BBC Documentaries Collection

BBC Storyville The New Kings of Nigeria (2010)


Jaja was a 19th century slave who rose up to become a legendary king before being kidnapped by the British, never to see his homeland again. 140 years later Jaja's great grandson, and heir to the throne, returns to Nigeria.

Having been educated in the West, Walter's public school accent lands him an unlikely role - he becomes the voice of Big Brother Nigeria. Walter is part of a new wave of elite young Nigerians returning to live in Lagos. The burgeoning media world is their playground, and we join them in an energetic romp through its screens, sets and socials. Walter becomes a hustling TV and music producer, and takes us along for the ride.


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BBC Storyville Wild Art Olly and Suzi Paint Predators (2009)



Documentary following Olly Williams and Suzi Winstanley, two unique wildlife artists who simultaneously work on the same painting of exotic and endangered animals while on location in the wildest corners of the world. The film shows how they work and why what they do is so important.


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BBC Storyville Last White Man Standing (2010)



Tom Cholmondeley, heir to one of the largest estates in Kenya and the Lord Delamere title, stands accused of murder in Nairobi, charged with killing black poacher Robert Njoya on his land. If convicted, Cholmondeley could hang. Serah Njoya, the widow with four children who lives on the edge of the Delamere estate, wants her husband's killer brought to justice.

The trial has gripped the nation, and is seen as a symptom of the contrast between the lives of a few wealthy Kenyan landowners and the many eking out an existence on the margins of society.

With access to all the key participants in the trial, this documentary follows the case till after the judgement and features contributions from Lord and Lady Delamere, Tom Cholmondeley's girlfriend Sally Dudmesh, Serah Njoya, defence lawyer Fred Ojiambo, Carl Tundo and his parents, Fred and Lynn Tundo, the prosecutor Tobiko and Cholmondeley's godmother Tobina Cole.


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BBC Storyville Napoli City of the Damned (2009)



When thinking of devastated cities in the Second World War, Naples is often forgotten, but when it was liberated by the Allies it was on its last legs, with 200,000 homeless and no power, transport, food or running water.

The Allies quickly brought food to the starving population and medicine to the sick, but the introduction of many troops and lots of supplies led to the creation of a huge black market involving almost the entire population. One third of women became prostitutes as Naples became a kind of Sodom and Gomorrah, a city of vice, crime and chaos where everything that could be sold and stolen was sold and stolen.

Perplexingly, the Americans decided to introduce Italo-American criminals into positions of power in southern Italy, such as Vito Genovese, a gangster escaping a murder rap in New York. Genovese began setting up a crime empire in Naples - after Mussolini had effectively suppressed organised crime in Italy, the Allies brought it back.

When World War II ended, alarmed and surprised by Soviet support for the Italian communist parties, the Allies responded with their own propaganda. Combined with the Marshall Plan, this became a massive covert effort by the Americans to swing the elections towards the parties of the right. The Catholic Church helped them, with priests telling congregations that they would go to hell if they didn't vote Christian Democrat.

After great political and ideological struggle in which the Cold War was waged by proxy for the first time, the 1948 elections were won by the Christian Democrats, a result that may not have been truly fair.

The CIA were pleased with the result and partially credited it to their own operations. They recommended that the US should continue with the covert manipulation of political outcomes in fore



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BBC The age of the train (2012)



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.


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BBC Storyville Hi Society The Wonderful World of Nicky Haslam (2009)



Nicky Haslam, renowned socialite, bon viveur, wit and best friend to all is also one of the world's most respected and highly paid interior designers, whose clients include royalty, rock stars and Russians.

This documentary takes the viewer into a world to which few have access and most could hardly imagine, where apartments cost over 30 million pounds and people think nothing of spending four million to do up a house.


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BBC Storyville Leaving the Cult (2010)



Documentary which tells the story of three teenage boys who manage to escape a polygamist Mormon cult in Utah. As they struggle to come to terms with life in the real world, we learn about the extraordinary lives they used to live - in houses with many mothers, where their sisters may be married off at 14 and, surprisingly, where no-one can wear red in case it offends the Second Coming. Powerfully emotional and compelling, a fascinating insight to a community it's hard to believe exists.


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BBC Storyville Sex Death And The Gods (2011)



(BBC4, 10:00pm Monday 24th January, 2011. Duration 75Mins.)

The devadasi are Hindus who are married to god in childhood, and at puberty sold for sex. Beeban Kidron's film takes us on a journey into the twilight world of the girls of Karnataka in India who are forced to live in this ancient but officially now illegal tradition. The documentary investigates the surprising history of this little-understood community, reveals their rich and privileged past as concubines to the princes and priests of India's ruling class and explores their heritage as dancers and entertainers.


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BBC Storyville The Trouble With Pirates (2010)



(BBC4, 10:00pm Monday 13th September, 2010. Duration 59Mins.)

Documentary exploring the increase in occurrences of piracy. Featuring reports from the coastal towns of war-torn Somalia, the boardrooms of London and the operation hubs on warships in the Gulf of Aden, and investigating the heartbreak of a hostage situation gone wrong.


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BBC Storyville Knocking on Heavens Door (2011)


Documentary marking the fiftieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space. It was hailed by the Soviet Union as a triumph for socialist science over capitalism, but the true story is much stranger. George Carey’s film shows how the Soviet space programme was kick-started by a mystic who taught that science would make us immortal, and carried forward by a scientist who believed that we should evolve into super-humans who could leave our overcrowded planet to colonise the universe. Stranger still, Carey shows how those ideas have survived Communism and adapted themselves to the science of the modern world.


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BBC Storyville Amnesty When They Are All Free (2011)



To celebrate its 50th anniversary in May 2011, this probing documentary brings together an extraordinary cast of interviewees, from Sting to former home secretary Jack Straw, to shed light on how, as a 'letter-writing organisation, Amnesty International has changed the world and how the world has changed Amnesty International. It poses the fundamental question: has the human rights movement been able to hold back mankind's capacity for atrocity?


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BBC Storyville Men of the City (2009)



People who work in the city either make money out of money, or from the proximity of money. But what do they feel about their jobs? In Men of the City, filmmaker Marc Isaacs goes behind the headlines to examine the state of mind and motivation of men in the city.


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BBC Plastic How It Works (2012)



Mark Miodownik charts the story of mankind's understanding of plastic and its properties, and the ways this knowledge contributed to the development of civilisation. He explores how it brought luxury to the masses, and looks back at some failed inventions, including plastic billiard balls and Bakelite. He also examines the properties that have made plastic such a popular resource, and reveals what the future holds for the material


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BBC Bomb Squad Men The Long Walk BBC NI (2012)



DOCUMENTARY: Bomb Squad Men: The Long Walk
On: BBC 1 Northern Ireland
Date: Thursday 5th April 2012
Time: 22:35 to 23:35 (1 hour long)

Three former bomb disposal officers who served at the height of the Troubles, return to Northern Ireland for the first time in thirty years to review the defining moments of their careers and relive the times when they almost lost their lives.


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BBC Angelic Voices The Choristers of Salisbury Cathedral (2012)



DOCUMENTARY: Angelic Voices
On: BBC 4 (116)
Date: Friday 6th April 2012
Time: 19:30 to 21:00 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Choristers of Salisbury Cathedral
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.


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