restrictions imposed during lockdown. The next day, Nicole’s boyfriend found the sisters’ bodies after family and friends organised their own search party.
Harvey Price is about to embark on a rite of passage that thousands of young people do every year: he is going to college. Harvey, who is disabled, is about to move three hours away from home and will have to adjust to life apart from his family. His mum Katie must face what it means to ‘let go’ of her oldest child. How will the Price family cope with the seismic change this next chapter will bring?
John Denver, the internationally popular singer, recorded at the Talk of the Town in London in 1976.
Documentary that recounts how three young brothers turned an Indigenous Australian dance group into a First Nations cultural powerhouse.
30 January 2022 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday. As the people of Derry city came together to commemorate the event, a bold new piece of musical theatre was staged in the Guildhall - the intended but never-reached destination for the fateful 1972 civil rights march. Commissioned by the city’s Playhouse Theatre, The White Handkerchief seeks to create a dramatic elegy to the 13 killed alongside those others injured, and to catalyse a creative legacy from those devastating events. The result is a bold experiment which renders the events of Bloody Sunday on a vivid new audio-visual canvas and seeks to inspire a new generation of local talent in musical theatre, offering a bright and unexpected legacy of that day 50 years ago. Filmed over nine months, this intimate portrait takes viewers into the heart of the production and a city striving to come to terms with the defining event of its recent history.
Some of the finest Irish singers and musicians, recorded in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall at Celtic Connections 2012. Eleanor McEvoy, Finbar Furey, Cara Dillon, Luka Bloom, Brian Kennedy and many others sing the songs that Ireland is famous for. Love songs, songs of emigration, songs of loss, contemporary and traditional are all beautifully accompanied by the house band, top Irish American group Solas. Ricky Ross presents an hour of great Irish music. First shown as BBC Music on March 18, 2012 on BBC One
Poet John Wedgwood Clarke explores the Red River in Cornwall, a watercourse barely more than a stream that has been heavily polluted by centuries of tin mining. Now, this powerful symbol of Cornish identity, home to some very rare, beautiful and resilient species, is slowly showing signs of coming back to life. Extracts from John's poem, Red River at the A30 Culvert, reveal his mixed thoughts about the river's toxic legacy, but as he meets both those with a connection with the river's industrial past and who care for it today, he finds new hope for its future.
Technology is transforming recruitment. But when it comes to deciding careers, are algorithms really fit for the job? This film unpacks concerns around bias and inaccuracy in algorithm-based hiring.
When Fri killed her boyfriend Kyle in 2014, she was convicted of his murder. Now she is appealing her conviction, but Kyle’s family want her to stay behind bars.
During the Second World War, government scientists from Porton Down attempted to weaponise anthrax, creating a deadly strain that they then tested on Gruinard Island, an uninhabited remote site off the coast of Scotland. This proved disastrous for Gruinard and, from 1942 onwards, people were forbidden from setting foot on the island. Signs were erected on the shore and the adjacent mainland, and Gruinard was dubbed The Island of Death or Anthrax Island. This documentary reveals an extraordinary Scottish story from 1981, when a shadowy group called the Dark Harvest Commandos claimed to have landed on the island and removed 300lbs worth of infected soil. They wrote a dramatic letter explaining and justifying their actions, which was sent to various newspapers and the BBC. In the letter, they explained their campaign to clean up Gruinard had begun with a package of island soil dumped outside Porton Down. Nobody knew who they were or if they were serious.
The Bayeux Tapestry is a remarkable and unique work of art that has survived for almost 1,000 years. Made in the 11th century, it tells the story of William of Normandy’s claim to the English throne, culminating in the Norman invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings. Surprisingly for an object of its size, the Bayeux Tapestry is not mentioned in any contemporary records. So where does it come from? Who made it and why? Archaeologists, historians, biologists, anthropologists and even astrophysicists are unlocking some of the tapestry’s mysteries to understand better the story it tells us about England and France at that time. At nearly 70 metres in length, the Bayeux Tapestry includes 623 characters, hundreds of animals and a wide diversity of scenes depicting everyday life and epic events. It is a treasure trove of information, offering an extraordinary insight into a pivotal moment in history.
What would you do if you were told you had a dramatically life-shortening illness at the age of just 32? Start making comic books about it, of course! Well, that's what Gordon did. Gordon is a Scottish comic book artist with an inoperable, incurable, high-grade malignant brain tumour. By making autobiographical comics about his experience, he is able to communicate his thoughts and reactions to cancer in a medium and language that is disarming, accessible and inviting.
From Westminster Abbey, Huw Edwards presents live coverage of the service of thanksgiving in memory of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the longest serving royal consort in history, who died last April at the age of 99. Featuring readings and music close to the duke’s heart, the service commemorates the life and legacy of HM The Queen’s remarkable consort. Members of the royal family and members of the duke’s family will attend, as well as representatives from the many organisations the duke supported who were unable to attend the funeral, which was scaled down due to Covid-19 restrictions. Prince Philip supported an exceptional number of causes during his lifetime, becoming patron of many hundreds of charities and organisations championing conservation, sport, industry and education. In 1956 he founded the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme to encourage the development of young people, which has since expanded to 144 nations and been completed by millions of young people aroun
The five-time Paralympic gold medal-winner investigates a controversial drug that promises to make children with Achondroplasia, her form of dwarfism, grow closer to normal height. But there is a concern - could this bring an end to dwarfism, and if so, should people be using it? Ellie explores all sides of the debate, meeting families embarking on the drug trial and others who are proud of their identity and question the aims of the drug. She also draws on her own experiences and asks wider questions about the relationship between science and disability
David Attenborough reveals the last day of the dinosaurs in astonishing detail, with new evidence from a prehistoric graveyard dating to the day an asteroid devastated our planet.
Walled City Passion reimagines the ancient story of The Easter Passion for a modern-day audience, and makes it a contemporary event in Derry that’s told through the prism of a live rolling news show. The show's news team - WCP News - is in Derry City to ostensibly cover a Peace Festival. The live news coverage of the Peace Festival is suddenly interrupted by a ‘security alert’ (the events of The Passion), which are happening in another part of the city, and we cut away live to cover these unfolding events. As the events of The Passion on the Walls move closer and closer to Guildhall Square and the Peace Festival, there is a sense of dread and inevitability. We reach an unforgettable finale right in the heart of the city centre, surrounded by thousands of people. The arrest and suffering of one man is trialled by the media. Will his innocence be compromised by the widespread perception of guilt? Walled City Passion truly blurs the lines between performance and reality and captures the i
A major entertainment documentary that tells, for the first time, the extraordinary story of how Irish dance developed over centuries, from a traditional dance of the Irish people, to become the global phenomenon it is today, attracting millions of viewers and dancers throughout the world. The documentary features stunning original performances by some of the greatest practitioners of Irish dance of the present day and a wealth of archive materials including films, photographs and witness accounts revealing the history of Irish dance and its evolution. There is a strong American current running throughout the story as we show how the Irish diaspora played a pivotal part in shaping the form, particularly during the last century. Gene Kelly was among those in the Irish diaspora whose style, though strongly American, also drew heavily on his Irish roots. In the worst and best of times, the Irish danced. And as it grew and changed, the Irish dance form was shaped by political and social
Actress Aoife Hinds (Derry Girls, Normal People) explores the little-known Irish part of the Brontë story. Aoife’s first memory of the Brontës is as a child when she watched her father, the actor Ciaran Hinds, play Mr Rochester, one of the most iconic figures in literature. In a journey which takes Aoife from County Down to St John’s College, Cambridge, she discovers how the father of the Brontës, Patrick, rose from humble beginnings in Rathfriland to become curate of Haworth parsonage. Then, unusually for the time, he encouraged and supported his daughters’ desire to be educated and to write. Aoife discovers the impact a second Irish man had on the Brontë story. Arthur Bell Nicholls, from Killead, Co. Antrim, courted Charlotte for many years before she finally agreed to marry him. The newlyweds honeymooned in Ireland, and Aoife visits the archives of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where she reads one of the letters Charlotte wrote while in Ireland. Aoife’s journey concludes in
The story of Alvin Ailey, a visionary African American choreographer who found salvation through dance, told through his own words and the creation of a new commission inspired by his life.
The uplifting story of Swansea-based Anthony and Kel Matsena, whose work is gaining them a growing reputation, putting them at the forefront of the next generation UK dance. Born in Zimbabwe, the brothers moved to Wales as children when their parents made the life-changing decision to leave their homeland in search of a better life. This film tells the brothers' remarkable story as they begin rehearsals for a major new theatre work inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, which premieres at Sadler’s Wells this spring. From family tragedy to euphoric appearances on Britain’s Got Talent, the fun-loving duo retrace their steps, visiting the people and places of Wales that helped shape them into the artists they are today.
For 40 years, Tim Westwood dominated the UK Black music scene. The white DJ was an early adopter of hip hop in the 1980s and presented BBC Radio 1’s Rap Show for almost 20 years, before moving to Capital Xtra in 2013. The self-styled ‘Big Dawg’ had everyone from Jay-Z to Nicki Minaj on his shows, and his stint presenting MTV’s Pimp My Ride made him a household name. In a joint investigation by the BBC and The Guardian, allegations of sexual misconduct have been brought to light. In this explosive documentary, six women speak out about their experiences for the first time, claiming he misused his powerful position in the music industry to take advantage of them. The earliest alleged incident took place in 1992, the most recent in 2017.
Tan France, stylist and presenter on Netflix’s hit show Queer Eye, is on a mission to take down the world’s most shocking beauty trend - and for him, it’s personal.
Three years after the devastating fire, Lucy Worsley has exclusive access to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris at a key turning point of the restoration. Work to rebuild and restore the monument is being ramped up in a bid to meet the ambitious deadline to reopen it to the public in 2024. Visiting Notre-Dame aged 16 inspired Lucy to work with historical buildings; this is a once-in-a-career opportunity to witness the rebirth of an icon close to her heart. Scaffolding now fills the interior of the cathedral, giving Lucy and the team unprecedented close-up access to every inch of the structure. Lucy meets scientists, historians and craftspeople working to return the 850-year-old Gothic masterpiece to its former glory. The fire coated Notre-Dame with tons of toxic lead dust, so specialists are now decontaminating the site. Unique access to the stunning rose windows allows Lucy and the stained-glass historians to uncover the mysteries of these enigmatic 13th-century works of art. An u
With the death of the last captive male, Sudan, the northern white rhinoceros was officially declared extinct in 2018. But in recent years, possible sightings from a remote region in the heart of Africa have given conservationists hope. Could this charismatic animal get a miraculous second chance? This film follows a dedicated international team of experts on an expedition to war-torn South Sudan in search of the northern white rhinoceros. An animal native to this unexplored and dangerous region in Africa, the team is taking a huge risk to realize the dream that a lost population of these incredible beasts still exist. The team comprise of Paul Naden, expedition leader and CEO of rhino rescue charity Saving the Survivors (STS), Vianet Djenguet, a highly skilled Congolese wildlife camera operator, Dr Johan Marais, the world-leading rhinoceros veterinarian and founder of Saving the Survivors, and Aldo Kane, a high security expert and former royal marine.
Paul Merson walks through North Yorkshire, reflecting on life, career and faith. Carrying a 360-degree camera, he also describes his struggles with drink and gambling.
Ardal O’Hanlon explores a 1930s quest to find the first Irish men and women using archaeology, answering his deepest questions about what it means to be Irish.
BBC One follows a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as five exceptional home bakers are plucked from thousands in a national competition to find a brand new pudding to mark the Queen’s historic platinum jubilee. The programme follows Fortum & Mason’s competition as it celebrates the monarch’s 70 years on the throne by finding an original and celebratory cake, tart or pudding fit for the Queen. Following in the footsteps of the coronation chicken and the victoria sponge, this winning recipe will go down in history and become part of the British food story. We follow the finalists, Kathryn, Jemma, Sam, Shabnam and Susan as their creations are judged by a panel chaired by Mary Berry.
Joe Wicks discovers how his parents’ mental health issues affected him as a child, and the shocking scale of the problem of parental mental health today.
The Isle of Muck, in the Inner Hebrides, is home to the MacEwan family. Lawrence, the charismatic patriarch of the MacEwan family and laird of the tiny island, is struggling to accept he controls neither his life nor the isle he so loves. It has been his mission to preserve the fragile society on the island and pass it onto future generations. However, he is also battling to accept the inevitability of change. The Prince of Muck is a warm, observational portrayal of Lawrence and the beautiful Scottish landscape he belongs to.
Following British women of all ages who have taken inspiration from Anne Lister, the 19th-century lesbian at the centre of drama series `Gentleman Jack', with dramatic results. That includes coming out to themselves, their children, their parents and grandparents.
The story of Queen Elizabeth II in her own words, featuring never-before-seen home movies.
With unprecedented access to the latest technology, Clive Myrie reveals the magnificent, astonishing, complicated history buried within the Crown Jewels.
Queen Elizabeth II's coronation was one of the biggest ceremonial occasions ever. The events of 2 June 1953 were the most ambitious and technically difficult broadcast the BBC had ever tackled.
Forty years ago, British troops returned home victorious from a short and brutal war. This film is the story of ten ordinary men who fought on the front line alongside one another in the Falklands War. Very little of the frontline fighting on the islands was captured on film. So if you want to know what the Falklands War was really like, you need to ask the men who fought it. Tasked with liberating the Falkland Islands from Argentina, British troops set sail from England in April 1982, returning ten weeks later. In that time, their lives were changed forever. In their own words, with unflinching honesty and detail – some speaking for the first time – their stories revisit some of the most dramatic, impactful, bloody and life-changing moments of the war. For these men, it remains as vivid as they day they fought it.
Professor Brian Cox fulfils a childhood dream by going behind the scenes at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), mission control for Mars 2020 – one of the most ambitious missions ever launched that may finally reveal if life ever existed on the red planet. In 1980, a young Brian Cox wrote to JPL asking for photos from some of their missions to the planets. The pictures they sent him from Voyager and the Viking mission to Mars were a source of inspiration that set him on the path to becoming a physicist.
A social and musical history of (probably) the world’s greatest music festival, as told by its principal curators, Michael and Emily Eavis, and many of the key artists who’ve appeared there.
Sandi Toksvig goes behind the iconic green door of one of the most famous lesbian venues in the world, The Gateways Club in London. Starting off as a meeting place for bohemians, it became lesbian-only under the watchful management of the enigmatic Gina Ware and her sidekick Smithy until its closure in 1985. The Gates’ former clientele recount the many stories of love, heartbreak, friendship, scandal and sanctuary that played out in the club, including the venue's appearance in a Hollywood film. They open up the secret history of this haven for women, who could lose homes, jobs and children if their truth became known.
For more than 70 years, the UN has been at the forefront of work to uphold human rights and promote global peace. But what happens when the fixer of the world’s problems is itself faced with allegations of wrongdoing and corruption? What happens when UN staff try to call out their own managers and colleagues? Told by insiders with decades of experience working at the world’s top diplomatic institution, The Whistleblowers: Inside the UN gives first-hand accounts of what happens to staff when they report allegations of wrongdoing. Their stories reveal a culture of untouchability that reaches the highest levels of the organisation.
Trucking is big business. Cashing in on the boom is Shannan’s trucker driving school. But can she pass her own HGV test?
War photographer David Pratt takes a trip back to Iraq, the beautiful, traumatised land whose conflicts he has covered for over three decades.
In 2021, Champlain Towers South – an apartment building near Miami – collapsed, killing 98 people. This film forensically examines what happened and asks: what went wrong? And could more buildings across the world be at risk of a similarly catastrophic fate? On 24 June 2021, Champlain Towers South – a 13-storey residential building in Surfside, Florida – collapsed in just 12 seconds. Fifty-five apartments were reduced to rubble, and 98 people lost their lives. What might have caused one of the worst building failures in modern history? There is still no official explanation. This programme examines what went wrong and investigates the implications for other buildings around the world, including those in the UK. Emotional eyewitness testimony, tense bodycam footage from first responders, news archive footage and 3D CGI animations are used to piece together the definitive, moment-by-moment account of this disaster.
Contemporary African designers are increasingly being recognised in the world's fashion capitals, and they have come to threaten the dominance of respected international brands, with mainstream fashion markets embracing the continent's style and authenticity. As London's V&A Museum launches a landmark exhibition, Brenda Emmanus explores the global impact of African fashion and travels to Ghana to look at how designers are putting culture and traditions front and centre of their designs.
Meet Cam and Oli, best mates and partners in grime. The two 26-year-olds from Bromsgrove, West Midlands, started their waste management business during lockdown as a way to keep busy. They soon discovered there’s a tonne of money to be made from clearing other people’s rubbish. Now at the start of their second year of business, the boys are facing their biggest challenge to date. At the last minute, their biggest job to date falls through, leaving a £50k hole. Can Cam and Oli find enough work to make up for four weeks' lost income and keep the business on track?
Sir Mo Farah reveals the shocking truth about his childhood, the journey he made from Somaliland to the UK as a young boy, and the subsequent years that led to him winning two gold medals at the London 2012 Olympics.
Online gambling has exploded in recent years, and with it, concerns about addiction, particularly among young men. Telling the stories of two young men harmed by their gambling addiction, Gambling: A Game of Life and Death traces how they became hooked, the attempts they made to overcome their addiction and the reasons recovery seemed so impossible. Told with powerful testimony from friends and family, the devastating personal consequences of gambling addiction in young men are laid bare.
After a freak accident, experienced caver George Linnane was left with multiple life-threatening injuries within Britain’s deepest cave system. This drama documentary set in the Brecon Beacons tells the story of his remarkable 54-hour-long rescue. With George’s life hanging in the balance, a team of over 300 individuals came to the rescue, from Wales and across the UK, to try and save his life and bring him safely to the surface.
Hannah Fry meets seven unvaccinated people to investigate why around four million adults remain unvaccinated against Covid-19, and to find out if any of them will change their mind.
Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds? (21 July 2022) This one-hour documentary is accompanied by BBC Sounds podcast Tamara’s Stolen Diamonds, which includes exclusive characters, interviews and information about the investigation. Tamara Ecclestone and Jay Rutland live a blessed life of luxury. But during their 2019 Christmas getaway, they receive a call that shatters their sense of safety: their London home has been hit by burglars. Evading a 24-hour security team on one of London’s most secure streets, three men have managed to penetrate Tamara’s jewellery room and Jay’s walk-in wardrobe. They’ve gathered more than 400 items of jewellery and watches valued at more than £26m. And they’ve disappeared into the night.
Art-loving comedian Joe Lycett joins artists hoping to make it onto the walls of the RA Summer Exhibition 2022, the world’s largest open-submission art contest.
Colin Baker looks back on one of his earliest TV roles and discusses the significance of acclaimed 13-part drama series 'The Roads to Freedom', which is being shown on television for the first time since 1977 as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations. Based on the novels by Jean-Paul Sartre and set in Nazi-occupied France, it has been described as an amazing, potent and subversive viewing experience, that saw taboos broken with every weekly broadcast. That assessment can now be tested by first-time viewers, as well those who saw it at the time and who have long campaigned for the BBC to screen it again.
In this era of social media, we are given more access to the private lives of celebrities and influencers than ever before. But how well do we really know our favourite online friends? This film explores the murky and, at its worst, toxic, relationship between one influencer and her followers. The infamous viral scandals of pioneering internet sensation Caroline Calloway have captivated audiences across the globe, with some of her followers left feeling duped and scammed. But why did Caroline's actions garner so much attention? And what do influencers owe their followers who built the very foundations of their success?
The issues thrown up by climate change have never been more urgent. It's politics, it's food, it's business - it's people's lives. 'The Art of Cutting Carbon' is a unique project which uses art installations commissioned by the BBC to highlight the carbon dioxide emitted by the big industries around us.
A BBC News investigation exposes the abuse and neglect of disabled people locked away in institutions across Ukraine. More than 100,000 children and young people live in these facilities, hidden away from society. Human rights investigators say Ukraine should not be allowed to join the EU until it abolishes a care system which institutionalises its most vulnerable people
A chance to relive England’s historic victory in the Women’s European Championships, with behind-the-scenes content, interviews and the best of the action from the tournament.
From the hot desert to the cold mountains and dry arid plains, only a fraction of the 200 million homes in India's villages have tap water. Women trek for hours to fetch and store water for the whole family. Now, a government scheme is promising to change that. But climate change and an ever-increasing population means India is running out of water. BBC's Divya Arya has travelled across the country, asking when will women's walk for water be over?
Along the coastlines and river beds of rural Bangladesh, thousands of hectares where rice was once grown have been converted into intensive shrimp farms, catering to a multibillion dollar global industry. Faarea Masud investigates how the demand for shrimp is destroying land that women have farmed for centuries and hears how they are taking matters into their own hands in their fight with a global economic force – the world's insatiable appetite for shrimp.
The story of how a small Scottish arts festival that began in 1947 became a national institution that has seen new stars forged, careers made and dreams dashed. Told by the stars who first found fame at the Edinburgh Fringe, this is the inside story of what it takes to make a name here - from those who enjoyed overnight success to those who slogged for years to make it. Through their triumphs, favourite jokes and sometimes painful failures, we discover a hidden history of British comedy, revealing how the gags we find funny and the comedians we love reflect our changing culture.
Tom Daley visits the most homophobic countries in the Commonwealth to explore how gay athletes are facing extreme persecution. What can the Commonwealth Games do to help?
In 2021, a prisoner was released from Russia’s infamous Saratov prison hospital. Hidden on the prisoner was a hard drive filled with bodycam videos that he had secretly copied. These videos showed what appears to be some of the worst torture ever seen in Russian prisons.
From the fuel that powers them to the drivers who drive them, engineers are innovating every aspect of the automobile. Solar-powered vehicles, full automation, clean fuel cars and electrification.
In 2010, the Himalayan nation of Nepal was one of 13 countries to commit to doubling its wild tiger populations by 2022. In the decade since, Nepal is the only country to have achieved that goal. Over that time, other iconic species, including rhinos and elephants, have also seen an increase. What's behind the success? And what does it mean for the communities living with the tigers? The BBC's Asia editor Rebecca Henschke reports from Bardiya national park
Deportation flights from the UK to Jamaica are among the most controversial carried out by the Home Office. Since 2019, a majority of people listed to be removed have been taken off after last-minute legal reprieves and pressure from campaigners during protests. The vast majority have criminal records for offences ranging from petty to serious crimes. Many came to the UK as children, so why are they being sent back to a place they don't remember, having served time for their offences?
When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, LGBTQ+ Afghans knew their lives were in grave danger. A small group were evacuated in a top-secret mission and are rebuilding their lives in the UK. This is their story.
Writer Hanif Kureishi looks back on how his semi-autobiographical novel The Buddha of Suburbia became one of the defining BBC dramas of the 1990s. He discusses the ways in which it set new standards in representing multicultural Britain, the importance that humour plays in pushing forward serious ideas, and what it was like working with his musical hero, after David Bowie unexpectedly suggested that he write the soundtrack.
Big money, glam work trips abroad, and becoming your own boss. Sounds good for your first job out of college or uni, doesn’t it? Some direct-selling firms in the UK are jumping on the popularity of hustle culture to recruit young people into entry-level jobs in ‘marketing’ or ‘management’ to work with big-name clients.
As human-lion conflict increases, the famous Marsh Pride’s survival hangs in the balance. Documented in television documentaries for over 40 years by the BBC and other broadcasters around the world, the Marsh Pride is the most filmed pride of lions on Earth. In this film, the Marsh Pride battle for survival in Kenya's famous Maasai Mara Reserve, which has become a magnet for tourists, many of them keen to see the pride for themselves. A tale of shifting loyalties, bloody takeovers and sheer resilience, the lions’ story is told by those who filmed them, tried to protect them and lived alongside them, as well as some who ultimately wanted them dead.
Prepare to swing your hips, move those feet and feel the heat. Once a year, the best ballroom and Latin dancers from across the globe quickstep their way to Blackpool to take part in dancing's most prestigious competition, the British Open Championships. For nearly 100 years, it has been one of Britain’s best-kept secrets, but this year we are invited to join in and tell the behind-the-scenes story of the Latin and ballroom dance scene in Blackpool - waltz and all…
60 years on since University Challenge first appeared on British television, the show holds the record for the UK’s longest running quiz. To mark the occasion, this documentary tells the stories behind some of the series most memorable contestants, including Eric Monkman, Gail Trimble, Sandya Narayanswami and Jenny Ryan, as well as taking a look at the job of the question setters and paying tribute to the first question master, Bamber Gascoigne. Finally, former students are once again put to the test to see if they can still correctly answer their successful starters for 10.
Families and friends share personal stories and footage of their homes through the decades. Full of insights into domestic life in Northern Ireland over the past 80 years, stories include memories of childhood homes, bedroom walls plastered with 1980s pop pins ups, moving into student digs, first homes, changing trends in interior design, the Ideal Homes Exhibition in the King’s Hall, street parties and an exploration of what home means to the people of Northern Ireland.
Two farm boys, one tractor. Patrick Kielty explores the untold story of Harry Ferguson and Henry Ford’s remarkable handshake agreement and how it led to a $250 million lawsuit.
This documentary explores how the reign of Queen Elizabeth II has been a thread of continuity running through 70 tumultuous years of British history. It looks at how the Queen has worn the Crown during an era in which her country and her people changed beyond all recognition. From politics and the economy to industry and technology. From our working life to our family life. From what we eat to how we dress, how we spend our money and what we do in our free time. The programme shows how during these great moments of social change Elizabeth II was no bystander, but someone who often led the way, reflecting and engaging with the critical moments in our post war history.
Over her long reign Queen Elizabeth II met more people than any monarch in history. She shook over a million hands and travelled the length and breadth of her kingdom, meeting people from all walks of life. In this intimate tribute we hear the much cherished memories of just a few of the people who met the Queen. As far back as 1938 twins Alice and Jean Bushnell recall Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret visiting their village school up in Craithie, Royal Deeside. Brian Llewlyn still treasures the cup and saucer the Queen drank from when she visited the family council house on a Royal tour of Newton Aycliffe New Town in 1960.
In this special tribute Fiona Bruce looks at how, across the decades, The Queen used her wardrobe to fashion a style that came to perfectly reflect her dedication to duty.
In this film we will celebrate the life of The Queen through the passions and pastimes of our longest serving monarch. What did The Queen really enjoy? Where and when did she most relax? What absorbed and entertained her? From horses and dogs to TV, film, music and theatre, we will reveal the tastes and affections that gave Her Majesty the most pleasure. Including interviews from friends, members of Royal Household, Yachtsmen from Royal Yacht Britannia, celebrities – all who have shared in her passions & pastimes.
During her reign, The Queen became the most visually represented person in the whole of human history. From stamps and coins to formal portraits and snatched press photos, her image became an integral part of our everyday lives. In ‘Picturing Elizabeth: Her Life in Images’ Sophie Raworth explores the stories behind some of the most famous and era-defining pictures and shows how they chart our changing relationship with the monarchy.
Queen Elizabeth II was Britain’s longest reigning monarch. She lived her whole life in the public eye yet she remained an enigmatic figure throughout. The Queen never gave interviews but there was one way we could discover what was deeply important to her – through her speeches. This film looks back at the Queen’s annual Christmas Day messages, and the handful of momentous occasions when the Queen made rare special addresses and spoke directly to the nation at times of crisis, commemoration and celebration. This film tells the story of how a very private Queen was able to use the public platform of these speeches to deliver powerful messages to Britain and the Commonwealth that truly reflected her core values and beliefs.
In tribute to the longest-serving British monarch, on the throne for more than 65 years, the compelling life story of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Featuring interviews with all of her children, those who have worked with her and other public figures.
Nicholas Witchell looks back at the life of Queen Elizabeth II.
As Prince Charles, the longest serving heir apparent, ascends the throne as King, those who know him well, who have worked for and with him, discuss what he has achieved as Prince of Wales and what he will bring to the role as the new Monarch.
As Wales mourns the death of the Queen, the programme reflects on how Elizabeth II touched the lives of people in Wales during her reign and formed close relationships with Welsh communities. It hears from those who met her over the decades, during times of tragedy and celebration.
Former prime ministers discuss their dealings with Her Majesty the Queen, and the relationship at the heart of the UK's constitutional system.
Former Scotland international Pat Nevin sets out on a journey to reunite the 1982 Uefa Under-18s European Championship-winning Scotland squad.
Exploring what it means to be black in Northern Ireland through first-hand accounts of some of those who live there. They offer frank and honest opinions on topics such as identity, diversity, green and orange politics, racism, black pride and a shared future.
Featuring unseen footage and exclusive interviews, this dramatic film tells the inside story of the largest airlift in modern US history, marking the end of America’s longest war.
Clive Myrie tells the extraordinary story of the newly formed Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra. In the midst of war, more than 75 of the country's finest musicians have come together to bring a message of defiance and hope. Some of their family members are on the frontlines, and many have fled Ukraine since the war began.
Take a soothing journey through the night while everyone is sleeping. Follow this delivery route from the street lights of Glasgow city centre, through housing estates and country roads as the sun comes up, while chilling out to the sounds of a Radio 1 Relax playlist and ASMR conversation
Presenter Sian Eleri visits Parys Mountain in Anglesey, north west Wales, for a Green Space Dark Skies event – a mass participation project that celebrates the landscape and creates extraordinary artwork on it at dusk, using specially designed ‘geo-lights’. Becoming a ‘lumenator’, and joining hundreds of other volunteers, Sian talks to the people that created the project, as well as award-winning beatboxer and event performer Mr Phormula and geologist Professor Cynthia Burek, discovering the rich history behind the world’s oldest copper mine. Alongside her unique experience on Parys Mountain, Sian explores the previous events which took place at Craig-Y-Nos country park and Three Cliffs Bay, Gower, showcasing the short films that were made from those events.
It’s the night that changed her life, but Jade has no memory because she was asleep. Waking up, half naked, her necklace broken on the floor, she feels she has been violated. On the opposite side of the L-shaped sofa, the man who would later be charged with raping her. As her case heads for court, Jade prepares to face a jury, hopeful of justice - until a surprise phone call days before trial changes everything. Claims she was sleepwalking, due to a rare condition called ‘sexsomnia’, leave Jade reeling. Finding herself suddenly at the heart of an unprecedented legal case, Jade goes on a mission to prove it’s a mistake and overturn the decisions in her case. But can she win? Filmed over three years, this remarkable story follows the twists and turns of one woman’s quest for justice.
Ex-rugby player Steve Thompson's life has been turned upside down by a diagnosis of early onset dementia. Steve and his family attempt to come to terms with the condition.
Could Donald Trump return to the White House? He keeps hinting that he is about to attempt one of the biggest political comebacks of all time, so could it really happen? Katty Kay has reported from the US for 20 years, and now she sets off on an epic road trip across the US on the eve of the midterm elections to discover how strong support for Trump still is. Can American democracy weather the storm if he runs again?
In this high-concept visual essay, writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns reframes the history of the Caribbean to tell a new story. Not the traditional narrative of suffering and adversity but a celebratory one of superheroes and epic wars, unceasing resistance and never-ending rebellion, told through the stories of four inspirational leaders and their modern-day spiritual descendants.
Football icon Nathan Blake uncovers the incredible story of a Welsh rugby legend: his uncle, Clive Sullivan, who was the first black man to captain Great Britain in any sport.
The Jewish community has been well integrated in Scottish society for centuries, but their story is not well known. This programme tells their story through a series of portraits.
2022 marks the centenary of one of the defining poems of the 20th century, The Waste Land. TS Eliot's groundbreaking work first exploded into the world on 15 October 1922 and has continued to resonate with successive generations. For decades, Eliot actively discouraged biographical interpretations of his work, developing an ‘impersonal theory’ of poetry in which the private life of a poet was deemed irrelevant. Instead, numerous scholars have been guided by Eliot's own seven pages of footnotes to the poem. But in 2020, there were dramatic new revelations that demonstrated how, behind Eliot's mask, there was a much more personal story to be found within The Waste Land – which can now at last be explored.
An intrepid expedition onto and into the Greenland ice sheet with three of the world’s leading experts as they try to answer the urgent question, how fast is the ice melting? Greenland’s inland ice is hostile, wild and unpredictable, but making observations and taking detailed measurements on the ground is essential to fully understanding what is happening there. Director Lars Henrik Ostenfeld travels to Greenland with the scientists as they brave storms and climb deeper into the constantly shifting glaciers than anyone before them to gather the precious data that will help predict the future.
The story of one of the most celebrated and sought-after movie composers, as told by the man himself and his closest collaborators. Across a glittering 40-year career, Hans has redefined the movie score, thrilling audiences, pioneering new techniques and introducing new generations to the drama of orchestral music. In this portrait, Hans reveals the musical secrets of his craft - how he goes about terrifying, moving and raising an audience's spirits through his music.
Rob Burrow, one of Rugby League’s greatest players, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in late 2019. His family now care for his every need 24 hours a day. This intimate documentary starkly illustrates the love, support and challenges faced by his wife Lindsey, children Macy, Maya and Jackson, and parents Geoff and Irene. There are moments of intimacy as Lindsey takes Rob for a swim or carries him up to bed, and there are moments of humour as Rob uses his voice box to tease his mum as she feeds him. Rob is seen discussing his treatment with the NHS staff caring for him while best friend and former teammate mate Kevin Sinfield continues to rally support in Leeds, the home of Leeds Rhinos, and from the wider rugby league community.
Most people think of deepfakes as manipulated video clips of world leaders, designed to create confusion, yet the most pressing threat of deepfakes is not politics, but porn. Research shows around 96 per cent of deepfake videos are pornographic, with almost 100 per cent of them involving non-consenting women. The film features three women who have been impacted by this form of image-based sexual abuse, including a leading Florida state senator, Lauren Book, UK campaigner Kate Isaacs and Dina, a woman who was deepfaked by a work colleague. We see the devastating emotional and psychological consequences the deepfakes have had for these women.
Including incredible childhood footage, this wide-reaching documentary gains a detailed understanding of the real Lionel Messi. This is Messi as you’ve never seen him before.
The extraordinary story of Una Marson, a trailblazing poet, playwright and campaigner, and the first black producer and broadcaster at the BBC. A Caribbean woman born in the early 1900s, Una defied the limits society placed on her. Joining the BBC’s Empire Service during World War II, she was the first broadcaster to give voice to Caribbean writers and intellectuals, bringing their stories and culture to a global audience accustomed to hearing only English accents. During her time in London, Una wrote and produced a play for London’s West End, the first black writer to do so. She was also an activist, championing women’s rights, the rights of black people, literacy programmes and the education of children, and working with the deposed Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie.
Konnie Huq celebrates the very best of British children’s television, with a dazzling array of clips from some of the most treasured programmes ever made and revealing chats with some of TV’s most beloved stars. But Konnie also tells a perhaps more surprising story: of how kids’ TV has frequently been at the forefront of social change, in terms of the stories it tells and the people who get to tell them.
Taking inspiration from documentary maker Adam Curtis, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse tell the true story of Britain’s political and social evolution over the last century through the life of the BBC. By turning complete fictions into a staggering array of hard facts, they reveal details about the BBC that have been buried for decades.
Blending cutting-edge scientific fact with fictional podcasts, media feeds and international news programmes, this drama-documentary tells the gripping story of an encounter with a mysterious alien object travelling through the solar system and explores how the world could respond.
The story of Manchester’s iconic Hacienda nightclub and music venue, 40 years after it opened, mixing insightful testimony from Peter Hook and Stephen Morris (members of New Order, the legendary band that funded it) with stories from famous regulars like Noel Gallagher and Shaun Ryder. The film hears from those who ran it in its heyday and ordinary people whose lives were changed forever by the Hacienda. Newly discovered archive footage reveals the radical origins of the club, as well as the music and madcap stories behind it. Iconic and infamous performances build up to the story of acid house, the youth movement that transformed a generation and changed Britain forever. This is the incredible but true story of a revolution that rose up from within the walls of a former warehouse in central Manchester.
In 1971, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE ceased to be part of Britain’s empire in the Middle East and became fully independent states. This film, a collaboration between BBC News Arabic and BBC News Persian, uncovers the secrets that lay behind the process of decolonisation.
Multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter James Arthur is at a crossroads in his life. After being propelled to stardom following his X Factor win in 2012, it has been a decade of highs but also desperate lows. James suffers from anxiety, depression and severe panic attacks. At his worst, he has considered taking his own life. Now 34, he is wondering if returning to the anti-depressants he has rejected might finally give him peace of mind. This documentary follows James as he explores the roots of his fragile mental health and searches for ways to cope.
David Olusoga tells the story of London’s Covent Garden Piazza. Helped by experts and eye-witnesses, he conjures up ghosts of the past - market traders, sex workers and activists.
The great history of Egypt is inscribed on its monuments, temples and tombs, but hieroglyphs – the written language of the ancient Egyptians – fell silent until 1822 when a young French scholar, Jean-François Champollion, became the first person to decipher their texts for over a thousand years. Champollion’s insights and the work of other scholars helped bring an entire civilisation back to life. Today, researchers are increasingly interested in the authors who created these hieroglyphic works. Near Luxor, The Latest Secrets of Hieroglyphs follows a new generation of Egyptologists as they unlock the texts inscribed inside a richly adorned tomb, revealing the beliefs and lives of the priests, scribes, painters, engravers and builders who created this grand funerary monument.
DJ and broadcaster Trevor Nelson hosts multi-award-winning British musician Stormzy at the legendary Abbey Road Studios for a very special intimate performance and conversation. On the cusp of the release of the Glastonbury headliner’s third album, Stormzy performs a selection of new songs, including an exclusive track and a couple of old favourites from his first two number one albums. Between the live performances, Trevor and Stormzy have an in-depth discussion about his meteoric rise to fame since the release of his debut back in 2017, the forthcoming new music, his position as a cultural icon, the musicians he is inspired by and the celebrity friends he’s made along the way. Trevor Nelson first interviewed Stormzy back in 2014, and he recently starred in his music video for Mel Made Me Do It, but this is the first time the pair have sat down to chat in eight years. A Stormzy Special is a unique opportunity to see and hear from a superstar artist up close and personal.
This documentary takes the viewer into the dressing room to hear incredible tales from the past three World Cup-winning teams, France (2018), Germany (2014) and Spain (2010). This is the inside story of how to lift the most famous trophy in the world, told by tournament winners, including Germany’s Manuel Neuer, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Per Mertesacker and Jurgen Klinsmann, Spain’s Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Cesc Fabregas, and France’s Olivier Giroud and Marcel Desailly. Winning the World Cup is the pinnacle of sporting achievement. Featuring incredible behind-the-scenes footage, this programme delves into the key moments that led to success, from forging the closest of team bonds to reinventing a whole nation’s style of play, and exceptional management that was able to bring out the best in talented individuals. We hear tales from inside both the dressing room and the press room, explore the role of off-field pressures, and attempt to answer the million-dollar question.
Record numbers of young people are being treated for eating disorders. Zara McDermott explores the reasons behind this explosion and asks if social media is part of the problem.
Chronicling Jimi Hendrix’s visit to Maui in July 1970, this documentary tells the story of an ill-fated independent film produced by Hendrix's manager, Michael Jeffery.
People are watching slick social media videos of dream holidays, and spending thousands for their piece of this luxury lifestyle. The BBC takes a look at the story of one Brazilian travel agent with a trail of unhappy clients around the world and hears how, for some, the trip of a lifetime turned into a phantom holiday.
BBC News presenters look back and remember a century of the corporation's news coverage.
Everyone knows Oti Mabuse from the dance floor of Strictly, but hers has been a long journey to achieve dancing fame in the UK. It started in the townships of South Africa. In this documentary, Oti returns to her childhood home to revisit the people and places that inspired her to be the dancer and woman she is today. Oti left South Africa over ten years ago, and the country has changed radically since then. She starts back where her family lived: the township of Mabopane near Pretoria. Here, she goes back to her first school and first dance floor, and there are emotional reunions with her parents and with family and friends from her past. She tracks the journey her family have taken out of poverty and recounts the struggles for money, safety and recognition. Oti and her sisters sold flowers on the streets to pay for dance classes. Now she meets up with Aunt Johanna, who is still running the flower stall.
Alcoholics Anonymous is the longest-running addiction programme in the world and has been operating in the UK for 75 years. At a time when problem drinking is on the rise, this film has access to an AA meeting in central England for the first time ever. Rooted in the evangelical Christianity of 1930s America, many of the cornerstones of the programme's structure have changed little. How does this organisation work in our modern society? How do members with no faith at all interpret the programme now, and why does it still work for so many?
Wildlife film-maker Gordon Buchanan teams up with seven incredible huskies to take on a treacherous dog sledding trail in Canada’s spectacular Yukon wilderness.
Cliff Richard is joined by special guests for this festive TV show from Hackney Church in London. The multi-award winning artist performs some of his Christmas classics.
The Oil Machine explores Britain's economic, historical and emotional entanglement with oil, by looking at the conflicting imperatives around North Sea oil. This invisible machine at the core of British economy and society now faces an uncertain future as activists and investors demand change - is this the end of oil? By highlighting the complexities of how oil is embedded in our society - from high finance to cheap consumer goods – this documentary brings together a wide range of voices, from oil company executives and economists, to young activists and pension fund managers, and considers how this machine can be tamed, dismantled or repurposed. We have five to ten years to control our oil addiction, and yet the licensing of new oil fields continues in direct contradiction with the Paris Climate Agreement. This documentary looks at how the drama of global climate action is playing out in the fight over North Sea oil.
Mary Berry shares her ultimate Christmas feast, including all the trimmings, with friends Angela Hartnett, Monica Galetti and Rylan Clark.
Through the eyes of key figures, including captain Leah Williamson and manager Sarina Wiegman, this documentary relives England’s incredible European Championship triumph in July 2022.
The story of Scotland's most notorious impostor. A 16-year-old boy is the new kid at school and becomes a model pupil - until he is unmasked.
Narrated by organ enthusiast Huw Edwards, Organ Stops follows a handful of eccentric devotees rescuing and restoring abandoned pipe organs from closing churches. As Martin Renshaw trawls churches for hidden gems in the form of precious instruments, he meets people like 95-year-old organist Blanche Beer, whose long life has been shaped by music and community. In a Durham church, a wonderful organ is discovered that becomes the redemptive story at the heart of the film. The organ is saved and lovingly restored, becoming the musical heart of a vibrant church in London. A poignant documentary about loss and rebirth, and the role music plays in our lives.
A look back at the life and career of Robbie Coltrane, one of Britain’s best-loved stars and a giant of both the big and the small screen. His death earlier this year was one of the big shocks of 2022. Here, Celia Imrie narrates an affectionate tribute to one of Scotland’s favourite sons, telling his story through a selection of interviews and special moments from his appearances on BBC shows over the decades. This retrospective is a reminder of how Robbie first grabbed audiences’ attention as an exciting new comedy star in the 1980s, and the transition he made in the 1990s into cinema success and international stardom with roles in some of the movie world’s biggest blockbuster franchises.
As BBC Scotland prepares to celebrate its centenary year, Jack Docherty presents Ooh The Banter, a riotous one-hour celebration of Scotland's most valuable export - our sense of humour. The programme delves deep into the BBC Scotland archives where we find a century's worth of classic characters, catchphrases and comedy clips.
Ronaldo Nazário was one of the best footballers on the planet when his ambitions were crushed by injury and press scrutiny. This film chronicles his life.
It’s a trip down rock 'n' roll’s memory lane for Richard Wilson as he recalls his role as manager of The Majestics in John Byrne’s 1987 acclaimed TV drama series Tutti Frutti.
Artist and illustrator Charlie Mackesy takes us on a journey through his life, revealing the events that inspired his bestselling book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.
Will Millard explores some of Wales’s hidden historic buildings, meeting the passionate individuals who are trying to save these vulnerable structures before it is too late.
Presenter Holly Hamilton and author Sam Robinson discover the feelgood story of the 1914 Glentoran football team who won the Vienna Cup. In the months leading up to World War One, the east Belfast team were invited to play in a tournament against Europe’s leading football teams. The Glentoran team were all working men, with full time jobs in Belfast’s shipyards and engineering works. Most of them had never been outside of Ireland before they embarked on this once-in-a-lifetime trip across Europe. Against all the odds, the 11 men played the game of their careers and lifted the prestigious Vienna Cup, arguably the first European Cup. The trophy survived the journey back to Belfast, the Blitz, and over one hundred years later has pride of place in the Oval board room. Holly and Sam retrace the team’s incredible journey to victory and return to Belfast to meet with some of the team’s descendants.
King Charles III was Prince of Wales for more than 60 years. From the controversy around his Investiture, to his charity work, his love of the countryside and tradition and his keen patronage of the arts, this programme reflects on the effect Wales and the Welsh have had on the new monarch.
Her Majesty the Queen inherited from her mother a deep love of the Scottish countryside, its traditions and customs. Summers spent at the Balmoral estate were an important part of the royal calendar. This programme examines that connection and reflects upon HM the Queen’s life-long contribution to Scotland.
The real story behind John Darwin's fraud.
Discovering what the Queen liked to do to relax
Can Scotland keep its Cop26 commitments in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis? Judith Ralston finds out on the eve of Cop27.
Wolf Hall, one of the most critically acclaimed television dramas of recent years, was based on the first two of the late Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell novels and brought together a stellar cast that included Mark Rylance as Cromwell, Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn and Damien Lewis as King Henry VIII. Director Peter Kosminsky looks back on the making of the drama, with anecdotes and insights into his working with the cast, the joy of collaborating with Mantel herself, and his determination to honour her legacy with the adaptation of the final chapter in Cromwell’s story, The Mirror and the Light.
Scottish actors Julie Wilson Nimmo and Greg Hemphill take a deep dip into the world of wild swimming, rocking up at some of Scotland’s wildest open-water lochs, rivers and bays in their quirky campervan. They lift the misty veil on Scotland’s unpolished expanses of water and meet some inspirational people along the way.
The story of how a small group of dedicated British music fans paved the way for the first Motown tour of Britain. Some of Motown’s brightest new stars, including The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, arrived in London in 1965 for a tour that would change the face of British music history.
On 5 January 1922, world-famous Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack in his cabin aboard The Quest during his final expedition to the South Pole. Moored in Norway, The Quest was broken apart. However, one of the dockers had the foresight to remove Shackleton’s cabin. He took it home and it served as his family’s garden shed for three generations. Nearly 100 years after Shackleton’s death, the cabin has been donated to a museum in the explorer’s hometown, where master craftsman and Shackleton enthusiast Sven Habermann painstakingly restores it to its former glory. With only one surviving photograph of the cabin’s interior, Sven goes to extreme lengths to retrace every detail, from the wood to the original wallpaper used. Shackleton’s Cabin follows Sven as he rebuilds the cabin and explores the life and final days of his hero.
Filmmaker Olly Lambert spends two months on Ukraine’s southern front, gaining unique and privileged access to a group of volunteer special forces on the frontline as they begin the push to retake Kherson that would ultimately change the course of the war. Lambert’s first stop is Mykolaiv, the Ukrainian city which stopped the Russian advance in the south. The city is still under rocket attack and the fear is of a fresh push from Putin’s forces which could then threaten to cut Ukraine off from the sea and in the process cripple its economy. Yet the Russians are not making any progress, so how are the Ukrainians managing to hold off one of the world’s biggest armies? Lambert is taken by the city’s mayor, Vitaly Kim, to a secret intelligence centre where ordinary citizens, like architect Alexei, are using their technical skills to build drones for use at the front. In fact the centre is full of civilians aiding the war effort, the whole of Ukrainian society seems to be involved in resist
For the Welsh national cheer squad, nothing means more than representing their country at the highest level. They’re willing to give it everything, but how will they fare in a final showdown for gold against cheerleading superstars Team USA? Capturing the highs, lows, twists and turns, this empowering film follows the disabled and non-disabled athletes of Team Wales Adaptive Abilities on and off the mat as they prepare for the World Cheerleading Championships in Florida.
He was welcomed at the White House, met billionaires like Bill Gates and counted cricket legend Imran Khan as a friend. Silent since his 2019 dawn arrest at Heathrow Airport, tycoon Arif Naqvi is now seen and heard for the first time.He called himself the ‘flag carrier of impact investing’ - the idea that you can get rich while doing good. Naqvi’s $14bn firm Abraaj invested across the developing world, improving businesses and building hospitals.Then it collapsed - the world’s biggest-ever private equity failure. Now accused of fraud and racketeering, Naqvi maintains his innocence but, if found guilty, faces 291 years in jail. So what went wrong?In a fresh examination of the meteoric rise and dizzying fall of Abraaj and Arif Naqvi, key figures speak out. And personal videos of Naqvi give a glimpse into his three-year-long house arrest.This turbulent tale leaves viewers asking whether it really is possible to deliver profit while doing good.
The documentary takes viewers into the heart of BBC Persian’s newsroom in London as the team covers the unrest in Iran
Shinty’s ancient origins date as far back as the 5th century, when it was believed to be the traditional battle game of the Highlands clans. By the 18th century, it had become Scotland’s most popular game and can lay claim to giving birth to golf, ice hockey, and even the development of football, which borrowed set positions such as defender, midfielder and forward from the game. Today, however, shinty is underfunded and largely ignored outside the Highlands, but it remains strong in the small communities where it began centuries ago.
Historian James Bulgin reveals the origins of the Holocaust in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, exploring the mass murder, collaboration and experimentation that led to the Final Solution.
What happens when your instincts tell you to seek revenge, but your faith demands that you forgive? YouTuber and comedian Humza Arshad explores whether unsettled scores can be left behind.
With access to key individuals who didn’t give evidence at the trial, this documentary explores the hidden workings of the tabloids, PRs and agents connected to ‘Wagatha Christie'.
Documentary exploring an incredible photographic collection which has been unseen for over a century. The images were taken by pioneering Ulster-Scots photographer Mary Alice Young, and now her family is delving into her past to examine her extraordinary legacy. The unique collection of over 1,000 photographic images was rediscovered in Belfast's public record office, among other items bequeathed there for safekeeping many years ago by Mary Alice’s family. Now, her great-grandson Christopher Brooke is building a fuller picture of his great-grandmother’s life.
Soul singer Dana Masters traces the story of Ottilie Patterson, who for a dazzling few years in the late 1950s and early 1960s was a pioneer of British music. One night in 1959, a 27-year-old female singer took to the stage at Muddy Waters' renowned blues club in Chicago. After a stunning set, a member of the rapturous African-American audience called out: “Hey lady, you sing real pretty. How come you sing like one of us?” The singer was Ottilie Patterson. And she wasn’t black. She wasn’t even American. She was from the small town of Comber, in County Down, just ten miles from Belfast. A rising star of British jazz and blues music, she was the acclaimed singer with the Chris Barber Band who paved the way for bands like The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things, inspiring their passion for American blues. Why did Ottilie, who became the UK’s first female blues singer to achieve near pop status and perform with legends like Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgerald and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, disappea
During lockdown, the abuse Emily received escalated dramatically, and she began to share the things she was receiving to understand whether she should be just accepting what was happening to her. To her surprise, so many other women from all walks of life came forward to say it was happening to them too, and that they also just thought it was normal.
Mosses have colonised almost every corner of the earth’s surface. Evolving from oceanic algae that emerged onto the land 450 million years ago, these very first terrestrial plants became one of the main sources of oxygen for our evolving planet, helping to transform it from an arid rock into a lush world.
Kevin Sinfield reflects on his incredible journey to support former teammate Rob Burrow after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2019.
At 15, Shamima Begum left London to join the terror group Islamic State. For the first time, her account of what happened is investigated to find the truth.
The demand for weight loss surgery has boomed in recent years. Whether it’s a gastric sleeve, band or bypass, all are touted on social media as ways to shed the pounds. Increasingly, UK patients are choosing to travel abroad, to places like Turkey, for the surgery. BBC Three investigates why that’s the case and how safe it is to undergo such huge operations abroad. Presented by Alex Hollywell-Rolfe.
Throughout the winter, Russia has been attacking Ukraine's power grid, forcing power cuts across the country and doing untold damage with missiles and drones. But an army of Ukrainian engineers has been fighting back in an effort to keep the lights on. Paul Adams has been given exclusive access to the teams involved and the often dangerous environment in which they work.
This film has been years in the making, tracking the rise of Andrew Tate through the meteoric growth of his online following. Invited into Tate’s compound in Romania, where he was recently arrested, journalist Matt Shea enters the world of the social media personality’s multi-level marketing scheme and webcam business. The film-makers question Tate, challenging him on his stance regarding the treatment of women, which has become a central aspect of his personal brand as well as business practices. Matt Shea meets two women who reported Andrew Tate to UK police in 2015, alleging sexual assault and physical abuse at the time – allegations he strongly denied. This documentary offers one of the first public platforms for these women to tell their stories.
In the early 20th century, the Ards TT was one of the greatest spectacles in motorsport. Up to half a million people would line the 13-mile triangular circuit between Dundonald, Newtownards and Comber as some of the world's top drivers duelled around the roads in Northern Ireland. The race was started in 1928 and racing royalty that included Sir Malcolm Campbell, Tazio Nuvolari or Kaye Don would pilot iconic motorsport marques such as Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Bentley. Speeds kept increasing as the years went by, however, it would all come to a shuddering halt on a fateful wet afternoon in 1936.
A musical biography of Linda Ronstadt, one of the most successful and versatile female singers of the 20th century - and one of the most successful recording artists of all time. It tells Linda's story through her own words and music, and by such professional colleagues as Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Aaron Neville and many more.
Every year, 30,000 missionaries are called to serve the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe - the largest full-time missionary force of any church. Most are under 25 and away from home for up to two years - and the biggest training centre in Europe is located in Chorley, Lancashire.
Shot over ten years and prompted by the death of her father, filmmaker Joan explores Britain’s colonial past and the legacy her dual black and white heritage has had on her life
A celebration of 100 years of BBC broadcasting from Scotland. Live music and chat from actors, musicians, comedians and broadcasters who have all graced BBC Scotland’s screens or airwaves. They share their stories, memories and laughs from across the decades. Hosted by Nicola Meighan.
Each year, people around the world lose millions of dollars to a highly sophisticated scam known as 'the pig butchering romance scam'. It takes its name from the victims, who scammers call 'pigs' - those they can 'fatten' before 'butchering'. Scammers target individuals on dating sites and social media, posing as attractive, successful professionals. They seduce and manipulate their victims, winning their trust before luring them to invest on sham cryptocurrency platforms. But behind the fake online profiles is a much darker reality. Those conducting the scams often do so against their will, trafficked to huge, walled compounds in south east Asia. A new investigation by the BBC World Service’s investigations team BBC Eye takes you inside one of these scam compounds in Cambodia, where people from all over the world are locked up, beaten, starved and forced to scam - all at the hands of criminal gangs.
Johnny Kitagawa’s legendary male-only talent agency trained young boys to become superstars. But for over 50 years, Japan has kept Kitagawa’s dark secret – a long history of allegations of sexual abuse, made by boys in his agency. Even after the music mogul’s death in 2019, the Japanese media remained largely silent. Why? Journalist Mobeen Azhar explores the suffocating reality of being a J-pop idol and the influence that Kitagawa had on the media, and exposes the brutal consequences of turning a blind eye.
A multibillion-pound investment is underway to make our railways bigger, better and faster, and over three years, we go behind the scenes with Wales’s newest rail body as they try to make ambitious promises a reality. From the boardroom to the platform, we meet those trying to win hearts, minds and more customers, and all in the middle of a pandemic that’s knocked public transport for six. Can they still deliver on time?
Kaye Adams looks at how BBC Scotland has changed over the last 100 years and explores how it has attempted to reflect a changing nation in its comedy, drama and documentaries.
In this heartfelt journey of self-discovery, Christine McGuinness uncovers a hidden world of thousands of autistic women who, like her, have been ignored by science and society.
Told from the inside by the police who were there, this is the true story of Britain's biggest bullion heist.
Jane Corbin investigates how the Taiwan's government and young people are fighting what they say is Chinese disinformation, cyber attacks and dirty tricks.
Journalist Peter Taylor reveals the extraordinary story of how a former undercover MI5 officer put his life and career on the line to encourage the IRA to end its violent campaign and embrace politics
In 2008, student Martine Vik Magnussen was killed after a night out. The only suspect, the son of a billionaire, fled the UK to Yemen. Reporter Nawal Al-Maghafi is determined to speak to him.
In early 2019 Jeffrey Leigh-Jones from Portsmouth got a life coach. Someone to mentor him in life and help him realise his business ambitions. Two years later, Jeff had sold his house, his relationship was in pieces, and he had handed over tens of thousands of pounds. And he wasn’t the only one. In this eighteen-month investigation for the BBC, journalist Catrin Nye and her team expose control, intimidation and fear at a mysterious life coaching company taking over people’s lives and ripping families apart.
Following a year-long investigation, investigative reporter Simona Weinglass delves into the murky world of online investment scams in an attempt to track down the men at the centre of a billion-dollar crime syndicate.
Simon Reeve is back to visit one of Britain’s favourite counties to discover what life is really like for the locals after the summer crowds have gone.
Landmark documentary featuring Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern recalling the intense negotiations behind the Good Friday Agreement.
Singer-songwriter Eddi Reader recently discovered that her granny and namesake, Sedania, was a shining light in Scottish football. Sadie Smith, as she was known to her teammates, was the superstar left winger of the trailblazing Rutherglen Ladies football team that dominated in the interwar period, despite attempts to push women out of football altogether. In this documentary, Eddi goes on a journey to discover more about her granny’s remarkable football career.
As King Charles III is crowned, Katty Kay sets out to discover what he could learn from Europe’s royal families. They face many of the same challenges as Charles: how to modernise, how to steer clear of politics and how to heal very public family rifts. So how do they handle them – and what’s the point of a monarchy in a 21st century democracy? Travelling from Denmark to Albania, she meets Europe’s modern royals.
This is the story of how a prince became a king, a revealing portrait of our new monarch across the seven decades he spent as heir to the throne. It’s a journey from cradle to crown told almost solely in his own words, from film and television recordings to private home movies and featuring a wealth of material, some of which has never been seen before. As well as drawing on home movies from the Royal Collection, the film-makers were given exclusive access to sequences featuring the prince, shot for the landmark 1969 film Royal Family, including private unseen moments.
Wrexham AFC are one of the oldest football clubs in the world, with a home in the Racecourse Ground that dates back virtually to the dawn of football as we know it. Theirs is a history that stretches back further than most, with drama and memorable moments to rival any club. A lot happened at Wrexham before they were taken over by two Hollywood actors. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have put a shot in the arm of a sleeping giant. To the fans, promotion is more than just cause for celebration. This documentary tells the story of Wrexham, past and present, with a blend of archive footage, heartwarming testimonials and footage from the Racecourse Ground today.
The Great British Sewing Bee’s Patrick Grant goes behind the scenes at the family firm making ceremonial uniforms for King Charles’s coronation. Tasked with creating thousands of bespoke uniforms for the big day, the Kashket family have been making spectacular ceremonial wear for four generations. As well as discovering the skill and craftmanship required to create these unique garments, Patrick also meets some of the men and women of the armed forces who will wear them.
As Scotland doesn't have a Eurovision entry of its own, brothers Conor and Tommy Reilly try to sneak into the competition by entering for San Marino.
The definitive story of how Aberdeen FC went from the nearly men of Scottish football to winning both the European Cup Winners Cup and European Super Cup.
The story of how Eurovision is back in the UK as Liverpool hosts for Ukraine.
The inside story of the police investigation into the 1973 murders of three teenage girls. Companion documentary to the new BBC drama, Steeltown Murders.
The story of Father Alec Reid’s complex and controversial peace plan to bring an end to violence in Northern Ireland, which eventually led to the historic Good Friday Agreement.
Musician, actor and dad of three Matt Willis may seem to have it all. He’s part of the hugely successful noughties pop band, Busted, has a flourishing acting career and is happily married to TV presenter Emma Willis, with whom he has three kids. But behind the success, there is one thing that often dominates his thoughts – his addictions. In this raw and honest documentary, Matt opens up about his past and takes an extensive look into his battle with drugs and alcohol, how it has pushed him to the edge, and his daily struggle to keep himself clean and sober. Matt talks about how he constantly lives with the fear of relapse and the pressure that puts on himself and his family.
How Venetians are turning to revolutionary engineering, restoration of the natural environment and knowledge from their past in order to save Venice.
Behind-the-scenes documentary about how Lionel Messi succeeded in lifting the World Cup – the only trophy to have eluded him in an incredible career.
Documentary following renowned Vermeer expert Gregor Weber, curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, as he sets up the largest ever Vermeer exhibition. Weber joins a number of Vermeer enthusiasts and experts who are using the latest techniques to search for what makes a Vermeer truly a Vermeer.
The latest in John Bridcut’s collection of award-winning films about British composers features the life and music of Sir Michael Tippett, who died 25 years ago in 1998. For many years, Tippett dominated the contemporary classical music scene in the UK. His life spanned almost the whole of the 20th century, and embraced many of the social issues of his time, from pacifism to homosexuality. His most popular work, the oratorio A Child of Our Time, made his name in 1944. Provoked by Kristallnacht – the 1938 Nazi-led pogrom against German Jews – it continues to speak powerfully about refugees and persecution. This performance-based documentary features extracts from the full range of Tippett’s music, specially filmed in Glasgow with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Bearsden Choir.
When the great Barry Humphries passed away last month, the world said goodbye to a comedian whose antics had for years had kept presenters, interviewers and chat-show hosts on their toes, half-excited and half-terrified of what outrageous statement he, Dame Edna Everage or Sir Les Patterson might utter on live television. Alex Jones looks back at the highlights of Barry’s career on a selection of BBC shows, sharing her own memories alongside some of Barry’s funniest, rudest and most revealing moments from over the decades. It’s a collection that demonstrates exactly why Sir Les and Dame Edna were loved by comedy fans across the world while also highlighting how, while his two comic creations may have got all the attention, it was Barry who was really one of a kind.
A deep dive into one of the fiercest rivalries in sport. Unearthing stories from the most unforgettable series, a look at what it takes to lift the most famous cricket trophy, the Ashes urn. Through in-depth interviews with cricket legends including Ben Stokes, Jimmy Anderson and Glenn McGrath, this documentary relives the on-field heroics and lifts the lid on the behind-the-scenes turmoil, revealing a darker side to the pursuit of success.
A look at the bitter legal battle taking place for a decade over allegations of unlawful information gathering at some of Britain’s biggest newspaper groups. Told through the testimonies of alleged victims who claim they were targeted unlawfully by the papers - including Sienna Miller, Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan, Heather Mills, Shobna Gulati and Sir Simon Hughes, as well as private individuals who were caught up in the news - this documentary unpicks the evidence and claims emerging out of the civil courts in unprecedented detail.
A thousand years ago, many millions of whales dominated the sea, with their ancient behaviours vital to the well-being of the oceans. These marine mammals are the ambassadors between one world and another, land and sea, their close communities only now being truly researched and understood. They are still a keystone species in our fragile ecosystem today, with crucial impact on our seas and the life contained within them. But whaling decimated their numbers over the last 150 years, in particular the whaling industry run by the KGB during the Cold War. In a basement in Odessa, top-secret Soviet whaling reports record the unimaginable number of whales killed. This film tells how surviving members of the Soviet leadership, and original Soviet whalers, uncover these secret records, allowing us to understand the magnitude of historical whale populations and the shocking impact of commercial whaling.
The jaw-dropping story of the rise and fall of British music and festival company Pollen, who went bust in 2022 while still owing tens of millions of pounds to staff and customers.
Just days old and very vulnerable, baby monkey Mini was taken from her mother in the forest and sold to a YouTuber. She became a celebrity in a global online monkey torture ring. The people who wanted to do something to Mini, who were willing to pay to see her suffer, were on the other side of the world - mainly in the US and the UK. Mini was just one of thousands of monkeys being abused and filmed for the clicks and likes of westerners.
Rose Ayling-Ellis takes us on a personal journey into the deaf experience and asks whether attitudes are finally changing.
In September 2022, a 22-year-old Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody. She had been arrested by Iran’s religious police, accused of not wearing her hijab properly. The authorities said she had died of a heart attack, but rumours spread that she had been beaten on arrest. Citizens took to the streets in their thousands in fury. This is an extraordinary and shocking insight into what has been happening across Iran, revealing a regime under huge pressure and resorting to extreme cruelty to control its citizens.
This film follows the life of an extraordinary woman who revolutionised modern nursing and whose legacy continues to benefit millions. Born into a rich English family, Florence Nightingale broke through social and gender barriers to pioneer a profession previously reserved for men. Dedicating her life to helping those in need, she was a trailblazer who led a group of nurses to care for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War and developed revolutionary views about hygiene and sanitation. Hailed as a heroine by Queen Victoria and the British people upon her return from the front, Florence went on to establish the Nightingale Training School for Nurses and reform healthcare at home and abroad. Florence Nightingale died in 1910 aged 90, leaving behind an inspirational legacy.
Radio 1Xtra DJ Tiffany Calver explores the response to UK drill – a popular but controversial genre of rap – by the authorities, who blame it for a rise in violent crime. Having seen its explosion from humble beginnings to a genre that now tops charts all across the world, Tiffany has also seen the spotlight that the police and courts have put artists under. With increased policing, stringent criminal orders, digital surveillance and tougher sentences for artists, Chinx (OS), a drill artist, has risked his freedom with every song he has released. His success could see him turn a new leaf and leave behind a chequered past. But that success is at the heart of a debate over freedom of speech and crime prevention that has played out in the media, newspapers and courtrooms. With police scrambling to quell the rise in gang violence and artists criticising the lack of clarity around their policing, Tiffany is on a mission to find an answer.
In October 2022, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, drew widespread condemnation after wearing a White Lives Matter T-shirt at his Paris Fashion Show. That controversy was swiftly followed up with a series of antisemitic statements on social media. With his dangerous statements making global headlines, Ye doubled down by sharing dangerous and inflammatory mistruths during a series of interviews. In the face of backlash, Ye told the paparazzi that he was planning to run for president of the United States in 2024. Unfolding against the backdrop of Ye’s recent behaviour and his rumoured 2024 presidential campaign, this documentary sees award-winning journalist Mobeen Azhar travel to the United States to try and discover how one of America’s most celebrated artists became a megaphone for hate and division.
Marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush to British shores in 1948, this documentary follows a remarkable project spearheaded by the King, who has commissioned ten leading artists from Britain and abroad to create portraits of ten pioneering members of the Windrush Generation. The completed portraits will become part of the Royal Collection and stand as a lasting memorial to all the men, women and children who came to Britain from the Caribbean and gave so much of themselves to rebuild a nation devasted by war. Featuring first-person testimony from the Windrush sitters, many of whom are in their 90s, as they speak frankly about their experiences of arriving in Britain, making lives for themselves and the overwhelming contribution they have made to their communities and the nation as a whole.
Gyles Brandreth remembers the comedy and musical duo Hinge and Bracket.
Documentary that follows Joe Swash as he explores the stories of teens in care over the age of 16, the largest-growing cohort in both child protection and care.
After shooting to global fame with Wellerman, ‘sea shanty guy’ Nathan Evans is back and trying to forge a career for himself in the pop world - but is he just a one-hit wonder?
At its peak, The Black and White Minstrel Show was watched by a Saturday night audience of more than 20 million people. David Harewood goes on a mission to understand the roots of this strange, intensely problematic cultural form: where did the show come from, and what made it popular for so long? With the help of historians, actors and musicians, David uncovers how, at its core, blackface minstrelsy was simply an attempt to make racism into an art form, and can be traced back to a name and date
8 June 2023. A shark attacks a 23-year-old Russian man swimming just metres from the beach in the Red Sea vacation resort of Hurghada, Egypt. Horrified tourists watch from the shore. His injuries are so severe that he dies before help can arrive. Within hours, videos of the attack spread on social media. It comes less than a year after two women were killed by sharks in the space of two days on the same stretch of coast. A spate of killings like this is unprecedented in the Red Sea.
Is Andrew Tate behind a secret society that grooms women into online sex work? And could someone else be behind him? Matt Shea reveals the truth behind Tate and his 'War Room.'
The definitive story of the 2019 Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand – arguably the greatest final ever played in any sport. It’s a tale of courage and comradeship. It reveals the human dramas lying behind one of the greatest days in England’s sporting history.
Luke discovers 'dad' is not his biological father and that he is mixed race. That triggers a search for a bartender called Carlos, who his mum met on a girls’ holiday in the 90s.
Film following Nasa psychologist Dr Al Holland as he prepares Mars-bound astronauts for the psychological demands of a three-year absence from Earth.
Award-winning documentary maker Michael Cockerell is a master of the political profile, with a reputation for uncovering the human side of the men and women of Westminster and for really getting under the skin of the great, the good and the not-so-good who have governed postwar Britain. Here, Michael looks back on one of the most challenging encounters of his long career and recounts what it was like dealing with former Conservative prime minister Edward Heath, the man who took us into the forerunner of the European Union but wanted us all to keep very much out of his private life.
What connects amateur sleuths turning up at crime scenes, antisocial behaviour in UK schools and French riots? This film finds evidence they are all examples of TikTok 'frenzies'.
Wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin goes in search of his favourite birds of prey, travelling around the UK to find them and meeting the people who are fighting to protect them.
Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel transformed women's fashion, a truly revolutionary designer whose influence is still evident today. Her designs called into question the role of women, sex and power, and ignited a whole new way of dressing. Yet her life remains shrouded in mystery. This feature-length Arena documentary weaves together the story of Chanel’s creations - from the little black dress to the tweed suit and the iconic chain handbag - over the contours of her colourful life.
Political interviewer Michael Cockerell introduces his acclaimed profile of Roy Jenkins, the man who, as home secretary in the 1960s, helped transform British society.
Acclaimed political profiler Michael Cockerell tells the story behind his encounter with one of the grand dames of Westminster, the formidable Labour MP Barbara Castle. A female icon of the left, Castle stood out from the herd thanks to her unique charisma, steely nature and her ability to leave members of the opposition, let alone the opposite sex, completely tongue-tied. In her conversations with Michael she speaks openly about the two great love affairs of her life, and the man she was currently keeping an intimidating watch over, the newly elected Labour leader Tony Blair.
David Tennant looks back on the role he time-travelled into after leaving the Tardis, playing Hamlet in Greg Doran’s award-winning 2008 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. David’s portrayal was described at the time as ‘athletic, and immensely engaging’, full of ‘vigour and wild humour’ and ‘the best great Dane in years’. Here, he talks about his approach to the part, performing opposite Patrick Stewart, who played the role of Claudius, and the reaction he got when the production became a hit with BBC audiences when it was screened on Boxing Day 2009.
Dame Janet Suzman looks back on her role as Joan of Arc in the BBC adaptations of Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses. Under the direction of John Barton and Peter Hall at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Janet delivered a highly acclaimed performance, and here she recalls the challenges she faced playing a figure as iconic as Joan. She explains how these groundbreaking productions brought a modern relevance to conflict between the Houses of York and Lancaster and shares memories of working with fellow cast members, including Donald Sinden and the great Peggy Ashcroft.
Gregory Doran, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, looks back on the challenges he faced bringing together a cast of acclaimed actors and even members of the royal family for his 2016 live BBC extravaganza marking 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare. Gregory explains how he managed to pull off the project and recalls the journey that transformed early ideas into to a huge popular success that resonated with critics and television viewers alike. He also shares his memories of working with the likes of David Tennant, Catherine Tate and a host of acclaimed Shakespeareans, and explains why he thinks the Bard remains so relevant even today.
James Blake - a 30-year-old entrepreneur from Lisburn - was living the Insta-dream until someone scraped his accounts. He started getting messages from people accusing him of conning them out of tens of thousands of pounds. As he sets out to try and get his face and name back, James discovers a dark and utterly heartless modern-day crime wave where ruthless organised gangs are using the very latest technology to prey on our age-old desire for love, companionship and success, all to scam blameless victims out of money. James’s attempt to find out more and get his online identity back takes him on an international journey, and he discovers that it’s not only those being conned who are the victims here - many of those carrying out the con are also suffering at the hands of the gangs behind this modern-day crime.
A celebration of one of the most successful Anglo-American musical partnerships of all time with a look into the BBC archives for Fleetwood Mac's finest performances. This programme charts their development from a blues band, performing such hits as Albatross and Oh Well in the 1960s under the direction of founder members Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood, to pop rock stars in the 1980s with their seminal album Rumours. Featuring interviews with and solo performances from band members such as Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie as they went their own way at various points in their career.
As part of the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who, David Tennant time-travels back through the BBC archives to tell the story of the Doctor's classic era, with a selection of rarely seen interviews and clips covering William Hartnell's first incarnation right through to the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy.
On a daily basis, Roman Kemp is contacted by young people who are struggling. With people turning to him for advice, he’s questioning whether or not there is a worsening mental health crisis and asking if these young people should be offered more support in their own communities.
In this powerful and candid film, Tara Mills goes on a personal journey and delves into the prevailing mental health and suicide crisis affecting Northern Ireland, 15 years after her brother died by suicide..
Twenty love poems are weaved together to create a fresh and original story set in contemporary Britain. Including Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day and My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun, four lovers show us how Shakespeare’s words, with their raw emotion and feeling, are as relevant today as they were more than 400 years ago. The four narrators’ relationships are at different stages, from falling in love to moving on. Featuring EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing star Rose Ayling-Ellis along with Eloka Ivo, Eben Figueiredo and Ioanna Kimbook.
Mark Thompson explores centuries of history and a wealth of traditions as he tells the fascinating story of the world’s favourite beverage – tea.
Celia Imrie takes a trip through the BBC’s archive for a celebration of the works of Shakespeare, and an exploration into how the Bard’s biggest plays have been brought to cinema and television screens over the years. It’s a story that’s told through a selection of interviews with stars from the 1950s right up to the present day, with anecdotes and insights revealing how Shakespeare’s plays have been continuously adapted to suit each new generation, capturing changing attitudes to race and gender. Amongst those featured are the established acting knights Olivier and Gielgud, dames Helen Mirren, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, and the latest wave of big names, including David Tennant, David Harewood and Maxine Peake.
The relationship between The Beatles and the BBC has always been a special and fascinating one. This programme looks back at some key moments that saw the BBC document the band’s journey as they went from Merseybeat heroes with mop-tops and MBEs to seeing out the sixties as long-haired heroes of the counter-culture. In the early years, an interview on the BBC was something the band would pursue and embrace, but as their fame spread, their TV appearances became increasingly rare. The changing dynamic is captured here through a combination of classic music performances and the very best moments from the BBC’s archives. Songs featured include the fresh sound of She Loves You to the era-defining special performance of All You Need Is Love.
Award-winning film-maker Norma Percy looks back on her acclaimed 1998 documentary series The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs. Through interviews and analysis from key players of the time, the series forensically detailed the conflict’s origins and key moments, and here Norma shares how the programme came to life, how she gained the trust of some of the most significant figures of the day and what the lessons from history might be.
An investigation into the black market in cut price 'skinny jabs' being sold across the UK. Reporter Pria Rai reveals what’s really in these drugs, and whether they are safe to use. She meets a young student who accidentally took an overdose of the drug, makes contact with one of the most prolific online sellers, goes undercover to reveal a new market for the drug hidden in plain sight and sends samples for testing – with shocking results.
A look at the life and career of Bernard Levin, who grew up in the poor backstreets of Camden Town and became one of the most famous journalists of the 20th century and a prolific broadcaster on the BBC. For over 50 years, Levin wrote countless influential articles and books on his great enthusiasms - music, theatre and literature - and changed journalism forever with his attacks on political corruption, injustice and the oppression of minorities. With contributions from Sir Trevor McDonald, Arianna Huffington, Sir Simon Jenkins, Matthew Parris and Michael Billington.
Poet, rapper, playwright and recording artist Kae Tempest is one of the most viscerally exciting artists working in Britain today. They are the youngest ever recipient of the prestigious Ted Hughes prize and have been nominated for both the Brit and Mercury music awards. Tempest has always found support and respect within the queer art scenes, a place close to their heart. In July 2020, they came out as non-binary, announcing that they would publish and perform under the name Kae. This film delves deep into their creative process and gains rare, intimate insights into Kae’s life throughout a period of profound personal and artistic change.
The unbelievable story behind the Loch Ness Monster, and how the search for it has attracted people from across the world for decades. From Japan, the US and across the world, people were drawn to a remote, cold lake in the Highlands of Scotland.
More and more luxury watches are being snatched off UK streets. In 2022, there was an estimated 60 per cent increase in watch thefts worldwide. It is now the crime of choice for many criminals, seen as easier and more lucrative than drug dealing.
The goddess of pop sits down for a fun and in-depth chat with Rylan Clark about her new record, her biggest hits and her incredible life and career. Featuring archive footage from across the decades of Cher's hit records and television appearances, illustrating her glittering music career, her success in film, her iconic fashion choices and the ways she has influenced so many people.
Dame Mary Berry travels to her mother’s homeland of Scotland, where she’s joined by friends Andy Murray, Iain Stirling and Emeli Sandé to cook indulgent Christmas dishes.
National treasure Max Boyce celebrates two major milestones - 50 years on stage and his 80th birthday, in a star-studded look at his incredible career as a comedian, singer, songwriter and 'people’s poet'. In a mix of documentary and performance, Max looks back at his achievements and lifts the lid on his private life at home in Glyneath. From the tragic events that shaped his life to his passion for rugby and his local club, this is a side of Max rarely seen. The programme mines six decades of archive material and features some of his most iconic songs and stories as well as contributions from Rob Brydon, Michael Sheen, Katherine Jenkins, Gareth Edwards and Cerys Mathews.
Nigella returns for a very special Christmas treat when she travels to Amsterdam to enjoy the festive season in the Venice of the North.
Acclaimed stand-up Susie McCabe brings her sensational show Femme Fatality to a sold-out King’s Theatre in Glasgow. From growing up gay in the 80s and 90s, to working on building sites and becoming a successful stand-up comic, Susie McCabe's life is jam-packed with rich material, and the gifted performer delivers a barnstorming evening of razor-sharp punchlines and observational comedy.
Britain’s most gifted musical family, Nottingham’s Kanneh-Masons, visit Austria to walk in the footsteps of Hollywood’s most famous singing family, the von Trapps from The Sound of Music. All nine members of the Kanneh-Mason family (including mum Kadie and dad Stuart) visit the key movie locations and explore the incredible story behind the film. The seven young Kanneh-Masons also perform their own arrangements of iconic music from the great soundtrack, including Climb Ev’ry Mountain, My Favourite Things, Do-Re-Mi and Edelweiss.
Ricky Tomlinson sits back in his chair and takes a fond look back at the much-loved comedy series The Royle Family, sharing his memories of playing head of the family Jim Royle and his experiences working with the show’s co-creator Caroline Aherne, who, as well as writing the show with co-star Craig Cash, also played Jim’s daughter Denise. Ricky talks about how a chance encounter helped him get the part of Jim, recounts what it was like filming some of the show’s most iconic moments, and tries to get the bottom of the origins of Jim’s famous, below-the-belt catchphrase.
A celebration of the unique life and talent of Caroline Aherne, featuring unseen photographs and contributions from a cast of her lifelong friends, including Steve Coogan, Jon Thompson, Craig Cash and producer Andy Harries. Aherne’s pioneering representation of working class and family life in The Royle Family won her two Baftas and changed comedy writing forever, while her alter ego Mrs Merton’s question to stage performer Debbie McGee - 'So what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?' - has been voted the greatest comedy put-down in British TV history.
The UK was a different country the last time a monarch was crowned. Now, 70 years on, Charles III has to show what sort of a monarch he will be for a 21st-century Britain. With exclusive access to the King and Queen Camilla, this historic film follows them throughout the first year of their reign, including unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to preparations for the coronation as well as the day itself. Family and friends also provide their own fresh insights into the way the new sovereign has set about reshaping the monarchy for the 21st century.
Noel Coward grew up in poverty and left school when he was only nine years old. He was gay in a very straight world. And yet, by the age of 30, he was the highest-paid writer in the world and a star on the Broadway stage, writing, directing and acting in some of the finest plays and movies of all time.
Kirsty Wark looks back at the extraordinary lives of some of the legendary singers and composers, sporting greats, political trailblazers and household names who passed away in 2023. She talks to friends and fans of Tina Turner, Betty Boothroyd, Bobby Charlton, Glenda Jackson and Michael Parkinson about what made these public figures such stars. Kirsty hears contributions from familiar voices, including Beverley Knight and Mark Knopfler, who discuss Tina Turner’s magnetic presence and the impact of her music on their lives, Penny Mordaunt recounts the lasting legacy of Betty Boothroyd on the Houses of Parliament, Stephen Fry recalls what it was like being a guest of the great Michael Parkinson, Bryan Robson gives an insight into the life of footballing hero Bobby Charlton, and Celia Imrie tells the remarkable story of her friendship with Glenda Jackson, who she first met when she was a tea girl and eventually played her daughter in King Lear.
The groundbreaking director, photographer and artist Sir Horace Ové, who died in 2023 aged 86, was best known for his unique work exploring Britain's black culture, using drama and documentary to examine a section of society that was largely overlooked by the mainstream media. The life and career of this true pioneer are remembered by his actor daughter Indra Ové, in a conversation that outlines his commitment to storytelling as seen in his acclaimed 1979 film A Hole in Babylon.
Her life in images
Twenty years on from her triumphant Pop Idol win, household name Michelle McManus reflects on her rollercoaster life and career, from Baillieston barmaid to record-breaking chart-topper with number one hit All This Time. Along the way, Michelle revisits iconic TV talent moments where Scottish stars captured the hearts of the nation on shows such as The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and The Voice.
Rory Bremner looks back at the life and career of Mike Yarwood, master of the imitation game and one of the BBC's most successful stars of the 1970s and 80s.
BBC Sports Editor Dan Roan travels to Jeddah and Riyadh for a rare insight into Saudi Arabia's game-changing sporting investments. Speaking to some of the key figures involved, he asks what lies behind the country's strategy, and what issues it raises for the world of sport.
Actor Simon Russell Beale looks back on the The Hollow Crown, the BBC’s 2012 adaptations of the most vital of Shakespeare’s history plays: Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V. Bringing together a stellar cast that includes Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons, Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville and Sophie Okonedo, The Hollow Crown drew huge praise from critics, and Simon’s acclaimed performance in the role of Falstaff ultimately earned him a Bafta award for Best Supporting Actor. Here, Simon shares his behind-the-scenes insights into how the production came together, his memories of working with his fellow actors and the challenge of bringing Shakespeare to life for a 21st-century television audience.
Zoë Wanamaker remembers the 1982 BBC adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s first play, Baal, in which she appeared with David Bowie.
Dame Helen Mirren looks back on one of her earliest television roles, filmed before she’d become a household name and international star, playing Rosalind in the BBC’s 1978 production of the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It. She shares her thoughts on the potential that As You Like It’s playing with gender could have for today’s audiences, reflects on the quality of the roles Shakespeare wrote for women and explains why she thinks the Bard will be as significant in 100 years’ time as he is today.
Stephen Poliakoff introduces his drama about an unexpected pact between two women.
In 1964, a young Steven Berkoff was cast in one of his earliest screen roles, as a junior player in Hamlet in Elsinore, a BBC co-production with Danish television. Shot in Denmark by director Philip Saville, it starred Christopher Plummer as Hamlet and Michael Caine, in his only Shakespeare role, as Horatio. Here, Berkoff shares his memories of the production and how he got involved, gives his verdict on how the film stands up today, and describes - as only he can - the excitement and inspiration he felt from watching Plummer and Caine at work.
Dame Sian Phillips looks back on Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood and her own experiences with the various adaptions that have brought perhaps the world’s most celebrated ‘play for voices’ to cinema and television audiences. She recalls the BBC’s 2014 version that brought together a huge range of Welsh talent, including Tom Jones, Matthew Rhys, Charlotte Church, Michael Sheen and Katherine Jenkins. She also looks further back, sharing the story of her encounters with Dylan Thomas and her part in the 1972 film, which saw her working alongside the great Richard Burton, his wife Elizabeth Taylor and her then-husband Peter O’Toole.
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies explains how his lifelong dream of bringing A Midsummer Night’s Dream to television ultimately became a reality. He talks through his casting choices, from Maxine Peake and Nonso Anozie as Titania and Oberon, to Matt Lucas and Elaine Paige as Bottom and Mistress Quince, and Bernard Cribbins in what would be his final role, playing Snout. Russell talks about the decision to set the play’s events inside a fascist dictatorship ruled over by John Hannah’s evil Theseus and discusses how his cast and crew managed to create such a well-received adaptation of one of the Bard’s best-loved works - believing that the final ten minutes in particular contains moments he will remain proud of forever.
Actors Damian Lewis and Matthew Macfayden and director Peter Kosminsky reunite to look back on 1999’s BBC drama Warriors and the roles that first set Lewis and Macfayden on the road to international success. The acclaimed series examined the role of British soldiers working as UN peacekeepers in Bosnia, confronting the moral realities of war and the horrors of ethnic cleansing. Damian, Matthew and Peter share the stories behind the making of the programme, from casting process to location filming, and how cast and crew let off steam to help deal with the harrowing storylines. They also discuss the critical response, how the series stands up today and why, for all three of them, Warriors remains a career highlight even over two decades later. Les
Hugh Quarshie looks back on his highly praised interpretation of Othello in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2015 production, directed by Iqbal Khan. He considers the extra responsibility a black actor must take on with a role that for centuries was played only by white performers wearing make-up. He recalls how he made the decision to join the cast after years of turning the play down and examines the frequently asked question ‘Is Othello a racist play?’, drawing on his experiences playing the Moor of Venice for his own conclusion.
Actress Margi Clarke looks back on the BBC’s popular 1980s comedy drama series Making Out, written by Debbie Horsfield. Acclaimed for being a celebration of working women in the north of England, the series followed the ups and downs of life on the factory floor at the fictional New Lyne Electrics building in Manchester. Margi returns to the hotel where the cast and crew stayed while filming, reveals a selection of behind-the-scenes stories and shares her memories of playing Queenie, the brassy blonde who took no nonsense from the bosses while taking everything she could get from the system.
Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio looks back on the first drama he wrote and the start of his extraordinary journey from junior doctor to award-winning TV showrunner. The acclaimed 1994 series 'Cardiac Arrest' featured a cast of then unknown actors, including future Friends star Helen Baxendale, and captured the realities of life working on a hospital ward in 90s Britain. Jed recalls what motivated him to become more than just a series advisor to the point where he ended up taking over script-writer duties; the controversy around the series that saw even the then Health Secretary getting involved, and the real-life stresses he's experienced as a doctor that made their way into the scripts.
Award-winning director and screenwriter Sir Richard Eyre looks back on his 2018 production of King Lear, which garnered huge critical acclaim upon its release and drew together a stellar cast that included Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent and the then up-and-coming talent of Florence Pugh. Eyre looks back on the challenges he faced when directing such a multitude of star names and the pressures that a screenwriter takes on when choosing to adapt one of the greatest stage plays of all time to the big screen.
When the BBC’s long-running Silent Witness first combined doctors, DNA and detective work back in 1996, nobody could have known that the show that changed the way death was examined in a crime drama would itself be alive and thriving well over 25 years later. Fundamental to that longevity was Amanda Burton, whose portrayal of the show’s original lead character Dr Sam Ryan helped establish the early success of the series. Here, Amanda takes a scalpel to the show’s early days, remembers what it was like playing Sam for eight years and shares her thoughts on how and why Silent Witness became the television institution that it remains today.
Sir Derek Jacobi remembers the landmark 1976 TV series I, Claudius.
Acclaimed conductor Marin Alsop shares her experiences of the legendary West Side Story composer and explains why he is such a significant figure in the world of music.
Sir David Attenborough investigates the discovery of a lifetime: the giant skull of a prehistoric sea monster, known as a pliosaur – the Tyrannosaurus rex of the seas!
Dame Darcey Bussell introduces us to a gem from the BBC’s dance archives, The Magic of Dance, presented by celebrated ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn.
Peaky Blinders writer and creator Steven Knight and choreographer Benoit Swan Pouffer of the celebrated Rambert Dance Company discuss the collaboration that resulted in one of the most unexpected and tantalising stage productions of recent years: Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby.
Penelope Keith casts an affectionate eye back on the much-loved sitcom To the Manor Born and her role as upper-class Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, who finds herself down on her luck and forced to change her circumstances and home after the death of her husband. Penelope tells the story behind how the comedy came into being, what it was like working with fellow cast members Angela Thorne and Peter Bowles, and the challenges she faced taking on a new role after the huge success she’d enjoyed playing Margo in The Good Life.
A truth universally acknowledged is that screenwriter Andrew Davies is one of television’s great ‘adapters’, and here he discusses one of his most successful literary challenges and how he turned Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice into the costume drama series that had a whole nation of viewers gripped. Andrew looks back on how he first approached the novel, describes his processes and explains how he came to make Colin Firth’s Mr Darcey take a swim in a lake without taking his shirt off, thereby creating one of television’s most iconic scenes.
Award-winning wildlife cameraman Vianet Djenguet has been invited by a team of conservationists from the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in Democratic Republic of the Congo to closely document their effort to protect the eastern lowland gorilla, a critically endangered great ape and the largest primate on earth. By living amongst this group of our primate kin for three months, will the habituation of this gorilla family, coupled with Vianet’s extraordinary journey, succeed in the effort to save the eastern lowland gorillas from extinction?
In 2017, a routine archaeological dig is taking place on the site of a proposed housing development in the village of Fenstanton in the Cambridgeshire Fens. When human remains are found alongside a variety of Roman artefacts, none of the team at Albion Archaeology see anything out of the ordinary. But once the bones are washed back at HQ, something highly unusual is uncovered: a nail through the heelbone of one of the individuals. Could this be evidence of a Roman crucifixion? When they do some research, they find that only one confirmed example has ever been unearthed before, discovered in the 1960s in Jerusalem. To find out more, they call in renowned osteoarchaeologist Dr Corinne Duhig to investigate.
Twenty-two-year-old Ellie Williams was jailed for lying about being trafficked and raped by a vicious Asian grooming gang. Now, for the first time, the truth is laid open.
Orson Welles was the genius who changed the face of cinema with his 1941 directorial debut, Citizen Kane, and who became one of the key artistic figures of the 20th century – a great raconteur as well as a great artist, and larger than life in every sense. In 1982, Welles was the focus of a two-part BBC documentary that told the story of his life, The Orson Welles Story, and here, its producer, Alan Yentob, looks back on his encounters with this giant of a man, telling the tale of their behind-the-scenes dealings and explaining why he believes Welles’s legacy is still significant today and why he will always deserve his reputation as a genius of cinema.
With the Doomsday Clock the closest it's ever been to midnight, Jane Corbin investigates the proliferation of nuclear weapons across the globe and the breakdown of systems of constraint.
BBC Arabic's Nawal Al-Maghafi reveals how the UAE hired mercenaries to conduct targeted assassinations of its political enemies in Yemen, with American mercenaries starting the killings in 2015.
How and why has Pep Guardiola been able to revolutionise football? This documentary offers a deep dive into Pep’s relentless pursuit of perfection and the methods and motivations that have led him to leave a lasting imprint on the beautiful game.
In 1965, a young Waris Hussein was perhaps the only experienced Indian director working in British television and was horrified when he discovered that the BBC was planning a TV adaptation of EM Forster’s A Passage to India without him at the helm. As luck would have it, a twist of fate meant he did end up in the director’s chair. Waris shares fond memories of his experiences, describing the filming challenges involved in portraying a true sense of India, recalling what it was like working with a stellar cast that included the likes of Dame Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusak and Virginia McKenna, and outlining the pressure to do full justice to one of the great novels of the 20th century.
Dougray Scott delves into Scotland's pivotal role in creating modern football. He examines how Scotland laid the groundwork for the modern style of football and uncovers the story of the early pioneers who created passing and running as a game-changing strategy that would see Scotland dominate football. The documentary also brings to the fore those iconic Scottish players and influential figures who were instrumental in shaping football’s modern framework. From the pioneering tactics of influential clubs such as Queen's Park FC to the inspirational leadership of players like Andrew Watson, Scotland's first black international footballer, who captained the Scotland squad in 1881.
A film exploring how growing up in post-Second World War Belfast, the city’s thriving music scene in the 1960s and the onset of the Troubles shaped Gerald Dawe's life and work.
A film profile of Belfast poet Michael Longley, offering insights into his work, friendships, working process, the places that have inspired him and his relationship with the natural world.
Úna Monaghan explores the opportunities that arise when traditional folk music is confronted with new ideas, breaking all the rules. A new feature-length documentary follows the Belfast harpist, composer and sound engineer as she records her latest experimental album, Aonaracht. Úna has spent a lifetime steering the course between science and art, examining the intersections between Irish traditional music, experimental music, improvisation and interactive technologies. Influenced by the work of John Cage, Úna has made the form her own. Aonaracht is one of her most ambitious projects to date, and Úna must now convince other top traditional musicians to embrace the art form she is pioneering: recording an album of solo performances with electronics.
Colin Harper’s books, music and record company work are more or less unrecognised for their significance to world music in his homeplace of Northern Ireland. Colin works mostly from a tiny box room in east Belfast, and his studio collective, The Legends of Tomorrow, have never played live. This quietly brilliant writer and musician has many fans in the music world, including Bono, Johnny Marr, John McLaughlin and Martin Hayes, as well as a host of other great local and international musicians.
This is the story of 15 men and women and one life-changing year on the front line of the most divisive conflict of a generation: the 1984 miners' strike. This documentary tells the story of this year-long conflict by combining archive footage with deeply personal testimony from striking and working miners, their families and the police - with many speaking for the first time.
An uplifting insight into the lives of seven-year-old conjoined twins, who weren’t expected to live more than a few days. Cared for by their devoted father, the girls have defied all medical expectations and now attend mainstream primary school.
Chronicling the story that transfixed the world in 2018 – the daring rescue of 12 boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. This film shines a light on the high-risk world of cave diving, the astounding courage and compassion of the rescuers and the shared humanity of an international community that united to save the boys.
The murder of a young woman. A botched police inquiry. And the BBC Disclosure investigation that helped catch the killer. As the man who murdered Emma Caldwell is finally brought to justice, reporter Samantha Poling reveals a catalogue of missed opportunities by police to catch him. The inside story on how this left Emma’s murder unsolved for nearly two decades, while a dangerous predator was free to continue raping and assaulting other women.
Dame Siân Phillips is very much still a working actor, even at the remarkable age of 90. Now, the star of television series I, Claudius and ex-wife of Peter O’Toole opens her heart on camera for the first time about her life and career.
In the Sonoran Desert, between Arizona and California, hundreds of migrants crossing from Mexico into the United States lose their way and die, mostly from dehydration, under the 50 degree temperatures of the hottest desert in North America. This border region is the most dangerous land-crossing in the world, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). BBC Mundo followed a group of volunteers, the 'Aguilas del Desierto,' on one of their missions to search for stranded migrants and reach them while alive. The results are not always happy ones.
When a music score is uncovered deep within the storerooms of the Louvre, musical historians scramble to realise the potential of this piece of papyrus. The text's grammatical features give us a clue to the composer's identity: Carcinus, an author cited by Aristotle in his Rhetoric. His name is engraved on a wall in the Parthenon, and the story of his life offers an insight into the history of Greek musicians, who were revered like gods and welcomed across the Mediterranean to take part in competitions modelled on the Olympic Games.
The murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police officer who abducted her as she walked to her home in south London in March 2021 was a watershed moment for the nation. It brought to the fore the devastating issue of male predators within the country's police forces and highlighted the extent of violence against women and girls in British society - an issue recently declared a national priority alongside terrorism and organised crime. This documentary looks at the Met’s investigation into Sarah’s murder, how this devastating crime unfolded and its impact - told by those closely involved in the case from the outset, many of whom are speaking on camera for the first time, including the senior investigating officer, Katherine Goodwin, the prosecuting barrister, Tom Little, and Sarah’s local MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Ten years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board on 8 March 2014, the BBC’s award-winning This World strand looks at whether new radio technology may finally help locate the missing aircraft and asks what lessons can be learned to make aviation safer.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have restricted women's freedoms and rights. Girls and women have protested, but faced a massive crackdown. This film follows two sisters who have started a movement called the Last Torch from the secret of their home to defy the Taliban with the power of their voice. The Last Torch got its inspiration from the women protesting across the country and emerged shortly after the Taliban's takeover of power. The BBC's Kawoon Khamoosh has followed them as they risk their lives to fight for freedom. This documentary also features three generations of female musicians who have been resisting the restrictions imposed on them by various regimes in a deeply conservative society. Farida Mahwash is the only female singer who obtained the title of Ustad (maestro) and speaks about opportunities and challenges for female musicians since the 70s. Sonita Alizada, one of the first female rappers from Afghanistan, has been using her stage to challenge tra
Comedian Geoff Norcott investigates universities to find out if a degree is still worth it. He meets students at war with their institutions and those suing for a refund.
A huge collection of the Russian and Ukrainian art was put on sale in Europe. Paintings were sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds and made their way into European and American museums. It was said to include over 200 oil paintings of some of the most treasured Russian and Ukrainian constructivist artists, such El Lissitzky, Exter, Goncharova, Popova and others, putting it among the largest in the world.
Chabuddy G has some tremendous news for Kurupt FM. Tracking MC Grindah to his post round and DJ Beats at the bowling alley where he works, he informs them of the success of Bang, Bang, their most popular track. It is being used as the theme tune for a Japanese TV game show, and the gang have been offered a tour in Japan.
Forty years ago, one of the longest and most hostile industrial disputes Britain had ever seen erupted across the country. Coal miners from all over Wales took to the picket lines to save their pits and their jobs. But it wasn’t just the men who decided to fight.
Zara McDermott heads to the USA and the small town of Moscow, Idaho to find out about the tragic murders of four students and the global online manhunt that followed their deaths.
The story of a teenage road death told by his family and first responders.
In 1980, two Cork outsiders, Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan, met at a New Year's Eve party. Bonding over music, a friendship and songwriting partnership was ignited; the band they formed, Microdisney, was one of the best bands of the 1980s that you’ve probably never heard. Mixing Sean’s stunning melodic arrangements with Cathal’s poetic, angry lyrics, they recorded three brilliant LPs, gained critical adulation and an obsessive cult following. But a hit single eluded them, as did radio play and LP sales. By 1988, frustrated by their lack of progress, the band crashed and burned, leaving a trail of acrimony and broken friendships.
Anita Brookner, art historian, TV presenter and author of the Booker Prize-winning Hotel du Lac, added to her accomplishments in the 1980s by sharing with television audiences her understanding and appreciation for some of the finest works by the world’s greatest ever painters.
Jordan North asks, should I quit vaping? Is it bad for me or not? To find out, he uncovers the truth about vaping, and discovers there’s a lot he didn’t know.
New research in India suggests heat can double the risk of stillbirth and miscarriage. It comes as the World Health Organisation warns that pregnant women and babies face some of 'the gravest consequences of all' as a result of climate change. The BBC's global health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar reports from southern India.
Forty years after the miners' strike, this documentary tells the story of Polmaise Colliery, whose workers were the first to walk out and the last to go back to work. Hearing from miners who were on the frontline, and family members and journalists who covered the strike, this documentary reveals the inside story of the miners who went on strike for 56 weeks to save the last village pit in Scotland.
A single Ukrainian infantry company find themselves in a life or death battle to defend the eastern front against intense Russian attacks. This is an extraordinary portrait of lives compromised by the turmoil of Europe’s bloodiest war in living memory, filmed by Ukrainian soldiers. With exclusive access to a tightly controlled frontline, the film follows the mission of a special battalion as they undertake a single deployment on one of Ukraine’s most violent battlefronts, a snow-covered forest near Kupyansk. Their mission is to defend a railway line, a key strategic asset that, if captured, will enable Russia to mount a direct attack on Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv.
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of same-sex marriage in England and Wales, Tom Allen explores the fight for equal marriage and arranges a dream wedding for one lucky couple.
The true story of a strange, lost film. In 1972, the IRA allowed an unusual documentary crew to film its members carrying out attacks. Right at the bloodiest point of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA bombers were filmed unmasked, and most of its underground leadership appeared on camera. The film looked like a propaganda coup, before disappearing and going largely unseen for almost 50 years, with the IRA never allowing anything like it to happen again. The unearthing of the film sets Darragh MacIntyre off in search of the men who made it, the bombers who willingly showed their faces on camera, and the reason for its disappearance. In doing so, he finds himself following the footprints of spies.
Alan Yentob shares the fascinating story of how the 1974 broadcast of the great Ella Fitzgerald singing in Ronnie Scott’s nightclub came about. In a tale of tenacity combined with new camera technology, Alan recounts how, as a young TV producer, he managed to persuade Ella’s manager to let the BBC film Ella in full flight at London’s home of jazz, capturing forever what is now considered to be a performance of true musical significance.
Mother, fighter and visionary photographer - Tish Murtha emerged from the north east in Thatcher's Britain to expose the struggles and triumphs of her local community. Tish's daughter, Ella, uncovers her poignant story in this heartfelt documentary, piecing together a portrait of a woman who wielded her camera as a tool to celebrate overlooked working-class lives and to strive for social change. Tragically, Tish died aged 56, her work relatively unknown, but now, Ella unlocks the doors to her mother's long-hidden archive. Inside, a treasure trove of unseen images, personal artefacts, letters and diaries awaits, revealing the true essence of this enigmatic artist.
Actors William Gaunt and Marcia Warren reunite for a look back at No Place Like Home, the BBC sitcom that ran from 1983 to 1987, and which made them two of the most popular TV stars of the day. William played Arthur Crabtree, a father of four who is looking forward to the freedom of having his children finally leave home, now struggling to come to terms with the realisation that their fleeing the nest seems increasingly unlikely to ever happen. Marcia was the Crabtree’s nosey, noisy and animal-obsessed neighbour Vera Botting – another fly in Arthur’s ointment. Off screen, William and Marcia were firm friends, who now come together to remember their experiences of making the series and share some fond memories of life behind the scenes on a hit TV comedy.
Acclaimed screenwriter Paul Abbott tells the story behind the creation of his 2000 Bafta-winning drama series Clocking Off, which ran for four series until 2003. Set in a Manchester textile factory, each episode focused on the home life, relationships and struggles of a different individual character. The series was notable for its incredible casting, featuring an ensemble of some of the biggest stars of the day and an impressive selection of young actors who would go on to become some of television’s most recognisable faces. Among a long list of acting talent were the likes of Sarah Lancashire, Siobhan Finneran, Christopher Eccleston, John Simm, Philip Glenister, Maxine Peake, Diane Parish, Lesley Sharp and Sophie Okonedo. Paul looks back on how he and the team managed to bring them together with a collection of stories that captured the experiences of the north of England at the turn of the century, and made for truly compelling viewing.
The Assembly sees a cast of 35 interviewers who are autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled, question an A-list celebrity for one extraordinary TV interview.
As ABBA mark 50 years since winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, it's time to take another voyage into the archives for more of the Swedish supergroup’s best BBC moments. As well as looking back, this collection brings things right up to date, capturing the excitement and sounds of their recent, technologically pioneering stage shows. Sitting alongside the new material are plenty of classics that highlight Benny and Bjorn’s fondness for a song title that repeats itself: Ring, Ring, Honey, Honey, Money, Money, Money and I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do. And there's also an exclusive performance of the song So Long, which had been lost from the BBC archives and was assumed to be missing forever but has been recovered and restored and is shown again here for the first time since its original transmission in 1974.
With previously unheard interviews with the band and new interviews with those who met them, this is the story of ABBA’s love affair with the UK since their Eurovision triumph.
Comedian, actor and writer Paul Black is also one of Scotland's biggest stars, thanks to his 350,000+ ardent followers. For this programme, Paul has taken the brave decision to hand his influencing powers over to all of them. They have enthusiastically answered his online post, suggesting an array of wild, wonderful and dangerous challenges that they want to see him undertake – all with the aim of generating some hilarious content.
Victoria Uwonkunda returns to Rwanda for the first time since fleeing the 1994 genocide. Tracing back her escape route from the capital Kigali to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Victoria speaks to survivors of the violence - both victims and perpetrators - to find out how the country is healing through reconciliation and forgiveness.
With unique insights in epic locations and interpretations of ancient inscriptions and artefacts, Mary Beard uncovers the hidden world of the emperors of Rome.
Exploring community, tradition, love and friendship, this warm, compelling and ultimately moving documentary – with unprecedented access to the UK’s south Asian community – follows aunties Rubina, Ghazala and Tahera attempting to pull out all the stops as they head towards an all-singing, all-dancing coach trip. All in the name of preserving their Asian culture for the next generation.
From daring landings to rescuing plane crash survivors, here are nine nail-biting moments
Marking the 30th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, this documentary uses powerful and unseen archive footage to demystify the tragic moment when the Nirvana frontman took his own life.
Chef and rapper Big Zuu makes a pilgrimage to Mecca on a personal spiritual journey to try and understand more about his faith and what it means to be 'a good Muslim'.
Dame Eileen Atkins takes us back to 1920s France and a fantastic world of foul play, chateaus, dungeons and fast cars in Tom Sharpe’s 1978 adaptation of Dornford Yates's She Fell Among Thieves. Atkins’s performance as the villainous Vanity Fair, where she starred alongside Malcolm McDowell, was among the most sinister and scene-chewing of her career. Here, she recalls how this tale of mystery and murder was brought to life by the deadly femme fatale who always had her claws out and her tongue wedged firmly in her cheek.
Siân Phillips is joined by directors Moira Armstrong and Waris Hussein to look back on the 1974 drama series that told the story of the birth of the women’s suffrage movement.
The numbers of people using and getting addicted to ketamine has more than doubled since 2016 in England and Wales, with other countries around the world reporting similar increases. Many of them are under 25. In this film, Rachel Stonehouse finds out more about why are so many young people getting addicted to ketamine, and what support is available to help them.
Mary Beard delivers a personal introduction to Kenneth Clark’s landmark 1969 series, Civilisation, which became one of the most acclaimed and influential programmes ever made.
Four young people on the cusp of adulthood prepare for one of the biggest nights of their lives – their Bar and Bat Mitzvah – balancing culture, religion and the chance to party.
Passionate about boxing's transformative power, Sikh coach Pops trains men and women at the MLSS Boxing Academy in Walsall, West Midlands, to combat street crime and bullying.
As the first Monday in May approaches, here's everything you need to know about the Met Gala: from how celebrities get on that elusive guest list to the outrageous outfits that go viral.
Isobel Yeung navigates gun battles, combat raids and secretive meetings deep inside the occupied West Bank. What she finds raises serious questions about the conduct of the Israeli military.
Salman Rushdie speaks to Alan Yentob about the devastating knife attack he was subjected to in 2022, losing his right eye and almost his ability to write.
2024 is the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s iconic performance and victory at Eurovision. With the contest taking place in Sweden, this film celebrates that historic occasion by telling the epic story of ABBA’s greatest period of musical achievement.
When a mutant gene causing Alzheimer’s is discovered in the Jennings family, it leads scientists on a journey to develop a cure and leaves family members with a terrible dilemma.
A documentary on assisted suicide, authored by actor and disability rights activist Liz Carr.
Britain’s 'hero' plumber and his acts of kindness earned him an army of fans and millions of pounds in donations. Now, a BBC News investigation exposes his company’s misleading social media posts and he’s begging the public for forgiveness. (BBC)
From the Paris suburbs to the pinnacle of football, this documentary explores Kylian Mbappe’s once-in-a-generation talent while uncovering what led him to become one of the best players in the world.
Insects are vital to life on our planet, yet almost 40 per cent of known species are in danger of extinction. This film explores the eye-opening realm of these creatures to better understand how they evolved.
Crime writer Ian Rankin investigates The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's nightmare in September 1885, Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretches back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, hallucinatory drugs and prostitution all play their part in the disturbing account of Henry Jekyll's double-life, as Rankin's journey takes him into the yeasty draughts and unlit closes of the city that inspired the tale - Edinburgh.
Film following Cumbria's red squirrels throughout the seasons and revealing the work of some of the many people who ensure they continue to thrive and survive.
Eighty years on, Rachel Burden traces the stories of the UK's D-Day veterans in Normandy and hears their memories of the massive beach invasion and the battles that followed.
From the Mona Lisa to The Scream, here are 13 of the world's most famous art heists.
Italy, founder of fascism, still tolerates its sympathies. Is its government allowing the past to live on? With the far right set to gain in European elections, is the extreme becoming mainstream?
The definitive story of the 12 days that changed Wayne Rooney’s life forever. Told first-hand, 20 years on, Wayne reflects on the highs and lows of Euro 2004 in Portugal, a tournament that saw 18-year-old Rooney catapult himself into international superstardom. Loved instantly by England fans for his passion and ferocious will to win, Rooney shocked European football from the opening match against France, stunning the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry with his incredible performances. Michael Owen, a key member of England’s golden generation and a player who experienced his own teenage breakthrough at the 1998 World Cup, gives his own account of sharing the pitch with Rooney, whose four goals in the first three games had England believing this could be their time. But against hosts Portugal in the quarter-final, disaster struck, and Rooney was forced off with a broken foot after 27 minutes. Made to watch his team’s painful exit on penalties from a Portuguese hospital b
For millions of children in Ukraine, life has been transformed by Russia's invasion. Three young people tell their stories of coping with the physical and mental strains of war.
Dame Helen Mirren looks back on her role in Dennis Potter's seminal 1979 TV drama.
A tribute to the life of Rob Burrow.
The Vasa, the majestic Swedish galleon, sank just after setting off on her maiden voyage. One of the most majestic galleons ever to put to sea, the Vasa sank 18 minutes after leaving Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage in 1628. The loss of the Vasa was a major setback for Sweden's ambitions to become a power in the Baltic during a turbulent period of European history. Three centuries ater, in 1961, the wreck of the Vasa was raised. Remarkably well-preserved by the mud and water in the Baltic Sea, she is a 17th-century time machine.
Carla Lane’s Butterflies was one of the best-loved sitcoms of the 1970s, following the life of frustrated housewife Ria, living in a male-dominated household with her husband Ben and two sons, Adam and Russell, and tempted by the potential excitement of an affair with successful businessman Leonard. Wendy Craig starred as Ria, and here she looks back fondly on her experiences working with Carla Lane and the cast, the response from male viewers to the possibility that Ria might commit adultery, and how she became television’s most notoriously dreadful cook, yet still managed to publish a best-selling cookbook.
On the eve of D-Day, a tribute to the fallen from Bayeux War Cemetery and Southsea Common, Portsmouth, featuring lighting displays, readings and music. Hosted by Kirsty Young.
Fighting to prove his innocence, Andrew Malkinson tells the shocking story of how he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a horrific crime he didn’t commit.
Documentary looking at Gordon Welchman, a codebreaker crucial to the allies defeating the Nazis in World War II. Filmed extensively at Bletchley Park.
From photobombing presidents to Westminster turf wars: Larry's most mischievous moments.
Scotland manager Steve Clarke sits down with BBC Sport Scotland's Tom English for an in-depth interview that provides a rare insight into the experiences and influences that shaped his career. Clarke talks about his formative years, moving to Chelsea with a young family, management and what it means to lead the Scottish national team to this summer's European Championships in Germany.
Director Renny Rye looks back on Karaoke, the 1996 drama written by Dennis Potter, which was part of a unique collaboration between the BBC and Channel 4.
Rory Gallagher was the original Irish guitar hero, whose artistry with a battered ’61 Stratocaster became the stuff of legend. Bob Dylan and Muddy Waters admired him, the Rolling Stones tried to hire him - and his fans worshipped him. Clad in faded denim and a checked shirt, he sold 30 million records and became a charismatic icon of Irish music, inspiring musicians such as Brian May, The Edge, Slash and Johnny Marr.
Documentary exploring how new evidence is challenging everything we thought we knew about Easter Island and the nearly 900 giant stone statues scattered across this remote Pacific island.
Don Warrington, who plays Police Commissioner Selwyn Patterson, joins writer and producer Tony Jordan to look back on the origins of long-running series Death in Paradise.
Michael Mosley transformed the lives of millions of people. In this programme, we look back at an extraordinary broadcasting career which spanned almost 40 years. Fronting series such as Trust Me I’m a Doctor and the hit podcast Just One Thing, Michael used his warm, often funny approach to deliver important, life-changing health messages.
Three years ago, Myanmar's transition to democracy was cut short by a military coup, but now the junta faces a reckoning from a rebellion threatening its rule across the country.
Are masked men responsible for people dying as they try to cross the Mediterranean? This film reveals the dark secret hidden behind the beauty of Greece’s holiday islands.
From how to register to where to vote, here's what you should know before election day.
Katy Cavanagh-Jupe and John Henshaw look back on their experiences acting in the acclaimed hard-hitting and uncompromising BBC series The Cops.
Using fascinating archive from Andy Murray’s life and career, this programme is an in-depth exploration of his incredible journey from Dunblane to becoming a sporting legend.
Dame Eileen Atkins tells the story of her lifelong fascination with Virginia Woolf and recalls how she took on the challenge of adapting Woolf's Mrs Dalloway for the big screen.
A tale of ambition, greed and speculation on the art world’s digital frontier, as a get-rich-quick scheme spirals out of control. Told by those at the heart of the drama.
From euphoric wins to heartbreaking injuries, nine extraordinary sporting moments.
On 12 August 2021, a 22-year-old Jake Davison shot and killed five people in a quiet cul-de-sac in Plymouth before turning the gun on himself. It was the worst mass shooting on British soil in over a decade and the first of the digital age.
As thousands of steelworkers’ jobs hang in the balance, the town of Port Talbot is facing a crisis. We go back 15 years to catch up with those who fought to keep the plant open to see what lessons can be learned. Will any election promises be enough to save the town, or have they arrived too late?
The number of children in care is on the rise. But can one council do things differently, and keep families together?
From its first appearance on our screens in 2000, Waking the Dead had viewers gripped by the activities of Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd and the ‘cold case’ unit he led, investigating unsolved murders from the past with the help of the forensics and psychological profiling experts within his team. Playing DS Boyd over nine series and for eleven years was actor Trevor Eve, who here casts his own forensic eye over the past - looking back on how the series came together, explaining the psychology needed to stay fresh in a high profile role for such a sustained period of time, and analysing what it was like to be part of a series that was such a hit with audiences in the UK and across the world for so long.
From Ed Davey making a splash in 2024 to Theresa May running through those fields of wheat; 10 wild election moments.
Law and Order’s writer and creator GF Newman looks back on both the 1978 BBC crime drama and the controversy surrounding it.
Documentary profile paying homage to the world’s most performed living composer, Sir Karl Jenkins, who turned 80 in 2024. His work has touched the hearts of millions globally, transcending traditional genre boundaries. The film incorporates footage from throughout his career to give a complete insight into the many influences on his music: from the Methodist hymn-singing of his Welsh chapel upbringing to his recent commission of a saxophone concerto for Jess Gillam, which is being performed at this year’s BBC Proms. We accompany Karl as he visits, for the first time in 50 years, his grandfather’s town in Sweden, where he spent much of his early childhood. We hear from his colleagues, his fans, fellow musicians and friends and from the man himself as he looks back over an incredible career in music making. This programme celebrates the man, his phenomenal music and yes, that famous moustache.
An attempt to kill former US President Donald Trump, which injured him, shocked the US and made headlines around the world. Gary O’Donoghue was reporting live from the rally where the presidential nominee came under fire. He examines what we know so far and asks: What went wrong and how did the former president, a current White House contender, come under fire while under secret service protection?
Daley Thompson takes an epic journey told from around the world to tell the story of the complex man behind one of the greatest all around athletes the world has ever seen.
Historian, author and presenter David Olusoga looks back on how his 2015 documentary Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners helped shine a light on the extent of Britain's involvement in the slave trade and the repercussions that has had on our country right up to modern day. David looks at how research undertaken by a team at University College London revealed the true extent of the number of people in Britain who owned enslaved people, and how it was actually far more widespread than anyone had previously realised. He also emphasises that many people were unaware that the compensation paid at the end of slavery was not to the slaves themselves, but to their owners. David discusses how the documentary acted as a precursor to the toppling of statues of slave owners around the UK and how it helped facilitate a wider dialogue about how we should look more critically and openly as a nation at our past in order to move forward.
Documentary about one of America's most controversial figures, Kyle Rittenhouse.
Actor Richard Harrington looks back on his role as DCI Tom Mathias in Hinterland, the acclaimed crime drama set in Aberystwyth that took a groundbreaking approach to language barriers and inclusivity by filming the entire series in both English and Welsh. Richard outlines the challenges that presented for him and recalls how Hinterland’s gorgeous cinematography and scenes, filmed in some of Wales’s most extraordinary landscapes, elevated the series into something truly special. He also recalls the show’s dramatic impact on his own personal circumstances - helping to inspire his love of cross-country running at a time when it helped him deal with a family tragedy, and as the setting for meeting the fellow cast member who would eventually become his partner and soulmate.
On the evening of 2 June 2023, a devastating crash involving three trains killed nearly 300 people and injured more than 800 at Bahanaga Bazar station in India’s eastern Odisha state, as two passenger trains collided with a freight train. What caused one of the worst train disasters in modern history? This film forensically examines what went wrong and asks whether it could have been prevented and if enough is being done globally to ensure our railways are safe.
Actor Will Mellor, star of the TV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, takes a journey across England to meet some of the real-life subpostmasters whose lives have been torn apart by injustice (after being wrongly accused of theft).
In medical science, there’s been no longer harder fight than against malaria. This is the inside story of a historic new vaccine - from the Oxford lab behind the COVID jab.
Amanda Redman, James Bolam and Alun Armstrong, who formed the first incarnation of UCOS (Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad), look back on police comedy drama series New Tricks.
Courage, love and loss. Young people risk their lives with self-funded missions to rescue families in Ukraine’s frontline towns. Told through their own words and unique first-person footage.
100m Olympic champion Linford Christie is one of Britain’s most successful athletes. Now, he’s confronting his complicated legacy, in a story about race, respect and reputation.
Celebrated director Richard Eyre looks back at the period drama Country, Trevor Griffiths's powerful and prescient play, which Eyre directed for television in 1981.
Sarah Dawkins follows former Olympic Champion Chris Boardman and team on a cycle from Manchester in the UK to Paris, covering more than 800km in eight days ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In October 2018, with Donald Trump's political godfather Roger Stone as his central character, film-maker Christoffer Guldbrandsen set out to follow the Make America Great Again movement. Where was the world’s most powerful democracy heading, and why were so many Americans seemingly turning on each other? Fuelled by Stone’s sloganeering, the film follows the movement to a violent climax on the steps of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, where lives were lost and hundreds were injured. The 2020 election ended in vicious disarray, but where does Guldbrandsen think the future lies? 'As to the events I witnessed, I believe they were only the beginning. A warning of what is yet to come.'
Immersive documentary exploring the rise of Gustave Eiffel at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and chronicling his architectural adventure in building France's famous landmark.
Combining their personal accounts with archive footage, this film features a number of voices from some of the only people left on earth to have survived a nuclear bomb.
Actor Peter Davison provides an insight into the iconic 1989-1990 mystery drama series Campion, the BBC’s adaptation of Margery Allingham’s celebrated set of detective novels.
A group of academics and activists are questioning the possibility of endless economic growth on a finite planet and are advocating for a bold solution: degrowth. Originating in France, the degrowth movement has spread to places like Japan, the UK and Barcelona, taking root in academia, grassroots organisations and among university students. The movement argues for a 'democratisation of the economy' and for collectively managing key resources, like housing. Critics argue that opposing economic growth is impractical and warn of negative consequences, especially for the most vulnerable. We take a look at the theory - and ask what the practice might look like.
A look back at key moments from the 2024 Olympic Games.
An epic 50-year story of an Indian tiger clan and its five most charismatic and powerful tigresses.
From tweets to takeovers, here are nine times the billionaire broke the internet.
Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small look back on popular crime series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and their characters' unique clash-of-class relationship.
Is it really possible to make a living as a professional poker player when there is a family to support? This documentary follows players to Prague, Monte Carlo, Dublin and Las Vegas to find out.
From tornados to wildfires, a look back at extreme weather that impacted the country.
Money, art, politics: what we know about how the secret Banksy empire works.
Ten years ago, Sir Brian May began a campaign to stop the UK badger cull and uncover the truth behind the spread of bovine TB. But would anyone listen to a 'ranting rockstar'?
Powerfully honest documentary following Strictly pro Amy Dowden’s battle for her health, a future family and a return to dance after a breast cancer diagnosis blows apart her world.
Losing your hair can be life-changing. For the first time medication for the hair-loss condition alopecia areata will be available on the NHS. More than 100,000 people in the UK live with this type of condition. We go on a journey to meet those keen to try the new drug, those who aren’t and those who think the new drug could, potentially, save lives
Against the backdrop of the presidential election, 27 year-old British journalist Layla Wright travels from her hometown in Liverpool to the US, to meet a new wave of women using social media platforms and podcasts to champion extreme views on social media, including content that is increasingly shocking and, surprisingly, anti-feminist.
Line of Duty creator, writer and showrunner, Jed Mercurio, and leading cast member Martin Compston grill each other on their personal memories of the BBC’s record-breaking cop corruption series.
Hundreds of former rugby players are lining up to say head injuries have destroyed their lives. The players are accusing the sport’s governing bodies of failing to look after their welfare after the sport went professional. Many of them have been left suffering from long term brain conditions such as dementia, motor neurone disease and Parkinson’s. In this programme, Joe Crowley investigates whether enough has been done to protect players from the devastating impacts of concussions and repeated knocks to the head and whether parents can be sure their children will be safe playing rugby at school. As a group legal case gathers momentum, the rugby authorities tell us they will defend the allegations vigorously and explain how they have taken steps to improve player welfare in the modern era, using the best available science.
Writer Sally Wainwright looks back on the origins of her Bafta-winning drama Happy Valley, which first appeared on the nation’s TV screens in 2014.
For 20 years Strictly Come Dancing has dominated Saturday night TV. But in the summer of 2024, the dance contest became a headline act in the tabloids – for all the wrong reasons. This programme has been updated after the publication of a BBC review into Amanda Abbington's complaints about her professional dance partner Giovanni Pernici.
Director Peter Kosminsky reflects on the lessons to be learned from his 2002 BBC drama The Project, which told the fictional story of the MPs and activists behind Labour’s election victory in 1997.
As fans prepare for the arrival of series nine of the BBC’s long-running crime drama Shetland, actor Alison O’Donnell takes an affectionate look back at the series.
A BBC investigation into allegations of rape and attempted rape by Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods. Did the luxury store protect a billionaire predator?
For seven years, vulnerable victims were trafficked by a gang into the UK and forced to work making food for some of the country’s biggest brands across London and the east of England. In their own words, victims tell the story of a shocking case of modern slavery.
Having faced criticism for keeping exotic animals in his home, 19-year-old TikTok star Kyle Thomas teams up with a small wildlife park owner to build a zoo.
Kris got a late cancer diagnosis but was determined to prevent it happening to others. This documentary shows how her infectious energy, drive and ambition has left an important legacy.
Actor Philip Glenister and writer and creator Matthew Graham take a trip back in time to reflect on the hugely popular 1970s-set drama series Life on Mars.
Compelling documentary following the search to discover what happened when a secret Royal Navy Q-ship and a German U-boat allegedly sank each other in battle on a fateful February morning in 1917.
The inside story of the search for Nicola Bulley, as told by her family, the police and social media sleuths. Her disappearance sparked a storm of global headlines and online con
Described by Bono as 'the Noel Coward of our generation,’ the singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl would have turned 65 this year had her life not been tragically cut short in December 2000. Signed at the age of just 19 after being the backing singer for a failed punk band, Kirsty went on to write and record songs that spanned genres, including rockabilly, pop and South American. She had hits like A New England and Days and sang a key part in one of the nation’s favourite Christmas songs, Fairytale of New York. Respected by those who worked alongside her like Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr, Jools Holland and many others, she has left a legacy that is still valued today. This programmes brings together performances that highlight the wit and intelligence of this unique performer.
Edward Mirzoeff looks back on his time at the helm of one of the most innovative and exciting strands of documentary film-making ever to appear on British television.
A powerful story of a singing sensation, soon better known as Britain’s first high-profile anorexic. A tale of raw talent, parental love and the brutal machinery of fame.
Sir Simon Schama looks back on his first foray into TV presenting, the 1995 BBC series Landscape and Memory, which examined the relationship between nature and art.
Donald Trump and his supporters return to Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman attempted to assassinate the former US president at a rally in July 2024. Gary O’Donoghue was reporting at the rally when the presidential candidate came under fire. Nearly three months after the shooting, he revisits the community to explore the aftermath of what happened, speaking to some of the witnesses he interviewed on the day, and examines the significance of the Republican nominee's return to the city.
A look at the Brighton bombing of 1984, featuring a revealing, in-depth interview with Patrick McGee and new testimony from many of those affected.
Director and producer Mick Jackson looks back to 1984 and shares the story behind the creation of the BBC’s apocalyptic drama Threads.
Angela Rippon looks back on the days when her profession and her passion came together perfectly, through her hosting role on the BBC’s long-running dance series Come Dancing.
Angela Rippon shares her memories of her time working as the main host of the very first series of Top Gear.
Sally Magnusson and her family cared for their mother for many years before her death from dementia. Will she get it too? Does she really want to know?
A film made by four Palestinians living through extraordinary times. Filming from the first days of the war, Khalid, Aya, Adam and Aseel document their own lives as they endure bombing raids, multiple evacuations, family separations and reunions, deaths, and even the birth of a new life amidst the chaos.
Who is the mysterious former waiter with a billion dollars in his pocket? The inside story of a scandal that rocked Hollywood.
Actors Christopher Timothy and Peter Davison share their memories of working on the popular BBC drama series All Creatures Great and Small.
Joan Bakewell looks back on her interview with legendary French artist and sculptor Marcel Duchamp, just months before his death in 1968.
Joan Bakewell looks back on what she describes as the greatest moment of her career, her scoop interview with Nelson Mandela as he left prison in 1990.
Playwright Peter McDougall looks back at his bittersweet Play for Today from 1976, which starred Billy Connolly.
Having narrowly lost the state of Georgia by 11,780 votes, this documentary follows Donald Trump’s increasingly audacious attempts to allegedly overturn the result of the 2020 US Election and how they led to his arrest and impending criminal trial.
Joan Bakewell looks back fondly on her evening spent with the legendary screen actor Bette Davis in 1972. Joan was in awe of such an icon of the golden age of cinema but was careful not to let that put her off the job at hand. She talks about how they bonded backstage, and how Bette made a wonderful interviewee - kind, warm, interesting and totally delighted to speak to an audience of her fans.
Screen legend and Oscar winner Al Pacino looks back on his extraordinary life and career, and shares the stories behind some of his biggest films
David Nicholl’s 2008 adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles provided Gemma Arterton with her first lead role on television. She joined a cast of young talent, including Eddie Redmayne and Jodie Whitaker, as well as established names like Anna Massey and Kenneth Cranham.
Ten soldiers from the Welsh Guards share their untold stories from the frontline of the war in Afghanistan during the bloodiest summer for the British armed forces in a century.
Christopher Eccleston looks back on the 1996 film version of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel, remembering his time working with Kate Winslet, on the cusp of stardom, and director Michael Winterbottom.
Dancers of all kinds take over Swansea’s streets, landmarks, parks and beaches to showcase the city, explore what home means and celebrate the life-enhancing joy of dance. There are solos, duets and ensembles. From ballet, Latin and contemporary to ballroom, breaking, traditional clog and Welsh folk dance. Locations range from Mumbles Pier and skateboard park to Swansea Bay and the dunes, beaches and bays of the Gower peninsula.
Peter Kosminsky, who directed Wolf Hall, looks back on the making of the drama, with anecdotes and insights into his working with the cast and the joy of collaborating with Hilary Mantel.
Sally Nugent sits down with Sir Chris Hoy for his first exclusive television interview since revealing his cancer diagnosis is terminal. The six-time Olympic champion talks about the heartbreaking moment he told his family and the huge response since going public. He shares how he wants to bring hope to others with stage four cancer, and how he wants to raise awareness and testing for prostate cancer.
Professor Mary Beard is known for her explorations of the ancient world, but here looks back on her more recent past, and the making of her acclaimed four-part 2016 series Ultimate Rome.
When a beluga whale turns up wearing a harness printed with the words 'Equipment St Petersburg', speculation breaks out that he may be involved in Russian spying activity.
Acclaimed novelist David Nicholls, perhaps best known for the best-selling One Day, looks back on the 2015 film of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, starring Carey Mulligan.
Don Cupitt, one of Britain’s leading Christian philosophers, marks 40 years since the broadcasting of his seminal 1984 series, The Sea of Faith.
The story of Britain’s postwar atomic weapons programme, its devastating legacy for the thousands of service personnel who took part and the impact on their families and indigenous communities.
Biologist and writer Merlin Sheldrake travels the globe, exploring the world of fungi and unravelling the many secrets of these essential organisms.
Logan Paul, one of the biggest social media influencers in the world, is facing criticism for his role in promoting cryptocurrency projects. Matt Shea investigates the allegations.
Film-maker Poppy Jay meets the Gen Zers leading anti-abortion campaigns. Online, on campuses and on the streets, she finds a movement growing in confidence, profile and money.
Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese introduces a season of films on the BBC by the legendary team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, with an overview of why they resonate so strongly with him.
Launched 30 years ago, Loaded magazine epitomised the 90s in its irreverence and appetite for hedonism. But how did it stand up to pressure to put more 'sexy babes' on the cover?
Leasehold homeowners in London and the east of England claim they’re being ripped off by skyrocketing service charges. Tarah Welsh investigates if they're getting a fair deal.
Millions of people up and down the country are living in leasehold homes – paying, in some cases, huge amounts of money to companies which own the land and sometimes even the buildings they live in. And a growing number are calling for an end to a system that they say is broken and unfair. In this programme, Hayley Hassall meets those living in the north west who say they are trapped in leasehold homes with unexpected fees and service charges that mean it can be virtually impossible to sell the property. Others are being asked to foot the bill for expensive maintenance repairs, or caught in the middle of rows over the removal of flammable cladding from their buildings. Is enough being done to protect leaseholders from exploitation? And if this complex system is eventually scrapped, who will pay the building owners who stand to lose billions?
Angela Merkel speaks to the BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler in a rare interview since stepping down as chancellor of Germany nearly three years ago.
Chris van Tulleken takes a personal view at why ultra-processed foods are so irresistible and how they have come to dominate food culture.
A night out turns to horror. Victims and first responders reflect on 50 years since deadly terrorist bombs rocked Birmingham and set in motion a chain of events that led to a miscarriage of justice and Britain’s biggest unsolved mass murder. 21 people were killed and 220 others injured when two bombs destroyed the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs in November 1974.
One-off documentary. Young renters face eviction as they fight to survive Scotland's housing emergency.
Forty years on from the release of the hit single by charity supergroup Band Aid, this documentary unearths 75 minutes of rare and previously unseen film footage from the day of recording.
On 26 March 2024, a 100,000-tonne container ship, the MV Dali, crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Tragically, six people lost their lives, the Port of Baltimore was closed indefinitely and an iconic piece of Baltimore’s skyline was destroyed. In the immediate aftermath of the collision, rescue teams combed the site for survivors, a salvage operation led by the US Army, Navy and Coastguard swung into action, and investigators raced to gather evidence for what caused this catastrophic incident. In the early hours of the morning, the Dali left port, bound for Sri Lanka. But just 49 minutes after its departure, it suffered a series of blackouts which caused the engine and steering to shut down. Despite attempts by the crew to regain power, the ship was on a collision course with one of the main supports of the Key Bridge. Why did the ship lose power? What caused it to veer off course? And why did the entire bridge collapse?
As Formula One rides a wave of unprecedented popularity around the world, BBC Sport asks the power brokers of the sport about the future, and what F1 could, and should, look like in a decade's time.
Director Renny Rye looks back on the BBC TV adaptation of John Masefield's 1935 fantasy children's novel.
Dame Judi Dench shares her memories of Talking to a Stranger, the groundbreaking 1960s drama by celebrated Z-Cars creator John Hopkins.
The inspirational story of how a group of working class kids growing up in post-industrial Glasgow dared to dream and became Scotland's biggest band.
For decades, scientists have tried to unlock the secrets of ancient DNA. But life’s genetic blueprint is incredibly fragile, and researchers have struggled to find genetic material in fossils that has survived for millions of years. Then, one maverick scientist had the controversial idea of looking for DNA not in fossils or frozen ancient tissue – but in the soil. This film follows the scientists deciphering the oldest DNA ever found and revealing for the first time the genes of long-extinct creatures that once thrived in warm, lush Arctic landscapes.
In May 2024, Alan Bennett turned 90. This film celebrates one of Britain's best-loved playwrights, who offers some characteristically frank thoughts about old age.
This Christmas special tells the story of how George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s Wham! turned one song into a cultural phenomenon.
Dame Judi Dench looks back on the 1985 TV drama Mr and Mrs Edgehill, based on a Noel Coward short story, in which she and Sir Ian Holm played the titular husband and wife.
How the city of love hosted the greatest show on earth. Incredible behind-the-scenes access reveals the monumental efforts needed to stage the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
A feature-length documentary unearthing Scotland’s trailblazing girl bands, from 1960 onwards, that are missing from the ranks of global success. These artists were, and continue to be, ignored by the selective bias of a male-dominated industry.
Gordon Buchanan takes an epic camel ride across the Gobi Desert to discover how these most iconic, yet least understood, animals have adapted to survive in extreme environments.
Mackenzie Crook shares what inspired him to write his hit series Detectorists - a funny and touching series about a group of metal detectorists (not detectors) in the fictional town of Danebury.
Fifty years on from when the prison doors first slammed shut on Norman Stanley Fletcher, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais look back at a landmark British comedy.
"Bond is what every man would like to be and what every woman would like to have between her sheets." So said Raymond Chandler - and it's certainly true of Roger Moore. Friends, family and co-stars take part in this revealing and entertaining look at an iconic, stylish and very British actor. With one eyebrow raised we follow his rollercoaster journey from shy London school boy to knitwear model to global TV heartthrob and his decade-defining role as James Bond. We reveal that the character of Roger Moore – the manner, the charisma, and self-deprecating humour – was his own creation and it took him to the height of fame and a jet-set lifestyle counting Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck and David Niven amongst his close pals.
A team of scientists and filmmakers heads to Antarctica to study the most sophisticated hunts in the animal kingdom - killer whales making waves to wash seals off floating ice.
Actor Zoë Wanamaker recalls the BBC's 1999 star-studded adaptation of the Dickens classic.
Sir Derek Jacobi looks back on the 1967 filmed version of Franco Zeffirelli's famous National Theatre production of Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing.
Celebrating a hundred years of Rikki Fulton, one of Scotland’s most beloved comic actors. The story of his extraordinary life, told by his friends and the people he inspired.
A self-confessed comedy hero to Ruth Jones, Hattie Jacques was a core part of postwar British comedy history. Roles in the Carry On films and TV sitcoms such as Sykes and Hancock cemented her place in the nation’s heart. Yet her off-screen life was just as extraordinary – married to Dad’s Army star John Le Mesurier, she began an unconventional affair with her driver, a scandal that could have ended her career. Ruth looks back at Hattie, a one-off drama that captures the astonishing story.
Bradford’s Big Bash goes behind the scenes of RISE - the spectacular opening event heralding Bradford’s stint as UK City of Culture in 2025, created by Kirsty Housley and Steven Frayne.
In a documentary marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, journalist Jordan Dunbar meets survivors of the Holocaust and travels to visit the camp.
On Boxing Day 2004, tragedy struck south east Asia. As the world watched on in horror, the level of devastation caused by a deadly tsunami tidal wave became clear. Thousands were missing, entire communities destroyed and 14 countries were in desperate need of international aid. Thousands of miles away in Cardiff, the manager of the Millennium Stadium, Paul Sergeant, watched the news coverage in shock. Surrounded by the comforts of Christmas, he was moved to raise money for the victims of the disaster. With an empty stadium at his disposal, an idea dawned on him. What if Cardiff could host an emergency fundraising concert? There was one big catch. It had to take place before Wales's first match of that year's Six Nations - just three weeks away.
Director and actress Rachel Ward is the last person you’d expect to join a farming revolution. Besieged by drought, bushfires and ecological despair, Rachel finds hope in the soil beneath her feet and begins a journey of discovery to regenerate the land on her Australian farm, and herself.
How can there be music in the worst place in the world? The story of how inmates of Auschwitz performed and composed music as a lifeline and a way to resist.
Idris Elba confronts the reality of knife crime, speaking to those most affected - from the streets to the system - in a quest to uncover how we can break the cycle.
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates takes Katie Razzall back to his childhood home in Seattle to talk about his early passion for computing, being different, tech power and politics.
Actor Ross Kemp recalls one of the most explosive storylines in EastEnders - Sharongate - where Grant accidentally hears his wife confessing to being unfaithful with his brother.
Pam St Clement remembers how the nation was gripped by one of the most iconic episodes of EastEnders, when Pat’s affair with Frank was finally, and very publicly, exposed.
Actors Rudolph Walker and Angela Wynter, firm favourites with EastEnders fans, discuss their poignant two-hander episode from May 2024.
Following the lives of four young people trying to survive the Israel-Hamas war as they hope for a ceasefire - a vivid and unflinching view of life in a warzone.
