BBC Documentaries Collection

BBC Robert Hooke Victim of Genius (2005)



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. As Chief Surveyor of London he laid the foundations of the new city on the ashes of the old, playing a vital role in designing the dome of St Paul�s Cathedral. Scientists now refer to Hooke as the �lost Leonardo, yet no one even knows what he looked like. How can such a giant have vanished into history?


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BBC Black Power Salute (2008)


Documentary 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.


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BBC The Conspiracy Files 9 11 Ten Years On (2011)



The Conspiracy Files - 9/11 Ten Years On
Broadcast: BBC 2
Monday 29 August 2011
21:00pm - 22:00pm

Thanks to TheEagle

A decade after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the Conspiracy Files looks at why some people still question what really happened on 9/11. Conspiracy theories continue to evolve and now question every aspect of the official account. Why, they ask, was the hole in the Pentagon so small? Why did the World Trade Centre buildings collapse as if being demolished by explosives? Why did one skyscraper fall when it was never hit by a plane? And why was the world's greatest military power so unprepared and so slow to react when warnings had been received?

The death of Osama Bin Laden might have been expected to put an end to the conspiracy theories, but the failure to release any pictures of Bin Laden's death and the hasty disposal of his body in the Arabian Sea, has instead given these theories a new burst of life. Featuring key witnesses, CIA and FBI interviewees and leading sceptics, the programme analyses the evidence and looks at what makes conspiracy theories so persistent and so powerful.
General


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BBC 9 11 Conspiracy Road Trip (2011)



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 facts. So as the bus criss-crosses the east coast of America he tries to convert them to his point of view. He wants to prove to them that 9/11 was no conspiracy and that sometimes the truth, whilst not easy to accept, is staring you right in the face. In order to do so, he takes them to meet experts, the chief air traffic controller on the day, demolition specialists, voice morphing engineers and he gets them to conduct scientific experiments and even fly an aeroplane.

Finally they meet a mother who tragically lost her son, to listen to her account of what it was like to live through this monumental tragedy. Andrew believes it is easy to judge world events from the safe distance of a computer screen in your bedroom but not easy when you are brought face to face with the real human stories behind them

Andrew Maxwell fights an exhausting battle for the truth and in his mission to convert his fellow travellers there are rows, falling-outs and tears. But there are also moments of tenderness, empathy and warmth.


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BBC Wonderland A Dad is Born (2012)



Wonderland s04ep05 A Dad is Born


If there is one day on which a boy turns into a man, it is the day he becomes a dad himself.
Award-winning film-maker Kira Phillips follows three men in the weeks before and after this day.
She watches the struggle to become new men, the drama of birth and joins them on the steep learning
curve of paternity leave.

Jamie, a city HR worker, attacks the prospect of parenthood by reading every self-help guide he
can, but nothing he finds inside the pages of a book quite prepares him for his new life.

Mini-cab driver Viktor has resolved to put a history of womanising behind him and become the
perfect family man.

And for multi-millionaire trader Greg, who left his wife and baby son, his girlfriend's pregnancy
offers a second chance to be the dad he wants to be.

The one thing that is true for all these men is that the experience is nothing like they expected.
And it leaves them all softer, gentler and much, much more tired.


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BBC Britains Favourite Supermarket Foods (2012)



Britain's Favourite Supermarket Foods

Wednesday 15 February
8:00pm - 9:00pm
BBC1

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.



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BBC Munich Operation Bayonet (2009)



For the first time, the real story of the Israeli Mossad�s �Bayonet� unit responsible for Israel�s retaliation against the Palestinian Black September terrorist organization, following the 1972 massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Many accounts exist of the Mossad�s operations throughout the Middle East and West Europe, and yet MUNICH: OPERATION BAYONET revisits the scenes of the operations with the Mossad agents responsible, as well as presenting the personal accounts of CIA operatives and the surviving Black September members. MUNICH: OPERATION BAYONET gives an unrivalled and compelling account of Israel�s unprecedented actions, told first-hand by the people involved.


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BBC Jo Brand on Kissing (2012)



Jo Brand on Kissing
Tue 14 Feb 2012 21:00 BBC Four

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?


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BBC Protecting Our Children (2012)



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BBC2, 30th January 2012, 9pm
650MB, 58:59, XviD (1408kbps, 700 x 396)

Damned If They Do, Damned If They Don't

Follows Bristol's child protection teams over the course of a year to see frontline work first-hand and explore how the crises of the last decade have had an impact on their ability to safeguard children.

Newly-qualified Susanne is working with a 'low risk' family. But even the most straightforward situations often develop into something more ominous.

Her first case is to help a family with their three-year-old son Toby, who has learning difficulties. His parents need support and advice about how to improve their parenting, as well as the conditions of their small flat. However, father Mike's hostility towards Susanne means she can't help the family in the way she would like.


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BBC Toughest Place To Be a Train Driver (2012)



Train driver Simon Davies usually drives the high speed Pendolino between London and Manchester, but now he faces a very different challenge as he travels to Peru and one of the highest and steepest railway lines on earth. Mining is the life blood of Peru and every day trains carry thousands of tons of metal ores down from huge mines in the high Andes. Coached by some of the toughest train drivers in the world, Simon has just days to learn how to handle a massive train down the spectacular and terrifying slopes, risking derailment and death on train lines at an altitude higher than Mont Blanc. He also discovers a community in crisis, where pollution from mining is poisoning the population.



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BBC The Diamond Queen (2012)



DOCUMENTARY: The Diamond Queen
On: BBC 1 North (101)
Date: Monday 6th February 2012
Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long)

Andrew Marr looks at the life and reign of HM Queen Elizabeth II in this three-part series, which includes special interviews with Princes William and Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, David Cameron, Tony Blair, Sir John Major and President Obama. In this first episode, with remarkable archive footage, Marr tells the childhood story of the young girl who never expected to reign. He looks closely at the influence of her grandfather, father and mother and the impact of the abdication, and hears from the Queen's grandchildren about what it must have been like to become queen at the age of 25. Marr examines exactly what the Queen's role as head of state actually entails, and follows her to the Middle East and the USA to assess the global impact of the royal family on British trade and international relations.


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BBC Wild About Pandas (2012)



Surely no one can resist the doleful stare of a panda, an animal that is just too cute for words. Which doubtless accounts for the rock-star welcome given to pandas Sunshine and Sweetie (real names Yang Guang and Tian Tian) when they arrived in their new home at Edinburgh Zoo.

The zoo, already under financial stress, is banking an awful lot on the pulling power of the pandas, who are insured for L1 million each. It is hoped that the pair, bought from a panda preservation project in China, will find each other immensely attractive and produce panda cubs. But pandas are fertile for just two to three days a year, so the chances aren�t huge.

This cheery film (first shown in Scotland) follows their journey from China, and the work of zoo staff who have never before cared for pandas. They have to be trained, for example, to spot and to prepare good-quality bamboo and to whip up nutritious panda-cake. Yum.

About this programme

Documentary exploring the lives of pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang, and the preparations made for their transfer to Edinburgh Zoo in December 2011. Vet Simon Girling travels to China to find out how the pair fare in their homeland, while keeper Alison Maclean heads to the Wolong reserve to investigate efforts to introduce more of the species into the wild. David Tennant narrates.



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BBC Planet Dinosaur Files (2012)



Jem Stansfield explores the amazing world of Planet Dinosaur in this selection of clips made especially for schools. He introduces a whole new cast of prehistoric creatures, many discovered in the last 20 years. With some ingenious experiments he demonstrates the stunning power of dinosaur jaws and how well prehistoric marine predators swam through the water.


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BBC This World The Trillion Dollar Revolutionary (2008)



President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela calls the United States �Dracula� and George W Bush �Mr Danger�, �a drunk� and �a donkey�. He can get away with being rude to the most powerful man on earth because his country sits on trillions of dollars worth of oil. Chavez boasts that he is spending his oil bonanza on the poor, but even London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has called this �Caracas�. Reporter John Sweeney interviews Chavez




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BBC Super Smart Animals (2012)



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BBC1, 8th February 2012, 8pm
650MB, 59:00, XviD (1406kbps, 700 x 392)

Episode 1
For centuries, the idea of intelligent animals struck most people as ridiculous. But not any more - the latest science reveals that animals are a lot smarter than we thought.

From skateboarding dogs to chimp maths geniuses, Liz Bonnin embarks on a worldwide search for the planet's most intelligent animals, devising some ingenious IQ puzzles and even putting herself to the test to find out.

Liz gets creative with dolphins, shares a eureka moment with orangutans and defends the reputation of the human race when she goes head to head with a chimp genius in a test of maths and memory. There is an octopus escapologist, John Humphrys puts a goldfish through its paces on Mastermind, and Tillman the skateboarding dog wows crowds in Los Angeles.

Prepare to be amazed, entertained and even outwitted by the world's Super Smart Animals


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