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1-184 of 184
- 2002–20171h7.8 (5)TV EpisodeProgramme looking at the history of live television, as well as what it means for us today.
- Writers and historians discuss the success and background to the bestseller.
- The history of Sherlock Holmes.
- 2002–2017TV Episode
- While the British are known for their politeness, there have always been a notable few who have stood out for their plain-speaking. This trawls the archives to show prime examples.
- 2002–20171h6.4 (5)TV EpisodeBritain's appetite for radio comedy has been unwavering for decades, and many of television's greatest comedy shows began life on radio. This programme looks back at how comedy fashions have changed over the years and why radio still rules.
- 2002–2017TV EpisodeThis programme explores how characteristics of the old Light Programme (BBC Radio 2's original name from its birth in 1945 until 1967) still remain, with many interesting programme still hidden away for the minority listener.
- 2002–20171h7.6 (5)TV Episode
- BBC documentary about the start of progressive rock in the 70's
- Peter York takes a look at advertising's rise in success from the 1950s to the decline in creativity in present day advertising.
- Why has Christmas dinner endured for so long? A look at how food fashions and changing attitudes to new foods over the years have crept into the biggest family meal of the year.
- 2002–201740mTV EpisodeHow the Central Office of Information developed its tone and style in order to keep up the flow of public information films from the Second World War onwards.
- 2002–201740mTV EpisodeDocumentary about the birth of the BBC's Third Programme (which later became Radio 3). From 1946, the Third Programme embodied the post-war ideal that High Culture could be brought to everyone -- a vision shared, briefly, by both Left and Right in post-war British politics.
- The creators of Life on Mars (2006) discuss the series and how it was made.
- Journalist and author Jonathan Freedland asks, in a quick tour through the history of the US presidency, what qualities a great president needs and what can be learnt from the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, JFK, or perhaps even Richard Nixon, about what it takes to make a mark in the White House. He is helped by notable contributors, including James Naughtie, Shirley Williams, Douglas Hurd, Simon Hoggart, and Bonnie Greer, who each give their frank assessments of some of America's greatest presidents.
- Documentary celebrating Britain's tradition of rich and much-loved comic songs, revealing the skill involved in creating them. Ranging from "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" by Noel Coward to "Ernie" by Benny Hill. Contributors include Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, Neil Innes, Bill Oddie, Mitch Benn (the Now Show), producer Cameron Mackintosh, Nicholas Parsons, Ed Stewart, and Kit and the Widow.
- A look at the life of Oliver Postgate.
- A biographical documentary about the life and work of Alan Plater.
- Documentary about the rise of the popular loaf in Britain. After the holy grail of affordable white bread was achieved, dietary experts began to trumpet the virtues of brown.
- A look back at the time when shipbuilding dominated the landscape and employment of cities in Britain, with an archive visit by Glasgow's most famous son to the site of his apprenticeship.
- 2002–20171h7.3 (11)TV EpisodeDocumentary which profiles a new wave of Italian crime fiction that has emerged to challenge the conventions of the detective novel.
- 2002–20171h7.3 (24)TV EpisodeA documentary which investigates the success of Scandinavian crime fiction and why it exerts such a powerful hold on our imagination.
- Documentary which takes a glorious journey back to the 1950s, when the coach was king.
- Exploring the most recent phase of Britain's love affair with four-wheeled group travel.
- Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers. At the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural - Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted -Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers- until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman. Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists.
- The life of veteran BBC journalist Charles Wheeler who died aged 85, and was just one year younger than the BBC itself. The corporation's longest-serving foreign correspondent, Wheeler was at the forefront of world news reporting for more than 50 years. As a tribute to Charles Wheeler, this documentary looks at the decisive moments of the latter 20th Century through the eyes of one of journalism's most dedicated, yet modest, professionals. Contributors include Jeremy Paxman, John Simpson and Wheeler's son-in-law Boris Johnson, as well as Charles Wheeler himself.
- Documentary which takes a provocative and entertaining journey through the BBC's own fashion collection. For 50 years the BBC has often treated fashion as a frivolous, decadent diversion from the serious matters of life, but now a 'style council' of fashion writers and commentators including Peter York, Colin McDowell, Ted Polhemus and Hilary Alexander turns the tables and lets British fashion take on the BBC. In the 1950s we find programmes debating whether men should decide what women wear. In the 1960s we see Alan Whicker unleashed upon the 'silly, superficial world' of French couture, while the big story of Mary Quant is almost ignored back home. In the 1970s comes the revulsion against punk style, and it is not until the 1980s that TV treats fashion with any kind of appreciation with The Clothes Show, generally held as the BBC's finest hour in the world of dressing up. The programme concludes that British fashion is unique in that it is driven more by youth culture than by fashion houses. Through the stories of the models, the designers, the photographers and the clothes themselves, it shows how the establishment has come to terms with the transformation of post-war Britain.
- A look at the world of cryptic crosswords, offering up the secrets of these seemingly impenetrable puzzles. Crossword setter Don Manley, AKA Quixote, reveals the tricks that compilers use to bamboozle and entertain solvers using a crossword he created especially for the programme. We also find out why Britain became home to the cryptic crossword, how a crossword nearly put paid to the D-Day invasion and why London Underground is elevating the crossword to an art form. Author Colin Dexter explains why Inspector Morse loved his crossword, Martin Bell reveals how his father became the first crossword setter of the Times without ever having solved one and the crossword editor of the Daily Telegraph opens up her postbag. Also sharing their enthusiasm for cryptic crosswords are actors Prunella Scales and Simon Russell Beale, Val Gilbert of the Daily Telegraph and Jonathan Crowther, AKA Azed of the Times.
- To mark 100 years of romance publishers Mills and Boon, literary novelist Stella Duffy takes on the challenge of writing for them. Romantic fiction is a global phenomenon, and Mills and Boon are among the biggest names in the business. The company welcomes submissions from new authors, but as Duffy soon finds out, writing a Mills and Boon is harder than it looks. Help is at hand from the publishers themselves, a prolific Mills and Boon author and some avid romance fans, as Duffy's quest to create the perfect romantic novel takes her from London to Italy on a journey that is both an insight into the art of romantic fiction and the joy and frustration of writing itself.
- Documentary which tells the surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end. After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains? The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle. But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrap-yards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.
- Journalist John Harris travels around England to find out why the north-south divide is still an economic reality and if anything can be done to close it. Oasis v Blur, Manchester United v Chelsea, Old Labour v New Labour and pies v polenta - Harris wonders whether it is a light-hearted rivalry about accents, music, sport, food and politics or something deeper. Our high streets look the same, we drive the same cars, we eat at the same chains, but beneath the surface lies a more troubling story of economic inequalities that define a divide that won't go away. The decline of industry and manufacturing still blights the north, while a house costs on average a third more in the south and southerners live longer and healthier lives. But can the north-south divide really be as stark as the gap between East and West Germany during the dark days of the Berlin Wall, as one contributor claims?
- 2002–20178.2 (5)TV Episode
- 2002–20178.0 (12)TV EpisodeThe history of capital punishment, including the protocol of public execution and the science of hanging. Archive information reveals the offences that resulted in the gallows and how children as young as seven were hanged.
- 2002–20177.2 (9)TV EpisodeThe film investigates the ways school, religion and the justice service have been involved with corporal punishment and how it's imposition has also provoked debate from a sexual aspect.
- 2002–201759m7.5 (29)TV EpisodeA look at the files of the BBFC, which examines the relationship between the censor and the filmmakers.
- Re-edited scenes from a 1999 documentary together with older archive footage plus updated information and contemporary experts provide a history of cigarette smoking in Britain.
- A look at the highs and lows of drinking culture in Britain.
- 2002–20171h7.2 (5)TV Episode
- 2002–20178.4 (8)TV Episode
- Timeshift reveals the history of the frozen continent, finding out why the most inhospitable place on the planet has exerted such a powerful hold on the imagination of explorers, scientists, writers and photographers.
- A look back at the history and development of luxury hotels, with behind-the-scenes views and a few trade secrets from the biggest names.
- A John Boorman film from 1963 documenting a week in the life of the players and manager of Swindon Town football club.
- 2002–20177.2 (26)TV Episode
- The history of the British Broadcasting Corporation's once prevalent, but short-sighted, policy of wholesale disposal of recorded television content, and the efforts to mitigate that loss.
- A short film about "The Interludes" - a series of short films made by the BBC in the 1940s and 1950s to fill in during technical breakdowns and gaps in the schedules. The most famous ones showed a potter's wheel, a cat playing with a ball of wool and a horse-drawn plough.
- 2002–201730mTV Episode
- The history of bingo, from its early popularity among the armed forces to becoming a mainstay of traditional British seaside holidays, the brief fashion for newspaper bingo, and the mixed fortunes of the bingo hall.
- 2002–201758mTV Episode
- With a handful of vintage etiquette books and some film archive to guide her, journalist Rachel Johnson goes in search of what seems an almost vanished social type: the lady.
- 2002–20177.7 (11)TV Episode
- 2002–20177.8 (6)TV EpisodeIt is said that the average woman gets through around 30 hairstyles in a lifetime, with some changing their look every 15 months. Timeshift takes a loving and sometimes horrified look back at the iconic hairdos from the past.
- 2002–20177.8 (8)TV EpisodeThe story of how Ladybird books were developed and how they took their place at the centre of children's reading at school and at home.
- The story of table tennis and how it became the most popular sport in Asia. The programme revisits the glory days of the 30s and 40s, when thousands would cram into Wembley to watch top players do battle.
- Looking back at the British crisis of 1973 - strikes, three-day working weeks, and a struggle to power our homes - this widely remembered as the "Winter of Discontent".
- 2002–2017TV EpisodeThe British are known for their obsession with the weather, but how does it really affect our day-to-day lives?
- 2002–20178.2 (43)TV EpisodeThe evolution of Holmes on screen, from silent movies to new TV versions, with contributions from Sherlock's past and present.
- 2002–2017TV Episode
- What was it like to be a mod, or a rocker, in the 1960s? Men and women from both sides discuss what it meant to them in their youth, and what it means for them now.
- 2002–2017TV Episode
- How darts become one of Britain's most popular sports in the 1970s thanks to innovative ideas in television coverage and the increasing popularity of the top darts players.
- 2002–20176.6 (14)TV EpisodeSir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were immortalized when they became the first humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. But the Himalayas had gripped adventurers from around the world throughout the twentieth century and many were determined not just to reach its summits, but to capture the mountains on film.
- 2002–20177.3 (6)TV EpisodeHow did British Rail bring the nation's railways into the modern era, and what challenges did it overcome on the way?
- How did the growth of Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants change eating out in Britain?
- 2002–20177.3 (11)TV EpisodeAuthor and railway enthusiast Andrew Martin travels the route of three famous named trains from bygone days, the Cornish Riviera Express, the Flying Scotsman, and the Brighton Belle, to examine why we used to name trains, and why express trains of today no longer provide the level of luxury VIP service that they used to.
- A Brittish documentary that traces television and the wider media's reactions to cannabis, from the hysterical vilification of the drug in the 1930s, the punitive measures of the stop and search laws and prison sentences for possession, to the more considered debates now taking place and the real possibility of a change in the law.
- 2002–20177.5 (6)TV EpisodeA programme looking at the history of the Ordnance Survey and the challenges it faces today.
- The story behind the invention of the diesel engine in the 19th century that later became the workhorse of the 20th and 21st century.
- The rise and rise of the British supermarket, and the price we paid for the dream it sold us.
- Time Shift investigates how Life magazine's opposition to Attlee's radical Labour government inspired them to suppress Eugene Smith's photographs of the 1950 general election.
- 2002–2017TV Episode
- 2002–20177.0 (5)TV EpisodeA voyage in the company of passengers and crew of the vintage steamers, which were common sight on the rivers and coastal waters around Britain.
- After more than 60 years tracking James Bond in print and on screen, the BBC opens up its vaults to reveal the forgotten files on the world's most famous secret agent. Featuring rare and candid interviews with all six actors to play 007, and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, this is James Bond unguarded, unrestricted and unseen.
- 2002–201759m7.6 (11)TV EpisodeA look back at the history of Jodrell Bank, and how the telescope won its reputation in the Space Race.
- 2002–20177.7 (6)TV EpisodeHow Britain's docks in cities like Liverpool, London and Cardiff were commercial portals and gateways for the arrival of sounds, styles and cultures.
- 2002–20177.0 (6)TV EpisodeA look at the engineering behind the construction of the Severn Bridge, and the impact the bridge had on communities on either side of the river.
- 2002–20178.4 (5)TV EpisodeA look at how the introduction of the penny post changed Britain, and how enthusiasm for the first stamps led to the emergence of stamp-collecting as a popular hobby.
- 2002–20177.9 (8)TV EpisodeBabita Sharma traces the history of the corner shop in Britain, from its Victorian suburban origins, its crucial role serving the home front in World War Two, and its fortunes in the hands of successive waves of immigration. She and her parents visit the corner shop which was once run by them as a family, and discuss how it shaped her upbringing.
- A look behind the scenes at a pigeon race, and how this traditional working-class pastime is still going strong in the 21st century.
- Exploring the British experience of family cars, from the Morris Minor to the Ford Cortina, the VW Golf to the Volvo estate, school runs to family holidays.
- Timeshift looks back on nearly two centuries of British firefighting, exploring how major incidents and the evolution of equipment have helped forge the modern fire service.
- 2002–20177.5 (10)TV EpisodeFrom early call boxes to the Post Office Tower, Timeshift tells the story of how Britain's phone network was built over the course of 100 years, and its impact on the public.