BBC Documentaries Collection

BBC A Picture of London (2012)


A Picture of London.WnA
Sat 26 May 2012 21:15 BBC Two

From its early years until the present day, London has provided powerful, emotional
inspiration to artists.

This documentary evokes the city 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.


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BBC Are My Fake Breasts Safe (2012)



Are My Fake Breasts Safe?

Monday 21 May
9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC 3

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, Gemma 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?


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BBC Panorama Eurovisions Dirty Secret (2012)



BBC1 20.30-21.00 21st May 2012

Panorama - Eurovision's Dirty Secret

Reporter Paul Kenyon goes in search of the truth about Azerbaijan, this year's Eurovision host nation, following claims that viewers have been interrogated after voting for enemy nation Armenia, a protest singer was told to flee or face being thrown into jail, and homes have been bulldozed to make way for the venue



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BBC Kathleen Ferrier An Ordinary Diva (2012)



Profile of the great British contralto Kathleen Ferrier. Contributors include Janet Baker, George Christie, Evelyn Barbirolli and Ian Jack.


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BBC The Queen and I 60 Years in London (2012)



The Queen and I - 60 Years in London
Broadcast: BBC 1
Saturday 19 May 2012
16:20 - 16:50


To celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen undertakes a grand tour of Britain meeting and greeting her subjects. Carol Kirkwood meets those Londoners whom Her Majesty has visited over those 60 years in often unusual circumstances.


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BBC Fast Food Baby (2012)



Fast Food Baby
On: BBC Three
Date: Tuesday 3rd May 2011
Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (60 minutes long)

Documentary exploring the reasons why some parents feed their children junk food. The programme follows three families as they try to get back on the right nutritional track, and features experts who mentor them using the latest techniques in a bid to wean the youngsters off unhealthy meals


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BBC BBC The Day the Immigrants Left


XviD | 608x336 | 59mins | 479.51MB

Evan Davis explores 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, but nearly 2,000 unemployed locals blame foreign workers for their predicament. As an experiment, immigrant employees are temporarily removed from their jobs, and the work given to the local unemployed. Now the towns British workers have a chance to prove they can cope.


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BBC The Birth of Israel 2008



Jeremy Bowen presents a look back at the creation of the state of Israel, examining the the events leading up to the Israeli war of Independence in 1949, its impact on Arab/Israeli relations and the implications for the Middle East.

This description doesn’t do this documentary justice. It’s a one hour crash course in some of the underlying causes of the current problems in the Middle East.

See the links for much deeper background information, and also a link to a site that disagrees with pretty much anything this documentary shows. Never mind some points they raise were nowhere implied as they seem to infer they were. It’s inevitable in this conflict.






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BBC Ganges 2007



The Ganges River (Gang Ma or Great Mother) is the holiest river in the world. Rising from the pure glacial meltwaters of the Himalayas, it flows down onto India’s Northern Plain, then heads eastwards into the swamplands of Bangladesh, finally discharging a 500-km (310-mile) tongue of red silt into the Bay of Bengal. As well as filling wells and irrigating crops to sustain the cities and villages along its banks, it is the spiritual life-blood for India’s primary religion, Hinduism. Bathing in the Ganges remains the lifelong ambition of many of India’s believing masses, who consider the river to be a living goddess. People gather daily at her banks to murmur prayers, baptise children, wash vibrant coloured saris, drink her waters or simply die believing such acts help absolve sins and lead the way to Nirvana. Ganges reveals the source of the river high in the Himalayas, the youngest mountain range in the world, and follows its route as it sharply incises the mountains on its journey south-east. Along the way we discover the Hindu story of the river’s creation, and how it supports the myriad forms of life that thrive on its banks. With stunning, evocative images by photographer Jon Nicholson, Ganges is a true visual feast, as teeming with life and colour as the mighty river itself.


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BBC Animal Games



English | Xvid | 640×352 | AC3 | 192kbps | 698MB

As the human world gathers to stage its greatest athletic contest, the Olympic Games, the animal world does the same, where they too compete for gold, silver and bronze.

Hosted by the Birds, the Games take place within a stadium, set deep inside a volcanic island. Animal competitors from the Mammals, Birds, Insects, Herptiles and the Fish nations are scaled to human size so everyone in on level pegging as they compete in the 100m, high jump, long jump, shooting, weight lifting and swimming.

All the tricks of multi-camera shooting, action replays and photo finishes are used to analyse each event. On screen BBC sport graphics impart facts and figures while commentators John Motson and Jonathan Pearce add to the excitement.


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BBC Wild Florida



Florida's coasts are hugely populated, and home to sophisticated places like Miami and Palm Beach. But adjacent to the concrete jungle is a Florida hidden from most visitors, containing exotic wildlife. Local people give their accounts of the animals that live there and reveal the natural world that lies behind this popular holiday destination.


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BBC Desert Lions 2007



There is something wonderfully uncomplicated and primeval about watching
a lion stalk its prey. The gentle padding towards the putative victims,
the careful and close watching, then the pounce. If you're at all upset
at watching all of this redness in tooth and claw, then you'd be well
advised to pop out for a biscuit as the sleek desert lions of Namib tear
into a docile herd of donkeys. The hapless beasts are sitting ducks. Or
sitting donkeys, indeed. Lions have only recently returned to the Namib
desert, to the joy of some, including conservationist Flip Stander, and
the consternation of others, notably the tribes who frequently have their
livestock ripped to shreds. But, as this excellent film shows, Stander
does his best to try to ensure that the two can co-exist as peacefully
as possible.


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BBC Wye Voices from the Valley



This is an unashamedly lyrical and dreamy film, packed with glowing sunsets,
dewy apples and shards of light dancing on the water. The thread that runs
throughout is the River Wye and a handful of people who make their living
near it - a beekeeper, a fisherman, a farmer and a cidermaker (probably the
butcher, baker and candlestick-maker were elsewhere at the time). They love
the Wye and talk of it (her?) as if it's a person. The river is in their
souls, and it's easy to see why. The landscape and countryside are voluptuous
and so beautifully filmed it's like watching a poem. There's nothing for it
but to sit back and surrender to glorious shots of the countryside through
the seasons - from frost-rimed fields to sundrenched orchards.


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BBC Natural World Flying Home



The highly evocative adventure telling the story of one man's incredible mission to save a doomed species, the rarest bird in North America, and one of the rarest birds in the world - the Whooping Crane. Dressed in full Whooping Crane costume, Canadian Bill Lishman, guides his birds through every stage of their development - from egg to adulthood.

He then leads them thousands of miles across the bustle of modern America and some of its most beautiful landscapes, to new breeding grounds in Florida. How many of the birds will make it? Will this chance of continuation for the doomed species be successful?


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BBC The Dodos Guide to Surviving Extinction



In light of the extinction crisis facing the Earth and using the dodo's story as a cautionary tale, this documentary looks at the different causes of species extinction and asks whether there is anything we can do to stop them.


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